New Times, New Hell

Chapter 56 - Naive Children

Warning: attempted kidnap

Peppa, Georgie, and the other two snuck into the crowd and joined the Hundred Ghost Night Procession. They were extremely happy, especially Peppa, because the human-headed turtle-bodied turtle spirit let her ride on her shell. That made Peppa’s day.

After the procession, Guilong felt like he hadn’t had enough fun yet. Thus, he and Bei went to visit the bathrooms at the garden party. On the other hand, Peppa and Georgie felt like there were too many people around and that the bathrooms would definitely be stinky. They ruthlessly rejected their invitation; instead, Peppa and Georgie decided to go shopping in the ghost market.

Peppa wasn’t like the other broke ghosts. She had spending money given to her by her gege. She could be considered very rich among the ghosts.

The two children held hands and headed in the direction of the ghost market. Because there were too many people, along with the fact that they were short, they were scared of being squished by all the passersby. Consequently, after discussion, they decided to take the longer, less travelled way around.

The two little ghosts chatted as they walked. Peppa said, “Georgie, when I get reincarnated, I’m going to leave all my spending money to you. You’ll be the heir to my inheritance.”

Georgie thought about this very seriously. He asked in confusion, “But you’re a ghost going for reincarnation. You’re not dying. Is that still called an inheritance?”

“Un——” Peppa was stumped by this question. She hesitated for a long time before saying, “I don’t know. Wait until I get back and check the encyclopedias gege burned me……”

Georgie nodded. “Okay, tell me when you find an answer.”

Peppa: “Un!”

While the two of them were happily chatting, they suddenly heard the faint sounds of struggle coming from nearby. Curiously, they turned around to look, only to see two large men towing a young woman into the darkness. The woman kept fighting back, but her mouth was completely covered. Only muffled sounds could be heard.

Peppa tilted her head and asked, “What are you guys doing?”

The two men in the middle of their crime were surprised by this sudden voice. But when they turned around to look, they only saw two tiny children.

They scanned their surroundings in a panic. However, there didn’t seem to be any adults accompanying the children. Thus, they exchanged glances. One of the men switched to a friendly demeanor and asked cheerily, “Kiddo, how come you’re out so late? Where are your parents?”

Peppa answered, “We don’t have parents.”

The woman getting kidnapped finally saw someone appear; hope had just started to rise in her heart, but upon seeing that the newcomers were two children, she became more panicked than before. Who would’ve thought that these two little children weren’t cautious at all. They actually naively told the bad guys the truth. She immediately felt her vision go black. Her hope turned into despair.

Of these two men, one’s nickname was Society Rong while the other’s was Lao Hei. Both of them were irresponsible thugs. They were also the people hired to cause trouble by the factory Gao Duidui had originally wanted to livestream at.

The two of them had been messing around in the old factory as usual. After their job, they realized that it was still early and had also heard about the nearby Ghost Festival garden party, so had come over to take a look.

The quality and effect of the garden party were surprisingly good. But in the eyes of these two, the good wasn’t restricted to only the garden party itself. It also included the enormous amount of people at the garden party. This event was open till very late. Anyone could imagine how many young women would be making their way home in the dark.

These two were habitual offenders. They were very experienced and located a small alleyway nobody else had noticed before hiding away. As expected, they managed to catch a woman who was by herself.

They were on the brink of success, but suddenly, two children appeared out of nowhere. Originally, they were scared that these children would ruin their plan. After all, they had a limited number of people. Capturing an adult and two children was truly a bit difficult.

Unexpectedly, these two children seemed strangely innocent and naive. They didn’t appear to be guarded at all.

Society Rong and Lao Hei exchanged glances. Both could see the astonished joy in the other’s gaze. Society Rong bent over and scooted closer to the two children. Upon doing so, he realized that these two kids were extremely good looking. Especially the little girl, with her round eyes and face. Her appearance immediately caused people to like her.

She could definitely be sold for a high price!

Society Rong was ecstatic. Even his sleazy smile seemed a bit more sincere. “Kiddos, it’s very dangerous staying out so late. How about gege take you home?”

Peppa and Georgie exchanged glances. Georgie said, “Un, very dangerous.”

Peppa nodded in agreement. She very seriously told the two men, “Big gege, it’s very dangerous for you two to be out so late.”

Society Rong: “……???”

For a moment, he couldn’t understand the child’s logic. Lao Hei didn’t care though. He only thought that this was the usual indecipherable way children spoke. He eagerly replied, “Since that’s the case, how about you go home with gege. Gege has a car oh.”

Peppa was still thinking about it, but Georgie had already raised his hands and said, “Okay.”

Peppa could only assent too. “Okay then.”

Society Rong and Lao Hei hadn’t thought that these two kids would be so easy to trick. Who knew what their families normally taught them. This was like simply throwing two young and fat sheep into the wilderness, allowing predators to do as they wished.

That woman who had been caught hadn’t expected for these two children to be so stupid either. She immediately started struggling even harder, trying to warn them to hurry and run.

Lao Hei who was holding onto her was scared that she would ruin their plans. Thus, he directly elbowed her so that she passed out. Then, he carried the woman while Society Rong herded the two children down a shortcut to the parking lot behind the shopping center. They had parked their van there.

The developmental district wasn’t crowded at all. It was the middle of the night, so the area behind the shopping center was very desolate. Currently, not another soul could be found.

Society Rong and Lao Hei had never participated in such a smooth and easy kidnapping. They only felt that the heavens were on their side as they opened the doors to the van. The kindness and patience they had faked the entire way over disappeared. Society Rong directly pushed the children into the van, then tossed the unconscious woman into the backseat.

He grabbed the car keys and walked around to the driver’s seat, then ordered Lao Hei, “I’ll drive. You tie them up.”

Lao Hei nodded and got into the car too. He closed the door and revealed a twisted smile. “Kids, didn’t your families tell you not to leave with strangers before?”

The little boy shook his head. “No.”

The little girl said, “Gege is only worried that strangers will leave with me.”

Lao Hei had originally thought that his words would cause the two children to start crying, but he hadn’t expected that not only did they not appear frightened in the slightest, they had even started speaking a bunch of gibberish instead.

Thug Lao Hei couldn’t help but lament in his heart: these children’s families are really too irresponsible. Don’t know how they educate their kids normally!

But this was nice too. Things were easy for them.

As he thought this, he fished out rope, tape, and other equipment from under the seat. He smiled and said, “Kiddo, gege is going to tie you guys up, okay?”

Now they should be able to tell that he was a bad guy! They would finally know to be scared!

Only to see the two little children exchange glances, then very cooperatively hold out both hands. “Okay.”

Lao Hei: ???????????

If there were more families and children like these out in society, he would’ve struck it rich long ago!

Lao Hei couldn’t believe that there really were such naive children. He familiarly tied them up, along with the woman, then taped their mouths shut with tape.

After this, he was still in sight disbelief. He scratched his head and climbed into the passenger seat, then told Society Rong, “Let’s go.”

Society Rong started the engine. As soon as he pulled onto the street, he suddenly heard the little girl ask, “Big gege, where are we going to go now?”

Society Rong looked back reflexively and immediately was shocked out of his mind. The little girl was in the middle of using her wide eyes to stare at him, hands tightly gripping the back of his seat.

She was very close. From such a short distance, those cute eyes somehow seemed a bit terrifying. They were very big and very deep, almost as if they were bottomless.

“Fuck——” Society Rong was so frightened that he stepped on the brake, hard. He turned around and started yelling at Lao Hei, “Didn’t I tell you to tie them up? What are you getting paid for?”

How could Lao Hei not be scared too? He said in confusion, “I tied them up……”

“This is called ‘tied up’?” Society Rong cussed as he parked the car and climbed into the back himself. He personally tied the two kids up with rope, all the while still humiliating Lao Hei. “Can’t even accomplish such a simple task. What a useless piece of shit!”

He tied them up, but felt like this wasn’t enough, so added another rope. After double checking, he finally climbed back into the driver’s seat. Then, he started the engine while continuing to cuss Lao Hei out.

Lao Hei got verbally abused, but didn’t dare to refute the other at all. He was already lost in bewilderment and had started suspecting himself. Had he really not tied them up carefully just now?

He really had no idea, so couldn’t help but turn around to take another glance. This glance immediately caused him to be covered in cold sweat.

Only to see that those two children still appeared as if they weren’t tied up at all. They were in the back playing games with each other.

“Rong ge, Rong ge……” Lao Hei finally realized that something was off. He used a shaky hand to tug at Society Rong.

Society Rong was in the middle of driving. He impatiently shook the other off and scowled, “What now?”

Lao Hei’s voice was already trembling. “Look, look behind you?”

“What’s there to look at?” Society Rong furrowed his brows, but still reflexively glanced in the rearview mirror. As soon as he did so, both of his eyes suddenly widened. He braked abruptly again. The two of their bodies instantly surged forward uncontrollably.

But the children sitting in the back seat weren’t affected at all. They were still happily clapping their hands together.

Little girl: “You clap once, I clap once, a little child sits in a plane……”

Little boy: “You clap twice, I clap twice, two little children throw their handkerchiefs……”

Little girl: “You clap thrice, I clap thrice……”

The night was dark. The air was still. The two children’s voices seemed strangely eerie and vacant. In the enclosed space of the car, the noise echoed slowly.

This made goosebumps appear on the two thugs who originally believed they feared nothing.

Lao Hei’s thinking couldn’t help swerving into horror-related topics. He started shaking like a leaf. “Rong, Rong ge, what’s going on?”

Society Rong was slightly braver than Lao Hei. He toughened himself up and asked, “How did, did you two untie the rope?”

The children stopped clapping. They turned around together and tilted their heads in sync.

The little girl merrily asked, “You don’t know?”

Society Rong: “……” How was he supposed to know!

Only to see the little boy suddenly speak up creepily, “I hate the feeling of being tied up.”

He looked up at Society Rong. His big eyes were empty. “If your neck gets tied up, you’ll die.”

As he spoke, a rope covered in strange symbols slowly appeared on his neck. “Just like this.”

Society Rong had originally been feeling hopeful. But after seeing this rope appear out of nowhere, the last bit of hope in his heart disappeared and he felt the onset of a mental breakdown.

But the little boy didn’t care whether or not he was going to have a mental breakdown. He only said to himself, “Can you see clearly……”

They watched as the rope slowly tightened, strangling him by the neck. Then, his originally pale face began turning green, followed by purple, followed by black. His expression started becoming more and more twisted too. “Like this. You’ll die……”

A look of compassion appeared on the little girl’s face. She comforted, “Looks very suffocating.”

Society Rong and Lao Hei felt like they were about to suffocate. The two of them finally couldn’t hold back their shrieks anymore. They howled as they tried to open the car doors, “Ghost——there’s a ghost——”

But for some reason, no matter how hard they tried to open the doors, they just would not open.

At the same time, the little girl continued sharing her life story with the little boy, “Actually, I died very tragically too. Like this……”

As she spoke, she held up her tiny hand and slowly inserted it into her skull. Following her actions, bright red blood began incessantly surging outward, covering her young face. In the next moment, she forcefully pulled, directly yanking a piece of something out from her head. Even more terrifying, a part of her forehead was now missing.

The little boy finally stopped squeezing his own neck. With an aiya, he compassionately said, “I can already tell how painful it was.”

“Un un,” the little girl nodded, then held the thing in her hand out to the front seat. She asked, “Big gege, this is the top of my skull. Do you want to take a look?”

Society Rong and Lao Hei: “……”

These two big geges who had been in society for thirty something years felt their vision go black. They had directly passed out.

Georgie seemed like he hadn’t had enough fun yet. “They’re very cowardly. They’ve already passed out.”

Peppa went aiya and hurriedly pulled her scalp back. She guiltily asked, “What to do? I think we’ve gone too far. My gege is going to be angry!”

Georgie thought about it. “I have an idea!”

The next morning, Yu Zhengdu received a news article recommendation as soon as he turned on his phone.

Local headline: Unluckiest Kidnappers in History, Encountered Car Accident During Kidnapping, Directly Crashed into Police Station [click open for more]

Yu Zhengdu clicked into it curiously and immediately became shocked by the ridiculousness of the content:

Local headline: Last night, unemployed individuals nicknamed Society Rong and Lao Hei kidnapped a woman in the developmental district. Unfortunately, on their way back from the kidnapping, they encountered a car accident and directly crashed through the doors of the police station. They passed out on the spot. While investigating the car, police found a kidnapped female in the backseat. Evidence and witnesses were both present. Unexpectedly, after the two kidnappers regained consciousness, they were adamant about the fact that they had encountered ghosts, even giving the police a detailed description of what had happened. After a thorough investigation, police determined that these two are the ones responsible for the previous hauntings at the factory in the developmental district……

Underneath the article, netizens’ ruthless mocking could be found:

【What kind of stupid kidnappers are these? Why would you pass by the police station during a kidnapping?】

【If they weren’t stupid could they come up with the excuse of encountering ghosts after getting caught?】

【Wait a minute, the hauntings at the factory in the developmental district are because of these two?】

【……Could this prove, that these two people are very in character?】

【23333 asking for a detailed account of how the kidnappers ran into ghosts. Want to know how detailed their description was】

The article writer seemed very interested in this bit too. He replied underneath this comment:

【According to a reliable source, the kidnappers tricked two ghost children. One had died from suffocation while the other could remove her scalp with her own hand】

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

This strangely familiar feeling.

At the same time, Shang Que caught Peppa, who had come to find Guilong, outside his office. He cornered her against the wall and seriously said, “Peppa, I know what you did within my enchantment borders last night.”

Peppa put her hands behind her back and stood up straight. She looked obedient as could be. “Ghost King gege, I didn’t do it on purpose. The bad guys started it.”

Shang Que coldly said, “That doesn’t matter. You promised your gege before that you would tell him if you encountered any trouble. You’re not allowed to do anything yourself.”

Peppa suddenly lifted her head. Her big eyes were filled with tears. She held up her face and sadly said, “I’ll never do it again. Can you not tell gege?”

Her voice was soft and sounded like she was about to start crying. She was really super pitiful. “Ghost King gege, you’re the best……”

Shang Que: “……”

Shang Que sighed and stated in exasperation, “Fine. Only this one time. There will be no next time.”

Peppa: !! Georgie’s plan succeeded!

The two of them reached an agreement. Shang Que thus held hands with her and walked out of the office. Who would’ve thought that as soon as they walked out through the door, they would see Yu Zhengdu walking over solemnly. “Peppa, what did you do last night?”

Shang Que: !!!

Shang Que immediately let go of Peppa’s hand and very innocently stated, “She and Georgie caused two bad guys to pass out from fear, then dropped them off at the police station.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Peppa: “……????”

Ghost King gege’s promises are a bit too unreliable ba!

The author has something to say:

Shang Que: As long as Zhengdu looks at me, I’ll tell all!

Peppa: So angry I’ve become a pig!

Hehehehe, who said they wanted to kiss Peppa yesterday? Line up to get her scalp!