First cooperation (1)

With a sharp screech of brakes and a dull cry of shock, a bicycle fell to the ground, its front wheel spinning incessantly, making people's hearts uneasy.

Ow, the ninth one, how creepy.

There are different ways of translating a text, depending on the purpose, style, tone, and audience of the translation. Here is one possible translation of the fragment:

The bicycle accident happened at the bend on the right side of the gate of Jinjing Garden residential complex. There was nothing there, or so you might think, except that the young man took the turn too fast and fell off his bike. But she saw it, or rather, many people saw it, and saw it very clearly.

Just a moment ago, the young man was riding his mountain bike leisurely into the gate, and he was not even turning, but going straight ahead. But when he approached that spot, something strange happened. His bike lurched forward, as if it had been tripped by something invisible. And then he crashed.

"Nine people," the woman repeated softly what the security guard had said earlier. Then she gave a faint smile and stretched her waist. "None of my business!" she muttered to herself and slowly walked away. But suddenly something else caught her eye. It was two men.

The two men were both tall, one about 1.8 meters, and the other slightly shorter, but still over 1.75 meters. They wore black suits and shirts, and big sunglasses, and observed the scene of the incident carefully. The woman curled her lips in a playful smile: "Heh, looks like the professionals are here." Suddenly, she seemed to remember something, and slapped her forehead. "Oh no, the pork rib soup is going to burn!" She immediately ran towards another apartment complex...

The woman burst through the door. She had just gone to the supermarket in the complex to buy some soy sauce, thinking she wouldn't be gone for too long, so she didn't even turn off the gas. But she didn't expect that she would end up watching a spectacle.

"Damn it!" The woman cursed under her breath, and quickly lifted the lid of the pot on the stove. She let out a relieved smile. "Thank goodness, thank goodness!"

Just then, a cloud of black smoke rose slowly behind her. All of a sudden, a pair of hands emerged from the smoke, and pounced on the woman.

"Scram!" The woman swung her soup ladle as a reflex, and hit the smoke directly.

"Ow!" A scream came from the smoke, and then it dispersed, revealing a figure. It was a middle-aged man, wearing beach clothes, rubbing his head non-stop, and shouting. "I say, Xuan'er, you're too heavy-handed!"

"Old man, who told you to always sneak up on me?" The woman called Xuan'er turned around slowly, swinging the ladle in her hand. "Tell me, why don't you do your job as a reaper, and run over to see me instead?"

The middle-aged man's face darkened. "It's all for your sake! Don't you really want to inherit the family business, and exorcise demons and ghosts? Don't forget, you're a descendant of the Zhang family. We have Zhang Tian Shi's blood in our veins. Catching ghosts and eliminating evil is our mission!" The middle-aged man spoke with righteous indignation, a glint of gold flashing in his eyes. He looked like he was ready to sacrifice himself for the revolution.

That's right. This woman was the 36th generation heir of the Zhang family, Zhang Xuan. And the one who was lecturing her now was her "deadbeat" old man, Zhang De Tian, the current reaper! That is, a soul catcher who was one rank higher than a soul reaper.

One possible translation is:

Zhang Xuan's face darkened, showing a depressed expression: "Come on, deadbeat dad, don't you know that more and more people don't believe in ghosts and gods now? If I go out and tell people that I catch ghosts, I will either be laughed at or dragged into the neighborhood committee for a big brainwashing session. Besides, humans, ghosts, gods, and Buddhas have their own paths, it's best to let nature take its course. Why do you want me to deal with things that even you as a death god don't care about?"

"This is fate!"

"Fate my ass, there are others who can handle it. Isn't the Ma family doing well in this field? We should have moved to Hong Kong or something back then, we would have more business there!"

"You! You're just making excuses. I think you're afraid of death!" Zhang Detian stared at Zhang Xuan intently.

Zhang Xuan's eyebrows twitched. Damn it, he hit the nail on the head. She was indeed afraid of death. Ever since the incident in Gannan last year, she was seriously injured and realized that life was the most precious thing. She thought about how she hadn't even had a real romance yet, so she sealed her own spiritual power and hid here as an ordinary person.

Zhang Detian smiled smugly, he knew his daughter well: "By the way, speaking of the Ma family, they are here. You should take the opportunity to learn from them. Remember, if you want to survive, you have to become stronger! I have something else to do, so I'll leave first. You, sigh, raising a son for a hundred years and worrying for ninety-nine, you should know how hard it is for me to come up and see you..." And so, Zhang Detian started his monkish sermon, driving Zhang Xuan to clench her fists. She almost took out a talisman to send him back to the underworld.

The Ma family is here? Zhang Xuan drank her pork rib soup and thought in her head. Ever since her father left, his last words kept lingering in her mind: "Learn from them well. If you want to survive, you have to become stronger!"

"Stronger?" Zhang Xuan clenched her right hand. The scene of her near-death experience last year flashed before her eyes again...

The incident happened a year ago, when a chain collision occurred on the X Highway in southern Jiangxi. Zhang Xuan happened to pass by, and before the rescue workers arrived, she felt a non-natural force, the power of evil spirits. That power devoured her and the whole highway.

Zhang Xuan immediately opened her yin eye, and in an instant, her hairs stood on end. In front of her, there were not one evil spirit, but a row of them. They blocked the first bus, causing the chain collision.

A bad premonition invaded Zhang Xuan's whole body. It was impossible for so many evil spirits to appear at the same time. There was only one possibility: someone had placed them here. Who could it be?

Just as she was about to fight with the evil spirits to the death, a person in a black cloak walked out from behind them. The black cloak wrapped him up completely, and from under his dark hat, he emanated a hellish demonic aura. He slowly raised his right hand and snapped his fingers in the air. "Don't get in the way!"

Immediately, a huge flame burst from under Zhang Xuan's feet, engulfing her...

Zhang Xuan woke up from her dream with a start. Every time she thought of that incident, she would break out in a cold sweat, thinking that if she hadn't used a clone talisman in time, she might have died there.

That person was not an ordinary person. His magic power and his ability to control evil spirits were beyond the scope of yin-yang masters. Could he be a cultivator? Right, the Ma family's people. Zhang Xuan thought of the two mysterious men in black she had seen this morning. They should be from the Ma family. She looked at the time. It was midnight. It was not that ghost hunting had to be done at night, but it was easier to work when there were fewer people around. Otherwise, if they spent half a day there hunting ghosts, someone would surely call 110.

The night was cold and damp. Zhang Xuan put on a coat and walked out of her door...