A Lady In Red

The sedan carriers were so scared that they felt like laughing. Their whole body was producing cold sweat and their whole being was shaking. But they stood still on their grounds like statues as told by the village chief and just like them the person in front didn't move even an inch.

Léi Yún on the other hand couldn't see anything going on outside and was confused over why the sedan stood still. Without moving the curtains he asked curiously.

" What is it? Why did you stop?"

"..."

Strange. No reply at all. He tried to look outside the curtain but the fabric of his sleeves got stuck in a sharp nail. So he got busy pulling his clothes out safely.

The sedan carriers never felt like wanting to kill someone so much in their whole life. Does this man inside even consider situations? It is fine that he didn't know but why? Couldn't he speak softly? Would his tongue fall off if he didn't speak at the top of his voice? They were all standing outside, so why did he need to tune his voice so high as if they were standing far away?

But outside things got spiced up. The lady in red with a red umbrella started walking towards them with her light footsteps that couldn't be heard. The more she stepped towards them the more the sedan carriers felt like running away but even if they wanted to they could imagine what would happen next. So they tried their best not to scream or wet their pants.

Closer and closer, she passed by every one of them and they only stood there on the verge of crying. They took holding their breaths too seriously and everyone held it until she passed by each one of them. But wait a moment. Wasn't she supposed to just pass by them? Then why did she turn towards the sedan door? Wait why did she bend towards the door? Was it because she wanted to eat their master first?

By this time Léi Yún got rid of the nail in which his clothes were stuck and when he removed the curtain, he saw someone's face on the right side of his sedan door.

This someone was a fair lady in red clothing with a red Huā diàn[1] on her forehead. Her facial features were delicate and her hair tied behind gracefully into a Buddha bun. Her eyes were as blue as sapphire and her lips as red as a cherry.

When he saw her, his heart skipped a beat and he couldn't move his eyes away from her. He suddenly felt hundreds of butterflies dancing in his stomach. It was a very strange feeling that reached his heart. A uncertain amount of familiarity filled him from inside. As if this person was known to him. The only thing that came to his mind at that time was:

'Is this what they call love?'

He was in a daze until he heard the lady say something in one breath as if she prepared a whole speech before meeting him. "It is fortunate that I met you here senior lord seventh Zhīzhù. Thankfully I could tell that the sedan was yours. Actually, my spiritual powers are imbalanced and thus the spell of teleportation didn't drop me at the headquarters but here in the middle of nowhere. I don't have much spiritual power left and don't know where I am. Can you give this pitiful junior a ride?"

The sedan carriers after hearing this were utterly confused. What senior? What junior? Wasn't she a ghost and wasn't she going to devour this man? Nothing made sense to them. So they kept acting like non-living beings until things got clear. After all, be it ghosts or women, they were never the best to deal with them. An example was their wives at home.

A beautiful junior of the organisation in the middle of a haunted forest was something he didn't expect to come across. But it was pretty much possible because juniors who couldn't control their energy would often go through a disbalance in their spiritual power which was pretty much of a trouble. He also went through such stages when he first started cultivating eight years ago.

He really wanted to help but he could barely sit with all those things inside. He couldn't possibly let a lady sit inside so uncomfortably. But how could he say no? Her face looked so pitiful. Abandoning a girl in the middle of a haunted forest, what would people say? Wouldn't they say that something is wrong with his conscience? So with great difficulty, he turned his face away which was red out of embarrassment and said:

"Look…I really want to help...but you see these useless things that are not mine, I mean they…are mine… but…also not to start with. Actually, the villagers told me that the forest is haunted and in case I might be scared…I-I mean I am not scared… but… still I couldn't say no. So…you see I am eating the space...wait...I mean they are eating the space...Ugh... What am I even telling yo-"

"It's okay."

"Huh!?" Hearing the other side say something like that was unexpected. Like girl how could you sit somewhere so covered up like this when barely a person could sit there? There wasn't even a space left to keep a rice grain there. So of course he was amazed at first to hear such a reply. If it was any other employee then they would probably say something like 'It's okay, I will pass' or something else. But she didn't mind sitting in a small space like that with him?

He couldn't help but think if she also wanted to sit with him. But to be honest he really wanted to hear those words from her. He had never felt this sort of attraction towards anyone in his whole life. As if they were meant to meet. So he wanted to sit beside her only if it was just for a moment. Her answer made weird questions start to appear in his brain until she said:

"It's okay. I have a Qiánkūn dài. If you don't mind then I can keep it in mine for the time being." The lady showed the silver Qiánkūn dài in her long fair hands with a slight smile on her face.

"Oh…ok" In a matter of time, the romantic fabrics of fantasies that his brain started to weave were destroyed. She actually had a Qiánkūn pouch. Thanks to her because now he didn't feel romantic, he only felt useless. He acted fine outside but inside he was crying the tears of grief.

So soon the misunderstanding of her being a ghost was cleared and the sedan carriers were laughing at their foolishness. The lady opened her pouch and a blue light that appeared from inside of it, sucked every single thing eating the space inside the sedan up and stored it for the time being. The lady then sat inside of the sedan with grace and now her face could be seen even more clearly. Truly what a face god gifted her.

Those big peach blossom-like eyes with long and black eyelashes. The beautiful blue eyes that were deeper than the sea and those fair rosy red cheeks. Her beautifully shaped thin red lips. He admired the craftsmanship of the god on her. What a work of art.

The sedan started moving like before. The path was clear ahead and without any sort of trouble, they kept moving on their path towards the organization. On their whole way, they met nothing odd or supernatural, so indeed the ghost story was just gibberish. He didn't find a ghost in red but actually found a beauty in red. What a lucky night.

The rain was still pouring and a sweet smell of wet grass was in the air. The sound of rain was like music when they dropped on the leaves. The forest was covered in faint mist and for some reason, the forest wasn't as silent as before.

Even though Léi Yún was sitting inside facing her, he didn't dare look at her in the eyes. Her blue eyes were piercing deep inside him. This made the atmosphere quiet and awkward. Neither of them talked to each other nor made a sound. There was dead silence inside. Only their eyes met a few times and that was it. After a while the whole atmosphere started getting awkward. Then it became super awkward.

So before they both could die out of awkwardness, Léi Yún took the first step and tried to break the silence. But when he tried to speak, the lady tried to speak at the same time.

…AWKWARD…

This went on for a few times until finally, the lady gestured for him to speak first. So all this while Léi Yún had a question he wanted to ask her the most but because of this awkward incident, he couldn't call up what he was going to ask. At last, he gave up and asked something stupid:

"Which section of the organisation are you from?" But after asking he realised how obvious it was just by looking at her clothes and the colour of it. He regretted asking it as even a trainee of the organisation could tell by looking. She was from-

" Gào zhēn[2]..." She said looking at him surprised. Then she said smiling. "Lord I thought that you could tell." She chortled in a rather teasing way.

Léi Yún had never felt such doses of embarrassment one after another in his whole life after meeting a single person. He knew, of course, he knew that where she was from.

Her red clothes indicated her being from the section of Gào zhēn. This section was the second lowest section after the messengers. The members of the section were forced to wear red. They were officials in charge of interrogation. They looked like normal people in red clothes but during their jobs, they would be the most dangerous and cruel person a person would ever wanna meet. They were ruthless at the time of interrogation and knew how to get the words out of a criminal's mouth. They could detect truth from lies and wouldn't hesitate to torture the person through many tortures until they spill the words out. After a person was labelled a criminal in the world of cultivation, the so-called criminal marked by the public, any sect or the members of the organization itself, would be sent to Gào Zhēn for further interrogation. The members of Gào Zhēn had to be ruthless to do this job since they mostly had to deal with heinous crime masters. It was not an easy job to get information out of their mouth. They had to squeeze it out of them. Thus this job wasn't for those scared or disgusted of gore. Because they were permitted by the headlords to torture them in every way to get them to admit their sins. After the process of various tortures, one wouldn't be able to identify the criminal from before. They would be covered in bruises, scars and blood. If worse then their eyes, ears, fingers or something else would be missing and if the criminal wished not to speak then they would be speaking to the god because everything except for their head and midbody would be gone. As long as they were not dead and muted, they were perfect to be brought to the 'Court of Justice', where they would be judged in front of the whole world and sentenced according to their crime. Of course, there would be people trying to save the criminal as well. For those people trying to save the criminal, it was a risk for sure because if the criminal was found guilty and they were found helping them, then they could imagine themselves in the next line after their friend. During the judging period, there will be many witnesses, proofs and logic presented in front of the three lords judging in the Court of Justice. These three lords were the current lords of the cultivation world's most powerful and popular sect, organization and temple. After they confirmed their decision in the court, not even the god could change it and the fate of the criminal would be decided. The process included many people and the Gào Zhēn members were a huge part of it.

Looking at the lady again, he couldn't tell by her looks that she was a member of Gào Zhēn. She looked so innocent and fragile like a red rose but he couldn't tell if her ruthless nature, like thorns, were hidden under those soft petals. Although she worked for Gào Zhēn, it wasn't necessary for every member to do bloodshed because there were many other job options except for torturing a criminal for the members.

He peeked at the golden badge on her chest that shone brightly. Unlike any other member, the members of Gào Zhēn were ranked through golden badges. There were three categories among them:

The first was Zhǒngzǐ[3], a golden badge on which a flower seed would be carved. The lowest-ranked badge among the Gào Zhēn members was this. The owner of this badge was the novice member of the Gào Zhēn. They were given the job of neither interrogation nor torture. They were needed to note down the statements given by the criminals, in case working as a witness in the Court of Justice or noting down everything they learned through the process. This job was boring and it didn't pay much. They weren't assigned to do any hard labour and were looked down upon by many since this job consisted of no hard labour. So although the job was easy, not many people agreed to sign in for this job.

The second or the junior level badge was the Huālěi[4] badge. It was a badge that had a flower bud carved in it. The owner of this badge mostly assisted their senior through interrogation or interrogated non-criminal people during any cases. They also informed the members of the organization looking into the case with basic information that they received through interrogation. These juniors were always busy with paperwork. This job had many difficulties but still, the salary was not that special than the Zhǒngzǐ badge owners.

Last but not least were the Kāihuā[5] badge owners who had a golden badge with a full-blown flower carved in it. Don't get moved by the name because even if the name was that way they were the ruthless senior ranked members who were like ferocious beasts during their working hours. They exposed their sharp teeth and pointed long nails when dealing with a criminal as if they would rip them into shreds. They were dangerous people during their jobs and no one wanted to deal with them during that time. So what the lower-ranked members had to fear was not the gore but the one responsible for it. They were respected highly in Gào Zhēn and had a high salary.

After looking at the badge, Léi Yún's face turned pale because this lady's badge was of neither Zhǒngzǐ nor of Huālěi. So then ...

Yes! Her badge was of none other than that of a Kāihuā's. Lucky him…did he really have to like someone with a badge of Kāihuā?

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[1]Huā diàn(花钿)flower adornments, here known as the mark on the forehead worn by people in ancient China. Mostly popular among women. Here 'Huā' (花) means flower while 'diàn' (钿) means point.

[2]Gào Zhēn(告真) translates to confess the truth.' Gào'(告)means tell while 'Zhēn' (真) means real.

[3]Zhǒngzǐ(种子)translates to the word seed. Here 'Zhǒng' (种) means kind. While 'zǐ'  (子) means son.

[4]Huālěi(花蕾) translates to flower bud. Here 'Huā'(花) means flower and 'lěi'(蕾) means bud.

[5]Kāihuā(开花) translates to Blooming flower. Here 'Kāi' (开) means open and 'huā'(花) means flower.