Chapter 4: Qin Su

Source: https://www.gongzicp.com/novel-1388844.html
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com

Saying this is a “woman” is not quite appropriate. Anyone who can open their eyes in such a place is definitely not human, at least not a living person.

Qin Su felt groggy in her mind as if she had just woken from a long dream.

In the dream, she had turned into something very frightening. Not only did she kill those who had harmed her, but she also killed many innocent people.

But none of this was done by her will. It seemed like she was controlled by something to commit these acts.

Qin Su watched “herself” commit these evil deeds from the perspective of an outsider.

She wanted to stop, she tried to struggle, but it was all in vain.

Only just now did she finally realize that she had regained control of her body.

It was very dark around her, and Qin Su did not know where she was. She groped around but only felt something like dirt.

Qin Su struggled to remove the soil covering her. Soon, she saw a glimmer of light.

She climbed out of the pit where she had been buried and then heard a series of piercing screams coming from all directions.

Qin Su looked around in confusion and saw many people fleeing in all directions.

She looked down again and saw her decayed legs. That's right, she was already dead.

She had died a long time ago.

Qin Su sat despondently in a corner of the playground.

The decayed parts of her legs had somehow returned to normal. Her legs now looked no different from those of a living person.

She looked at her hands again. Apart from being excessively pale, they also looked no different from those of a living person.

Qin Su walked along the road from her memory to the prison area and found a mirror.

In the mirror, she looked as she did in life: delicate and beautiful, though her complexion was ashen.

Qin Su could not help but doubt. Has she really died? How could she still move? How could she be the same as before?

The decayed legs she had seen earlier seemed to be just an illusion.

While Qin Su was standing in front of the mirror in a daze, a woman appeared behind her without her noticing.

The woman, holding a baton, struck Qin Su forcefully.

Qin Su felt no pain, but the woman's actions angered her.

She turned around and glared at the woman, only then realizing that the woman was wearing a uniform.

Although the uniform was somewhat different from the police uniforms she had seen in her life, it still led her to guess the woman's identity.

Qin Su stood there, stunned, not knowing what to do.

The woman scolded, “Break time is over. How dare you stay outside? Go back to your cell!”

Qin Su slightly parted her lips but did not know what to say.

Seeing this, the woman swung her baton at Qin Su again.

Qin Su did not move. The woman frowned, put away the baton, and said to Qin Su, “Follow me.”

As Qin Su followed the woman, she increasingly felt that she looked very familiar.

This woman... seemed to have appeared in her dream before, and she had already killed her.

Qin Su's steps faltered, but she immediately caught up with the woman.

Since they were all ghosts, what was there to be afraid of?

The woman stopped outside a cell, used a key to open the door, and let Qin Su enter.

Qin Su looked at the woman, and the woman looked back at Qin Su.

In the end, Qin Su yielded. She walked into the cell.

Inside the cell were familiar faces—those who had caused Qin Su's death.

Or it could be said the other way around: those people were all killed by Qin Su.

Those people... no, those ghosts, all looked at Qin Su with various expressions, but the one thing they had in common was the deep fear and resentment in their eyes.

Qin Su ignored them and lay down on her old bed.

She did not know what role she needed to play now, but repeating her previous life seemed to be the best choice for now.

In the “dream,” she had done just that.

Qin Su did not know what year or month it was now, but it must have been a long time since she was imprisoned.

Source: https://www.gongzicp.com/novel-1388844.html
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com

Despite the time that had passed, Qin Su could still clearly remember the despair she felt when she was imprisoned.

She had been framed.

Although Qin Su was born into an ordinary family, she was the only daughter and had been pampered from a young age, so she was almost unaware of the harsh realities of society.

After graduating from university, she smoothly secured a job at a well-known company, but she did not know that this was the beginning of her nightmare.

Her boss was a middle-aged man around forty, who appeared refined and cultured but was actually worse than a beast.

As soon as Qin Su started her job, he took a liking to the young and beautiful girl. When he realized that Qin Su's family had no power or influence, he became even more unrestrained.

He frequently suggested to Qin Su that if she was willing to pay a certain price, her future would be bright. Privately, this scoundrel also made physical advances towards her.

Qin Su quickly understood what he meant by "price" and was naturally unwilling. She not only firmly refused but also secretly kept evidence of his harassment.

However, her act of keeping evidence was soon discovered by this man.

What happened next was something Qin Su had never imagined.

The man had previously embezzled a lot of money from the company, but it had never been discovered. However, he was very aware that paper could not cover fire, and it was only a matter of time before the truth would come out.

Qin Su's actions gave him a malicious idea: to frame Qin Su for the embezzlement.

This way, he could not only clear himself of any wrongdoing but also send this threatening person to prison. For him, it was a double win.

Thus, Qin Su inexplicably became a scapegoat.

No one could believe that a girl who had been with the company for less than two years could embezzle such a large amount of money in such a short time.

But the false evidence created by the man was nearly flawless. Furthermore, with his power and high status in the company, no one dared to question him. Qin Su, who knew almost nothing and was just a newcomer, was unprepared and was thus sent to prison.

After Qin Su was imprisoned, the man did not stop there. He bribed the inmates in her cell to kill her and silence her.

The inmates who shared the cell with Qin Su already disliked her. After receiving benefits, they became even more ruthless and brutally beat her to death.

It is uncertain whether they would have acted differently if they had known what would happen afterward.

They had created a killing monster with their own hands.

During the subsequent period, although Qin Su had memories, everything felt unreal.

She did not know if she had really done those things or if those events had actually occurred.

Qin Su scanned the pale, distorted faces of the other inmates in the cell and finally understood that those things had truly happened.

At least, the fact that she had successfully taken revenge was real.

Life back in the cell was very similar to the days she had spent here while she was alive.

Qin Su continued to be beaten every day, even though she no longer felt anything.

At first, she would not allow herself to be insulted again, but she was completely unable to resist, just like when she was alive.

It was also like in the “dream.”

Qin Su could tell that those who beat her were also under some kind of control. Initially, they did not dare to approach her, but after being controlled by some force, they not only approached her but also tortured her every day just like before.

After realizing that Qin Su could not resist, they became even more brutal.

Every morning was like this, and in the afternoon, Qin Su would be transported to the place where she had originally been buried by some unknown force.

Qin Su did not understand what was happening. Why, even though she was dead, could she not find freedom and release?

When Qin Su consciously climbed out of the pit where she had been buried for the second time, she saw a few strange people.

The scene was very similar to her “dream.”

Although these people seemed to be afraid of her, they did not immediately flee.

Those people threw various strange things at her. She could not help but scream in pain and felt that she could no longer move.

It was a torment that eroded her soul. Even though she could no longer feel physical pain, she still could not endure such suffering.

Although she regained the ability to move a few seconds later, she was still somewhat terrified.

How could living people have such power?

Could these people be connected to the force that controlled her?

Qin Su stood there dazed while the strange people took the opportunity to run away.

She looked down again and saw her decayed body, but it soon began to visibly recover to normal.

Qin Su then gazed in the direction where the people had left, lost in thought.

The next afternoon, when she climbed out of the ground, she did not see anyone. 

She decided to actively search for those strange people. She was certain that talking to them would help resolve the confusion in her mind.

Recalling her past prison life, she knew that during this time, those people should be at work.

She went to the factory. By then, her body had returned to normal, so only a few inmates glanced at her, while most were numbly working and did not pay her any attention.

Qin Su quickly found the outliers among them. 

These few people were not working seriously but were instead looking around cautiously.

Qin Su approached one of them and straightforwardly said, “Can we talk?”

The woman chosen by Qin Su wore a large pair of black-rimmed glasses. She looked at Qin Su timidly, first putting her hand into her pocket, then quietly asking, “What do you want to talk about?”

“Who are you? You’re not an inmate here, right?”

The woman forced a smile and said, “How could that be? How would someone who isn’t an inmate be here?”

“If you are inmates here, how could you have things that can deal with me?”

The woman’s expression finally changed.

She took something from her pocket and threw it at Qin Su. Qin Su, already on guard, nimbly dodged.

Seeing that the attack failed, the woman gritted her teeth and turned to run.

But how could she outrun a ghost?

Qin Su grabbed her shoulder, preventing any movement.

“I won’t hurt you. I just want to ask you a few questions.”

The woman’s body trembled slightly. She dared not turn around, only stammering, “Wh-what questions?”

“Who are you?”

“We... we are... just inmates here.”

“I know you have other identities,” Qin Su tightened her grip, “Speak honestly.”

The woman cried out in pain, “I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you, just be gentler.”

Qin Su snorted coldly but loosened her grip slightly.

“We are... you can consider us as players. We came here to play a game, but if we lose, we die.”

“Players? Game?”

Qin Su could not fully connect these two terms with her current situation.

Was she now in some kind of game? What would her role be? Could she be a game boss?

Recalling her actions of killing in the “dream,” Qin Su felt this was quite possible. 

But was it really just a dream?

Taking advantage of Qin Su's moment of contemplation, the woman quickly escaped from her grasp. This time, Qin Su did not chase her.

Even after returning to her cell, Qin Su continued to ponder what the woman had said.

Players, game... Could this be a real-life death game?

Was she controlled by a game?

But why did she become part of the game?

Qin Su could not sort out her thoughts but had a vague feeling that her tragic life must be closely related to this game.

The days continued as usual: every morning she was beaten in the cell, and every afternoon, she appeared at the place where she was buried.

Everything was almost identical to her experiences in the “dream.”