Red Peacock [English] (Original Novel by Ju~On, translation by LuckyCasualty)

0.1 Red Peacock

Black eyes with a steady gaze, dark and unsettling as a moonless night, fixed upon the kneeling figure below. A young man, tightly secured by a dockline, of the kind normally used for securing boats. On each side of him, two strong built men.

"Hmm... This is the latest undercover officer from the Police Department?" The person seated on a chair covered in fur spoke as if addressing a child, casting a skeptical gaze at the kneeling young captive in front of him. "Let me see your face."

No sooner had the man finished his sentence before the young captive's face was grabbed and put into view before him. There was instant laughter in response, "Looks like a child... How old are you, Officer?"

"Twenty-three!" Came the courtly response of the young captive. However, it fails to evoke any specific emotion in the other party. The person seated on the fur-covered chair continues to lower their gaze.

His pale countenance unveils a captivating smile, encouraging glances from the kneeling man. Coupled with those serene and calm eyes, akin to dark sapphire beads, it educed a subtle mysterious ambiance, and a sense that there's some unspoken element.

"Do you have a name?" The person in the chair raised the question to the captive, but one of the two men standing guard responded instead;

"Lù Yī Péng, graduated from the Police Academy as an honor cadet, first rank to lieutenant. Born on the xx day of xx month xx year xx. Enlisted in government services on September xx last year, by appointment order from Feng Yi, the former Chief of Police at the police department."

"Wow... Haha," the person sitting in the chair laughed. "Quite the resumé, good job, I appreciate it. Well, officer... um... Lù Yī Péng, when you received your honors, did your teacher tell you anything about what Hóng Kǒng Què means?"

Lù Yī Péng didn't answer the question but replied instead, "Whatever your plans are for me, just get it over with quickly.."

The man flashed another captivating smile before shifting slightly on the fur draped chair. The illumination from the light above revealed his now smiling countenance, the proportionate shoulders. He was dressed in a white coat with a fur trim, atop a darker burgundy suit.

"What is it that you want?" Lù Yī Péng asked again, the mysterious person seated in the chair replied with another smile.

"Nothing. I simply wish for you to declare your loyalty to The Red Peacock. Comply, and my aid is yours. Otherwise... Well, I suspect the fate of your predecessor has been revealed to you by your operation commander."

As the man finished, an iron pot filled with glowing hot coals was brought into the room, accompanied by three fire pokers, glowing red from the heated embers.

"Captain Lu, can you spell 'Hóng Kǒng Què'? I'm seriously wondering if you can write the characters correctly. Your predecessor missed a line, so my men had to take care of him. However, he didn't handle the situation too well, hence the outcome you're already aware of. It suddenly made me realize that in today's schools, there isn't much emphasis on proper penmanship."

Lù Yī Péng turned his gaze toward the person seated in front of him. Unfortunately, the dim room lighting didn't distinctly reveal his features. What kind of gaze was it? Certainly not one of loyalty.

"Alright, let's cut to matters at hand. I'll show you the design, and you put it into writing."

A scroll hung on an iron codex display was brought in, with three words inscribed in the Hànzì* alphabet.

红  Hóng (Red)
孔  Kǒng (Opening)
雀  Què (Bird)

🪶(红孔雀 = Red Peacock)

"Untie him," the tormentor ordered, and the bodyguards on either side of Lù Yī Péng did not hesitate to comply. As the dockline was removed, the officer lunged at the man in the chair, but nobody else moved.

The officer immediately seized his captor by the collar, eliciting a captivatingly cunning smile on the soft-faced man. Suddenly, Lù Yī Péng felt the ground vanish from beneath his feet before his body crashed into the cold, unyielding concrete floor.

"Oh, Officer Lù. Is there a problem with your brain, or is it just your memory not working? Oh well, you're still young, so I'll forgive you this once." The captor remained calm. The sharp scent of shoe polish exuded from the well-kept leather shoes as its pointed tip reached the captive's nose, causing him to look up.

At that moment, Hóng Kǒng Que had walked up to him. "If you intend to continue your investigation, you'll have to play by my rules. If you choose not to do that, so be it. I have nothing to lose."

The policeman shook his head and recoiled. But a short moment later, he was dragged back and seated in his original spot, as the man returned to sit on the chair and issued the command: "On the inside of your Left thigh, Captain Lu. Make it beautiful."

"Ok..."

Lù Yī Péng tore the fabric of his pants, revealing the clean, white, tender flesh. He was given a handkerchief by one of the men before using it to wrap his hands and grabbed the glowing hot irons.

The smell of burning flesh filled the air as the young man pressed the hot irons onto his own pale skin with trembling hands. The dark eyes of the man in the chair were glowing as the Chinese characters slowly emerged, ascending down the clean, white skin of the young man's inner left thigh.

红 Hóng
孔 Kǒng
雀  Què

(Red Peacock)

𓅈𓅈𓅈

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🪶Hànzì(汉字) refers to the Chinese characters used in the writing systems of the Chinese and Japanese languages, among others. 红孔雀 [Hong Kongshue] is written in Hànzì, but when translated to Pinyin(拼音), the official phonetic romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese, it becomes Hóng Kǒngquè. Hóng (红) is the color red, and Kǒngquè, usually written as one unified word "孔雀" (Kǒngquè) means 'peacock'. Kǒng (孔), meaning 'opening' is not emphasized, but in reference to a specific bird, it's a nod to the way a peacock would open up it's tail.

🖊️That said, I will be referring to Lù Yī Péng, Hóng Kǒng Què and other characters by the Pinyin names. Anything in the story that may be unclear, I will mark with a feather🪶(because we are in a novel full of birds, after all), to signal there will be a short explanation at the end of the chapter to not interrupt reading flow. // LC
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