About Dirty Faces

This is a simple deduction of some of the Zhang family’s behavioral patterns.

If a person is very mobile, then their body temperature will inevitably rise. In order to lower one’s body temperature, the body will produce a lot of sweat, but long-term perspiration and a high temperature will lead to dehydration and hyperthermia. As a result, the Zhang family’s method of attack was to be very swift. In fact, their first priority was to defeat the opponent as quickly as possible.

They would mobilize all the energy in their body at the fastest speed possible and then imbue their muscles with the greatest strength so that their nerves and speed would achieve the fastest response. With the help of specially trained ligaments and joints, those in the Zhang family could perform actions that ordinary humans could never achieve in a very short amount of time.

The effectiveness of their attacks was probably the most unforgettable thing in my memory because they were so fast, effective, and fearless. In fact, they were too fast, too powerful, and too precise, especially Poker-Face. According to Black Glasses, it was because Poker-Face’s heart and blood were more extraordinary, so he had to make up for the ordinary Zhangs who had reached their limits.

As their body temperature rose, the Zhang family’s tattoos would gradually appear. These tattoos would start from their chests and gradually spread all over their bodies. Black Glasses said that some Zhang family members had tattoos on their faces. There was a possibility that these people would betray the Zhang family so they were marked at a very young age.

I didn’t know whether this predication came from the heavens or not, but these people were regarded as outcasts since childhood and most people wanted them to die as soon as possible. As a result, they were almost always given deadly missions to complete.

When they killed people, their tattoos would appear on their faces, making them look like evil spirits.

Many people believed that this was the Zhang family’s dirty face⁽¹⁾, but the two weren’t the same at all.

Even though they had similar uses, dirty faces were terrifying masks that were created using the human skin mask technique. They most definitely weren’t facial tattoos.

These masks had absolutely no religious connotations, but they were definitely frightening to see at night.

These masks were something that the Zhang family members would bring with them when they had to do dirty work.

Imagine a scene where you go to a hotel and see a room at the end of the corridor that has a seal across the door.⁽²⁾ You know that something must have happened in this room, but you don’t want to think much about it.

Your room happens to be right next door to this room. When you first saw the seal on the other room’s door, you wanted to show off to your friends, so you took a picture of the door and then went into your own room.

After that, you wanted to send it to your friends, but then you suddenly had a bad feeling. You couldn’t help thinking that taking this kind of photo was a little creepy and scary.

As a result, you didn’t post it to the group chat nor did you tell your friends about it. You were worried that the more you talked about it, the more afraid you would become.

So, you took a shower, opened your luggage, and started organizing everything.

When you finally lay down in bed and took out your cell phone, you had already forgotten about the photo you had taken of the neighboring door. You started looking through your photo album, which contained many short videos that you downloaded to study carefully. At this point, you scroll to the photo you took before.

There’s nothing unusual about the door, so you just delete the photo without clearing out the recycle bin. Then you go to sleep.

After a few busy days at work, you’re tired and don’t care too much about anything. But every time you return to your room, you see the neighboring door. The seal looks brand new, so whatever happened in this room must have occurred within the past six months.

You feel uncomfortable. Over the past few days, you’ve heard all kinds of rumors.

In any case, you’re sure of the fact that something strange happened in the room next to yours.

Finally, you finish the work you came here for and are planning to leave tomorrow. You take a relaxing hot bath and prepare to have a restful evening. At this time, you turn on your cell phone again and look at all the reference photos you’ve taken during this period of work. You delete the useless ones and then scroll through the large number of group photos and delete the ones that are out of focus.

After sorting through everything, you go to the recycle bin to look at all the deleted pictures because you’re cautious by nature and are afraid of deleting any important information by mistake. If everything looks fine, you’ll empty the recycle bin. One by one, you look through the photos that are about to be completely erased.

At this time, you suddenly scroll to the photo of the seal on the neighboring door that you took on the first day here.

Although you’re scrolling through quickly, you instinctively realize that there’s something wrong with the photo, which is inconsistent with the memory you have of taking it before.

The photo has changed.

You already have a somewhat ominous premonition in your heart, but your hand seems to have a mind of its own and has already scrolled back to it. You can see that the door of the room that was originally closed in the photo at that time is now cracked open in the photo you’re currently looking at.  

And in that crack, you can see the shadow of a figure standing behind the door.

The seal wasn’t broken; this figure just seemed to peeking out.

At this time, you try to recall whether it had been like this when you took the photo at that time and whether that figure was actually the shadow of a clothes hanger inside the room. But your hair is already standing on end and you’re thinking, damn it! This is why they say don’t photograph things indiscriminately!

You keep scrolling past the photo and coming back to it but find that the crack in the door and the figure are both still there. You put down the phone and turn on all the lights in the room, but unfortunately, the lights in this hotel are rather dim. This kind of light makes you feel cold all over, but you hear hotel staff talking in the corridor—they must be making their rounds—so you gather up your courage, open the door, and take a look at the room next door.

The door is closed and the seal is intact.

The hotel staff is cleaning things in the room opposite yours, and when they see you look at the neighboring door, their expression seems a bit strange. But you’re too embarrassed to say that you’re afraid, so you close your door and go back into your room.

You go back to the bed and lie down, but a strange thought suddenly pops into your head at this time. In the photo, the figure in the crack in the door was backlit. In other words, there was a light in the sealed room next door. The only way the shadow figure could be backlit was if a light was coming from behind it.

You open the photo, look at it carefully, and find that the light isn’t coming from inside the room but from the building across the way. The curtains in the room weren’t drawn, so the shadow figure in the crack was backlit.

At this time, you realize that the windows in this hotel aren’t sealed shut and can be opened. Suddenly curious, you have the urge to go to the window, open it, stick your head out, and look at the window next door.

You know this is courting disaster, but you can’t restrain your curiosity any longer. You start walking towards the window, but you suddenly find that there’s a strange face pressed up against your window, looking at you. This strange face appears to be leaning over from the window next door.

After listening to this story, you should think of the face that appears in your mind as a dirty face. After all, dirty faces represent something that you’re extremely afraid of in your heart. But when you put on the dirty face, you become one with the things you fear deeply and even your personality will change.

Most people will become murderous and extremely wanton.

Every Zhang family member is said to have a dirty face, but for them, it doesn’t mean much. Many people just regard it as a festive event and part of the coming-of-age ceremony. But I’m very curious about it, especially because the overseas Zhang family places a relatively higher value on dirty faces. The reason for this is very complicated, but I can talk about it in detail later.

So far, I have only seen a dirty face once, and that was merely the mask itself. I didn’t see anyone wearing it, but the shape looked both terrifying and strange.

I really want to know what Poker-Face’s dirty face looks like.

Black Glasses said that some people’s dirty face isn’t a terrible monster but another person’s face. Dirty faces are very diverse, so it’s difficult to guess and imagine what they might look like. I thought about it that night and broke out in a cold sweat, but when I thought about it again, I wondered if I was old enough to just let it go.

The above information is a brief overview of dirty faces. After this, I’ll continue to collect dirty faces and try to figure out the meaning behind them one by one.

<Extra丨Jadeite><Table of Contents><Fireworks>

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TN Notes:

(1) Not sure if you read “A Thousand Faces” or “The Southern Archives” yet, but it’s mentioned there. Dirty faces are masks that are only used to cover the face and intimidate the opponent (like when they were doing dirty missions such as assassinations or raids). They usually derive from the most terrifying image that the mask maker can come up with. The purpose is to intimidate the opponent from the very beginning. This introduction chapter Yvette did has a good explanation.

(2) Something like this:

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Merry pre-Christmas Eve everyone! I was supposed to do Vol 1 Ch 8 today but it looks like the author is writing again (at least intermittently). I figured you guys want new stuff over the already-licensed stuff so here we are. But the link I use for his latest updates is a few days behind so I can’t promise same-day updates (especially if he decides to start on “Queen of the West’s Ghost Banquet” anytime soon). This was posted on 12-19-2021 if anyone cares so probably about a 3 day lag with my time zone