26 Sep 2018

Illusions, Lies, Truth V3C1: College Life Part 2—What Happened to the Promised Films Studies Society?

by | posted in: Illusions-Lies-Truth | 5

Illusions, Lies, Truth Volume 3: In the Name of God, Part One

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

Chapter 1: College Life Part 2—What Happened to the Promised Films Studies Society?—translated by lucathia (proofread by Trespasserby)

In the end, Jiang Ziya didn’t give Jian Zhi a call beforehand. Who knows if making a call would be an invitation?

Even though he felt he was being too paranoid, the situation at home was complicated. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It wouldn’t be too late to enter Jian Zhi’s number under his contacts after Lu Yang had taken a look at him and made sure there was nothing iffy about him. Besides, he didn’t care whether or not he had a good seat to watch the movie.

He followed the directions on the flyer and arrived at the student union building. He hadn’t thought it would be so populated here. Several students had formed a crowd in their approach, and they greeted each other as they got on the elevator and even waved for Jiang Ziya to quickly get in.

Jiang Ziya shook his head and looked down at the flyer. On it was written: “Basement, level one. Please take a right turn at the elevators, walk to the end of the corridor, and use the stairs to go down.” Earlier, when he had read this, he hadn’t thought much of it, but now that he had seen all the students take the elevator up, he started to feel something was off.

But if the audio-visual room for watching the movie needs to be soundproof, it’s not odd for it to be in the basement? Jiang Ziya thought it over and felt he was worrying too much. The student union building was even livelier than the location of his classes. People came and went. Even standing in front of the elevator made him feel he was very much in the way. It would be too stupid to plan an ambush here.

After laughing at himself for jumping at nothing, Jiang Ziya walked directly to the end of the corridor indicated on the flyer. Looking at the deep staircase, he abruptly recalled when he had first discovered the strangeness of the twins and had wanted to get Xiao Xue out of there to throw her away. He had faced such a staircase then too…

But the situation was still rather different. At the time, the staircase had been so dark that he hadn’t been able to see the stairs past a few steps. On top of that, the darkness had absolutely no increments to it, as if it were a steep cliff. Any closer, and he would have fallen into a bottomless pit.

Continued

28 Aug 2018

Illusions, Lies, Truth V3C1: College Life Part 1—The Classmate with an Angel

by | posted in: Illusions-Lies-Truth | 6

Illusions, Lies, Truth Volume 3: In the Name of God, Part One

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

Chapter 1: College Life Part 1—The Classmate with an Angel—translated by lucathia (proofread by Trespasserby)

“Jiu Ge,” as passed down, is a set of songs from the Xia Dynasty, of which different gods are worshipped. There are a total of eleven elegies, those being: The Great Unity, God of the Eastern Sky, Dong Huang Taiyi; The Lord within the Clouds, Yunzhong Jun; The God of the Xiang, Xiang Jun; The Lady of the Xiang, Xiang Furen; The Greater Master of Fate, Da Si Ming; The Lesser Master of Fate, Shao Si Ming; The Lord of the East, Dong Jun; The River Earl, He Bo; The Mountain Spirit, Shan Gui; Hymn to the Fallen, Guo Shang; and Honoring the Dead, Li Hun.

Jiang Ziya stared at this introduction, his eyes wide. Taiyi and Dong Jun?

Those that are too powerful have special names.

Like those that you have to pick up incense to pray to.

…My boss isn’t human!

But, when I asked, Fu Jun clearly said that they’re human and that I was thinking too much. S-So what in the world is going on now?

Jiang Ziya felt that this world was way too fantastical. He should just return to reality and go to school. Even if his boss really were a god, it wasn’t like he could bless Ziya and help him win the lottery, so attending school obediently was the proper thing to do.

Besides, attending class had another benefit. He had classmate Lu Yang there to ask, and he wasn’t like Yu Shu who liked to play around with answering. Since he was full of questions, of course he should rush to find classmate Lu Yang!

As usual, Jiang Ziya parked his motorcycle in the university’s parking lot. Just as he was thinking of going to the campus store first to buy some fried noodles and bread to eat with Lu Yang, to avoid having to brave the crowd during lunch time, he saw an angel drifting in front of the parking lot exit. The angel was rather familiar too; it seemed to be the very angel that had thrown punches at a ghost.

In the past, Jiang Ziya had at most only dared to sneakily glance at these things, but now that he knew he had Jiěfu backing him up at home, Lu Yang with his demon-hunting, evil-dissipating skills at school, the neighbor who was raising illusory familiars across from his place, and even his boss and Fu Jun at work… As he listed them out, he began wondering where he had gone wrong with his life. Why is there no one simple around me?

But with all that, my own truth-seeing eye doesn’t seem to be all that special anymore? Jiang Ziya suddenly found his balance. “Since everyone is the same” was indeed the best balm.

Continued

29 Jul 2018

Illusions, Lies, Truth V3Prologue: Prologue

by | posted in: Illusions-Lies-Truth | 6

Illusions, Lies, Truth Volume 3: In the Name of God, Part One

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

Prologue—translated by lucathia (proofread by Trespasserby & EvlNabiki)

It went like this. On the way to school, just as I was walking in through the campus gate, I saw an angel drifting behind a certain classmate, following him the entire way without leaving. I thought he was up to no good, but in the next moment, the classmate’s face bumped into a ghost that was floating about, and that ghost got so angry that it rushed over and punched him several times. The classmate didn’t feel it, but the angel behind him actually rushed out and sent that ghost flying with one smack!

Yu Shu yawned widely and lazily said, “I thought that you’d seen angels way back?”

Jiang Ziya was chewing bread. As expected, homemade bread was on a whole different level. It was super delicious. Once again, he understood why Yu Shu had summoned House Keeper to life.

“That’s different! I’ve only seen them drifting about before. I thought those were hallucinations. Don’t even mention angels. I often saw UFOs racing in the sky! If I took all of that to be real, I’d have gone crazy a long time ago.”

They’re illusions, not hallucinations. Yu Shu followed his example and took out a cream bun to chew on.

Jiang Ziya immediately took back the bag that held the cream buns. He said protectively, “House Keeper gave these to me. If you want some, why don’t you just tell him to make more?” He was currently forbidden to enter Yu Shu’s apartment. It wasn’t easy for him to order food.

“You think he can produce flour? Huh?” Yu Shu retorted, “This is my flour, my eggs, my sugar, my… Anyway, it’s all mine!” All right, I don’t know what else is necessary to make bread.

Jiang Ziya asked hopefully, “How about I get the ingredients ready and send it over?”

“How about I just have House Keeper marry you? What do you think?”

Continued

19 Jun 2018

Illusions, Lies, Truth SS2: Slay; Eliminate

by | posted in: Illusions Lies Truth Side Stories | 4

Illusions, Lies, Truth Side Story: Slay; Eliminate

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

“Slay; Eliminate”—translated by Michimochi (proofread by Trespasserby & elisa; C/E edited by lucathia)

“Okay. I know you don’t like hunting weird things, but there really isn’t a choice.

“Yeah, yeah. I know that we’re demon-hunting, evil-dissipating, Taoist priests, not that the average person can actually tell the difference between those things. If it’s their first time meeting one, being able to find a commissioner is already pretty good. On that note, demons and ghosts are actually the same kinds of illusory familiars.

“After we’re done, I’ll order the best oil to offer you, okay?”

It was approaching ten in the evening. A high school student was walking into a large, lightless building. He was muttering to himself nonstop. If people saw this scene, most would be tempted to comment, “Child, if you’re unwell, you should hurry and see a doctor.” Afterwards, they would kindly report it to the police.

If they saw this boy’s face, they might even add, “Such a pity. He grew to be this handsome but is a nutcase.”

The high school student had brown hair and green eyes. His facial features were relatively striking, a foreign face in line with current beauty standards. The pride of his entire life was receiving a hundred love letters during his third year of middle school, though rejecting those hundred girls nearly led to their belief that he was gay.

“Gay? The only one who is constantly by my side has always been Slay. He can’t take human form. At most, it can only be said that I have a fetish for objects, right?”

Lu Yang truly mourned that he either had to be a gay person or an objectophile. If it really were true, then he’d just admit it. But, it was really that he didn’t have the time to go out with girls.

Continued