29 Jan 2018

Illusions, Lies, Truth V2C4: This Bookstore’s Part 3—Author

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

Illusions, Lies, Truth Volume 2: Human Doll Contract Part Two

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

Chapter 4: This Bookstore’s… Part 3—Author—translated by lucathia (proofread by EvlNabiki & Trespasserby)

Yu Shu walked along the street, a toy longsword in her hand.

Along the way, plenty of children stared at her plastic sword, and many wanted to rush over and snatch it to play with it. The adults next to them could only keep a tight hold on them. Their gazes seem to mock this “auntie” who was still playing with toys at her age.

But all that didn’t matter. It was better than carrying a katana and having Mr. Policeman take her in for tea. Besides, the favor she was doing was going right on Jiang Ziya’s tab.

However, Yu Shu was still a bit irked. Why do I feel that I have the worse end of the deal? I only had Jiang Ziya go to the supermarket to buy stuff once, and a bunch of things resulted. She had only started keeping a tab not long ago, and she already felt that Jiang Ziya would probably need to do grocery shopping for her for his entire lifetime before he could pay off the debt.

Only children paid Yu Shu attention, but all sorts of people paid attention to the man following behind her.

House Keeper wore a dress shirt, vest, and dress pants. Wearing this outfit outside was not as strange of a sight as wearing it at home, but he was carrying a large, red backpack on his back. There were even decorative devil wings on both sides of the bag. Paired with his classical, refined demeanor and walking under the colorful neon city lights, the incongruity of his image shot through the roof.

Continued

28 Dec 2017

Illusions, Lies, Truth V2C4: This Bookstore’s Part 2—Talent of the Innerworld

by | posted in: Illusions-Lies-Truth | 3

Illusions, Lies, Truth Volume 2: Human Doll Contract Part Two

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

Chapter 4: This Bookstore’s… Part 2—Talent of the Innerworld—translated by lucathia (proofread by Trespasserby)

Jiang Ziya bit and pulled and even rubbed his hand against the wall, but although the nylon rope around his hands appeared thin, the rope wasn’t loosening or breaking despite his relentless struggling. I won’t be able to break it.

The other person was truly a professional. There were no openings he could take advantage of.

Jiang Ziya could only give up on the idea of struggling free of the ropes. He turned to look toward the others. After Zhang Dongqi left, they began waking up one by one, baffling Jiang Ziya as to how the other person was making that happen.

Jiang Ziya’s target was Xie Peilun. He hadn’t forgotten that his goal was to find Fu Jun’s classmate. He just hadn’t thought that he would find several more people. From Zhang Dongqi’s tone, Jiang Ziya figured that these people’s capture had nothing to do with himself. So, why have they been captured?

He began taking measure of the other people. However, the dim lighting only allowed him to make out basic details. Xie Peilun was an elementary school student. The person huddled in the corner seemed to be female, and she wasn’t all that old. At least, she didn’t appear to be older than Jiang Ziya.

Other than her, there were also two males. One of them appeared not much older than Xie Peilun, while the other might be around Jiang Ziya’s age.

These people seemed like they didn’t know each other. If he had to connect them somehow, he could only say that they were all fairly young.

Not captured for mining, but maybe the sex industry. Jiang Ziya felt even worse about it.

He tried his best to nudge his body forward toward Xie Peilun. The latter was so scared that he kept shrinking into himself.

“Peilun, it’s me, the gēge from Jiu Ge Bookstore.”

Jiang Ziya spoke in a quiet voice. Thankfully, Zhang Dongqi hadn’t taped his mouth back up. From Xie Peilun’s expression, it was obvious that he was scared out of his wits. Don’t even mention the gēge from the bookstore, even if his actual gēge were here, he might not recognize him either.

Continued

29 Nov 2017

Illusions, Lies, Truth V2C4: This Bookstore’s Part 1—Boss

by | posted in: Illusions-Lies-Truth | 7

Illusions, Lies, Truth Volume 2: Human Doll Contract Part Two

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

Chapter 4: This Bookstore’s… Part 1—Boss—translated by lucathia (proofread by Trespasserby)

When Fu Taiyi picked up the new books the deliveryman had just delivered, a hefty thirty something in number, he was greatly shocked. Either these authors all published nothing, or they would all release books at the same time! They gave no consideration to how the reader would have to buy so many books all at once. It’s very hard for them, okay!

As he offhandedly flipped through them, looking to see if there were any novels he was currently following, Fu Taiyi came across a familiar title. He immediately made a sound.

“What a rare occurrence. I thought Yu Shu would drag it out for a few more months before releasing more in this series. I’ve been pestered to death by the readers. She’s finally willing to release the next volume.”

Spirited, Fu Taiyi directly tore off the plastic around the book, too lazy to even take inventory of the rest, and immediately began reading.

The book’s genre was futuristic sci-fi, depicting a story about heroes. He was truthfully not all that interested in this kind of material, but he liked the main character in the story a lot—actually, it couldn’t really be considered “like.” It was just that every time he read about the main character dithering over an insignificant problem, in addition to having a strange persistence in several matters, Fu Taiyi would have the urge to reprimand the guy severely. Usually, he would finish reading the book while berating the main character the entire time.

It was a rare reading experience to yell while reading yet still not dislike the book. Therefore, Fu Taiyi did quite like the book.

After he made tea to ready his throat, he opened the novel. Just as Fu Taiyi was about to scold the main character, he saw someone rush into the bookstore.

He frowned as he lifted his head, thinking it to be some kind of demon. He was thinking of hollering to chase it out, but he saw that the one who had run inside was actually his son, who had skipped class for once.

Continued

29 Oct 2017

Illusions, Lies, Truth V2C3: Hidden in the Dark Part 3—The Enemy

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

Illusions, Lies, Truth Volume 2: Human Doll Contract Part Two

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

Chapter 3: Hidden in the Dark… Part 3—The Enemy—translated by lucathia (proofread by Trespasserby)

Do we head east or toward Jiu Ge?

The moment Jiang Ziya and Fu Jun escaped from the barrier dimension, they ran into a dilemma. The old beggar from the barrier dimension had told them to head east, but the bookstore wasn’t in the east. Fu Jun wanted to tell Fu Taiyi about what they had found out first and ask him to help with the search.

“If we go to Jiu Ge first and then head east, the positioning would be different, wouldn’t it?”

Jiang Ziya made a guess. What the old man meant just now was for them to head east the moment they left the alley.

Fu Jun hesitated and said, “Yeah. Even if we go to Jiu Ge first and then return here to head east, it might be different by then too because the time would be different.”

“Then, what should we do… Oh, how about we call the boss?”

Fu Jun shook his head and said, “No, Taiyi didn’t want to deal with all these things in the first place, so a phone call would definitely let him fib his way out. I want to go directly to him and drag him out to help with the search.”

Jiang Ziya agreed when he heard Fu Jun’s explanation.

The boss was exactly someone who didn’t take his work seriously. He didn’t even look after his own bookstore correctly. Wanting him to rescue someone that had nothing to do with him might really require him to be forcefully dragged out.

Continued

30 Sep 2017

Illusions, Lies, Truth V2C3: Hidden in the Dark Part 2—The Neighbors Across

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

Illusions, Lies, Truth Volume 2: Human Doll Contract Part Two

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

Chapter 3: Hidden in the Dark… Part 2—The Neighbors Across—translated by lucathia (proofread by Trespasserby)

When Jiang Qibing returned home, he even held in his hands a small, pretty cardboard box with two exquisite cakes inside.

Neither he nor Jiang Ziya liked sweets, so he had only bought two small cakes for his wife and his daughter. Merely thinking about the sweet smiles they would show while eating them lifted his mood.

The moment he walked in, he couldn’t wait to shout, “I’m home.”

The entire place was filled with the aroma of food and the familiar sound of stir-frying vegetables from the kitchen. Jiang Qibing’s heart was immediately filled to the brim with warmth.

As she was in the middle of stir-frying the vegetables, Jiang Yu obviously couldn’t step aside, but she didn’t forget to shout, “Jiang Jiang, Xiao Xue, go welcome your bàbi!”

…Xiao Xue?

Jiang Qibing froze.

“Bàba!”

“Bàbi!”

Two little girls rushed out from their room, practically pouncing on Jiang Qibing at the same time. One grabbed his left hand and the other grabbed his right. The two little faces on both sides were exactly the same and couldn’t be told apart at all.

Jiang Qibing looked at his pair of daughters, a bit stunned.

Continued