½ Prince V4C7: Portfolio

posted in: ½ Prince | 53

½ Prince Volume 4: The Buskers of Infinite City

Original novel in Chinese by: 御我 (Yu Wo)


Chapter 7: Portfolio – translated by Evangeline

“First, let me introduce you to the must-have tools for making a portfolio! Number one is this creature I have here. Small, light and portable, this creature can be used both indoors and outdoors! You can even put it in a parcel, so that it’s convenient to carry around.” Lolidragon nodded toward the thing floating in midair that seemed to be a giant eyeball with bat wings, no matter how you looked at it.

Seeing that everyone was staring blankly at the eyeball/bat hybrid, Lolidragon coughed twice, to regain our attention. “I gave it a name; it’s called a Photocritter. The Photocritter’s biggest features are its ability to take photos, its memory capacity of five hundred photos, and its ability to record up to five hours of video. In addition, if you buy extra memory, you gain even more storage capacity. Another point that needs mentioning is this creature’s digital clarity, which goes up to ten megapixels. Its uses range from taking photos during vacation for souvenirs, to photographing a murder crime scene for evidence! There’s nothing it can’t be used for!” Lastly, Lolidragon added, “Right now, the Photocritter is on sale at all major pet shops! But hurry! There are only five thousand critters in the first batch!

“Next, the second tool, which Jing created, was discovered completely by accident. This is an illusion charm with a 100% quality guarantee! It can portray all kind of illusions, from historical backgrounds to ornamental decorations! It’s a real help when it comes to making portfolios!” Lolidragon said, spluttering saliva as she ranted on. She was clutching a stack of charms.

“Lolidragon, have you been watching the ETTV shopping channel too much lately?” I asked seriously.

“I wouldn’t buy anything from that channel!” she cried, but then blushed and added, “But, as you know, Chanel recently changed seasons, so I went and got a job as ETTV’s anchorwoman to earn a little something and go shopping1.”

“…” Everyone was speechless for a while.

I suddenly remembered. “After we finish the portfolio, how are we going to distribute it?”

“I’m going to take it to Second Life’s official publishing office, and get an estimate on the price. After deciding on the print volume, they will probably send it over in a couple of days.” Lolidragon said. “We are planning to sell it in the accessory store.”

What? So now my portfolio is an accessory? What use could it possibly have? Do we distract our enemies with it? I thought helplessly. Suddenly, an idea flitted through my mind. “What about a book store?”

“Open a book store? Is that a good idea?” Lolidragon said, hesitating.

“That’s not a bad idea!” Gui suddenly spoke with excitement. “After publishing books becomes a possibility, there will be lots of players trying to publish their own works, but not many can be like us and put their books on sale in the accessories shop. But, if we open a book shop and allow players to consign their books, the commission we receive would also be a good way to earn money.”

“But will there be any potential customers?” Wicked commented cautiously.

“That will depend on how good the books are. We will have to choose carefully the books to be consigned. After a while, I think some good authors will turn up. Good authors means lots of customers. Actually, most people don’t have time to read while they are awake, but they can read books using the sleeping headset! That would be useful for a lot of people!” Gui said happily.

“And since that will add another unique asset to Infinite City, there will be more people joining!” Fairsky clutched her fists in excitement.

Lolidragon shrugged. “Then let’s do a book store. Since it’s part of the construction department’s job, I’ll leave it to those two leaders to discuss amongst themselves.”

Gui nodded, eyes gleaming. He turned to Fairsky, whose eyes were also gleaming, and they started chattering about the bookstore.

“What I meant was, you can talk later, but now, let’s start making our portfolio!” Lolidragon said with a smile that made everyone’s hair stand on end. But then she said something that made the hair rise even higher. “Okay, then. Take it off.”

“Take it off? Take what off?” I asked dumbly.

Lolidragon’s eyes drifted from my face to my chest. That look… I couldn’t help but grab my collar tightly. Then, her eyes drifted even further down… I grabbed my belt tightly, thinking, Oh my God, Lolidragon, don’t fool around, or else my portfolio might turn into an adult-only sort of thing—


“Can I rest for a bit now?” I asked, still woozy. I never thought that making a portfolio would be so hard. It was a test of strength, endurance, and the ability to survive intense pain.

The Test of Strength: I had to pose in various positions of unimaginable difficulty for Lolidragon to take shots of. Sometimes I had to stay in a pose for up to half an hour. I suspected that Lolidragon was sketching my portrait instead of taking a photo.

The Test of Endurance: Under Lolidragon’s insistence that I expose the two points, I thought, Fine, and agreed reluctantly. Oh well, a guy’s two points aren’t that attractive anyway. But, under the coercion of Wicked’s “Don’t you dare or you are d-e-a-d!” look and Gui’s “Your majesty, you can’t endure such humiliation” large and teary eyes, my move to take off my clothes froze in mid-motion. Then, I watched on as Lolidragon leading Phoenix and Fairsky going against Wicked and Gui. The two gangs started to argue very loudly about whether I should expose the two points or not, forcing me to be stuck in between taking off and putting on my clothes. Really, exactly to whom do the two points belong to anyways?

Finally, I lost my temper. With a dark expression, I roared, “Shut up!”

Five of them turned to glare at me in unison. Together, they said, “You make the decision then!”

With five pairs of eyes staring at me, my anger disappeared completely. I said fearfully, “Then what about…what about going half exposed?”

“Taking off your shirt but not exposing the other point?” Lolidragon muttered, and then said unwillingly, “Fine, that settles it.”

“Never! This one here will still see it!” Wicked gestured towards Gui.

“That’s my line! Prince’s body should never be seen by you!” Gui said furiously, gritting his teeth.

“So, what do we do now?” I asked, scratching my face. This won’t work and that won’t work. Those guys are even more annoying than the girls… I thought. Shhiikkkk… Suddenly, a weird sound reached my ears. It sounded like…sticky tape? We turned around. There was Phoenix, with two pieces of sticky tape. She was looking at my chest…

Afterwards: If anyone ever says that the pain produced from taking sticky tape off an important spot is on par with that of giving birth, I will totally agree!

I turned my back on the site of that ghastly photo shoot, looking at Lolidragon with teary eyes.

“Can I rest now?” I begged.

“You can rest…” Lolidragon replied. My eyes lit up. I can finally tour Infinite City! I can’t wait to find out what delicious specialty foods my city has! I thought, excited.

“…For a brief moment. We are starting rehearsal for the concert tomorrow.”

“Rehearsal for the concert?” I repeated stupidly.

“Yep! Yu Lian is supervising because a lot of money had been spent on the concert,” Lolidragon whispered quietly into my ear.

Waaaaaaaa! This is hell! I thought, close to tears.


“Dàgê, even if we start rehearsing tomorrow and there is no time for you to come out and eat food then, you don’t have to eat like that, do you?” Yun asked. He looked helplessly at me. I hadn’t even spoken a sentence to them before starting my battle with the food.

Seeing that I gave no reaction at all, Jing also said helplessly, “Dàgê, if you want to eat something during rehearsal, just PM us and we’ll send it over.”

Hearing that, I finally set down the chicken leg in my hand, took a drink to wash the food down and said with a little embarrassment, “Thanks.”

“Slow down. No one’s trying to take the food from you.” Wicked grumbled, not too happy.

“Your Majesty, would you like another order of french fries?” Gui happily passed me a napkin to wipe my hands, and Phoenix wiped my mouth with a handkerchief, while Jing and Yun looked on enviously.

“Hey, where is Fairsky?” Yun suddenly asked, confused.

“And Sunshine?” Jing added.

“Oh, they went on a stroll.” I said, waving the subject aside. But I wonder why Kenshin didn’t go…Don’t harbor any suspicions — this guy never leaves my side, it’s just that he’s too quiet. (Even this author didn’t know how to tell everyone that he actually was still there. You can’t just always say that he’s sitting there icily with a poker face, can you?)

“Wow! That’s rare. Fairsky actually bears to leave your side.” Jing said, astonished.

“She said that she was going to check out the location of our bookstore.” I said vaguely as I couldn’t help stuffing myself with the fries Gui had just ordered for me.

“Book store? What book store?” Yun asked dumbly.

“Infinite Bookstore, the one we’re setting up soon; the first book store in Second Life,” Gui told them with sparkling eyes. Geez, no wonder he’s a professor.Start talking about books and he goes crazy, I thought as I ate the fries.

“So, where are we getting the books we’re going to sell?” Jing asked, doubtful.

“First, we will have our Infinite Band portfolio on sale. Plus, I will write a few books to sell. Then, when we become recognized, we’ll let others consign their books in our bookshop, or even solicit manuscripts, and we’ll help them publish the book. These things aren’t really hard for me.” Gui’s eyes lit up with the intelligence of 200 IQ points.

“Really? So… Um…” Yun mumbled like there was something embarrassing to ask.

I suddenly remembered. Jing and Yun like to write stories. They often chose me as their first reader for their Saddest-Story-in-the-Universe-and-History-of-Mankind tragedies. Well, truthfully, their stories aren’t bad; it’s just that the titles are so bad that one can’t even comment on them. What kind of titles, you ask? The “Saddest-Story-in-the-Universe-and-History-of-Mankind” that you just read, of course.

“Can we consign our books in your store?” Jing cried, impatient.

“Of course! Since you guys are free these few days, take this chance to write it out. I will check it over, publish it, and we should be able to put it up at the opening ceremony.” Gui was happy that there was someone here to help to write some books.

“Yes!” Jing and Yun hugged each other in excitement.

“Right, Jing, Yun, have you bought a house yet?” I suddenly remembered that they were choosing a house last time. I wonder how it’s going?

“We just bought one. It’s a really cute white cottage that even comes with a garden!” Yun said happily.

“Oh, I want to see!” I suddenly stood up. “Waiter, I’m taking away the rest of the food.”

“Sorry, I can’t stay any longer, Prince.” Gui stood as well, sighing deeply. “Yu Lian told me to get back to designing the stage for the concert. There are also the bookshop designs too, and don’t forget the books that I need to write.”

“Wow, you sure are busy.” I really don’t know how much time he spends on our class material. Ten minutes? Maybe even less…

“Your Majesty, even though I am not here in person, my heart will always be with you.” Gui, with large teary eyes, kept looking back at me, until he was kicked out by a deeply annoyed me.

“Since Gui’s not here, I have to go back to the military department. A lot of unfinished work has accumulated.” Wicked said.

So, if Gui’s here, you’d rather not care about the military department?!

“In that case, I better go back to the finance department; Yu Lian is on the verge of exploding from stress…” Phoenix blanched horribly.

“Heh heh, it’s ok, you can all go back. Whether something or nothing happens, don’t come and find me again.” I waved good-bye happily. It’s so rare! There’s actually a day when I can get away from those four and just relax. I’ve got to enjoy the peace.

“Dàgê, don’t look so happy. It makes them really sad. They all had ghost fires floating beside them when they left.” Yun was barely suppressing his laughter.

I relaxed. “If they hadn’t left soon, I’d probably have exploded. Now, let’s go and see that house of yours.”

On the way to the house, Yun suddenly said, “Dàgê, there’s a question we’ve been wanting to ask you…?” I stared at him. Yun usually just says whatever he wants. Since when did he start asking for permission?

“What is it?” I asked.

“Dàgê, do you know Feng Lan?” Jing questioned and my heart skipped a few beats.

I stopped. Why did she ask me that? Has she found out? No way! Is it that easy to tell? I thought. I used the calmest voice I could muster at that moment and said “Feng Lan? I don’t know her. Why do you ask?”

“Just as I thought…” Jing mumbled.

I sighed in relief.

“After all, saying that you know yourself sounds pretty weird. Isn’t that right, Xiao Lan?” Jing added lightly.

After my pulse stopped for an entire three seconds, then I covered my face, close to tears. I knew it, they found out. I’m finished! This is the worst scenario, to have my secret be discovered by Yun, the super broadcasting station! Once the news leaks out, just think about the fans swarming enough to fill out the Atlantic and Pacific oceans… Waaaaahhh! Where is my future?

Jing patted me on the shoulder. “It’s ok. I understand your problems, Xiao Lan.  I’ve already used karate on Yun and warned him that if he told anyone your secret, my next karate moves will be used on a guy’s most vulnerable spot. So he definitely won’t leak the news.”

Whew! That was close. But how was I discovered? “How did you guys find out?” I asked. “Don’t you always call me Dàgê?”

“It was because you would not tell us your in-game-name; we had to ask your brother and he said that you are a trans person in game,” Yun put in.

BROTHER, YOU IMBECILE! Don’t force me to kill you to defend my honor! I clenched my fist and started thinking about whether adding pesticides or rat poison to dinner would be the faster method.

“So we thought, you are a trans player and you love bishies as much as I do, but you have no interest in a famous hottie like Prince. The only reason we could think of was that you were Prince himself. Also, although your appearance in-game and in real life are extremely different, your basic features are still very similar, so we recognized you immediately.” Jing shrugged, unconcerned.

“But you know, you Feng siblings are so oblivious that it could go down in history. To think that your brother Yang Ming never realized that you were Prince, and he even knew that you were trans,” Yun said with a face full of admiration.

“No one could be as good at guessing as you guys are.” I mumbled.

“Well if it weren’t for the fact that we can guess well, how else could we know about your real identity? And what’s with making us call you the Dàgê here and Dàgê there?!” Jing gave me a knock on my head. Oww… Why are all the women I know so violent? And they all seemed to like hitting my head.

“I was saying that there was no one that was stupid enough to continue trusting us after so many betrayals from us. So it was you after all, Xiao Lan. No wonder you kept helping us.” Yun couldn’t help but complain. He and Jing had actually been so touched that they swore to follow Prince forever.

At this, what else can I do except rub the back of my head and laugh stupidly?

“That’s not the point; the important point is, in that romantic and thrilling love triangle, who are you going to choose? The professor or the senior?” Jing stared at me.

“Don’t ask the same questions as my mom, Jing. I don’t know!” Romantic and thrilling?! Jing, your descriptions are a bit too exaggerated. I helplessly sighed.

“What are you worrying about? Just date them both.” Yun mumbled.

“Hey! Are you a man? Why are you telling a woman to have two boyfriends?!” Jing pulled and shouted in Yun’s ear.

I asked, as if puzzled. “Didn’t we already agree that he’s not a guy?”

“Xiao Lan!” Jing suddenly grabbed me, “Let’s do an experiment.”

“Experiment?” I asked stupidly.

“Go on a date with both of them in real life!” Jing’s eyes sparkled in an extremely scary way.

“Eh?”

[½ Prince Volume 4 Chapter 7 End]

Footnotes

1 This is actually a Chinese pun, 血拼. It sounds like shopping in English, however here it means to spend a lot of money while shopping. Especially at a very expensive store.

53 Responses

  1. Cookie Monster

    So much more detailed than the manhua :D

    yay for new chapters!

    go Prince Rev go!

  2. Oscar

    Much better than the manhua! Thanks for the upload, no idea how I’ll survive another month till my next half-prince fix.

  3. dollyfishe

    waiiiiiiii … thanx for the hardwork !!!

    i’m looking forward the next chapter … it’s a long waited chapter since the manga release ehehehhehe

  4. Anonymous

    Thank you very much for translating this novel, Prince Revolution. I don’t mean to sound rude, but would it help your translations if you took the raws and put in into Google Translate to get a rough translation?
    Again, thank you for your translations.

    • Amgine

      Well, I do something similar to that. It’s not google translate, it’s a chinese specific one.
      I copy the entire chapter into it and it gives me the traditional, simplified, pinyin, and English translations side by side.

      It helps me personally but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

      Why do you ask? Are you not satisfied with something specific in our translations? We’re all willing to listen to advice ^^

    • Anonymous

      No, nothing is wrong with your translations. I was just hoping it might help out. Thank you for replying.

  5. Kittychan H

    Yay, Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

    Just what I needed! Hahahaha… sticky tape….

  6. Etealune

    Thank you for the new chapter!! I can now die happy!!
    *fainted from happiness overload

    *regain herself and trying to gather back her dignity* I found some errors and also want to ask some things that I didn’t quite understand.

    About bookstore/sleeping headset. “That would be useful for a lot people.” -> “That would be useful for a lot of people.”
    About Kenshin. “Don’t doubt that he’s here.” -> “No doubt that he’s here.”?
    About Jing & Yun saddest story … “that one I can’t even comment on them”. -> Does it means “that I can’t even comment on them.” Or “ that one can’t even comment on them.”?
    (But that seriously was one bad title. Why does the three of them, Jing, Yun & Prince have bad naming sense? *Remembering Black Dao & Meat Bun* How very… Err, literal.. )

    About Test of Endurance. Err, I’m sorry to be so clueless, but does exposing the two points means exposing his ni-, I mean, chest? But afterwards Loli said “.. taking off your shirt but not exposing the other point?” So I guess, I was wrong. So does that means that Prince was supposed to get na-, I mean, take off his clothes while leaving on his und-, err, nevermind…
    *brain overheated trying to suppress the inner perv after imagining Prince in those kinds of poses with minimum attire

    • Amgine

      You can’t die happy yet! At least wait until we finish the entire novel before that! :P

      About your suggestions…
      1) fixed
      2) original has the meaning “don’t harbor any suspicions — this guy never leaves my side”.
      I’ll let eilinel or SR decide what to do with this
      3) original says “the title makes it so that I don’t dare give any compliments”. To my understanding, it’s like, although the contents itself are decent, the book’s title makes it so that I don’t dare give them any compliments on their writing.
      Again, i’ll leave it to those two to figure out what they want to do
      4) yeah, i interpreted as nipples (have no shame in saying it!) as well. So the compromise would be to expose one of the nipples but not the other.

    • Etealune

      You’re right!! I have to at least wait for you guys to finish both 1/2P and TSK!!
      Then I can finish die happy from blissful bishies overdose!! XD
      I’ll make sure to invite the entire Prince Rev for my funeral!! (If you want to leave some offerings, the printed PDF vers. of both novel with leave me content in the afterlife and prevent me from haunting some bishies for the rest of their life.)
      What’s the point in only exposing one nipple only, Prince?! BARE IT ALL!!! (Kyaaa!! I actually said it!!)
      Might as well get Gui & Wicked to join you!! (Odd Squad-> Strip Squad)
      Kyaaah!! *Fainted because of excessive nosebleed & currently lying in a pool of blood*

    • Kamiryuu

      The “two points”, that are being discussed, are the chest and hips. Kind of confusing from an English standpoint since we don’t use those terms. So yes, Lolidragon was thinking of taking Prince’s shirt *and* pants. Still erotic but not the same impact as cleavage and panty shots.

      The compromise was to remove the shirt but leave the pants. Why else use two pieces of tape? Also my understanding of anime and manga leads me to think that the chest is what girl characters want to see most, then possibly the butt (not the front).

      On a side note, “french fries” shouldn’t be capitalized since they aren’t actually French.

      P.S. Why can I see a shirt with a picture of Lolidragon’s and the caption “Have you tortured your bishie today?”

    • Amgine

      oops. i probably should look over the original before replying hastily.

      i lowercased french fries.

      thanks!

    • Etealune

      Ah, I see now…
      Thanks Kamiryuu!!
      So those two pieces of tape were used to tape his nipples?
      Must be friggin’ painful…

      P.S.: A caption for the Lolidragon T-shirt that immediately comes to my mind was “How many bishies have you successfully molested/groped today?”

    • Kamiryuu

      Well, putting the tape on isn’t as bad as taking the tape off…

      And don’t forget the ever popular “Empty pockets? Thank a thief!”

  7. Dahlia-chan

    thanks for translating!! i really appreciate it since my chinese is rather poor….

  8. ßlinkerßell

    “Yun couldn’t help to but to complain.”
    I believe there is an extra “to.”
    “Yun couldn’t help but to complain.” sounds much better

    • Amgine

      Thanks for catching this!

      It should be “couldn’t help but complain” so that’s what I changed it to.

  9. Miniboo

    The past tense of “to shine” is spelled “shone” – “shined” is also a form of “to shine” but not the past tense.
    Ex. Gui´s eyes shone(emitted light). The silver was shined(polished)to perfection.
    I believe there are two cases in the chapter where the latter is used, but the translator meant the former.

    Thank You, thank You, thank You, for yet another chapter.

    • Amgine

      “eyes shone” sounds a bit awkward to me, so I changed it to “eyes lit up” for both cases.

      Thanks!

  10. Yin

    This chapter was awesome! Thank you so much :D I’ve been waiting for them to find out Prince is Fen Lang for sooo long. I also loved the book store idea. Very Gui like – those little things give more dept to the characters compared to the manga and make the novel more enjoyable. Can’t wait to see what the two dates are going to be like XD. I already know I’m going to have lots of fun reading Gui’s ahaha.
    Sheeshe ♥.

  11. SallyLynn

    DANG IT!!! If I would have known that this chapter was so short I wouldn’t have read it yet!!! But it was GREAT!! Loved it!!!

  12. Ronale

    Thank you very much for the translations! Checking the website daily this week has paid off. Yun & Jing part was wonderful, especially Prince’s hidden reactions :)

    Language note:
    “At this, what else can I do except from rub the back of my head and laugh stupidly?”
    -> “except from” should not be correct, should it? I think simply “except” would be better.

    • Amgine

      And thank you for being so loyal!

      Fixed the mistake; thanks for catching that!

      P.S. You might want to learn about RSS. You’ll save a lot of time with it if you want to keep track of updates from various websites.

    • Ronale

      Ahh, but compulsive checking can be so much more fun. Not to mention the added bonus/risk of rereading older chapters :)

    • Amgine

      Haha. Don’t get me wrong, I like people who check compulsively. It boosts our page views and that makes me happy (though we don’t get anything tangible from it).

  13. ChicaAlterego

    wow, its nice that the spanish group is going to be open. and is even nicer that there is sun knight this week, yay!

    i also clicked this daily the whole week!
    and i will keep doing it until the SK is out. when my vacations arrive ill be sure to traslate a couple of chapters from 1/2 prince to spanish, count me on.(i already submited my one chapter)

  14. khodgi01

    Thanks for the update!! <3

    Wah! That is so awesome! The novel doesn't just drop the Sunshine/Fairsky bombshell – it builds up to it!! Nice!!!

  15. DarkAngel

    Awesome!!!!
    Love ya all!!!
    Thank you soooooo much!!!
    P.s…..
    Pancakes are amazing don’t cha think??

    • E

      I second this. TxT Ah well…
      I’ve endured it many times before, so I should be able to do so this time as well.

      But… the next chapter is… the dates.
      T.h.e.d.a.t.e.s
      Right? D8

      *cries*

  16. knave

    Excellent as always =)
    i’m waiting for the manga to update too ^^

    just out of curiosity, are there other websites that translate Japanese novels?
    for example, the accel world manga keeps on having it said its ‘based on a light novel by Kawahara Rek’ i wanna read it ^^ any help would be appreciated

    • Amgine

      Hi knave,

      1/2 Prince and LSK are Chinese novels. We do not (and can not!) translate Japanese ones.
      If it’s not listed on mangaupdates.com, then most likely there’s no such project.

      There’s probably a lot of interesting novels out there that will never be translated, unfortunately.
      Translating (especially from an Eastern language to a Western one) is actually pretty hard work and not many people are willing to do it for free.
      And most authors aren’t particularly interested in having their works translated.

  17. Phiil

    I have just started reading this 16 hours ago and I thought it was simply amazing. Nothing I have read by far has keep me reading for 16 hours straight(I am not a reader).

    Anyways I love your guys translation so much ^^. I really appreciate you guys for translating this into English for us and i’m looking forward to the next chapter.

    (btw this is the first comment I have ever written, so i’m at lost of what to say besides for giving thanks to you guys)

  18. MidnightAngelle

    You guys are awesome Thanks for translating it! Read all the chapters so far in 4 days because I just found about 1/2 prince.

  19. Kittychan H

    ***Lurk, Lurk, Lurk***

    Happy Holiday of your choice!!

    Looking forward to upcoming updates!!

  20. Jirue

    Ah, thanks for this novel translation. Always feel sad though when I get to the end and realize that I have to wait again for the next chapter.

    Oh well, hope to see the next one soon. Thanks again everyone.

  21. Evangeline

    He he, I am really glad that you guys like this chapter!! I am so happy!
    Now, over the winter break, more translating!!

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