‘Did he give me a birthday present?’
Zong Yan looked at the glittering stones for a long time, until finally putting them back in confusion.
Although they were pretty, they were just some gemstones after all. They weren’t very practical.
Besides, Zong Yan didn’t know if these gems had other uses. There was no way he’d ever touch them with his bare hands before confirming what they were.
That was the lesson he learned from Paracelsus’s philosopher’s stone.
Zong Yan picked up his toothbrush and continued to wash up.
Today he had his own schedule. He needed to sort through his thoughts, and until then he didn’t really want to see Yog-Sothoth’s face.
After getting ready, Zong Yan picked up the keys and card case in the foyer, changed his shoes, and went out the door.
He got on a bus and slowly made his way to the outskirts of the city.
The black-haired young man sat by the window. He was gazing outside but couldn’t have explained what was running through his mind.
The scenery swept slowly by, flowers and bushes and green trees retreated gradually, and the black and white pedestrian crossings were like the monochrome keys of a piano. Every passing section was a tinkling piece of music.
At this time in the morning, people from the suburbs were driving into the city to begin a new work day. There weren’t many people like Zong Yan leaving the city this early.
While he was emptying his mind, the phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated.
Zong Yan unlocked the phone and opened the chat room of the MU app.
Wang KeMing sent him a series of messages.
【Your handsome classmate Wang】: Yan Ge!! Something happened at MU last night!!
【Your handsome classmate Wang】: It’s my fault for sleeping so well and wearing headphones all night. If a classmate hadn’t told me this morning, I wouldn’t have known something happened!
Zong Yan: “…”
Just like the Lord of the Gate said, this kid was really not reliable.
【I Love Gauss】: I know.
He replied with two words and didn’t explain, then casually opened the news section on the main page.
Zong Yan browsed the international news as usual.
Recently, because of the turmoil in the British royal family, the overseas news media was full of in-depth interviews about the situation.
But right now Great Britain was like an iron bucket, and there was no chance for internal news to leak to the outside. Zong Yan didn’t know how Edward was doing. There wasn’t much that Zong Yan could do other than feel concerned.
But since Edward had made the Spire Council an offer they couldn’t refuse, he thought the royal infighting would be settled soon.
He let out a sigh and put the phone back in his pocket.
About an hour later, the bus finally stopped at the terminal. There weren’t many passengers left, and Zong Yan got off the bus with the last few people.
Outside the terminal there was a desolate cemetery. When you looked up, you could see grave markers in dense rows proceeding up the hill.
It was almost Qingming Festival, a common time to visit, so the cemetery wasn’t as deserted as it was at other times.
Zong Yan went to a shop that sold incense and candles, bought a bunch of paper flowers, took a broom, and calmly walked to a far section of the cemetery.
His last visit wasn’t long ago. After he made it back from prehistoric times, Zong Yan came to report his safe return.
At the time he was in a hurry and couldn’t miss class, so he wasn’t able to stay to talk to his grandmother more.
Right now it was still morning, and it wasn’t a particularly hot day. The sun was hidden behind layers and layers of clouds, spreading dull waves of heat on the ground.
With a broom in his hand, the black-haired young man carefully and painstakingly cleared the area around the small tombstone. Then he took the paper flowers, sat on the ground, and began to weave them together bit by bit.
“Grandma, in the past half a year I encountered a lot of things.”
This was the most remote corner of the cemetery, and the price was relatively low. When Zong Yan arrived he didn’t see many people around. He didn’t try to lower his voice but spoke at a normal volume.
" "As he wove the paper flowers in his hands, Zong Yan ducked his head and began to ramble about the things he’d experienced in the past six months. “I went to the school I told you about before. I met a lot of interesting people there and made some genuine friends.
“But something else happened, too. I met some powerful beings. Grandma, the best way I can explain it is to say they’re malicious, non-human beings. They kept watching me for some reason, saying I was some kind of stream of consciousness of the Lord of the Universe….
“But I couldn’t stop them, so I had to just live with them. Besides, I have to study. I don’t have time to worry about other things.
“Then something else happened. Grandma, you used to say the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. Since I have more ability, I thought I should do something, so I went. I almost didn’t make it back, but I don’t regret it either.”
As he said this, Zong Yan finally finished weaving the paper flowers into a small wreath.
“These are Grandma’s favorite flowers.”
The black-haired young man straightened up and put the small wreath in front of the tombstone. A light smile appeared on his face.
“The thing is, there’s a very powerful being who seems a little strange.”
At this point, Zong Yan’s face revealed a tangled expression. “He’s a non-human who’s kind of weird, umm…. He’s a bad person. At least, he’s not exactly kind-hearted.”
That’s right, he was an evil god. How could an evil god be a good person? A lot of time had passed, but Zong Yan had never forgotten why the Lord of Tindalos attacked Jiangzhou.
“In the beginning, there was the incident in Jiangzhou. He was the mastermind behind it. A city was almost destroyed. For non-humans like him, human life isn’t worth mentioning.”
The young man rubbed his black hair with some annoyance. “Back then he looked at me like a toy and said he wanted to teach me physics. Of course, getting someone to teach me physics is a good thing, and I was too cheap not to take advantage of the bastard. It was exhausting, but my physics score really improved. In the second mock exam, I got the only perfect score for physics in the city, heheh.
“Later there was an accident, and I became a non-human too.”
Zong Yan paused for a moment and lowered his voice. “It’s hard for me to describe how it felt. At the time, it really seemed to me that humans were just tiny beings who could be executed like ants.”
Zong Yan rambled on, not because he was talking to his grandma, but because, in fact, he was talking to himself.
He spoke at random, saying whatever came into his head, saying things he’d never said to anything else, speaking to his only family member in the world.
“Later, he suddenly became kind to me. It was him who brought me back… In fact, based on his identity, there’s no way he’d ever take an interest in an ant-like human being.”
Just like Professor Darwin said in his biology class. Could you imagine an evil god being friendly to you?
No, because an evil god would never do that.
Countless cult members had verified this conclusion.
There were cultists who had asked their Lord to give them immortality, so the evil god gave them death. Because in the eyes of an evil god, death was the beginning of life. After all, there were quite a few intelligent species in the universe whose lifecycle operated that way.
Unfortunately for humans, dead meant dead, and there was no follow-up at all.
For higher-dimensional beings, their very existence signified “evil”, so humans assumed as much malice as possible when speculating about their thoughts.
But Zong Yan had never been someone who didn’t know how to be grateful. Perhaps because of his childhood situation, he cherished people who were kind to him. He couldn’t help remembering all of those things in his heart.
Maybe evil gods wouldn’t bother to remember if they’d done a favor to an ant when they were in a good mood, but Zong Yan couldn’t forget.
“Especially since he said there was no price… If there was a price, I wouldn’t worry so much.”
Zong Yan sighed, propped his hands on either side of his face, and frowned. His eyebrows drew together, his eyelashes fluttered gently.
“And then he told me happy birthday.”
The black-haired young man crouched in front of the tombstone, bit his lower lip, and spoke as softly as if were finally abandoning himself. “Grandma, you know, I’ve never been able to refuse someone who’s kind to me.”
After saying these words, Zong Yan didn’t say anything more.
He quietly rested his head against the tombstone, as calm as when he was a child leaning on his grandmother’s shoulder.
A gust of wind blew gently, lifting the young man’s overly long black hair, sending it flying like the catkins of an overgrown black willow.
Zong Yan sat there all morning. It was only at noon that he slowly got up, patting the dust on his pants, intending to go home.
At that moment, something suddenly changed.
Just as Zong Yan was walking down the steps, a dark green light unfolded beneath his feet. In an instant, a circle of arcane, mysterious runes appeared, engraved in mottled patterns on the ground, completely surrounding him.
“—!!!”
Zong Yan automatically wanted to shout for help, but he was in the most remote part of the cemetery, surrounded by short or tall grave markers as far as the eye could see. There wasn’t the slightest shadow of another human being.
Besides, whatever was happening had to be related to the occult world. If Zong Yan cried out for help, it would cause trouble for the investigators.
He steadied his mind and avoided rashly touching the dark green light. He quickly took out his phone, logged into the MU app, and opened the emergency program. His other hand sank into the multi-colored gap in space and grabbed the Night Watchman card.
However, it was daytime and the sun was out. He wouldn’t have the privilege of paying half the normal San cost.
He’d used the persona card of Yun Zhong Jun just yesterday, and with the San points he had left, he would only be able to use the Night Watchman card for one hour.
Zong Yan was burning with anxiety.
A moment later, those runes lit up one after another and coiled around the black-haired young man. They disappeared together.
—
The author has something to say:
I didn’t forget my promise. Today I have a surprise!
Cute little people, please pay attention to YaYa’s microblog: 妄鸦Alter. I posted it there
I originally wanted to give it to you as an update for free, but I think it will be taken by river crabs, so I can only use this method. Please understand, memeda!
" "
TL Notes:
The author’s note mentions something the author posted on their alternate Weibo account.
I know there’s at least one racy/smutty scene for this novel (a little black room scene! probably!), but I don’t have a copy of it right now. My account isn’t real-name verified so it’s hard for me to do certain things. Also, policies have gotten stricter in the last few months. Things that get posted on Weibo are taken down faster. Anyway, if you’re good at scouring jj or weibo and find it, please send it my way, I’ll be very appreciative o(◕∇◕o)
How to send me stuff: My contact info is on the project page, linked at the bottom of each chapter. If you prefer email or something, leave a comment
river crabs – 河蟹 – A reference to censorship. “River crab” is a homonym for “harmony” (和諧) in Mandarin. The Chinese government removes or blocks things on the Internet on the grounds of undermining social harmony or stability, including vulgarity and violence (Wikipedia)
[ Project Page | Ko-Fi ✿ | Other translations by Confectioner ]
‘Did he give me a birthday present?’
Zong Yan looked at the glittering stones for a long time, until finally putting them back in confusion.
Although they were pretty, they were just some gemstones after all. They weren’t very practical.
Besides, Zong Yan didn’t know if these gems had other uses. There was no way he’d ever touch them with his bare hands before confirming what they were.
That was the lesson he learned from Paracelsus’s philosopher’s stone.
Zong Yan picked up his toothbrush and continued to wash up.
Today he had his own schedule. He needed to sort through his thoughts, and until then he didn’t really want to see Yog-Sothoth’s face.
After getting ready, Zong Yan picked up the keys and card case in the foyer, changed his shoes, and went out the door.
He got on a bus and slowly made his way to the outskirts of the city.
The black-haired young man sat by the window. He was gazing outside but couldn’t have explained what was running through his mind.
The scenery swept slowly by, flowers and bushes and green trees retreated gradually, and the black and white pedestrian crossings were like the monochrome keys of a piano. Every passing section was a tinkling piece of music.
At this time in the morning, people from the suburbs were driving into the city to begin a new work day. There weren’t many people like Zong Yan leaving the city this early.
While he was emptying his mind, the phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated.
Zong Yan unlocked the phone and opened the chat room of the MU app.
Wang KeMing sent him a series of messages.
【Your handsome classmate Wang】: Yan Ge!! Something happened at MU last night!!
【Your handsome classmate Wang】: It’s my fault for sleeping so well and wearing headphones all night. If a classmate hadn’t told me this morning, I wouldn’t have known something happened!
Zong Yan: “…”
Just like the Lord of the Gate said, this kid was really not reliable.
【I Love Gauss】: I know.
He replied with two words and didn’t explain, then casually opened the news section on the main page.
Zong Yan browsed the international news as usual.
Recently, because of the turmoil in the British royal family, the overseas news media was full of in-depth interviews about the situation.
But right now Great Britain was like an iron bucket, and there was no chance for internal news to leak to the outside. Zong Yan didn’t know how Edward was doing. There wasn’t much that Zong Yan could do other than feel concerned.
But since Edward had made the Spire Council an offer they couldn’t refuse, he thought the royal infighting would be settled soon.
He let out a sigh and put the phone back in his pocket.
About an hour later, the bus finally stopped at the terminal. There weren’t many passengers left, and Zong Yan got off the bus with the last few people.
Outside the terminal there was a desolate cemetery. When you looked up, you could see grave markers in dense rows proceeding up the hill.
It was almost Qingming Festival, a common time to visit, so the cemetery wasn’t as deserted as it was at other times.
Zong Yan went to a shop that sold incense and candles, bought a bunch of paper flowers, took a broom, and calmly walked to a far section of the cemetery.
His last visit wasn’t long ago. After he made it back from prehistoric times, Zong Yan came to report his safe return.
At the time he was in a hurry and couldn’t miss class, so he wasn’t able to stay to talk to his grandmother more.
Right now it was still morning, and it wasn’t a particularly hot day. The sun was hidden behind layers and layers of clouds, spreading dull waves of heat on the ground.
With a broom in his hand, the black-haired young man carefully and painstakingly cleared the area around the small tombstone. Then he took the paper flowers, sat on the ground, and began to weave them together bit by bit.
“Grandma, in the past half a year I encountered a lot of things.”
This was the most remote corner of the cemetery, and the price was relatively low. When Zong Yan arrived he didn’t see many people around. He didn’t try to lower his voice but spoke at a normal volume.
" "As he wove the paper flowers in his hands, Zong Yan ducked his head and began to ramble about the things he’d experienced in the past six months. “I went to the school I told you about before. I met a lot of interesting people there and made some genuine friends.
“But something else happened, too. I met some powerful beings. Grandma, the best way I can explain it is to say they’re malicious, non-human beings. They kept watching me for some reason, saying I was some kind of stream of consciousness of the Lord of the Universe….
“But I couldn’t stop them, so I had to just live with them. Besides, I have to study. I don’t have time to worry about other things.
“Then something else happened. Grandma, you used to say the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. Since I have more ability, I thought I should do something, so I went. I almost didn’t make it back, but I don’t regret it either.”
As he said this, Zong Yan finally finished weaving the paper flowers into a small wreath.
“These are Grandma’s favorite flowers.”
The black-haired young man straightened up and put the small wreath in front of the tombstone. A light smile appeared on his face.
“The thing is, there’s a very powerful being who seems a little strange.”
At this point, Zong Yan’s face revealed a tangled expression. “He’s a non-human who’s kind of weird, umm…. He’s a bad person. At least, he’s not exactly kind-hearted.”
That’s right, he was an evil god. How could an evil god be a good person? A lot of time had passed, but Zong Yan had never forgotten why the Lord of Tindalos attacked Jiangzhou.
“In the beginning, there was the incident in Jiangzhou. He was the mastermind behind it. A city was almost destroyed. For non-humans like him, human life isn’t worth mentioning.”
The young man rubbed his black hair with some annoyance. “Back then he looked at me like a toy and said he wanted to teach me physics. Of course, getting someone to teach me physics is a good thing, and I was too cheap not to take advantage of the bastard. It was exhausting, but my physics score really improved. In the second mock exam, I got the only perfect score for physics in the city, heheh.
“Later there was an accident, and I became a non-human too.”
Zong Yan paused for a moment and lowered his voice. “It’s hard for me to describe how it felt. At the time, it really seemed to me that humans were just tiny beings who could be executed like ants.”
Zong Yan rambled on, not because he was talking to his grandma, but because, in fact, he was talking to himself.
He spoke at random, saying whatever came into his head, saying things he’d never said to anything else, speaking to his only family member in the world.
“Later, he suddenly became kind to me. It was him who brought me back… In fact, based on his identity, there’s no way he’d ever take an interest in an ant-like human being.”
Just like Professor Darwin said in his biology class. Could you imagine an evil god being friendly to you?
No, because an evil god would never do that.
Countless cult members had verified this conclusion.
There were cultists who had asked their Lord to give them immortality, so the evil god gave them death. Because in the eyes of an evil god, death was the beginning of life. After all, there were quite a few intelligent species in the universe whose lifecycle operated that way.
Unfortunately for humans, dead meant dead, and there was no follow-up at all.
For higher-dimensional beings, their very existence signified “evil”, so humans assumed as much malice as possible when speculating about their thoughts.
But Zong Yan had never been someone who didn’t know how to be grateful. Perhaps because of his childhood situation, he cherished people who were kind to him. He couldn’t help remembering all of those things in his heart.
Maybe evil gods wouldn’t bother to remember if they’d done a favor to an ant when they were in a good mood, but Zong Yan couldn’t forget.
“Especially since he said there was no price… If there was a price, I wouldn’t worry so much.”
Zong Yan sighed, propped his hands on either side of his face, and frowned. His eyebrows drew together, his eyelashes fluttered gently.
“And then he told me happy birthday.”
The black-haired young man crouched in front of the tombstone, bit his lower lip, and spoke as softly as if were finally abandoning himself. “Grandma, you know, I’ve never been able to refuse someone who’s kind to me.”
After saying these words, Zong Yan didn’t say anything more.
He quietly rested his head against the tombstone, as calm as when he was a child leaning on his grandmother’s shoulder.
A gust of wind blew gently, lifting the young man’s overly long black hair, sending it flying like the catkins of an overgrown black willow.
Zong Yan sat there all morning. It was only at noon that he slowly got up, patting the dust on his pants, intending to go home.
At that moment, something suddenly changed.
Just as Zong Yan was walking down the steps, a dark green light unfolded beneath his feet. In an instant, a circle of arcane, mysterious runes appeared, engraved in mottled patterns on the ground, completely surrounding him.
“—!!!”
Zong Yan automatically wanted to shout for help, but he was in the most remote part of the cemetery, surrounded by short or tall grave markers as far as the eye could see. There wasn’t the slightest shadow of another human being.
Besides, whatever was happening had to be related to the occult world. If Zong Yan cried out for help, it would cause trouble for the investigators.
He steadied his mind and avoided rashly touching the dark green light. He quickly took out his phone, logged into the MU app, and opened the emergency program. His other hand sank into the multi-colored gap in space and grabbed the Night Watchman card.
However, it was daytime and the sun was out. He wouldn’t have the privilege of paying half the normal San cost.
He’d used the persona card of Yun Zhong Jun just yesterday, and with the San points he had left, he would only be able to use the Night Watchman card for one hour.
Zong Yan was burning with anxiety.
A moment later, those runes lit up one after another and coiled around the black-haired young man. They disappeared together.
—
The author has something to say:
I didn’t forget my promise. Today I have a surprise!
Cute little people, please pay attention to YaYa’s microblog: 妄鸦Alter. I posted it there
I originally wanted to give it to you as an update for free, but I think it will be taken by river crabs, so I can only use this method. Please understand, memeda!
" "
TL Notes:
The author’s note mentions something the author posted on their alternate Weibo account.
I know there’s at least one racy/smutty scene for this novel (a little black room scene! probably!), but I don’t have a copy of it right now. My account isn’t real-name verified so it’s hard for me to do certain things. Also, policies have gotten stricter in the last few months. Things that get posted on Weibo are taken down faster. Anyway, if you’re good at scouring jj or weibo and find it, please send it my way, I’ll be very appreciative o(◕∇◕o)
How to send me stuff: My contact info is on the project page, linked at the bottom of each chapter. If you prefer email or something, leave a comment
river crabs – 河蟹 – A reference to censorship. “River crab” is a homonym for “harmony” (和諧) in Mandarin. The Chinese government removes or blocks things on the Internet on the grounds of undermining social harmony or stability, including vulgarity and violence (Wikipedia)
[ Project Page | Ko-Fi ✿ | Other translations by Confectioner ]
