After a few days of rest Zong Yan returned to the ordinary, uneventful life of a high school student.
Zong Yan had made sure the future wouldn’t happen again. Even if he wanted to beat up Yog-Sothoth, in the end there was nothing to say. The evil god was only simulating human logical thinking, and according to human logic, that timeline had never happened and never would. The evil god hadn’t done anything, therefore he wouldn’t accept the blame.
Zong Yan: …?
After thinking about it carefully, it was true that nothing had happened in reality. The reasoning of a science-track student was impeccable. But emotionally, Zong Yan still wanted to beat him up.
Yog-Sothoth stared at Zong Yan for a while with a look that gave him the creeps. Then Nyarla pushed him away.
The pace of teaching at Qingyang High School was extraordinarily quick. As soon as the teacher covered new knowledge points, they immediately began a round of review.
Zong Yan had recently caused a very embarrassing incident. Fortunately, Nyarlathotep had some conscience. He remembered that he had a side account that was the director of Qingyang High School’s infirmary, so he quietly activated it and prevented Zong Yan from being dragged to the teaching director’s office.
Of course, if Zong Yan was able to call his current life ordinary and uneventful, it was only the result of self-hypnosis.
Because his life right now—
Wasn’t ordinary in any sense!!!
For example, after morning class Zong Yan casually cleaned up his messy desktop, straightened a thick pile of exercise worksheets, picked up a thermos, and went to the cafeteria to eat.
But when he followed the slow-moving flow of students from the second floor to the first, he saw a dark-skinned doctor in a white coat standing in the corner waving at him.
“Father God!”
The other party looked especially joyous, which made many of the students around him whisper.
“Who’s that? He must be a foreigner, so handsome.”
“Is that the new foreign teacher? I wonder what language he’s speaking. It doesn’t sound like Chinese.”
“I don’t know. He’s wearing a white coat. Could he be a doctor from the infirmary?”
“Wow! A doctor, that means we get to see him in PE class tomorrow.”
“Right, right.”
Zong Yan: …
He clenched the thermos in his hand and wanted to turn around and leave.
The language Nyarla had spoken was very authentic ancient Egyptian. Zong Yan, who’d used countless language ability cards, was probably the only person in the world who could communicate with him aside from evil gods.
He should be grateful the other party didn’t run up shouting “Father God” in Chinese, otherwise he really wouldn’t be able to show his face.
“What is it?” Zong Yan felt suspicious and his tone wasn’t good.
He felt a bit puzzled by the current situation.
Thanks to the Azathoth persona card, these evil gods seem to regard Zong Yan as one of their own.
That’s right, one of their own.
Zong Yan originally wanted to move back to the tube building. But when he got out of class the next day, he was kidnapped and taken to a single family villa not far from school. It turned out that the small house was one of Shub-Niggurath’s many foreign assets.
Since then, Zong Yan was forced to move in with the other evil gods.
But there was no way Zong Yan would admit that his ability to transform into Azathoth was related to his card-drawing superpower. He didn’t want to be locked up and studied. Therefore, after making sure these three big guys didn’t want to do things to him or kill him, at least for now, all Zong Yan could do was hold his nose and go along with it.
Without lifting a finger he’d suddenly gained three evil god sons. Was it a loss? Not really.
It was just living together. Anyway, MU was so infiltrated by evil gods it was like a sieve. It wasn’t like the situation would be different anywhere else.
But the attitude of the three evil gods was kind of strange. And of the three, Nyarlathotep was the strangest.
Where Zong Yan was concerned, the Faceless God was enthusiastic, even a little too enthusiastic. It actually seemed a bit erotic.
As if he was oblivious to Zong Yan’s wary expression, the doctor revealed a bright smile. “Father God, we have to go to MU.”
“What’s at MU?”
“I don’t really know.” Nyarla shrugged. “Yog said so.”
As if to echo the evil god’s words, Zong Yan’s cell phone immediately went “Ding—”. He looked at it and saw the push notification from the MU app.
It said that a meeting was scheduled for today in the auditorium of Miskatonic University concerning the entire occult community. Under normal circumstances Zong Yan was considered to be a quasi-Monarch, but he was still a student and wasn’t qualified to participate in such a high-level meeting.
But the push message said Zong Yan was invited for special reasons.
Thinking about the disaster in Jiangzhou before, Zong Yan felt a bit unsettled.
“I got it.” Zong Yan put away his phone and calculated the time.
Qingyang High School’s lunch break lasted two and a half hours. Students who lived in the dormitories would usually go back to their rooms to take a nap. Some students who didn’t live on campus would gather in the classroom to play games or go to the library to read books. Others went to play basketball outside, and some lay on their desks to rest or did homework problems.
Sadly, he was pretty sure a two-hour round trip to MU would take too long. He needed a leave of absence.
“I’m going to ask for a leave. Why are you following me?” Zong Yan turned around. He was about to go to the teacher’s office when he noticed Nyarla behind him with his hands in his pockets.
“I’ll go wherever the Father God goes.” The dark-skinned evil god’s eyes were particularly innocent. “I can help the Father confuse the humans. It’s my specialty. I absolutely never cause any side effects.”
How could he not be good at it? Nyarlathotep liked toying with humans the most.
It was almost the end of September. Qingyang High School held its school festival and field day in early October.
This year’s school anniversary was a round number, which meant the festival would be memorable . The school had assigned tasks to all the clubs early on, and they’d already begun to decorate the school. Especially during lunch break and after class in the afternoon, a lot of clubs would gather together.
For this reason, the basketball court had also begun a time-consuming transformation for the school festival. The boys’ basketball team practice had to be moved to the gym. But the gym wasn’t open at noon. It could only be used by clubs after school. Students who used to spend time there during lunch were forced to sit in the classroom and play online games instead.
“Ye Ge, look, isn’t that Zong Yan?”
In the classroom of senior three Class 3, someone happened to be leaning on the windowsill looking down. This sharp-eyed individual saw Zong Yan walk out from the school entrance.
“What?” The moment he heard Zong Yan’s name, Ye JingMing threw away his phone and climbed up to the windowsill to look.
Recently the school had begun to draw up a list of performers for the New Year’s celebration. Every year there were a lot of students who wanted to perform. After all, the extra credits were significant. They also got to meet the school instructors who were responsible for the independent recruitment exams. The whole thing would even be broadcast on the municipal TV station.
The class president of senior Class 3, Xia KeYan, was in charge of the performance list. She was also the president of the Qingyang High School Calligraphy Club. Their club had a performance program to submit and they needed to recruit a few more group performers.
There weren’t any requirements for these group performances. They were just there to rake in credits. The moment Ye JingMing found out about it, he got ready to move. Of course, he cared about the credits as much as an already drunk man cared about alcohol. Anyway, that was how he found out Xia KeYan had invited Zong Yan to participate in the Calligraphy Club’s performance.
Ye JingMing immediately exploded, and a lot of his younger brothers wanted to take this opportunity to clean up Zong Yan and get points from their boss.
“Damn, it’s really him. How come he’s leaving school at noon?”
Ye JingMing picked up the binoculars he kept in his desk and stared closely at the figure below.
Qingyang High School was a closed campus except in the afternoon after school. The rest of the time no one, including day students, were allowed to enter or leave at will, unless they went over the wall.
“Do you think he climbed the fence? Why don’t we go and lodge a small complaint.”
A group of students huddled around the window chattering and discussing countermeasures. Suddenly someone exclaimed, “That car’s so cool!”
A black and gold sports car slowly drew up in front of the gate of Qingyang High School. It stood out from a heap of private cars and attracted stares from numerous onlookers.
“That’s Pagani’s Huayra series, right? …Damn, if I remember right, there are fewer than ten of those cars in China.”
A lot of boys loved cars and bought magazines to read about them. The streamlined body and gull-wing doors were the standard configuration for an elite “hypercar”.
They continued to watch as the teen in the school uniform got into the sports car. The wheels turned silently and in a flash he disappeared from view.
—
Inside the car a famous tango was playing, 《Por Una Cabeza》. The bow of the violin glided smoothly over the strings, evoking a warm and lilting melody.
These evil gods really knew how to enjoy themselves.
Zong Yan watched silently as the blond-haired evil god in sunglasses stepped skillfully on the accelerator. They plunged violently into the flow of traffic, hurtling onto the overpass in the last second of the traffic light.
Honestly, that kind of arrogant driving behavior was really bad. Road rage wasn’t a joke.
But this was a top-end sports car, and if someone actually scraped the car, it would probably cost them a month of salary. The other drivers had to hold their noses and voluntarily give way, watching this overbearing sports car leave them in the dust.
“Is Your Majesty hungry?”
Shub turned his head sideways. There was a bewitching smile in the corners of his lips, and he directly put his arm across the back of Zong Yan’s seat.
The driver’s posture was so casual that Zong Yan couldn’t even see a trace of his hand on the steering wheel.
Well, it was impossible for an evil god to have a car accident.
“Pay attention to the road. Don’t just go into heat whenever and wherever.” Nyarla sneered and tore space apart, squeezing into the gap between the driver’s seat and the passenger side.
This sports car could only accommodate two people. Unfortunately, aside from Zong Yan, the other two weren’t actually people.
Zong Yan felt a little sleepy, so he just closed his eyes.
He’d completely broken the jar. Anyway, if an evil god wanted to do something it wasn’t like Zong Yan could stop them. It was better to enjoy life however he could.
“Ha.” Shub gave a chuckle. “I was talking to the Father. If you interrupt again I’ll throw you out of the car.”
“You try it. I’m not suppressed by three dimensions on Earth. If the planet gets destroyed, just wait and see if Father God beats you to death.”
“Beats me to death?” the Black Goat of the Forest repeated, ambiguously licking his fingertips. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
When the two of them finished arguing, they turned back to see that Zong Yan had already fallen asleep.
Regressing time had taken too much out of him. Lately Zong Yan didn’t have much energy. He could even manage to fall asleep surrounded by evil gods.
This time, almost all the top brass of the Dragon Group were present at the meeting at MU.
The discussion centered on just one thing: “the time when the stars will return”, and how it concerned the recent incidents in Jiangzhou.
—
The author has something to say:
Zong Yan: My exciting life cohabiting with evil gods √
TL Notes:
Father God / Father – 父神 – Alternatively: God the Father. Please note the evil gods don’t literally call Zong Yan “father” (父), they call him 父神, “Father God” or “Father” (capital “F”). Sometimes “Father God” sounds awkward so I vary it a bit.
an already drunk man cared about alcohol – 醉翁之意不在酒 – The drinker’s heart is not in the cup — to have ulterior motives; Many kiss the baby for the nurse’s sake; The intention of the drunkard lies not on the wine, but on other purposes; Though drunken, one’s real interest is not in wine
younger brothers – 小弟 – xiǎo dì – A term for male friends, can also be used for people who are a bit subordinate
Pagani’s Huayra – 帕加尼的风神 – A mid-engine sports car produced by Italian sports car manufacturer Pagani, named after Huayra-tata, a Quechua wind god. The Huayra was limited to just 100 units (Wikipedia) MSRP $2.6 million USD