Chapter 89: CH 89

When he left the police station after completing the paperwork for the police report, it was already midnight. Cold wind was blowing in his neck and Yan Yu couldn’t help but tighten up his collar. He walked to the bus stop by the road, and while he waited, he took out a cigarette and a lighter. Two little flames lit up in the darkness of the night, shadowing the man’s pale, almost white to the point of illness, handsome face with a demonic aura.

The sound of quick footsteps rang out behind him, and it was coming closer and closer. He hadn’t even been able to take one inhale from his cigarette before it was smacked away by someone, and right after, he suffered the same treatment, with a slap to his face that rang out very clearly.

“PAH”, a direct smack, and his face turned to the side from the force. Nearby pedestrians looked over at the sound. Seeing that it was a long haired woman who raised her hand, they assumed that it was only a couple getting into a fight.

“Yan Yu! You piece of dogshit x! Are you even human!”

Tang Ying cried out so hard veins could be seen popping faintly from her forehead. With reddened eyes, she grabbed onto Yan Yu’s collar in a deathly grip and aggressively screamed her heart out at him, 

“From beginning to end, you played Xun Chuan as a fool. Played him for his money, lied to him in feelings, and once you saw that he had no more use, you kicked him aside. Has your conscience been eaten up by a dog? You don’t like him and yet you still fooled around with him. What a cold day it must have been, and you lied to him to make him wait out in the snow for an entire night. If it wasn’t for you…… if it wasn’t for you……”

Tang Ying couldn’t say anymore and slowly slid down with her back hunched. Her hands that had grabbed on so tightly to Yan Yu were also slowly loosening, and she crouched on the ground, crying in uncontrollable despair.

Five days ago, X City’s local police had found a nameless male body in some alleyway. The time of death was at first estimated to be about three days or more, and after examination, the body was found to have been stabbed multiple times with the throat slashed open. Because the temperature was freezing cold and the area was quite desolate, quite a few days passed before the body had even been discovered. The murderer had already been caught, and the first initial assessment was that he had a bit of a mental illness and his motive was robbery.

Yan Yu stomped on the cigarette that had fallen onto the ground, and he looked down at Tang Ying, 

“I said I wouldn’t go. It was him who decided he had to wait.”

Tang Ying immediately stood back up at those words, so angry she was shaking visibly and she screamed out, 

“If you weren’t going, why did you send him a message to make him wait for you?! Yan Yu you are a piece of shit! Fuck you motherfucking scumbag!”

Yan Yu’s brows furrowed slightly when he heard the first part of her words, but he smiled at the words after, 

“You want to fuck my mom? Go ahead.”

The bus just reached the bus stop then and before Tang Ying could even react to his words, Yan Yu had already hopped onto the bus. Taking a seat near the window which was covered in a layer of faint mist due to the freezing cold temperature, Yan Yu swiped at the window with his fingertips and before his eyes, the police station disappeared in a flash.

Yan Yu was the walking definition of a scumbag: no proper job, lots of free time and no proper aspirations. When he was young, his father had died quite early in his life, and his mother threw him aside to remarry. Before he was twelve, he had been living with his grandfather from his mother’s side in the countryside as a Shen Gun1, a charlatan of a fortune teller, not even attending any sort of schooling.

There was one year when that woman came back.

Yan Yu’s mother: Ah-Yan, can you read?

Yan Yu: I can draw talismans.

Yan Yu’s mother: Can you recite poetry?

Yan Yu: I can tell fortunes. Do you want a reading? 5 kuai for one reading. If it’s not true, I won’t take your money.

And then that woman left, never to appear again.

His maternal grandfather did find his conscience however, and he did not let Yan Yu continue down this path. He took out all the money he had saved up for his grave2 to send him to school. Unfortunately, he had already become twisted and rotten, and no one could pull him back anymore. Not only was he firmly entrenched in terrible behaviours, he was also a homosexual.

Yan Yu was not the best in anything, but he had quite a few peach blossoms, quite a few people who wanted to chase him3. Xun Chuan, this wealthy young man, was one of them. He was arrogant, cold and prideful, yet he was willing to bend over backwards and kneel for Yan Yu. 

When he wanted money, he was given money. Whatever he wanted, it would be given to him. Just like Tang Ying said, being played and led around in circles like a fool.

Others were up to their eyeballs in jealousy, as even though Xun Chuan had a bit of a bad temper, his face and body were top notch and he even had money. It was not a loss for Yan Yu at all.

The public bus was a bumpy ride, shaking and vibrating from side to side, as groups of people came in and groups of people left. Waves of cold air came into the bus as the door opened and closed, freezing people up to their heads. Yan Yu however did not feel anything and instead closed his eyes to rest. He napped a little, and as he did, the young girl across from him gained some confidence to sneak looks at him, and she couldn’t help but blush up to her cheeks the more she looked.

The last time Yan Yu saw Xun Chuan, the two of them were fighting to break up……

He would never go find Xun Chuan out of his own volition, but if he did, it must be because he had no more money. He had already forgotten how many times they would arrange to meet up at the hotel and end up simply tossing their clothes onto the floor. 

With his face all pale white, Xun Chuan had clumsily and shakily gotten out of bed, grabbing his fallen pieces of clothing on his way to the bathroom.

Yan Yu had lain on the bed as he lit up a cigarette, silently looking at Xun Chuan’s thin back. He puffed up a ring of smoke before he said, 

“I’m out of money. Lend me twenty thousand yuan.”

Xun Chuan had paused in his footsteps then and turned his head back around to look at him emotionlessly. His facial features were sharp and distinct, quite a beauty under the lighting in the room. He had mockingly said, 

“Sh, I had already guessed it. You would never come find me without needing something.”

Yan Yu hadn’t cared, 

“Yes or no. No, then we’ll break up. Don’t waste my time.”

Xun Chuan had not uttered a sound after that and headed towards the bathroom again with his clothes. After a moment, he opened the door with a shuffle and suddenly rushed over to Yan Yu. Roughly grabbing a pillow, he began to hit him, 

“You piece of shit scumbag!”

So it was just a dream……

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Yan Yu held his hand over his heart as he breathed out. He had a light Ba-Zi4; when he was born, his body was already weak, so he all too easily attracted ghosts. Yesterday night, it was possibly a “yin” day5, and nightmares had rushed to plague him.

Xun Chuan’s case had already been solved, and everything else afterwards would be arranged by his younger cousin, Tang Ying. His “parents” only showed their faces when the police came to take identification and then never appeared again.

These few days, it had always been cloudy; the sky was filled with this dark murkiness, increasing the anxiety in people’s hearts. When Tang Ying went to the police station to receive the belongings of Xun Chuan, her entire being was tired beyond belief. Waiting at a traffic light as she drove her car, her eyes fell upon a coffee shop by the road and she couldn’t help but freeze up slightly.

“I normally like to read, and sometimes I can even stay at the library for an entire day. Some friends say my personality is too boring……”

A young man was sitting across from Yan Yu and he was just describing himself nonstop. The coffee on the table was still emitting steam, and the fresh flower in the vase still had dew on it. Yan Yu gave a tiny yawn, and he was about to say something when a shadow fell upon his head.

Looking up, he was greeted by the sight of Tang Ying.

Yan Yu didn’t mind that she slapped him yesterday and greeted her pleasantly, 

“What a coincidence. Where did you come from?”

Tang Ying coldly laughed in response, 

“From the funeral parlor. What. Do you want to take a spin?”

Yan Yu raised his eyebrows and didn’t reply.

Tang Ying looked over at the young man across from him, 

“Friend?”

Yan Yu replied, 

“Blind date. Can’t you tell?”

If they were not in public, Tang Ying would throw another slap at him. She gritted her teeth so hard a grinding sound could be heard. Her face turned pale white as she asked Yan Yu, 

“How long has it been since Xun Chuan died that you couldn’t wait anymore?”

Yan Yu thought to himself that he could wait, but his rent could not.

Seeing him emotionless to her words, Tang Ying suddenly took a deep breath and pushed down her tears, 

“After we bumped into each other the other day, there are some things Xun Chuan had left for you. If you want it, then come get it. I don’t really care if you do or not.”

And then as if she didn’t want to see these two pieces of shit together before her eyes, she walked away in her high heels.

Notes:

Hello Galactic Judges! We are back 。ヾ(｡>ｖ<｡)ﾉﾞ。 A bit of surreal experience given the long break we had, and I hope everyone had a great two months. I didn’t quite get a traditional break, but having a few things off my plate for a bit has been a great mental relief. So thank you very much for bearing with me!

Anyway, here’s the traditional long footnote section (lol) I usually do for the start of a volume, and the first part is inevitably about the chapter release schedule, which will be changing from previously, just due to a multiple of factors, that ultimately are causing a bit of a setback in terms of what I want(ed) to achieve and making me need to prioritize certain things over others. And as much as I wish otherwise, there are some things I have come to realize that I will need to compromise on, for the sake of my sanity (and health).

So, in terms of chapter releases, it will be Monday and Thursday around the same time that Plum usually helps upload for me (we’ll also add that as the timezone for Anytime on Earth, as I realize there are readers all over the world! (≧∀≦) a bit crazy for me to think about). Not quite one chapter a week yet (which I honestly hope doesn’t come around to that and instead goes up, as for one, I did plan (and aiming desperately for) to finish this novel translation by the end of the year… well, hopefully…) In any case, I’m hoping this schedule will give me a breather, and not go as… crazy as it did when I was translating Volume 3 (and also give Plum a bit of time to edit/proofread, at least more than 24 hrs..). I hope you will continue to be along with me on the ride!

Thank you for those have been giving me so many words of encouragement and support (and to all readers, really! I don’t think I say enough that you all are a great motivational boost to continue). During my break, I did try to answer most of the comments as they came, but still once again, thank you so much for all the interest, taking me on as a fledging translator and giving me so many warm fuzzy feelings on this journey so far! I hope you all will enjoy this volume (and the rest as well). And I guess just one more thing before I end this:

As a general note/warning, as you may have already gathered from the warning up top (or all the things I said before in comments especially in Volume 3), this is a volume revolving around the themes of death and supernatural things around that, so very blanket warning that there may be descriptions of blood, death, etc. for future chapters.

In regards to the footnotes, please do note (as also with all my other footnotes, but especially for this volume), all of them will be very likely be generalized as this topic/theme/genre encompasses a lot of things and it would be impossible to explain everything briefly. Especially if you have some sort of knowledge, as this does pertain to mythology, legends, folktales, which you may have your own understanding of these from your own culture/experience/history and which may bear similarities (I mostly grabbed the more “commonly” known concept/understanding, but let me know if you know a different variation! It’s been very interesting to know how some customs/traditions are so different from my family on some things when I was researching).

(Also what a surprise it also was with the terminology and research for that in this particular volume. Never thought supernatural genres would require me spending more time to faintly grasp at a relative understanding as weirdly enough, I understand it (or had an understanding of the concept beforehand), but it has been so hard to put an “english” concept on the ideas. It’s been interesting, is what I will say)

Well, after that lengthy (and a bit disjointed) part, I do hope you enjoy this volume, as it’s a bit different (especially compared to Volume 3), but know that this is QT and it’s romance!! There will be romance!! Also I’m having a bit of a fun keeping the volume description of the “bottom” a secret until it’s revealed, but it probably will be updated pretty soon  See you all Galactic Judges on May 6!

Edit: Whoopsies! Missed this description up top. All fixed now 

Footnotes

*1 Shen Gun: This is like… shaman? But usually in reference to someone acting as a shaman as a scam. It references to doing activities related to the supernatural or the belief in mythology/spirits, and has a negative connotation, in that it’s a sham, doing things with reasons as it’s spiritual or of higher power beings and lying to people who would usually pay money to get rid of “bad” spirits/ghosts, etc. There are other meanings, but when it’s referenced, it mostly means someone pretending to be like the occupation of a priest or shaman and is doing something for you like predicting your love life, money, future or removing “bad” spirits/ghosts but are considered by most people as liars.

*2 As reference to “grave money”, it’s literally the money to buy a grave/coffin, but since its conception, it’s taken on the meaning of all the life savings of someone, as there is no money to save when you die, and that money would be used for your grave/coffin, kind of your last savings to be used in life, something you would also use to support yourself when you grow old.

*3 peach blossom: Has many connotations, but the most well known one is the term related to fortune telling (asian/Chinese fortune telling vs western with the tarot cards, star signs, etc). In this case, it means many love interests or like the last half of the sentence I added there, a lot of people who were interested in him.

*4 Ba-zi: literally means “eight characters/words” but it really refers to a person’s birth year, month, day, and hour, which added together consists of only 8 characters, hence, “ba” “zi”(and these are based on the Chinese calendar/time so they are a bit different than using the Gregorian calendar). These mean a lot in the culture, although a little bit less now, but it was/is used to determine your life, work, love, children, future, etc, so also in the branch of fortune telling, which I guess you may be able to find similarity to astrology/horoscopes? 

In this case, when he says that his “Ba-Zi” is light, it usually means that his year, month, date and time added together is not a high number. And from this fortune telling branch, it means that they don’t have good luck, they will usually have a life full of suffering and obstacles, like someone with an unhealthy body (but it doesn’t necessarily mean they will die young, that also depends on the luck of the person and their life route which is based on other factors like the sky, ground, etc. (kind of feng shui) of their location). 

These types of people are also said to be able to see things others wouldn’t such as ghosts or something not “pure” (basically supernatural things) or that they have more “yin” energy (from yin yang) which cause them to suffer more and experience more sleep paralysis (which is called “ghost pressure bed” if translated literally from Chinese). And it is said that if they see too much of these “unpure” or “evil” things, they take damage to their bodies, but you can change this kind of “lightness” in your ba-zi depending on the circumstances of your Ba-Zi like changing your name or your job or where you live, etc.)

*5 Yin day: Calculated by the Chinese calendar based on odd/even numbers and time, and some other factors, but usually means a day of bad luck, with more “yin” energy… which is like unpure or more “evil” energy, kind of attracting “bad” supernatural things or a day when they are more “reachable”? I guess something that might be close to this is like Halloween, the day of the dead, that sort of thing. (this does mean that there is also “yang” day, which is a day bursting with “yang” energy that make it more warm and “human”, if that makes sense?)

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