Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part1 (1/2)

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 Trespa.s.serby)

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 t.i.tle. 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 cla.s.s for once.

”Xiao Dong, you're back?” Fu Taiyi was elated. He said, ”Perfect. Watch the store for me. I'm going to read—”

”Like h.e.l.l you're reading!” Fu Jun was furious. He scolded, ”Isn't that book on sale in the store? Why did you unwrap it?”

”I collect this series. I always order an extra one to keep for myself. It's not like you don't know that.” Fu Taiyi felt wronged and said, ”Why did you suddenly scold me? You know, I'm still your father when it all comes down to it.”

Fu Jun glared at his so-called ”father.” He never had the air of a father, so how would he be able to treat him as one?

”If you're my father, then close the shop. Come with me to find Peilun.”

Fu Taiyi lifted a brow.

”We shouldn't get involved in matters of the surface world. We can't use our powers against normal people. Haven't I told you that? It's fine if you want to search for Peilun, but you must use your own eyes and feet in the search. The addition of my eyes and feet wouldn't make a difference.”

Fu Jun shook his head. ”But Xie Peilun could have gotten involved with the innerworld. When Jiang Ziya and I went to search for him—”

When he said that, he saw Fu Taiyi stand up abruptly. His face is frightening!

Although Taiyi was usually always fooling around, once he grew serious, even Fu Jun would pull back, no longer daring to put on the airs of a little adult toward his father.

”Who did you say you were with?” Fu Taiyi actually used a serious tone to ask.

”Ziya-gē…”

It was evident that Jiang Ziya had not come with Fu Jun. When he heard Fu Jun's words, Fu Taiyi felt uneasy. This is definitely not a good sign.

His complexion was terrifying as he asked, ”Where is he?”

Fu Jun didn't dare keep it hidden. He immediately recounted everything in detail.

”The one inside the alley is Fortune Misfortune Hand in Hand—Old Man Huofu.” Fu Taiyi felt his head hurting a lot as he said, ”The alley was sealed off a long time ago. Why did you head inside for no reason?”

”To find Peilun…” Fu Jun answered quietly.

Fu Taiyi felt his head hurt even more.

If he knew this would happen, he wouldn't have let Fu Jun take a day off to search. At first, he had thought that it was great that Fu Jun cared about his cla.s.smate. This could be a good life experience, no matter if he could or couldn't find the kid in the end. If he could find him, that was of course a happy ending. If he couldn't find him, Fu Jun might feel dejected, but that was a normal thing to feel in this world. Fu Taiyi was very content to let Fu Jun experience that.

He didn't think that Fu Jun would run into Jiang Ziya. If he hadn't, with Xiao Dong's powers, there was no way he could have opened that pathway.

Fu Taiyi had prepared for every contingency, but he just had to have overlooked the variable known as Jiang Ziya.

…Sigh, Old friend Jiang Shang, this responsibility you've left behind really is too heavy.

Seeing Fu Jun's puzzled and dissatisfied expression, yet he didn't dare to retort, Fu Taiyi couldn't help curbing his cold demeanor. No matter how mature Fu Jun usually acts, isn't he still just a kid?

Even though he had told Xiao Dong that Jiang Ziya was very special before, and he had also instructed him not to tell that fellow anything, not to involve him in the innerworld, recently, Jiang Ziya had walked inside on his own. Therefore, he had also told Fu Jun that he could slowly start telling Jiang Ziya some things, but not to tell him too much just yet…

Even Fu Taiyi felt that he was being contradictory, let alone Fu Jun, who was a kid.

”Ziya must have found your cla.s.smate already. That's good fortune. But he has definitely run into trouble. That's misfortune. Once you have heard Old Man Huofu's words, fortune and misfortune come hand in hand. That's why that pathway was sealed. Even though both fortune and misfortune happen, it's always misfortune more than fortune.”

Hearing that Jiang Ziya had run into trouble, Fu Jun's face immediately paled. Then, when he heard that misfortune happened more than fortune, he really couldn't keep calm anymore. He hurriedly said, ”I-I told him to find Lu Yang-gē to go with him. Taiyi, didn't you say that Lu Yang-gē is very strong?”

Fu Taiyi said unhappily, ”Aren't you forgetting something? I said 'for his age.' He is rather strong, with rare, innate talent. It's not common to come across that anymore in this age. However, if this were long ago, he would have just been considered one of the stronger ones and not a rare talent.”

Fu Jun cared little about ”long ago.” He only cared about right now!

”Then, can Lu Yang-gē protect Ziya-gē or not?”

”I can't be certain.” Fu Taiyi was serious as he said, ”From what you told me, your cla.s.smate seems to have been taken away by someone after getting chased by a demon. However, that alley doesn't have any demons residing there. There's also no way he could have entered Old Man Huofu's barrier dimension. Also, logically, a child that's only in elementary school couldn't have disturbed too powerful a demon. With all these points considered, I believe that a pract.i.tioner is involved.”

Hearing that, Fu Jun's eyes immediately lit up. He said, ”Since a pract.i.tioner is involved, that means you have to step in, right, Taiyi?”

Fu Taiyi rolled his eyes at his son. ”What are you being so happy about? If a pract.i.tioner is involved, your Ziya-gē would be in even bigger trouble!”

”If Taiyi is lending a hand, then there's no problem anymore.” Fu Jun felt that it was better if a pract.i.tioner was involved. Then, he would be able to force Fu Taiyi to step in.

”It better be something that will be resolved when I step in. Just who do you think your dad is?”

Fu Jun raised his head and softly said, ”G.o.d of the Eastern Sky, Dong Huang, of course.”

At these kinds of times, he had utmost confidence in his father.

Fu Taiyi smiled and said, ”Not yet, my little Lord of the East, Dong Jun.”1

He extended his hand to rub Fu Jun's head, causing the other to roll his eyes at him unhappily. However, Fu Jun didn't dare to scold him like usual, allowing Fu Taiyi to greatly benefit. He couldn't help rubbing and rubbing that little head. In the end, he successfully angered his son, who grabbed his hand and roughly shoved it away.

Fu Taiyi laughed loudly and said, ”All right, call Lu Yang and Ziya. Ask them where they are. I'll go and meet up with them. It's time to let them know a bit about some things. After all, guiding the young has always been one of our duties.”

Fu Jun smiled and nodded. Just as he was about to dial them, his cell phone began ringing on its own. The contact person displayed on his screen was even Lu Yang.

He answered the call, his tone happy as he said, ”Lu Yang-gē, Taiyi and I are just about—”

”Ziya was kidnapped.” Lu Yang's tone was frigid.

Fu Jun froze, his head full of the phrase ”misfortune more than fortune.”

Yu Shu watched House Keeper place the phone down, feeling rather annoyed and angry. The previous wave hadn't even settled yet, and another was already coming. That brat Jiang Ziya made things even more dramatic than what happened in novels!

She was just a person responsible for writing novels. She had no plans to live the life of a novel!

”What? Has that brat run into more trouble?”

House Keeper made a conjecture, ”I think he has been kidnapped. The target seems to be that artifact demon again, Xiao Xue.”

Hearing that, Yu Shu instead relaxed and casually said, ”As long as his truth-seeing eye and the 'truth' at home aren't discovered, that's fine. If his eye is discovered, and that his family has a 'truth' as well, it wouldn't be strange if his entire family were kidnapped!”

When House Keeper heard that, he frowned. Seeing that Yu Shu didn't seem to have much of a reaction, he couldn't help but ask, ”Do you plan to rescue him?”

When she heard him, Yu Shu looked back at her own illusory familiar with not quite a smile. She asked, mockingly, ”How about you? Do you want to rescue him?”

House Keeper's eyes flickered. He said respectfully, ”I only consider what Mistress considers.”

”What are you considering?”

Not waiting for Yu Shu's response, Hold Keeper walked out with a yawn. He even held in his hand a red apple that he had been eating.

Wrong! There really is something wrong! Yu Shu's face twitched.

In the books, Hold Keeper clearly didn't like apples. So what's going on with him eating apples day and night ever since he's been out? Even if he veers off path, it doesn't have to be in the complete opposite direction, right?

”I am considering whether or not to rescue Jiang Ziya,” House Keeper said in order to remind Yu Shu again.

”Why rescue him?” Hold Keeper took a bite out of the bright red apple. As he chewed, he said, ”Didn't you just head over wanting to lure away that Jiang Qibing guy, so that Mistress could go with Jiang Yu to bring the artifact demon back, but you failed to trick him?”

House Keeper didn't know why he was bringing that up now. Does he want to mock me for my failure again?

”Now, all we have to do is to tell them that Jiang Ziya is in trouble and suggest for them to have the girl stay at our place. Then, we can urge the husband and wife to quickly go and rescue Jiang Ziya. Wouldn't we be able to easily get rid of that artifact demon this way? If we really wanted to, we could even get rid of that 'truth' or whatever it is, snipping all future trouble in the bud.”

Yu Shu stilled. She looked toward Hold Keeper. As expected of ”that fellow,” he was amazing at taking advantage of the situation, and his schemes were truly great!

But so ruthless.

Wouldn't this mean not caring about Jiang Ziya's life?

Yu Shu felt a bit conflicted. Even though she knew that Hold Keeper was just an illusion, and he was even an illusory familiar of the lowest power level, so he wouldn't have many emotions, after interacting with him for all these days, just how did Hold Keeper even resemble an ”illusion” with no feelings? His emotions were practically even more abundant than House Keeper's, who had become a ”lie!”

Seeing him so ruthless, Yu Shu couldn't help lamenting that her ”younger son” had grown astray, and she couldn't even blame it on cla.s.smates leading him astray. She really had to quickly put him back on the straight and narrow, since if Hold Keeper really became a bad person, then wouldn't she be the one in deep trouble?

”I can't watch that Jiang Ziya guy disappear or breathe his last breath just like this.”

Yu Shu's feelings were conflicted as she admitted, ”If I really didn't care about the lives of the family across from us, I wouldn't give a d.a.m.n over their possession of an artifact demon. All I would have to do is stay in this home. Don't even mention artifact demons. Even against that 'truth' of theirs, I wouldn't be scared.”

Of course, she would much rather prefer that the neighbors only consisted of humans.

Hold Keeper gave an ”oh” and didn't say anything else.

House Keeper relaxed a bit. It sounds like Mistress will rescue Jiang Ziya.

Yu Shu sighed deeply. The saying ”A close neighbor is much more valuable than a faraway relative” really was true. A close neighbor was much better at bringing trouble than a faraway relative!

She lazily stood up and raised her head to glance up at the katana on her wall with regret. That was her handiest weapon, yet it was too flashy in the real world. She could only change her weapon.

”House Keeper, are you able to temporarily disguise as Xiao Xue?”