Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part3 (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 3—Author—translated by lucathia (proofread by EvlNabiki & Trespa.s.serby)

Yu Shu walked along the street, a toy longsword in her hand.

Along the way, plenty of children stared at her plastic sword, and many wanted to rush over and s.n.a.t.c.h it to play with it. The adults next to them could only keep a tight hold on them. Their gazes seem to mock this ”auntie” who was still playing with toys at her age.

But all that didn't matter. It was better than carrying a katana and having Mr. Policeman take her in for tea. Besides, the favor she was doing was going right on Jiang Ziya's tab.

However, Yu Shu was still a bit irked. Why do I feel that I have the worse end of the deal? I only had Jiang Ziya go to the supermarket to buy stuff once, and a bunch of things resulted. She had only started keeping a tab not long ago, and she already felt that Jiang Ziya would probably need to do grocery shopping for her for his entire lifetime before he could pay off the debt.

Only children paid Yu Shu attention, but all sorts of people paid attention to the man following behind her.

House Keeper wore a dress s.h.i.+rt, vest, and dress pants. Wearing this outfit outside was not as strange of a sight as wearing it at home, but he was carrying a large, red backpack on his back. There were even decorative devil wings on both sides of the bag. Paired with his cla.s.sical, refined demeanor and walking under the colorful neon city lights, the incongruity of his image shot through the roof.

What House Keeper had brought up to her earlier was correct—he and Hold Keeper should buy some t-s.h.i.+rts and jeans to wear.

She just hoped that these two people from olden times wouldn't look too weird wearing ordinary youngsters' clothing… Wait, House Keeper is clearly from a futuristic, technological age!

For the first time, Yu Shu regretted her bad habit of always liking to design ironic characters.

”I am sorry, I am here with her.” For the fifth time already, House Keeper turned down a female who was making a pa.s.s at him. Each and every time, he used Yu Shu, who was walking ahead of him, as the excuse.

Seeing those women swing incredulous stares at her, and some even had gazes tinged with merciless disdain, Yu Shu glared back at them viciously.

Disdain? That's my son, not my man. If you want to be my daughter-in-law, you should be crawling over and calling me Mom—Bleh! Who wants them to call me Mom?!

”Mamma mia!”

Someone is actually calling me Mama? And this voice even sounds like a guy's!

Yu Shu stilled, looking over with a scowl.

A man had his mouth hanging open so wide that it had become an O. He pointed a shaking finger at House Keeper, his face full of disbelief. He blurted, ”Ch-Charles!”

Yu Shu started, reflexively glancing toward House Keeper, who was startled but elated. The expression on his face seemed to appear even more human than before by a few smidgeons. Yu Shu was so annoyed that she narrowed her eyes, her expression rather threatening. Toward this guy who had randomly called and revealed her butler's true name, her hatred directly shot up by fifty percent.

”This is the first time I've seen such a spot on cosplay!”

Fu Taiyi walked over happily. The two people behind him both frowned. One of them was a child who was holding onto the other person, who looked like a university student, telling him not to worry. The child's face was stiff while he rather seriously consoled that university student. This sight was beyond strange.

Yu Shu blocked House Keeper, preventing Fu Taiyi from observing him from too close of a distance. Although House Keeper was already a ”lie,” and it was dark, so normal people shouldn't spot any discrepancies, and even if they did see anything, they would write it off as their eyes playing tricks on them, it was still better to invite as little trouble as possible.

Fu Taiyi was already crowding Yu Shu, yet he approached even closer. Taking such an action toward a woman was truly rather brash. House Keeper moved forward, wanting to step in front of Yu Shu, but Yu Shu actually used her plastic sword to block him, not permitting him to step forward.

Yu Shu was certain that this fellow before her wasn't trying to cop a feel off of her.

Fu Taiyi said, ”This one is the G.o.d of the Eastern Sky, Taiyi. Dare I ask who you are? You actually dared to bring a demon onto the streets so impetuously!”

G.o.d of the Eastern Sky, Taiyi? Yu Shu snorted and said, ”And I'm the Heavenly G.o.ddess, Xuannü!1 You're just a person and you dare to claim you're a G.o.d?”

Fu Taiyi smiled slightly and didn't get mad. He said, ”I don't dare to. It's just a name.”

”Jiu Ge, right?”

Yu Shu had heard of them before. Jiu Ge was one of the local powers behind Zhongxiang City. She had completely no interest in provoking them. Even though she was invincible at home, and she didn't go outside much, there would always be times when she had to go out. Avoiding making sworn enemies outside was the true way of life.

”I'm just an author. Not a famous name, no number, no money. Move!”

”…Don't tell me you're Yu Shu?”

She had Charles with her on the streets and even said she was an author. If Fu Taiyi still couldn't guess who she was, then he had truly read so many of her books for nothing.

Yu Shu narrowed her eyes but suddenly remembered that the other person had just recognized Charles and even called out his name. After learning that she was an author, he immediately knew her penname…

”You've read my books?” She asked, pleased, her tune completely changing.

Fu Taiyi nodded.

”So you're actually a reader of mine?” A smile blossomed. See, even Jiu Ge has readers of mine! I can be considered a pretty famous author!

She was so happy that even her eyebrows were arching.

But right now, she couldn't be bothered with readers. If she didn't hurry, her grocery shopping lackey was going to kick the bucket.

”I'm a bit busy. I'll give you an autograph next time. See ya.”

After saying that, she tugged on House Keeper, intent on leaving.

Fu Taiyi was shocked. This brash woman is the author behind that indecisive, old-fas.h.i.+oned, polite main character who worries about too much?

There has to be some mistake here!

”You're the neighbors across from Ziya?”

Yu Shu stopped walking and looked toward the university student, who had just spoken. Huh, quite a handsome one. He's actually half. What good material!

House Keeper said softly, ”Mistress, we met him when we went to visit Jiang Ziya at the hospital.”

Outside the apartment, House Keeper should directly address her as Yu Shu, but that G.o.d of the Eastern Sky, Taiyi already seemed to know that he was a familiar. Obfuscation seemed rather unnecessary.

Yu Shu recalled the name that Jiang Ziya would often mutter and asked in return, ”You're Lu Yang?”

Lu Yang nodded. Yu Shu hadn't left much of an impression on him, but the man behind her sure had. It was hard to come by that kind of elegance in this current era.

Seeing the two adults and one kid before her, their expressions somber, Yu Shu had a light bulb go off. She blurted, ”Hey, don't tell me you guys are looking for Jiang Ziya?”

They nodded, stunned.

”Oh, awesome, I'm on my way to rescue him.”

When they heard that, Fu Taiyi, Fu Jun, and Lu Yang all sincerely did not know whether they should beat Jiang Ziya up or this woman in front of them. They had been searching frantically here, relying on Fu Taiyi's miniscule sensing to keep on searching back and forth, panicking to the point that smoke was about to fume from their heads. Yet, this woman had shown up out of nowhere and said she was going to save him, and she even looked like she knew where he was. How could they not be angry?

”How do you know where he is?” Lu Yang asked, deeply suspicious. Although he had heard Jiang Ziya mention the neighbor across from him, he recalled that they had only begun interacting recently. It was impossible that this neighbor would run off to rescue him just because Ziya had been kidnapped.

Yu Shu said in frustration, ”It's all because he called me asking for help. I had no choice!”

”Why did Ziya-gē call you for help?” Fu Jun asked in confusion. Jiang Ziya had clearly been helping him search for his cla.s.smate when he had disappeared. Shouldn't he call me or Lu Yang for help?

The other two had the same doubts, and they also felt a bit hurt. One was his boss who had known him for several years, and the other was his friend who had known him for several years. Yet, Jiang Ziya chose the neighbor for help?

”Um…” Yu Shu rubbed her chin and said, ”I think it's because he felt that only I would be able to come up with a little girl's voice to respond to him? When he called, he addressed my butler as Jiěfu right off the bat, and then he adamantly demanded to speak with his family's artifact demon. I bet the culprit was next to him, demanding him to hand the artifact demon over.”