Vol 1 Chapter 3.1 (1/2)
Chapter 3: Jiang Ziya Part 1—Fuel—translated by Raylight
When he finished his part-time work and returned home, only his brother-in-law, Jiang Qibing, was at home. Like usual, he was seated at the study desk in the living room, using the computer. Jiang Ziya removed his shoes at the entrance and asked out of curiosity, “Where’s Sis? And Jiang Jiang? They’re not at home?”
Jiang Qibing raised his head and stared at him blankly, muttering, “Jiang Jiang? Who is Jiang…”
Jiang Ziya’s eyes widened, but Jiang Qibing then nonchalantly said, “Oh, your sis brought them to the supermarket. Did you eat dinner properly before work? Are you hungry at the moment? Do you want me to call your sister and ask her to buy a late night snack on the way back?”
Jiang Ziya hesitated for a moment. His brother-in-law seemed to have suddenly forgotten Jiang Jiang… He immediately put the shoes he had been removing back on and shouted, “I’m going out for a bit.”
Jiang Qibing froze and shouted, “Didn’t you just come back? It’s almost ten. Where are you going?”
“Just dropping by the neighbor’s!”
Jiang Ziya rushed over, hammering on the door so hard that it could shake the heavens. The door opened by a small crack. House Keeper was standing behind the door as he asked, “May I inquire as to who our guest is?”
“G-Good evening! I’m the neighbor.” Seeing House Keeper, who was wearing a dress s.h.i.+rt and a small vest, Jiang Ziya abruptly felt that he was being too impolite. He immediately stood up straight to greet him.
House Keeper gave a faint smile, and as he opened the door, he politely returned the greeting. “Good evening. Please enter.”
An angry roar came from within the room. “Who said I’m allowing that rascal in? Is he trying to break my door down?”
House Keeper explained with a smile, “The mistress has been rus.h.i.+ng her ma.n.u.script all day and is still not done with it. She is not in a good mood at the moment.”
Hearing that, Jiang Ziya immediately shouted into the room, “I read your book today!”
“… Come in.”
When he went in, he was immediately greeted by the sight of Yu Shu sprawled on the sofa. Weapon magazines, from blades to guns, covered her body. If he didn’t see wrongly, one of them was even about the evolution of tanks…
Yu Shu said in a commanding tone, “Say it! Which one did you read?”
Jiang Ziya obediently recounted, “I flipped through all of them briefly. When I found the one with the butler, I read the whole book. I-I even bought it!” He quickly pulled the book out of his bag as proof.
Yu Shu said unhappily, “Stop being so interested in my butler! Save it, I’m not going to marry him off to you!”
“He’s not a woman!”
Yu Shu snorted and made eyes at him as she said, “So if he was a woman, you would have considered it? Not scared anymore?”
Jiang Ziya froze and lifted his head to look at House Keeper, who bent down and asked, “I will brew milk tea just like the other time. Will that be fine?”
Jiang Ziya immediately nodded his head vigorously. Although he was not here for the milk tea, it was simply too good. He couldn’t resist nodding his head wildly. He snuck a peek at House Keeper’s back as he left to the kitchen and asked Yu Shu in a whisper, “So he is the butler that you wrote about in your book. T-That vampire?”
He had to admit that after he realized that the butler was written as a “vampire” in the book, he had become even more nervous. However, once he saw him, this nervousness had vanished. House Keeper didn’t feel like a vampire at all. He had kept on a faint smile all along and was gentler than the average person. He was also super good at brewing milk tea!
“No.”
Jiang Ziya froze and asked, “Why not?” Could it be that I picked the wrong book? Is there another one with a butler?
“Even if it is the same book, everyone has a different impression when they read it. Therefore, the butler that I summoned would definitely not be the same as one summoned by someone else. Even their looks would differ. For example, if a book were to say that a certain character is a ‘handsome guy,’ the handsome guy that would appear in your mind and mine are different, right?”
Yu Shu sat up and pushed the magazines piling on her to one side. She lazily said, “Since even their looks are different, who is the butler in the book, then?”
“Oh.” Jiang Ziya could not resist saying, “But you are the author. The butler you summoned should be the one from the book!”
“At the very most, the character I summoned would probably be closer to the butler from the book. However, they will definitely not be exactly the same. In the book, the person the butler serves is a young master. However, his current master is me. Different life experiences will result in different people. Do you understand now?”
So that is how it is. Jiang Ziya nodded his head.
House Keeper brought out a pot of milk tea and two cups. Once Yu Shu saw that, she immediately shouted, “I don’t want milk tea. Where’s my coffee?”
As the butler put down the cup and saucers, he explained slowly, “For the sake of finis.h.i.+ng your ma.n.u.script, you have already drunk ten pots of coffee within these few days. You once ordered me to restrict you from drinking too much coffee. Therefore, please switch to tea from now on.”
“Tea also has caffeine, so there’s no difference anyways!”
“This is made from tea bags with low caffeine.”
Yu Shu immediately flopped back onto the sofa and covered up her face as she moaned in despair, “You might as well kill me!”
House Keeper continued to pour milk tea elegantly as he said, “Mistress, it is about time for you to go to the supermarket. This is already the last tea bag, and there are barely any vegetables left. There is only one pile of frozen meat left in the freezer. The rest of the refrigerator is empty. Also, I would like to trouble you to buy a tray. It would be convenient for serving tea or food.”
Yu Shu hesitated for a moment and then tried to save on the effort to even go to the supermarket. She asked hopefully, “Since you can already go and take out the trash, then you can go to the supermarket too, right?”
House Keeper shook his head, saying, “There are too many people at the supermarket, and moreover, it is very bright. I would definitely be revealed, unless you intend to change me into a ‘lie.’”
“Then forget it.” Yu Shu immediately gave up.
Jiang Ziya asked, not understanding, “What will happen if he becomes a lie?”
“He would start to think too much and want to become a true living existence. Then, there would be huge trouble!”
Yu Shu put both her hands on Jiang Ziya’s shoulders and said gravely, “You must know that the fee to hire a butler is terrifyingly expensive. I don’t have that kind of wealth to pay his salary, so I definitely can’t allow him to become an existence higher than a lie, and then demand a salary from me!”
Jiang Ziya nearly spat out the milk tea in his mouth. He said unhappily, “If you say that you won’t give him a salary right in front of him, won’t he think of demanding one from you?”
Yu Shu raised an eyebrow and said, “He is merely an ‘illusion,’ so he will only obey orders obediently and not demand anything from me.”
Hearing this, Jiang Ziya couldn’t help but glance at House Keeper. The latter merely gave a small smile and looked like he really did not mind people talking about him in front of him, much less question his salary.
Yu Shu forced herself to drink two mouthfuls of the milk tea, and she asked, “Stop asking about my place’s butler. He is my problem to deal with anyways. The question right now is, how is the problem in your family?”
“Ah! I came to look for you because of that. Today, when I recalled something about Jiang Jiang, she…”
Jiang Ziya froze. What had I remembered about Jiang Jiang? That’s strange. It was evidently something important, but why would I forget it in a blink of an eye?
Yu Shu laughed dryly and patted his shoulder as she said, “Forget it! As for Jiang Jiang, it’s best for you not to think about her case. Concentrate on getting rid of that doll!”
Getting rid of?
Jiang Ziya’s face twitched, and he said cautiously, “But Xiao Xue doesn’t seem like she has any evil intentions. Wouldn’t it be a little too cruel to get rid of her?”
“Xiao Xue, is it? Sounds very intimate…”
Yu Shu pounced and grabbed hold of Jiang Ziya’s neck. She yelled in rage, “I told you to burn her, but you instead went and became so familiar with her. Do you not understand human speech?”
“I-I understand! B-But…” Jiang Ziya said with difficulty, “Since you say that Jiang Jiang is also fake, then couldn’t we also let Xiao Xue become a real person?”
“Don’t keep saying that Jiang Jiang is fake, or be careful that she would really turn into a fake, you idiot!”
Jiang Ziya froze, and he suddenly recalled that he seemed to have heard Jiang Jiang call him in school today. She seemed to have been shouting, “Don’t,” but what exactly didn’t she…
He shook his head hard. He had a vague sense that it was not something good, so he decided to follow what Yu Shu had said, not to think about Jiang Jiang’s case—no matter whether Jiang Jiang was real or not, his sister and brother-in-law couldn’t lose her!
But Xiao Xue?
Thinking about the other child, Jiang Ziya started hesitating.
Seeing Jiang Ziya’s expression, Yu Shu understood that he had become too softhearted.
She let go of his neck and furrowed her brows. She then sat down cross-legged and said in a vexed tone, “Things aren’t that simple. She is not something that originally existed, so it is very easy for her to be affected by others.”
“Who isn’t ever affected by others?” Jiang Ziya rubbed his neck that had been grabbed just now while muttering softly.
Yu Shu rolled her eyes at him and snapped, “Would you suddenly become a ghost doll because of someone else’s influence?”
Jiang Ziya received a shock at that and shrieked, “Could it be that they will become ghost dolls?”
“It’s she, not ‘they!’ Only Xiao Xue. Don’t drag the other one into this.” Yu Shu rolled her eyes at him again, and then returned to the topic. “On the day the lot of you feel that Xiao Xue is not a human, but a terrifying ghost doll, as long as this thought is strong enough, she would truly turn into one.”
When he heard that, Jiang Ziya’s face turned pale.
Yu Shu said indifferently, “To put it more gravely, if you guys firmly believe that she is a man-killing ghost doll, she would really be influenced to go and murder people. Do you really want to take this kind of risk?”
Jiang Ziya hesitated. He ought to shake his head immediately, but he was still hesitant.
Seeing his expression, Yu Shu understood that he was still unwilling to follow her instructions, so she could not help but roll her eyes. She felt a little lazy, to the point where she didn’t want to take care of him anymore, but based on the fact that he was her neighbor, she made a rare decision to spend effort to persuade him.
“Listen to me. Jiang Jiang has already become true. There’s nothing you can do about it anymore. Moreover, she’s still young. As long as you don’t remind her about these things, and she grows up like this, there is a high possibility that she will forget about the things that happened when she was small, and never find out that she is not a real person.”
Yu Shu pointed at Jiang Ziya’s nose and said, “Therefore, the best way would be for even you to forget about her case and treat her like a child that your sister gave birth to. Understand?”
I have no problems with this! Jiang Ziya nodded his head vigorously.
Yu Shu then continued, satisfied, “But Xiao Xue has not come ‘true’ yet, so there’s still time to get rid of her. Don’t let her come ‘true.’ Your family can’t handle so many of them!”
Jiang Ziya gritted his teeth and said, “But I can’t burn her to death!”
He finally admitted that he wasn’t able to burn Xiao Xue to death. So what if she was a doll? So what if he could see her ball joints? She could move, talk, and even call him Gēge!
How could he possibly burn her?
“I told you to burn her, what burn to death.” Yu Shu rolled her eyes again, and said unhappily, “Don’t say it as though I’m instigating you to commit murder and arson!”
Aren’t you?
Jiang Ziya was not convinced, as he said, “Why don’t you grab a random person on the streets and ask him to burn Xiao Xue. See if he would report you to the police for murder and arson!”
Yu Shu was so angry, she roared, “Reporting me to the police, huh? Very well, I couldn’t care less how many hundreds of ghost dolls you live with. House Keeper, send our guest away… No, that’s not right. Send this harbinger of bad luck away!”
“Don’t! I was wrong, please help my family!” Jiang Ziya immediately bowed and admitted his mistake.
With such a large matter that endangered his entire family, it was a simple thing for him to bow and admit his mistake.
Face dark, Yu Shu continued to say nothing.
Seeing that, Jiang Ziya became a little fl.u.s.tered.