Chapter 96 – The Reader and Protagonist Definitely Have to Be in True Love

xiu duze

Extra 3: Devil’s Proof

“Do you know that boy from computer class?”

“You mean …?”

“Seems to be called Du … something? Du Ze? I think his name is Du Ze.”

“Oh, him! Yes, of course, I know about him. I heard that his hearing is bad and that’s he’s a freak who’s always talking to himself or doing strange stuff. The people in his class aren’t close to him.”

“Do you know why? My friend is in the same class as him and he told me a secret. In fact, that boy seems to be able to see unusual things.”

“Unusual? … You mean he’s psychic?”

“Bingo! That guy is always ‘talking to himself’ so people always avoid him since there are ‘unusual phenomenon’ around him.”

“Do you really believe those rumors?”

“It’s not a rumor! Did you know that last week, the people from the Chinese World Trade Center threw an iron disk and broke a window? Du Ze was sitting beside that window but he wasn’t hurt at all.”

“So miraculous!”

*********

Du Ze listened to the conversation between the two boys in the hallway and looked at the person who had turned him into a campus myth.

Noting Du Ze’s gaze, Xiu smiled and asked, “What’s wrong?

Du Ze shook his head then suddenly realized that this one of those things that made people say he was “doing strange stuff.” He froze.

Since he began going to school, Xiu has invisibly followed him. Others can’t see Xiu but instinctively avoid the place where Xiu is, thus creating a lot of strange rumors. A silly, cute person thought that the students who saw him right now would only see a person shaking his head at nothing. They would think that this person forgot to take his meds today; what a fool!

Du Ze was right – shaking his head at nothing had called attention to him.

“You there – the one sitting by the window.” The advanced mathematics teacher rapped his knuckles on the podium. “You’re shaking your head, do you have a problem with what I just said?”

The whole class turned their heads to watch as the black-haired youth silently stood up, his face impassive. The teacher’s brow wrinkled as got ready to teach this boy a lesson, but before he could do so, he stopped – he seemed to feel that danger was near, as though a beast was eyeing him. Suddenly weak at the knees, the teacher leaned on the podium and smiled dryly: “Fine, sit down, sit down.”

Du Ze had half-lowered his body when he stopped abruptly.

“Xiu …!” Du Ze silently mouthed the beastkin’s name. Just as Du Ze was about to sit down, Xiu slid behind him and sat down on the chair. Now, if Du Ze sat down, he would be sitting on Xiu’s lap.

Xiu reached out to embrace Du Ze. In order to not stand out too much, Du Ze was forced to half sit down on the beastkin’s lap. Since he was seated at the last row, it wasn’t too obvious.

Put me down.

Xiu glanced at Du Ze’s note. Not only did he not put Du Ze down, but the beastkin wrapped his tail around Du Ze’s arm.

“Listening to him is too boring.” Xiu stroked the back of Du Ze’s neck. “Why don’t we do something interesting?”

“I’m in class.”

“Let’s leave and I’ll teach you instead.” Xiu said indifferently: “Yesterday I changed into my human form. These things are not difficult to learn.”

— Hey, don’t carelessly pull aggro! All the students who have failed advanced mathematics will hate you for casually saying such an outrageous statement!

“Or I can give you the answers to the exams.”

… No, don’t shamelessly tempt me this way. The worst thing about it is that he almost wanted to give in!

Du Ze could only watch helplessly as Xiu used his tail to close his book. The beastkin’s hands went under Du Ze’s shirt and started caressing his bare skin.

“You don’t have to move.” Xiu licked Du Ze’s ears. “Just feel me.”

“… !”

Du Ze leaned over the table and covered his face with his arms lest he should reveal any strange expressions or make any strange noises. Fortunately, Xiu didn’t go too far. He just hugged, kissed, licked, and bit Du Ze but he didn’t leave any obvious traces.

Ah, Moe Lord! QAQ

“Du Ze, didn’t you sleep last night? Is that why you’re lying on the table?” The classmate who came to collect the student’s homework asked.

Du Ze’s seemingly icy, sad gaze shifted sideways. “… I didn’t sleep well.”

That’s the truth.

“I can see that.” His classmate was very understanding and nodded. “Was it because of the mosquitos? The back of your neck is full of red marks.”

Du Ze instinctively rubbed the back of his neck. The gnome behind him chuckled and Du Ze’s ears turned red.

After thinking about it carefully, Du Ze decided to put forward a small, uh, suggestion to Xiu.

“Make myself visible?” Xiu asked.

Du Ze nodded solemnly. He was “punished” by the Moe Lord who was dissatisfied with his distraction. However, when Xiu is visible to others, he can’t do such things to him in public. Another advantage is that Xiu won’t be able to use most of his forms. The beastkin, gnome, elf and dragon forms would have to use some sort of disguise to hide their features while the demon and angel can hardly show themselves at all. In short, only the human and undead forms are convenient to show to others.

Xiu in his human form is quite gentle while the undead form doesn’t bully him so this plan is perfect –

“A ghost!”

A silly, cute reader had completely forgotten the deadly effect of his family’s Moe Lord’s gorgeous appearance. Yi Ye Zhi Qiu had made his protagonist the type whose looks are like a weapon of mass destruction. When Du Ze and a blond youth who was wearing casual clothes went to the next class upstairs, a silly, cute person found that the way was blocked by a huge crowd of people.

“Hello, which course are you taking?”

“Do you want to be my friend? Here are my contact details!”

“… Ah! I’ve seen you in my dreams!”

Du Ze stared at the young man who was looking at Xiu with an expression of excitement on his face – yes, it was a man who declared that Xiu was his dream lover.

Has the Moe Lord’s charisma reached the point where both men and women can’t resist his charms?

Xiu did not speak as he pulled Du Ze away from the crowd. No one dared to block the footsteps of the blond youth.

Even as they walked away, Du Ze could still hear the young man shouting, “I really saw you – weren’t you looking for someone called ‘Du Ze’?”

“…?!”

Du Ze looked at Xiu in shock. Xiu smiled at Du Ze and admitted: “Well, he did see me – I summoned him.”

Summoned…?

“After destroying the world, I discovered the truth of the world. When I tried to leave the world, I was constantly summoning people in this world and trying to find you,” he said.

It was a short sentence but the information it contained made Du Ze’s heart feel heavy. Ever since Xiu came to him, the two of them hadn’t mentioned the world of “Mixed Blood.” The topic of their separation seemed to be taboo, something neither one of them can discuss.

He wanted to ask Xiu how he had been after he left. He wanted to ask whether Xiu really destroyed the world. He wanted to ask how Xiu came here. He wanted to ask a lot of questions but they were so happy now that he didn’t want to know if their current happiness was built over a pile of bones. Du Ze opened his mouth and made a strange sound. It was as though it wasn’t his own voice that asked Xiu: “What happened to you?’

Xiu stared at Du Ze for a moment then shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

— It’s meaningless.

His heart ached and felt even heavier. Du Ze looked at the calm Xiu. This answer was more painful than hearing “it was bad.”

Seeing that his beloved was troubled, Xiu stretched out a hand to circle the back of Du Ze’s neck and smiled reassuringly: “We’re together now.”

— Yes, they’re together now, so no more panicking, no more running away.

Du Ze and Xiu looked at each other. Du Ze asked, “Did you summon other people?”

“En.” Xiu said: “After learning the truth of the world, I began to try to break out of the world but I didn’t have the qualifications to do it. That is to say, I didn’t have permission from the creator of the world so all I could do was wait. During this time I studied summoning. I tried to summon you but because the ‘conditions’ seemed to be wrong, the people I summoned were not the person I wanted.”

Xiu spoke casually but Du Ze couldn’t help but remember the vision he had before. A chill spread from his heart as he thought of how he had seen Xiu amidst the ruins of a destroyed world, alone in the darkness as he waited to receive the “permission from the creator” that might never come.

When Xiu was forced to wait four years for Du Ze to emerge from the Wheel of Time, he lost his reason. What must it have been like for him to wait for such a long time? Du Ze dared not think too long about it because it was too painful to imagine how Xiu felt during that seemingly endless time in the darkness of a destroyed world.

“You … destroyed the world?” Before he realized it, Du Ze had asked the question.

Xiu didn’t answer him directly but suddenly asked another question. “Do you know ‘the devil’s proof’?”

Seeing Du Ze shake his head, Xiu explained: “The devil is an imaginary creature. To prove his existence is easy if one were to find him. On the other hand, proving that he doesn’t exist is almost impossible. After all, just because no one has found him yet doesn’t mean that he isn’t hiding somewhere. People can say that ‘yes the devil exists but I just haven’t found him yet’. I always believed that you are somewhere and I just haven’t been able to find you yet. I looked for you in the Chaos Continent for thousands of years.”

Xiu’s deep blue eyes flashed darkly. “Then I started to destroy the world bit by bit, destroying places where you might be hiding, until you had no more room to hide.”

Du Ze stopped breathing for a while as he listened. He thought of his vision and what Xiu was saying now – Xiu didn’t destroy the world because he was tricked?

“By destroying the world, I found out the truth – since the world didn’t have you in it but I remembered you, I realized that you probably came from outside the world.” Xiu said softly: “That was how I discovered the truth of the world.”

The God of Creation discovered “the truth of the world” because he found out that his origin story was false. Xiu found “the truth of the world” because of his absolute power and memory.

Xiu found out the truth, got the qualifications, and was finally able to come to this world. The price was the destruction of the world.

Xiu stared at Du Ze’s sad expression. “What are you thinking?”

“Ariel, Enoch … how are they?”

Even though he destroyed the world, his companions who had been with him for such a long time should not have been destroyed.

“Do you want to see them?” Xiu asked.

Du Ze nodded involuntarily.

“Then close your eyes.”

Du Ze automatically obeyed Xiu’s instructions. Even with his eyes closed he could feel the light behind his eyelids become extremely bright.

“Open your eyes.”

When Du Ze opened his eyes and saw a wealthy-looking city with building in the Baroque style, he immediately became speechless. This is …

The Sky City?

Du Ze’s pupils constricted as he looked unblinkingly at a group of people who seemed to be waiting for someone.

When the short-haired thief noticed that they had arrived, the expression on his face became full of excitement. “Hey! Why did it take so long for you to come back? This thief was growing mold waiting for you!”

“Little Master, Master Du Ze, long time no see.”

“Lord Xiu, welcome back.”

“Du Ze, I missed you so much!”

“Chirp~”

A golden-red bird flew over the bright sky, softly falling on Du Ze’s shoulder. The Fire Phoenix lovingly leaned its head against its mother Du Ze’s cheek.

Du Ze stared at everyone around him, turning his head mechanically and looking stupidly at the blond youth beside him. His thoughts were a mess.

“When I went to your world I met the creator of this world.” Xiu chuckled and said: “I took over creative control of this world from him.”

The Supreme God kissed the eyebrows of the black-haired youth and greeted his only lover. “Welcome back, Du Ze.”

********

At the end of a writer’s press conference, Jinyi finally cornered a ha-ha beast.

When he came face to face with his editor, Yi Ye Zhi Qiu’s attitude was very friendly as he cheerfully explained: “I gave ‘Mixed Blood’ to someone else.”

“Who?!”

“The protagonist of ‘Mixed Blood’.”

“…” Jinyi was speechless for a time then said: “Are you still sticking to your ‘this world is a novel’ fantasy? If you are going to write a new novel about this subject, I’ll give you my full support.”

Yi Ye Zhi Qiu said “ha-ha” then asked: “Have you heard of the ‘brain in a vat’ concept?”

“What is that?”

“Let’s say your brain is cut off from the body by an evil scientist and put into a vat full of a nutrient fluid that allows your brain to live. The brain’s nerve endings are connected to a computer that transmits information to your brain in a way that allows you to maintain a completely normal-seeming life. To you, people, objects, the sky, and everything around you – the whole world is there. Your thoughts, feelings, and senses are all there. Your brain can also be influenced by someone from the outside, adding a memory – like a first love or something – that you can’t forget.”

Yi Ye Zhi Qiu saw that Jinyi was completely confused.

“How can you be sure that you aren’t in this condition right now?”

“How can you be sure … that you’re not in a novel?”

Translator’s Notes:

This is the final extra chapter. How did you like it? Did you like the ending? This is the last chapter ever so please leave a comment if you can! I’d really love to know what you think.

I’m glad that I have been able to completely translate everything! I have no idea if I will take on another project. I probably will but Every Day the Protagonist Wants to Capture Me will be my priority.