Chapter 7

The morning sunlight slanted in through the window, falling across the desk and casting a pale yellow reflection.

Lin Sheng lay silently beneath the covers, his eyes open and his expression calm. Only a trace of regret lingered in his pupils.

"Wait, that's not right!" He jolted awake, quickly sitting bolt upright in bed.

Whoosh.

Lin Sheng threw off the covers, got out of bed, and pulled open a drawer to take out some paper and a pen.

After a brief rustling sound, a line of writing appeared clearly on the sheet of white paper on his desk.

A line of Guren Script.

Lin Sheng studied the line he had written from memory. It was the cover of the book and a line of text he had just forced himself to remember from his dream.

The black Guren Script on the white paper looked like a line of tiny metal fragments, sharp and scattered, yet arranged neatly in a row.

The way it looked like fragments was the most distinctive feature of Guren Script. It was also the key reason Lin Sheng had recognized it at a glance.

"Interesting." Lin Sheng pressed his lips together.

In his previous life, he had worked in a field that demanded an exceptional sensitivity to written language. Now, faced with an unknown script once again, a long-dormant passion slowly began to burn within him.

"I can't believe I actually managed to record the Guren Script from my dream—and it even looks the part."

Rubbing his chin, Lin Sheng fell back into an old habit.

He planned to try translating it.

"Guren Script. It shouldn't be too hard to translate if I look up each part online. An ordinary person probably couldn't do it, but for a specialist like me, with five or six years of ancient language research under my belt, it's not much of a problem."

Lin Sheng collected himself, carefully folded the paper, and put it away.

He was curious. Once translated, what would the Guren Script he had remembered from his dream turn out to say?

"This is the first time in my life I've had any real contact with this script, and it happened in a dream. I hope it doesn't turn out to be a bunch of gibberish."

Tucking away the paper, Lin Sheng got up and started getting dressed.

Another day of ordinary life was about to begin.

After breakfast at home, he changed into his school uniform, slung his backpack over his shoulders, and leisurely headed out. Then he took a slow bus and made his uneventful way to school.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened. Classes, break, lunch, more classes, then another break.

Even by the time school let out in the afternoon, nothing special had happened.

Lin Sheng focused on reviewing his study materials to prepare for the upcoming weekly test. Only when he had some free time did he take out the scrap of paper with the Guren Script, separate it into individual phrases, and plan to look them up online.

"There's a traveling book fair later. Want to go check it out? I heard a lot of book vendors are coming."

As soon as school let out, Shen Yan turned around and asked in a quiet voice.

"A traveling book fair?" Lin Sheng thought for a moment, recalling what that was.

It was basically a bunch of book vendors who bought and sold used books. Secondhand book dealers, more or less. In this era, when the internet was still underdeveloped, rummaging through books was one of the few pastimes students had.

"Let's go together. We might find all sorts of odds and ends." Shen Yan invited him enthusiastically. It was obvious she wanted to go.

"I'll pass for now. I'm broke," Lin Sheng said calmly.

"Didn't you just get over a hundred in spending money? I saw the bills in your pocket yesterday," Shen Yan said with a snort.

"That money has to last me a long time."

"Once this opportunity's gone, it's gone. You really don't want to go? We might find some good books, and they'll be cheap." Shen Yan gave Lin Sheng a suggestive wink and smiled mischievously.

Lin Sheng's expression didn't change.

"I really don't have any money."

"They're only a few yuan each. You buy one and I'll buy one, and we can split the cost." Shen Yan lowered her voice and leaned closer.

"..." Lin Sheng understood what she meant.

The so-called books that cost a few yuan each were the little white books that were most popular among students—in other words, pornographic booklets.

The small books had covers featuring all kinds of handsome men and beautiful women, and their contents were full of forbidden stories that got the blood pumping.

These little white books usually sold for four yuan each, a fixed price, though their contents varied. Shen Yan was a girl, but she loved secretly buying these books.

"How about it? We'll consider them joint property. I'll read them for a week first, then give them to you. We can even rent them out afterward for fifty cents a day," Shen Yan said mysteriously.

"...I'm not interested." Lin Sheng fell silent for a moment, then forced the words out.

"Heh." Shen Yan smiled at him. "Then it's settled. Meet me at the school gate in a bit."

With that, she turned around and began packing her things.

Though she was a girl, Shen Yan had never thought of herself as one. In class, she and Lin Sheng were like buddies.

She was easygoing and got along well with the boys. She gave people the impression of being an ordinary boy.

If it weren't for her growing breasts and hips constantly reminding everyone that she was female, Lin Sheng really wouldn't have thought of her as a girl.

What kind of girl dragged a boy along to buy pornographic books?

Lin Sheng was speechless. That would have been a first even in his previous life, let alone now.

He wanted to refuse. Right now, all his thoughts were on the writing he had forced himself to remember from his dream.

His curiosity drove him to translate it as soon as possible.

"Still, it wouldn't hurt to take a look around. I remember seeing a pirated Guren Script dictionary at one of the secondhand bookstalls before. It was cheap. I could buy it and see if it looks the part."

At that thought, Lin Sheng became a little interested.

He quickly packed up his books and test papers. Two students from another class came over to borrow Shen Yan's notes, so she asked Lin Sheng to wait for her at the main gate.

Holding his backpack, Lin Sheng stood by the school gate, bored.

Groups of students in blue-and-white uniforms streamed out through the open gates as school let out.

The setting sun painted every student's silhouette a faint red.

Now and then, shouts from students playing soccer after school drifted over from the nearby field.

Other students rode past on bicycles, ringing their bells.

Standing beside the iron gate, Lin Sheng drew in a deep breath without thinking. The mild temperature made him feel as if the oxygen were flowing deep into his lungs, clearing out all the stale air.

"Let's go!" Shen Yan appeared from who knew where and gave him a slap on the shoulder.

She had tied her hair into a ponytail that swayed behind her head. With a sly gleam in her eyes, she looked around.

"I brought a dark-colored cloth bag especially for today. We can buy more stuff that way."

"..." Lin Sheng wanted to say that he wasn't interested at all.

He was more interested in translating the writing, but saying that would probably dampen Shen Yan's enthusiasm.

He hesitated, then decided to keep quiet.

"I was going to drag Ah Li along too, but she's too shy," Shen Yan said softly.

"..." She wasn't shy. She knew perfectly well that with a boy there, she'd never have the nerve to come.

Lin Sheng knew Ah Li. She was Shen Yan's closest friend, her only good friend in class.

But she and Lin Sheng weren't particularly close.

The two of them said little as they walked briskly along the roadside. After turning down two streets, they soon found an alley in an old neighborhood.

The alley was only about two hundred meters from the school, and it was lined with all kinds of bookstalls.