Chapter 8

Evening.

There were more than a dozen scattered bookstalls in the alley.

Some vendors spread a rag on the ground, laid a sheet of plastic over it, and displayed their books.

Others had pushcarts piled high with all kinds of pirated books, cassette tapes, CDs, and more. You could even spot small radios.

It wasn't dark yet, but customers like Lin Sheng and Shen Yan were already wandering through the alley. There weren't many of them, but the place was quite lively.

Quite a few customers lingered, some squatting right in front of a stall to read for free.

The alley had a single light source overhead: a powerful bare bulb without a lampshade. It was probably a hundred watts, brightly illuminating the entire alley below.

Blending in with the sparse crowd, Shen Yan eagerly hurried to the first stall and began looking around.

She was experienced. To keep them hidden, vendors rarely put the dirty little books in the most conspicuous spots.

But she could quickly pinpoint where they were stashed.

Lin Sheng ignored her and leisurely browsed the hefty dictionaries on the stalls by himself.

He had only searched half of the first stall when Shen Yan had already made it to the third.

Lin Sheng wasn't in a hurry. After looking around and finding no dictionaries or lexicons for the Guren Script, he moved on to the second stall.

He remembered there should be some here, too: all kinds of translation dictionaries and lexicons. They might be pirated, but they could save him a lot of money.

He checked the stalls one by one. Before long, at the fourth stall, where a vendor had laid his books out on the ground, Lin Sheng found a dictionary for the Guren Script.

"How much for this?" Lin Sheng crouched down, pulled the dictionary from a pile of jumbled old books, and asked.

"Fifteen. No haggling." The vendor wore square-framed glasses and a gray cloth mask, apparently not wanting anyone to recognize him.

"The print's not very clear. It's a lousy job. I'll take one for five yuan." Lin Sheng haggled.

"Can't let it go for five. Ten at the least. You look like a regular, little brother. You should know the prices around here." The vendor replied quickly.

"Ten?" Lin Sheng shook his head, then made as if to stand up and leave.

"Fine, fine! Five it is." The vendor readily gave in.

"Here." Lin Sheng swiftly fished some change out of his pocket, counted out a five-yuan note, and handed it over.

After paying, he picked up the book and flipped through it again.

The print was clear, and the reprint was quite good. The book was about as thick as a brick.

Pirated books like this usually cost at least twenty yuan, especially since the legitimate editions went for over forty.

The main reason it was so cheap was that the subject was obscure. Hardly anyone needed a dictionary for the Guren Script.

Out of the vendor's hundreds of books, this was the only copy.

More importantly, its corners were badly worn, and the whole book was unusually loose, as if it might fall apart at any moment.

Never mind all that. As long as it's usable.

Whenever Lin Sheng recalled the passage he had recorded, he could hardly wait to get home and translate it. Five yuan was just over a day's worth of pocket money for him; he'd just have to cut back a little. It stung, but if he patched it up by hand when he got home, the book might even be worth more.

Soon, Shen Yan came over from up ahead, carrying a bag of books and acting all secretive.

"How'd it go?" she asked quietly.

"I bought a dictionary." Lin Sheng raised the book in his hand. The red cover and white page edges were a stark contrast to the dirty little books in Shen Yan's bag.

"You..." Shen Yan stared at Lin Sheng, her expression twisted, as if she were seeing him for the first time.

"Nothing. Let's go home and rest." Lin Sheng remained calm.

"You're quite the actor!" Shen Yan scoffed. But she knew Lin Sheng's temperament; he'd always been like this. That was one of the reasons she liked bringing him along as a cover.

"Fine. I picked out three. We'll split the cost. They're four yuan each, twelve for all three, so you only need to give me six." Shen Yan spoke softly.

"I don't have any money." Lin Sheng was at a loss. In the past, he'd been willing to buy them so he could rent them out to others and make a little money.

After all, most students at school weren't willing to spend several yuan on a book. Besides, books like these were only good for a quick read, and if you bought one yourself, it was hard to find a place to hide it.

So renting one for a few mao was the best option. You didn't have to hide any books, and it cost less. The little books didn't have much content, either, so you got tired of them after a few reads and could switch to another one.

Another reason Shen Yan brought Lin Sheng along was that she was a girl and couldn't very well rent them out to others herself. She needed Lin Sheng to be the one doing the renting.

"If you won't chip in, then this time I'll rent them out..." Shen Yan hesitated.

"You can rent them to girls," Lin Sheng said evenly.

"...But you make a lot more money from boys!" Shen Yan was getting frustrated. Lin Sheng had gone along with it before. Why had he suddenly changed his mind?

"You can sell them instead. I've got things to do lately, so I don't have time to handle this." Lin Sheng truly didn't want to keep renting out books.

If they'd been ordinary books, that would've been fine. But renting out dirty little books really was too lowbrow.

"You could make several yuan a day. You really don't want to do it anymore?" Shen Yan was speechless.

"I don't." Lin Sheng shook his head. "You're a girl. It's not a good look for you to do this, either. You should stop for now. It wouldn't be good if word got around."

"But you're there to cover for me," Shen Yan said helplessly.

"I can help you pass the books on to Yao Daiyu," Lin Sheng suggested.

Yao Daiyu was a student in another class who also rented out books. He took the little books, too, and would surely be happy to buy the ones they'd picked out. It would even save him the trouble of coming over to choose them himself.

"Fine." Shen Yan still seemed reluctant.

From her expression, Lin Sheng could tell she wasn't happy about it and probably wouldn't listen to him.

But even though they were friends, he'd already said enough. It was up to her to decide.

The two parted ways in the alley of bookstalls and headed home.

When Lin Sheng got home, he found a note from his parents saying they had gone to the hospital again to look after Grandpa.

There were only two plates of cold food on the kitchen table.

One was cucumber scrambled with eggs, the other shredded pork with red peppers.

Lin Sheng reheated some rice and quickly ate it with the cold dishes. Then, clutching the dictionary excitedly, he slipped into his bedroom and began studying the passage he remembered from his dream.

His bedroom served as both a place to sleep and a study where he did his homework.

As evening fell, the night grew darker.

Lin Sheng switched on his desk lamp and, by its pale yellow light, looked up the words in the passage written in the Guren Script one by one.

About half an hour later.

"Interesting!" Using the basic grammar recorded in the dictionary, Lin Sheng quickly translated the two words on the cover.

"It really is standard Guren Script! I'd never encountered this language family before, yet apart from a slight curve in the style, there isn't a single mistake in these two words!"

Lin Sheng stared intently at the two phrases before him, unsure what to make of them.

They'd come from nothing more than a dream...

So, translated, these two words should roughly mean...

He slowly wrote the translations beneath the phrases, looking up each word in the dictionary as he went.

'Sharp weapon, longsword, of, method, notes, manual.'

"Hm? Put together, could it mean a swordsmanship manual?!" Lin Sheng suddenly understood, his expression shifting.

The Guren Script was translated one character at a time. Its basic grammar wasn't complicated. A single letter could often carry several meanings.

But put together, the words carried a meaning that made Lin Sheng's expression freeze.