Chapter 8

It was evening.

In the alley, there were over a dozen scattered book stalls.

Some were just a piece of tattered cloth spread on the ground, laid over a sheet of plastic to display the books.

Others were mobile carts piled high with all sorts of pirated books, bootleg cassette tapes, CDs, and even the occasional small radio.

Though the sun hadn't fully set, the alley was already bustling with customers like Lin Sheng and Shen Yan. The crowd wasn't huge, but it was lively enough.

Many customers lingered, reluctant to leave, with some squatting directly in front of the stalls to sneak a read.

The alley was illuminated by a single light source: a high-wattage bulb without a shade. It was likely a hundred watts, casting a bright, harsh glare over the entire passage.

Shen Yan blended into the sparse flow of people, rushing excitedly to the first stall to scan the wares.

She was experienced; to avoid trouble, the vendors rarely placed their "adult" books in the most conspicuous spots.

Yet, she could pinpoint the hiding spots for these little booklets faster than anyone.

Lin Sheng ignored her, slowly scanning the thick dictionaries on the stalls by himself.

He had only finished half of the first stall when Shen Yan had already reached the third.

Lin Sheng wasn't in a hurry. After scanning the first one and failing to find a Guren Script dictionary, he moved on to the second.

He remembered that the stalls here should have them—various translation dictionaries. Even if they were pirated, they would certainly save him a lot of money.

He scanned stall after stall. Soon, at the fourth one, in front of a vendor who had his books laid out on the ground, Lin Sheng finally found a Guren Script dictionary.

"How much for this?" Lin Sheng squatted down, pulling the dictionary from a pile of messy, old books.

"Fifteen. No haggling." The vendor wore square-rimmed glasses and a gray cloth mask, clearly not wanting his face to be known.

"The print isn't even clear, it's not a good copy. I'll take it for five," Lin Sheng countered.

"Can't do five. Ten is the lowest. You look like a regular, little brother; you should know the going rate here," the vendor replied quickly.

"Ten." Lin Sheng shook his head and made a move to stand up and leave.

"Fine, fine, five it is." The vendor decided decisively.

"Here." Lin Sheng quickly fished some change from 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 text was clear, the reproduction was decent, and the book was about as thick as a brick.

For pirated books like this, the price was usually at least twenty, especially since the originals cost over forty.

The reason it was so cheap was that the subject was incredibly niche; very few people actually needed to buy a Guren Script dictionary.

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

More importantly, the corners of the dictionary were heavily worn, and the binding was exceptionally loose, looking as if it might fall apart at any moment.

Doesn't matter, as long as it's usable.

Whenever Lin Sheng recalled that string of text, he couldn't wait to get back and translate it. Five yuan was more than a day's worth of his pocket money; it was a bit painful to spend, but if he went home and stitched it up himself, the book might even increase in value.

Soon, Shen Yan approached, mysteriously carrying a bag of books.

"How'd you do?" she whispered.

"Bought a dictionary." Lin Sheng held up his book. The red-covered, white-edged dictionary stood in stark contrast to the adult booklets in Shen Yan's bag.

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

"Nothing. I'm heading home to rest," Lin Sheng said calmly.

"You play the part so well!" Shen Yan curled her lip. But she knew Lin Sheng's temperament; the guy had always been like this. That was one of the reasons she liked dragging him along to act as her cover.

"Fine, I picked out three books. We'll split the cost—four yuan each, twelve total. Just give me six," Shen Yan whispered.

"No money." Lin Sheng was speechless. He used to be willing to buy them because he would rent them out to others to make a little extra cash.

After all, most students at school weren't willing to spend several yuan on books, and these kinds of things were only worth a quick look. If they bought them themselves, they were hard to hide.

So, paying a few cents to rent them for a quick read was the best method. They didn't have to worry about hiding the books, and it cost very little. Besides, the content in the booklets was sparse; you'd get bored of them after a few minutes and could swap them for something else.

One of the reasons Shen Yan dragged Lin Sheng along was that she was a girl and found it awkward to rent them out to others, so she needed Lin Sheng to be the "lessor."

"If you don't put up the money, then what about the rentals this time?" Shen Yan began to fret.

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

"Girls don't have as much money to spend as boys!" Shen Yan was getting frantic. Lin Sheng had always cooperated before; why was he suddenly changing his tune?

"You can resell them. I have some things to take care of lately; I don't have time for this." Lin Sheng really didn't want to continue the book rental business.

If it were normal books, it would be fine, but renting out adult material was truly beneath him.

"You make several yuan a day, you're really not doing it anymore?" Shen Yan was speechless.

"Don't want to." Lin Sheng shook his head. "You're a girl, it doesn't look good for you to be doing this. You should stop for now, too. If word gets out, it'll ruin your reputation."

"That's why I have you to cover for me," Shen Yan said helplessly.

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

Yao Daiyu was a student from an outside class who also ran a book rental business; he even accepted small notebooks. He would certainly be happy with them buying and sending them over like this, as it saved him the trouble of coming over to pick them out himself.

"Fine." Shen Yan still seemed somewhat unwilling.

Seeing her like this, Lin Sheng knew that this person was not resigned to the situation and likely wouldn't listen to him.

But even as a close friend, he had already said enough. How she decided was her own business.

The two parted ways in the book stall alley, each returning to their own home.

When Lin Sheng returned home, his parents had left a note saying they had gone to the hospital again to look after his grandfather.

Only two plates of cold food sat on the kitchen table.

One plate of cucumber stir-fried with egg, and one plate of shredded pork with red peppers.

Lin Sheng heated up some rice and quickly ate a meal with the cold dishes. Then, he excitedly hugged the dictionary and ducked into his bedroom, beginning to study that passage of text he had remembered from his dream.

His bedroom served as both a place to sleep and a study for doing homework.

By evening, the night grew deeper.

Lin Sheng turned on his desk lamp, and by the pale yellow light, he looked up the phrases of that Guren Script word by word.

About half an hour later.

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

"It really is standard Guren Script! Even though I've never been exposed to this language family before, and aside from having a slightly curved style, these two words don't have a single error!"

Lin Sheng stared intently at the two phrases before him, at a loss for how to describe it.

It was clearly just content that had appeared in his dream.

"So, these two words, translated... the general meaning should be..."

Swish, swish. He slowly wrote out the translations one by one beneath the phrases, referencing the dictionary.

'Sharp weapon, long sword, of, method, manual, notes.'

"Hm? Could it be that when put together, it means Sword Technique Manual?!" Lin Sheng's expression froze as he suddenly realized.

Guren Script was translated character by character. The basic grammar was not complex. Often, a single letter could contain multiple meanings.

But when connected, the meaning they contained made Lin Sheng's expression go blank.