A Blast From the Past (1)

Bo Ziren’s tutor, Fu He, spent a year writing a book and then asked a group of students to help translate it into English. Due to the huge amount of work, the designated students sat translating for more than ten days, leaving only to attend classes. 

They worked in a small meeting room, completely immersed in their task. They had two dictionaries, an English-Chinese dictionary, and a glossary of terminology. The content of the book was also rather boring.

In addition to Bo Ziren, the group of translators consisted of two senior students, one of her classmates, and a student named Zhou Dhou, who had been borrowed by Fu He from the Department of Marine Science.

Bo Ziren and Zhou Dou sat in the same row, three seats apart. At first, they didn’t speak to each other, focusing intently on their work. Then one day Bo Ziren couldn’t keep up with the other students’ translation speed, and Zhou Dou spoke up.

“You only look up words in the dictionary once a minute. At this rate, what year will you finish?”

“There’s no way I can work faster. I can’t understand many of the words.”

Bo Ziren’s translation was written in the cloud, and she was coming across many words she had never encountered before.

“It would be better if I translated a paragraph for you,” Zhou Dou said.

“No, I will do it myself.”

Zhou Dou’s eyes were cold but enthusiastic, so he didn’t expect that she would not appreciate his offer.

“Classmate Zhou.”

Huang Xiaoling, one of the seniors who was sitting in front of Zhou Dou, turned her head around to face him. 

Beads of sweat shone on her forehead, and she said tiredly, “Since you have some free time, why don’t you help me with this paragraph?”

Zhou Dou frowned. He considered refusing but then changed his mind.

“Bring it.”

The vocabulary that Huang Xiaoling had been struggling with for half an hour was not at all difficult in Zhou Dou’s eyes, and he quickly finished the paragraph.

“Your translation is perfect and you didn’t even look through a dictionary,” said Huang Xiaoling, her voice full of admiration. “How did you do it?”

“I helped people a lot when I was in college, and I’ve also already come across these words in an earlier paragraph,” Zhou Dou said while looking in Bo Ziren’s direction. 

She was still stuck on the same page.

“Help me with the rest of it. If you do it well, I will treat you to dinner.”

Huang Xiaoling was acting like a baby.

“I have other things to do,” answered Zhou Dou, his face indifferent. 

To indicate he didn’t want to talk anymore, he lowered his head and returned back to the book.

At the end of the day, the senior offered to take them all to dinner, and everyone except Bo Ziren accepted the invitation. Bo Ziren just shook her head no.

Zhou Dou didn’t want to go as well, but the senior was kind, and he couldn’t refuse. Plus he was also feeling very hungry.

Bo Ziren was the last to leave the conference room. As she closed the door, Zhou Dou who had been walking ahead turned around and asked her, “Do you still have enough strength to walk back to the dormitory? Why don’t you come eat something first?”

“No, I will go back now.” Bo Ziren answered.

Zhou Dou’s face darkened slightly, and he silently lifted his bag up.

Huang Xiaoling urged him from the front of the hallway, “Classmate Zhou, hurry up!”

Bo Ziren walked out of the office building alone, and the night fog quickly enveloped her whole body. She looked at the students walking ahead, happily discussing what to eat. She suddenly felt a little hungry, so she turned back and headed to the school convenience store.

As she was walking back with her food, she passed by a tree partially hidden by the gloom. 

A voice called out from beside the tree.

“What are you holding?”

Bo Ziren stopped and saw Zhou Dou leaning against the tree trunk. That was strange.

“You didn’t go?”

“It’s too noisy. After I thought about it some more, I bailed.”

She didn’t understand what he meant by saying it was too noisy.

Zhou Dou came over and looked down into the contents of Bo Ziren’s paper cup.

“You wouldn’t mind giving me some, right?”

Bo Ziren handed the cup over.

Zhou Dou took a bite and frowned.

“It tastes too weird.”

Bo Ziren ate some and thought the taste was okay, but when she looked back at Zhou Dou his expression hadn’t changed.

“You are exactly the same as when we were in elementary school. No matter how unpalatable Chinese food is, you always finish it quickly,” Zhou Dou said. “Do you think eating is a waste of time? I guess you would even buy a pill that guarantees nutrition if it would fill your stomach.”

Bo Ziren remained silent.

“Apart from reading, I can’t think of any other interests you have,” he continued harshly.

Bo Ziren still didn’t speak.

“Come on, answer me! I never know what you’re thinking.”

Zhou Dou threw the remaining half of the dried tofu into a trash can while staring at the girl in front of him.

“You really don’t remember me?” he asked.

“No, I remembered who you were later on.”

“…”

Zhou Dou wanted to die a little.

“That’s it?” he asked patiently. 

“You taught me how to vault.”

Zhou Dou looked a little relieved.

“Well, I remember your legs were not short, but you couldn’t jump. You just kept bouncing back again and again.”

“Later you told me to jump higher and pay attention to the strength of my wrist support. The point was not to care about the face,” she said.

“You remember it clearly.”

Apart from this though, Bo Ziren couldn’t think of anything else.

“Since you remember me, why haven’t you talked to me?”

“Because I have nothing to say to you.”

“…”

After being rendered speechless several times thus far, Zhou Dou finally gave up and simply looked at the sky.

“It’s getting late. I’ll walk you back since we’re heading in the same direction anyway.”

To our readers: As I edit this book along with my translating partner, I find myself immersed in the story, even while I simultaneously try to give these characters an English voice. We hope all our sincere effort pays off and you enjoy this book along with us.  If you’ve got an extra itch to find out what happens next, check out our Patreon for advanced chapters. And don’t forget to let us know what you think! Our audience’s comments and concerns are one of the driving forces behind keeping this website alive and running. Give us your feedback through comments and suggestions or speak to us directly on Discord so that we can continue to bring you new realms to explore. – M.M (ED)

TL Note: I’m the TLOR for this novel, and my partner pretty much said everything, so I’ll keep my part short. I’d like to express my gratitude to you for reading our translation and we hope you could support us through  Patreon. We’d also love to know your thoughts in the comment section below and do ping us on our Discord Server!- Kurisu