Love Dependency Disease Volume 1 Chapter 34

 

Volume 1, Chapter 34: Ye Zi

TL: flarewk

"Don't panic, everyone; maybe the power tripped, I'll go take a look."

Calming everyone's mood down, the Prez then took out her phone to illuminate the way and was about to check the power supply alone; which I felt was an extremely dangerous thing to do right now.

"Prez! Don't go, at this moment you must never split apart from one another!"

"Then......"

"Straightaway return to our rooms and sleep! Since the males and females sleep separately, if anyone wants to go to the toilet make sure ask a few people to accompany along as well!"

For the sake of safety precautions, I had no choice but to nag a few words to the rest.

"Liu Xiong, amongst us, is there anyone who had been marked?"

"There isn't any on everyone."

"That's good then, hopefully we'll be able to survive past tonight peacefully."

Entering the pitch-black room, w.a.n.g Yi and the rest just patted my back a few times, as they gave me an encouraging hand gesture.

"Thanks....."

"Zhang Jian, in your opinion, what was "Ye Zi" exactly?

"I don't know, I have completely no idea at all........"

"That so? Well, if we know what was it in the first place, we could be mentally prepared for it too........."

w.a.n.g Yi sighed, as he and the others sat on the sides of the bed, and I had no clue on what they were thinking about too.

As the raindrops became noisier and noisier outside, the wind blowing through the gaps of the windowpanes felt like it was the devil's screaming sounds which repeatedly resounded within my ears. Occasionally dark-looking lightning bolts streaked past as well, illuminating the room, and after every flash, the room returned into darkness, which inadvertently made me feel that the next flash would probably reveal something lurking inside the room.

I sat on the chair and closed my eyes shut, as my body remained wide awake still, making it difficult to fall into sleep due to the intense stress onto my mentality, and the never-ending darkness surrounding me gave me some sort of ferociously pressurized feelings........

Tick~tock.....tick~tock........tick~tock...........tick~tock

As the clock kept ticking on, under these sounds that slowly hypnotizes me into sleep, my consciousness finally start to drift off..

Kerraak boom!

Unsure of how many times I was awoken by the sound of thunder, I had just blearily opened both of my eyes, glanced around the room and was about to continue sleeping when I noticed there's a figure outside the windows; that person's back was facing towards me.

The monster slightly different from what I've imagined, that person had very distinct female characteristics; with a pale golden colored long hair helplessly fluttering about in the raging storm.

It's Amelia! Why did she ran off outside!

Just as I was about to dash towards the windows and yell for her to return, she had already ran off towards the direction of the airport without even looking back.

"Tch!"

I clutched my tongue, and used my hands to wake up the rest of the people.

"Oi! Wake up! oi!"

But it was like as if they were dead from sleeping, no matter how I rouse them, they can't be awakened; and as I glanced at the almost disappearing figure outside the windows, I had no choice but to temporarily chase off after her.

"Amelia!"

Chasing behind Amelia, I yelled out her name wildly, but it was like she had turned deaf, for she completely ignored me, and just continued to run forward relentlessly.

I can't catch up with her......Amelia's physical capabilities are way better than me by a mile, I had already exerted my utmost just from barely catching up with her.

"Amelia! If you are able to hear me then stop right there!"

I screamed out loudly with all I've got, but was covered out by the stormy thunder sounds; and the heavy downpour had already drenched my entire body till it was completely soaked, as I didn't bring along any tools that provided light, I can only depend on the momentarily illumination when lightning flashed to proceed forward.

It was like as if Amelia was waiting for me, for everytime it seemed that I couldn't catch up with her, her pace would then slow down, and when I was almost able to catch up to her, she would run onwards even faster; just like that, the distance between me and her remained quite the constant large gap in-between.

Chasing after Amelia, I've finally reached the airport, and Amelia ran into that small path right beside it.

"No! Amelia, quickly come back!"

My yells still didn't had any effect as usual, and I could only helplessly watch her figure entering that small path so resemblent of h.e.l.l's gate.

I really.......want to go back......

But if I was to go back, then what about Amelia?

Although I didn't have any duty to save her, but I really thought of her as my friend from the depths of my heart, plus, even if we weren't friends, I'll still strive my best to save her too.

I'm just such a busybody like that, and last time I was like that too, which got me into the gigantic trouble which was my girlfriend.

"May Buddha bless me!!!"

I loudly yelled, before begrudgingly poking my head into the pitch-black small path entrance.

There weren't any source of illumination inside the pitch-black small path at all, but luckily this small patch was laid in a straight-manner, so I slowed down my pace tremendously and used a rather steady speed to traverse past this pathway.

The small path wasn't that long, but I still used quite an amount of time before walking out of it.

Outside, the weather had already become serene and peaceful, and the silvery radiant glow of the moonlight clearly illuminated the surroundings easily for me to see.

At that mansion not far away, had a dullish fiery light flickering in it.

Traditional chinese zither sounds floated into my ears out of a sudden; it was a very touching melody, and beneath the joyous pace of the melody hid a slight trace of melancholy, and the melody seemed to have some sort of mystical power, for it subconsciously led me to walk into the mansion.

The interior of the mansion was extremely clean, you could even use the term 'not-even-a-speck-of-dust' to describe it, this had a rather huge contrast with the mansion's worn-down exterior.

Slowly strolling on the walkway at the mansion's courtyard, the pool right beside the courtyard even had carps swimming in it; this definitely is not a dilapidated mansion......

It can't be that the previous` natives still remained over here?

Finally, I entered the place where the sounds of the traditional chinese zither originated, which is the big hall of the mansion.

Ji ———— Ya~

The aged wooden door gave off nonstop sounds of creaking noises as it opened....

"Welcome Childe's presence onto my humble home, this small womanfolk had failed onto the warmest of welcomes, please forgive my sins for it."

(TL: it's a form of very traditional chinese greeting, with the recipient humbling down themselves towards the guest arriving)

A lady wearing purplish traditional Han clothes kneeled sitting in the middle of the big hall; and as she saw me enter she stopped playing the traditional chinese zither, and stood up, placing both of her hands between her waists and bowed her head towards me as she slightly lowered her body.

I know about this, it's a form of greeting from the traditional past.

"Umm....sorry to have disturbed you, but can ask if.......have you seen a yellowish hair, blue eyes girl earlier?"

"Esteemed Childe, I'm really sorry, but this small womanfolk didn't see her at all."

She lifted up her head, and revealed a heavenly-beautiful face, that sort of beauty differed from modern times, it was a sort of traditional, graceful and matured beautifulness, and as her elegant long hair flowed down from her shoulders unto her waists, she looked to be about 20 plus years old, and her cheeks were slightly dabbed with a little pinkish trace of rouge.

The moment this lady wearing traditional Han clothes appeared, it gave me a rather serious mismatched-kind of feelings, for her actions, voice tone, appearance and so on all differed vastly from modern times.

What's most crucial is, the feeling that she gave me, was exactly the same as "Ye Zi"!

"Ah....then I'll head back first then......"

"Esteemed Childe braving the rain to arrive here, and had his clothes completely soaked; Childe you'll catch a cold if this goes on, perhaps a bath and a change of clean clothes before leaving wouldn't be too late either."

(TL: Remember, this lady always speak humbly and traditionally-kindy)

I don't know why, but I felt that I couldn't turn down her request.

"Thanks then...."

Under her lead, I entered a s.p.a.cious bathroom, and after soaking for a while in the warm water, it made my body temperature rise back to normal fields, and after wiping dry my body I put on the clothes she had prepared for me.

It was a set of Han clothes made using dark green silk, it was different from the clothing of modern times, as this clothes when worn was extremely comfortable; and according to what I know, this sort of clothes was only being used by large wealthy traditional families.

Returning to the big hall once more, her figure wasn't around already, and after looking around in a huge circle, I noticed that she was sitting on the stone benches in the courtyard while gazing at the moon.

"Esteemed Childe seemed to have many questions do you not? Please go ahead."

"Are you......human?"

"Yes, and no too, I was before, but right now this womanfolk can't be too clear on that either."

Under the moonlight, her figure seemed a little blurred, and slightly.....transparent.

"What is your name....."

"This womanfolk is called Yè Zǐ. The Yè, from falling leaves that returns to the soil, and Zǐ, from propitious omen approaching from the East."

Yè Zǐ......."Ye Zi".......so it was like that, huh......."Ye Zi"'s original form should be her already.

"My name's Zhang Jian, Zhang from the word "open", and Jian from the word "simple".

"Zhang Childe, if you don't mind, let this small womanfolk tell you a story.."

"Yè xiaojie........please go ahead."

She patted the stone bench beside her, gesturing me to sit there, and afterwards she gracefully took a teapot from the stone table and poured a cup of warm tea for me.

I gently sipped a mouthful. It's an extremely rich delicious tea, looks like it definitely can't be bought in modern times now.

"Long time ago, there's a large family with the surname of Yè, and within that family had a person who was an important official of the imperial court; and because of that, the Yè family was then considered to be a family that had both yearning and influence."

"That official with a surname of Yè, he had a daughter later on, and his daughter at that time was a famous beauty of the capital, and every day, countless number of people would come forward to propose to her."

"He was an extremely good father, and as long as his daughter didn't like the proposer, he never agreed to the marriage, until one day, the Crown Prince took a liking to his daughter; and this by itself is an extremely important marriage for his entire family ancestry, as if it were to be successful, the Yè family would be relatives of the Emperor, but for the sake of his daughter's feelings, he firmly chose to reject the marriage proposal instead."

"The Crown Prince became furious, and because of this, it had hurt his pride, it hurt the pride of the future Emperor, and so he laid heavy crimes onto the Yè family. Luckily, the Emperor at that current time was wise and benevolent, for he didn't punish the Yè family too harshly; but for the rejection to being part of the family with the future Emperor, this Yè family, eventually can't be left behind."

"The Emperor thought of a plan, and posted the Yè family in a deserted island that had a rather decent environment, and promoted him to being the Guard of the Ocean, and bestowed many gifts towards the Yè family as compensation, and also renamed the deserted island into his name as well, Yè Míng Island."

"The only pitiful thing is, during the prime time of his daughter's age, she fell stricken to a grave disease, and because medication on the deserted island was scarce, and by the time the ingredients for it was gathered, his daughter had already became sick to the point of being incurable, and not too long thereafter had her fate like the fallen leaves from a tree; in the end, he who had lost his daughter pa.s.sed away in a few years time thereafter in depression."

"What remained of the Yè family from then on had lived generations after generations on Yè Míng Island, until many years later, when many strange metal-looking beasts appeared on the sea, and many large eagles with ferocious roaring noises appeared in the sky; the people heard that a war is to be approaching, and so everyone left the island thereafter, and Yè Míng Island, once again became a deserted island."

"Zhang Childe, the story has been finished, may I ask so, if you require still a refill of tea?"

I nodded my head, as she lifted the teapot, and once again filled my teacup to the brim.

"You're that daughter from that story......"

"That's right, I'm always waiting for someone to be able to hear me out explaining all of these, I kept waiting and waiting, and centuries had went by thereafter."

She gave me a rather silent smile, and the loneliness in her tone made me feel rather heartbroken.

"Ever since I've came down from the plane, you've had your sights already on me, huh....."

I wanted to know the reason why she targeted me and Amelia.

"Pla.....ne? Zhang Childe, your referring to that large eagle that all of you have ridden here?"

"You're right, it's exactly that."

-ch 34 end-

(3046 words to tl)

TL: i know i was suppsoed to take a break, but I couldn't resist~

Footnotes:
Childe: a way to address a youthful gentleman with utmost respect

small womanfolk: that lady dumbed down herself in a stance of humbleness

Han clothes: ancient traditional clothes from the Han era (google it!)

kneeled-sitting : think ancient chinese/ j.a.panese style of sitting

Ye Zi's name: highlighted the idioms contextually translated, and underlined the portions where her name was being referenced from


Glossary:
Liu Xiong = had the Master of Stalkers t.i.tle, able to distinguish whether someone had been 'marked' by anyone due to his stalking ability

-xiaojie = it's an appendix behind someone's name, it means "young lady", and in this case it's used to refer to Yè rather respectfully.