Daily Disposable Persona - CH 99

Zong Yan: “…”

He instantly reached into the gap in space and touched a card. His hand was half stretched out before he remembered the other party was, in a sense, on his side. His hand stopped in mid-air.

Damn, damn, damn!

He couldn’t describe the feeling of shock.

One minute you thought you were about to take possession of a three story villa, enjoy your own private garden, soaring to the peak of life, and then you’re suddenly found out by the rightful owner.

Wait, he couldn’t say this was the rightful owner. This villa was technically owned by Shub-Niggurath.

It was just that the evil god standing in the foyer was the very one Zong Yan was trying to avoid.

Zong Yan: “Why are you here?”

“Why can’t I be here?” Yog-Sothoth asked rhetorically. “In fact, if I want to, I can change the name on the house property certificate immediately.”

The evil god’s tone was bland, as if he were stating a simple fact with no intention of joking. Zong Yan didn’t hear a trace of emotion in his voice. It was indeed a trivial matter for an evil god to arrange.

Zong Yan sputtered for a moment. To avoid embarrassment he hastily changed the subject. “Why is the electricity turned off?”

The Lord of the Gate gave him a deep look. “Because you didn’t come back.

“And evil gods don’t need electricity.”

In all honesty, Yog’s appearance right now could be regarded as terror-inducing.

He was using the gray-haired, white-robed physical form of Tawil. As he floated in the air, his white robe hung down eerily below him, and his golden eyes were emotionless. He was backgrounded by the pitch-black, electricity-free darkness of the villa’s interior with just a fraction of moonlight to illuminate him. He looked like something from The Ring.

Zong Yan was speechless for a moment.

He began to form a vague suspicion.

This sudden encounter might not be an accident. The other party had been waiting for him.

No way, Zong Yan had returned to Jiangzhou almost a month ago. Why would the Lord of Time and Space ever have the patience to sit here for a month doing nothing?

“I just came back to get something. I’ll be on my way.”

Zong Yan hurriedly looked away, then tried to pass the other party to go upstairs. Yog-Sothoth moved forward without any warning and blocked his way.

“This is closer to your school. Why don’t you choose this place?”

The evil god looked down, and strands of gray hair like woven moonlight almost brushed Zong Yan’s face.

Zong Yan: “…”

Always aim straight for the sore spot ah? Like I’d dare to admit I’m trying to avoid you? Like I’d dare!

“Because… Because there’s no electricity in the villa.”

Zong Yan immediately felt nervous, like a fever had ignited in his brain. But he got the sentence out and his tone of voice was firm and reasonable.

The moment the words left his mouth, he was aghast at himself.

“Oh?” Yog had a good-natured smile on his face, a smile that was full of significance.

A second later, behind the evil god who was suspended in the air, a flash of light from a billion brilliant spheres suddenly flared and faded, and he gently snapped his fingers—

In an instant, all the electronic devices in the villa, as long as they somehow incorporated a light source, lit up with a “Ding—”, filling the entire hallway with light.

“There.” The evil god gave him a kind reminder, “You can stay here now.”

Zong Yan choked.

He suddenly thought coming here tonight was the worst decision he’d ever made.

—

Therefore, thanks to Yog-Sothoth’s unrepentant prodding, Zong Yan once again held his nose and moved into the villa.

It wasn’t like it didn’t have its benefits. In fact, the benefits were enormous.

Since Nyarlathotep no longer occupied the living room, Zong Yan inherited a screen that took up almost the entire wall. He could play games there during the weekend.

At this point it was necessary to admit that Nyarla really knew how to enjoy himself. Although he was no longer present, his gaming equipment remained. And while Nyarlathotep liked teasing humans, he recognized their technology was at a certain level, so the games he played were from the Great Race of Yith, or holographic programs developed by other advanced civilizations in the universe.

Zong Yan had never played any online games before. After randomly trying a holographic game he was hooked.

Of course, he had to make sure his grades didn’t fall into a cliff dive from excessive play, so he gave himself a strict rule that he could only play games on the weekend.

Another advantage was that living here saved Zong Yan almost an hour of sleep.

That was a relief in itself.

When he lived in the Dragon Group dormitory, he had to get up before dawn, grab his school bag, and go to school. The problem was that evening self-study ended late at night. When he returned to the apartment at ten o’clock, he did homework until midnight, then took a shower at one o’clock. His average daily sleep was less than five hours. After a month of this, Zong Yan felt like his soul was adrift. He couldn’t tell whether he was awake or in a trance.

The downside was that he had to get along with an evil god every day.

This time things were a little different.

In the past, Nyarla would wake him up in the morning and occasionally eat with him if he was in a good mood. It was just that Zong Yan would have a meal while the Bloated Woman ate human brains dripping with ketchup.

While he interacted with Nyarla’s countless avatars, during last semester’s cohabitation life, Zong Yan didn’t have much contact with Yog.

But now the villa contained one human and one god. Zong Yan never knew what shadow Yog would suddenly appear from.

For some reason, Zong Yan always got an unsettling feeling of foreboding, and the arrow of this foreboding pointed directly at Yog-Sothoth.

He was beginning to suspect the other party was up to something big. The way the evil god looked at him lately made Zong Yan feel a little shaky.

But he didn’t put anything into action, and Zong Yan was able to overlook it.

To put it bluntly, he no longer had any secrets from Yog. The Lord of the Gate not only knew about his superpower, he knew Zong Yan wasn’t dead. It could be said that he knew everything about every aspect of Zong Yan, which was more than a little frightening in itself.

Aside from that, Zong Yan was riding a wave of success at school.

In the physics portion of the second mock exam, he scored first in the grade and was one of two perfect scores in Jiangzhou. It was a show of force that amazed everyone.

The difficulty of the second mock exam was extremely high. Apparently, the other full score belonged to a student who’d already been guaranteed a place at Beijing University and only participated in the mock exam to earn face for their school. Also, the teacher who graded the exam said Zong Yan’s answers were clearer and more rigorous than the other full score, and his logic was impeccable.

Thanks to the improvement in his physics score, Zong Yan’s overall ranking soared to incredible heights. Most of his missed points came from some simple omissions in biology.

At the second pep rally for the senior three students, the physics teacher praised Zong Yan to the sky, saying that as long as he could stabilize his score and make up for the missing points, Tsinghua was definitely in the picture, which earned a lot of admiring stares from his classmates.

Studies so well and stars in an international movie after graduation—let other people live, okay!!!

Because of his outstanding results in the second mock exam, Zong Yan was chosen to give a speech under the national flag on the flag-raising platform. Using himself as an example, he talked about making his sudden comeback from a score of thirty points to a perfect score in physics.

“Nothing is impossible for those who have determination. I used to be a science student who couldn’t pass physics to save my life, but after cramming over winter break, and with the kind help of my tutor, I finally broke through this difficult barrier, smashing the obstacles in front of me, and successfully overcame physics.” Zong Yan said eloquently, “Of course, the most important thing in all of this is perseverance. Only if we persevere can we seize victory.”

The audience applauded. After class, several students came up to ask him who his physics tutor was and where the class was held. Could he please introduce them?

Zong Yan: “…”

Zong Yan: “Sorry ha, my teacher doesn’t give lessons anymore.”

Even if he started teaching again, you need to know that he’s an evil god. Do you dare go to one of his classes? Dare you? Dare you!

Resolving his problem with physics also gave Zong Yan a lot more free time. Previously, he had to spend hours going over his wrong answers, struggling to understand where he went wrong and repeatedly pondering the subject matter. Now his physics score had vaulted to the top, standing shoulder to shoulder with his math score.

With the extra time he was able to brush up on other subjects, do more homework problems, or anything else he wanted.

Aside from that, he hadn’t stopped paying attention to what was happening at MU.

The Spire Council attached high importance to the disturbance in the South Pacific. The occult world was fully aware of and had pinpointed the location of a sealed relic of a Great Old One in that location. Zong Yan had learned about the history of R’lyeh’s rule in his history class at MU. The matter was immediately classified as orange level, just one notch below the previous situation in New York.

In general terms, the corpses of Deep Divers washing up on shore spoke for itself.

The Spire Council quickly formed a joint investigation mission and a scientific research team and sent them to Pohnpei Island together. Zong Yan took special note of the public membership list. Not surprisingly, Paracelsus’ name was on it as the leader of the team.

The fox was finally about to reveal himself.

With almost a month to go before the scientific research team left for the South Pacific, Zong Yan thought about taking advantage of Paracelsus’ absence to go to Miskatonic University and bring in some help. But according to Yog-Sothoth, there were more than a few infiltrators in MU. How much hope was there for a school where the current vice chancellor was a cultist?

Lost in thought, Zong Yan bit down on the cap of his pen. His eyes were worried.

In a month it would be time for the Qingming Festival. In senior three, students were rewarded with three days of leave for Qingming. He didn’t know if that was enough time for a trip to and from the South Pacific.

If Yog-Sothoth was willing to help, Zong Yan thought, maybe he could make it.

While he was thinking, he began to feel a little sleepy.

Last night Zong Yan hadn’t slept well. He wasn’t sure why, but in his dream he seemed to be pressed down by something so heavy that he tried to turn around and run away. But he was trapped in a shadowy abyss and couldn’t escape.

Eventually he managed to find a spot of light. He ran toward it like he’d lost his mind, but a cluster of shadows suddenly surrounded him like they’d been lying in wait, coiling around his wrists and ankles as if to tease him, dragging him into the darkness little by little.

Finally, after reaching his limit, Zong Yan fell asleep at his desk.

A second later, the evil god suddenly appeared from the darkness. He glanced at the black-haired teen lying on the desk, and without disturbing him, an air current carefully lifted him up and floated him over to the bed, pausing time along with it.

Then Yog-Sothoth’s eyes fell on the essay that Zong Yan hadn’t finished writing.

—

Zong Yan, the next day: Who helped me finish my homework?!

TL Notes:

something from The Ring – 看上去就像翻版的午夜凶铃 – looked like a replica of The Ring

always aim straight for the sore spot – 哪壶不开提哪壶 – lit. mention the pot that doesn’t boil (idiom); to touch a sore spot / to talk about sb’s weak point; One speaks only of another’s shortcomings or weak points

a relief in itself – 谢天谢地 – Thank heavens! / Thank goodness that’s worked out so well!

riding a wave of success – 春风得意 – The spring breeze has obtained its wish — One has attained a success and is well-contented; ride on the crest of success; extremely proud of one’s success; gain senior official position

show of force – 力克群雄 – outstanding heroes prevail with difficulty

amazed everyone – 技惊四座 – skill startled everyone present

reveal himself – 露出马脚 – show the cloven foot [hoof]; betrayed by a slip; give oneself away; let the cat out of the bag; show feet of clay; show one’s true colours

Qingming Festival – 清明节 – Also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English, a traditional Chinese festival that takes place after the Spring Equinox. Traditionally, Chinese families visit the tombs of their ancestors to clean the gravesites, pray to their ancestors, and make ritual offerings (Wikipedia)

[ Project Page | Ko-Fi ✿ | Other translations by Confectioner ]