《 — 》
Chapter 1: The first experience of Cohabitation
Ling Yang finally got his wish to move out of from his dormitory.
This means that in the days to come, he no longer have to endure the stupidly slow campus broadband or the intermittent campus network, which both can actually make people go blow their fuses; nor race against the shutdown time, also known as the forced power loss, daily at 12 o’clock midnight, else, they would risk their CPUs to burn out.
He remembered that one time he made a bet PK. Halfway his fight, his roommate opened PPLIVE to watch a movie. This caused him to lag until he"s gone red. He was left with only 30 Health Points on his bar when the screen began to move again. So, the result was inevitable, he lost.
Usually, a lost is a just another lost for him; however, that time, the gambling stake was a big one. He"s bet that if he lose, he"s to confess (告白) to his best friend. Well, then… The ensuing events need not to be discussed. As a result, he has set his resolve to move out since that day.
Originally, Ling Yang didn"t want to rent a house since even renting a single room apartment was already too expensive. Furthermore, he also hasn"t found any suitable renting partner, yet.
Fortunately, in G.o.d"s blessing (上天眷顾), a few days after he desperately needed to rent-out there was a major incident in the school. This matter has actually a direct impact on his future life.
Let"s talk first about the history of his university.
Yanshan University (烟山大学) is a century-old school… (Omit the rest of the 10,000 words description here)
A school with such a long history must also have a lot of acc.u.mulated characteristics. One of them is its expansive tolerance (包容性).
Believe it or not, one can try and visit this hundred year old school or maybe even have a tour inside. Everyone can feel that so called all rivers run into the sea(1) tolerance it has and it"s everywhere. Whether it"s selling second hand books, p.o.r.nographic materials, or even a fruit pancake, you can find them all here.
Certainly, this att.i.tude is also reflected in their school forum.
The School Forum of Yanshan University is a large scale BBS (Bulletin Board System). There"s a wide range of categories here, large traffic flow, a variety of open topics; even students from different schools can visit their forum and dump water(2) wildly here.
That"s why the webmaster of the school together with the webmaster of the other universities in the city had a discussion to make a joint forum.
This joint forum has Emotional Category; it has a section called s.e.x, which the Chinese students called "s.e.xual Relations". There"s also Health Category; it also has a section called s.e.x-HEALTH, which the Chinese students called "s.e.xual Health and s.e.xual Psychology". These sections even have post graduate students from Department of Medical Study and Department of Psychology to keep watch over them.
Help! (论坛里有一个情感区，区里有一个版块叫s.e.x，中文名叫两性关系。还有一个健康区，区里有一个版块叫s.e.x-HEALTH，中文名叫性健康与性心理，版上还有医学系和心理系的研究生博士生坐镇。)
The level of openness in the new forum is indisputable.
Ling Yang knew that there"s a group of people in the joint forum requesting to open a new area or a sub-section for a long time now. But the webmaster kept delaying approval. This issue became a noisy affair then. Eventually, the requesting group and the rest of the crowd carried out a joint signature.
The real issue, why was it such a bigdeal to request a new area or sub-section in the s.e.x section?
The reason was its name; because the name of their new application is—h.o.m.os.e.xUAL, or the gay world.
Ling Yang has simply watched the whole incident as if a good play was on the roll. But he never involved himself. To be honest, he has no confidence in the success of their application. That"s why, when the forum issued a go and created a new sub-section in response to this application, he was so shocked.
It (Yanshan Uni) really deserves its hundred-year-old school t.i.tle, able to tolerate hundreds of rivers(1). The capacity is really…
Even Ling Yang felt deeply proud of being admitted to such an excellent university.
Although Ling Yang did not partic.i.p.ate in the fight at the beginning of the application, it didn"t mean that he"ll stay as a spectator after the opening of the new sub-section.
Why? Yes, Ling Yang is an inborn GAY; not only a genuine GAY, but also pure zero.
(TNnier1: 纯零, I really don"t know this but after some searches, I found this blog [] and somehow got a bit of realization: 1=seme or gong, 0=uke or shou).
He"s actually one of the active users in the school BBS with a well-known ID, Senior Jellyfish—Antelope (凌扬). Quick enough, he also made a reputation in the "h.o.m.o sub-section" and soon was able to partic.i.p.ate in the gathering organized by the moderators of the new sub-section.
He met a lot of his same kind there. And Xu Xian (徐贤) was one of them.
Ling Yang and Xu Xian usually conversed in the "Sub-section: h.o.m.os.e.xual". Although they had a chance encounter, they immediately clicked on the spot and ended as friends (挚交).
Xu Xian has also been thinking of moving out for a long time. He"s also looking for roommates to allocate the utilities and expenses. The two hit it off and immediately began looking for a renting house.
Xu Xian has a reason why he disliked living in the dormitory. Similarly, it"s also one of Ling Yan"s reasons why he didn"t want to stay in his own dormitory and for all the vast majority of the gay men in their own schools, as well. It should also be noted that it"s a part of the school"s century-old history…
Yanshan University has a really long history. It"s way too old. In truth, the latest dormitory building was built from way 12 years ago. Not even to mention an independent toilet, only two common toilets were arranged in the first floor for the whole building while bathing was done in the common bathroom outside the building.
These Common or Public Bathrooms are the combination of heaven and h.e.l.l, both full of yearning and embarra.s.sment, for these pure gay.
For them, even if this is their only reason, just a single point, they still must move out.
So since they don"t have much of high requirements with their renting standards, the two soon was able to pick a two-bedroom house. Despite being an old house, it has good lighting, fairly cleaned interior, and the best part was its good location. It"s located inside the school campus; one needed not to even walk out from the school gate.
Why is there a house for rent inside the school campus? It"s because they are a century old school with a long history… (Old school: NUFF!(3))
(TNnier2: *pacefalms*. Finally, he stopped with that "century old history" whatnot)
Believe it or not, anyone could once again take a tour inside the campus of these old colleges such as Yanshang University and find lots buildings or houses that are neither a school building nor a dormitory. These houses were originally built for the staff to live in. But since the staff generally has money to spare, most of them bought houses outside the campuses. And so, these old houses were rented instead to the students.
In relation, there are many benefits of living inside the school premises without complying with the rules of the dormitories, but still enjoying the benefits of being in the campus. Whether it"s the simple convenience of going to the canteen to eat dine-in or take-away or the splendid ability to arrive on time when they found out that the teacher would suddenly do a roll call that day.
But the most wonderful part was they could use the broadband installed in the building, and also retained their connection with the campus network interface. One can play games using the broadband and also join the BBS through the campus network; double-lane operation (双线作业), how wonderful!
Very soon, they picked an auspicious day to move out. With the help of Ling Yang"s roommate, Big Brother Xiong (熊哥), Ling Yang with his little luggage moved from the North Gate to the East Gate.
(TNnier3: 熊哥 should be Xiong Gege, wherein Gege means older brother)
Then the two began living together. Of course, it"s a pure male-male cohabitation relationship.
Are you asking these two why they didn"t make a pair? The reason is simple.
Two gong gathering together can still have one of them be the receiver, but two shou can only rent a house together.
Oh, and also make quite a good bosom friend.
Living together with the same kind or specie, the biggest advantage is that there"s no need to try to hide their own little secret, and sometimes they can even share those mengnan pictures with each other since GVseed has very little resources as of late.
(TNnier4: Know what "gong" and "shou" are, ayt? 攻gōng - attack(er), top, seme; 受 shòu - receive(r), bottom, uke.
I"m really curious what"s this GV seed thing. Honest. Anyone please explain it with me please? *smirks*
And also猛男 Měngnán means macho or hunk)
Also in the future, even bringing a man back for the night won’t frighten the other person.
"In all respect, Xu Xian is a good housemate. (He said) he can cook, and (he said) he likes to clean, and most importantly, (he said) he will not watch movies in PPLIVE." [Ling Yang]
This point is simply too important.
Ling Yang installed his computer, plugged in the network cable, and the first thing he did upon starting up was to visit the famous unofficial underground trading site—3715 Points KangMu (3715点康姆).
(TNnier5: No idea. Should be just the site"s name)
All game accounts with unknown origin can be bought here at a price tag; only the security is lacking and purely self-care, risky pay and even if one was cheated no one can give you justice.
But the business is still thriving, mostly because it has two significant advantages over the official trading platform: one, it"s cheap and doesn"t charge intermediary fees; and the other, it"s fast, without going through the messy transfer procedures.
As long as you"ve found what you"re looking for, you could immediately hook up with the seller and complete the transaction on the same day.
Ling Yang has been playing an online game called 《Soul Light OL》/《魂淡OL》. This is really a good game, whether in PVE or PVP system designs, both have very reasonable system.
(TNnier6: PVE=Player vs Environment, others call it Player vs Monster, while PVP=Player vs Player)
《Soul Light OL》, like most of the local online games, is divided by geographical servers. There are two servers in their area. One is the old server Daishan (岱山) of the open beta and the other one is Linshan (霖山) which was opened no more than six months as a new service.
Ling Yang used to play in the old server. But as time pa.s.sed, some players went AFK, some transferred to the new server; veterans in the old server became less and less. Because of this even after many times, they tried to recreate a good raid team but ended up dissatisfied with that group.
(TNnier7: Actually in the last sentence, the term used is 副本 fùběn which means copy but as I MTL the following chapters, it turns out to refer to raid instead or instance like an instance dungeon. BTW, author used AFK for real.)
However, not long ago, Ling Yang met an old acquaintance who was once a player in the old server. Six months ago, he brought his guild into the newly opened server, Linshan, and was now said to be in quite of a reputation.
His acquaintance heard the miserable status of the players in the old server, so he immediately invited Ling Yang to transfer, as well. Ling Yang also didn"t want to stay in the old server so he accepted.
But then after that, he has to look for a house then came the moving out and all the mess of things. When everything has settled down, Ling Yang naturally wanted to reawaken his old profession. He remembered his old acquaintance so Ling Yang immediately decided to buy a new server account to play.
It could be said that Ling Yan really knew how to play this game. He had a wide range of activities inside; he"s not only good in instances but also in player battles, he liked running a link (rng?), running a business, doing quests, raids, farming, practicing life skills, and other boring things. He could do all of these with delight but not with one little thing, he hated working to level up.
Help! (要说凌扬玩儿游戏,兴趣面那叫一个广,既好刷副本,又好下战场,喜欢跑环、跑商、做任务,连抄书、种地、练生活技能这些枯燥乏味的事情他都能进行得不亦乐乎,唯独有一点,就是不爱练级。)
His old character was actually forced to him by his two friends who played the game with him. In order to make him willingly play that character, the two begged grandfather to tell grandma(4).
There"s no other choice because Ling Yang was the only one they know who could play priest, commonly known as "nanny".
Ling Yang may have been a gay, but he"s also a man; and very few men like to play nanny.
Originally, Ling Yang wanted to play an archer or mage. He preferred attacking from a long distance away from his opponents, like ten steps to kill a person, not an inch of gra.s.s touched the body(5).
However, his childhood friends who he"d been inseparable with and also good buddies said that the team needed a priest, and that he"s definitely the right person.
So, for the sake of their many years of friendship, Ling Yang gritted his teeth and with bitter heart chose to become a wet nurse.
Ling Yang searched for a priest in the Linshan server using the 3715"s database (trading site).
Why would he choose to play nanny again? It"s just that he"s been accustomed playing as priest for a long time. Well, habit is a terrible thing.
Also, he"d found out that the priest was also very a interesting profession. He played it good and had a lot of fun.
Although his choice was not as good as with a mage or an archer that took lives of thousands in miles away, but with his endless support (奶水磨) to grind the enemy while watching those opponents grind their teeth yet unable to do anything; there"s also that kind of enjoyment.
There are four accounts that met Ling Yang"s requirements.
Ling Yang could brush aside what equipments are attached to these accounts. What"s important for him is the name, which can"t be changed.
For him, choosing a good name is the key to success.
The name of the first account is [Obama Praised Me Handsome]. (奥巴马夸我长得帅)
Ling Yang: Qi~, Bin Laden also praised my outstanding bed skill.
The name of the second account is [Husband, Please Be Gentle]. (相公、请温柔地)
Ling Yang: Vomits ~~~~~~
The third account is all Martian text.
The last one looks good. Its name is [Little Bell] (铃铛儿), which can also be regarded as Ling Yang’s relative under the same surname.
(TNnier8: Ling Yang = 凌扬; Little Bell = Ling Dang Er = 铃铛儿)
It also sounded fresh and lovely. Ling Yang tried to visualize her image in his brain; a big-eyed Lolita in two long braids, in its ends attached an elastic band that hung two small bells.
This [Little Bell] is a female character, but this is inconsequential.
How to treat a renyao is not up to his outward appearance, but rather it depends if a renyao has heart.
(TNnier9: 人妖 rényāo - a transs.e.xual, s.h.e.m.a.l.e, ladyboy, slang for men who use female charactersIDK why google tl this as "Simon" XD)
Ling Yang has a heart OF a dude and understood that the Lolita"s body has the elegance of something like a fleeting cloud (浮云).
(TNnier10: Although the original text is 浮云 fúyún, it"s also a known slang for浮云朝露 fúyúnzhāolù, idiom for floating clouds morning dew but with a more simple meaning of too beautiful or eye-catching)
Ling Yang also has a heart FOR a dude, and if playing a female character could get (泡pào) him a handsome man, it"s not really a bad choice.
Thinking up to this point, Ling Yang no longer hesitated and immediately contacted the seller.
After some bargaining, [Little Bell] was finally adopted by Ling Yang for a price of five pieces of Grandpa Mao. Buying this account plus paying the rent, Ling Yang has already spent this month’s living expenses.
(TNnier11: 5 Grandpa Mao = 500 yuan)
To make matters worse, the school has begun the summer break so the canteen was also on break. His remaining rice cards became completely useless.
Fortunately, Ling Yang has foresight; when Big Brother Xiong helped him move out, he also made him bring a box instant noodles. If this still couldn"t save him then he might be able to freeload with Xu Xian and be able to live until next month.
Ling Yang didn"t log into the game for some time so a small update package was needed to download which took him half an hour.
He entered the account and pa.s.sword, and a pitiful Lolita appeared in the selection screen. Although Ling Yang also didn’t expect a 500 yuan account to bring any good equipment, but this, it was simply too sad look at.
A level 80 character that"s still wearing level 50 trousers while the robe was a level 60 out of phase transitional product. But the most terrible one was that pair of shoes, which if he remembers correctly was a reward from a level 38 quest?
Then there"s only one thing to take note on its hand, the weapon, a scepter used by priests. It"s a bound item so it wasn"t sold.
Ling Yang sighed a relief, clicked on the character to continue logging in, and once again arrived to the familiar and also unfamiliar world.
TL"s Corner:
OMG. Too many idioms and slang! 11 TN aside from the after notes. I wanna cry. Sorry for too many notes. The TN along are quick notes and my reactions while at the bottom are mostly sayings, etc.
Okay, I know others have already read this novel and might want to spoil us. I won"t stop you, really. But I can"t promise that I won"t delete your spoilers.
I know many parts are a bit stiff since I tried to keep the original text as much as possible but if you have suggestions and of course corrections, feel free to use the comment section. Let me know your thoughts on my first MTL (ofc aside from my unposted Rebirth of Chen An"s chapters) Aiyo, whatever me.
Also, please see this:
《 — 》
Notes:
(1)海納百川海纳百川 Hǎi nà bǎi chuān - all rivers run into the sea; metaphorically means very broad or in a large number.
(2) 灌水Guàn shuǐ - dump water; say something useless or unrelated on the post.
(3)泥垢了！Nígòule! - NUFF! Literally means dirt or mud but is used in chats when someone wants to say "enough said".
(4) 求爷爷告奶奶Qiú yéye gào nǎinai - begged grandfather to tell grandma; begging and complaining everywhere, following everywhere everytime.
(5)十步杀一人，寸草不沾身Shí bù shā yīrén, cùn cǎo bù zhān shēn - ten steps to kill a person, not an inch of gra.s.s touched the body; Li Bai ‘s original intention is "This knight kills a person every ten steps, has been killing a thousand miles so far, after killing it, throws the clothes, does nothing the same, and then hides and lives in a very low profile".