Watchmen

Watchmen Chapter 2: Epitaph

All of Jiu Jie"s memories of that winter were grizzly, as if that day the earth had been covered in a boundless snow – cold, bitingly cold.

And of that disjointed grizzly recollection of his, there were many things he could not remember.

He forgot how he reported to the police, forgot what they had done afterwards, forgot that the that time they had questioned him; he even forgot about himself, what he was doing.

It seemed as if his soul had bored out, and he were but a spectator, an onlooker from a detached point of view, watching everything that happened.

But the one thing Jiu Jie did remember was the incompetence of the police. They had not given him an exact cause of death.

The morning of Jiu Ming Shan"s death, his body had no signs of injury and no signs of poisoning; there was no indication of a heart attack, the kind attributed to a sudden illnesses, and furthermore, to hit the nail on the head, the doors and windows in the room were intact, and there were no signs of an intruder.

The death of Jiu Ming Shan was a mystery to all.

However, regarding his father"s cause of death, Jiu Jie had this wildest idea; he vaguely felt his father was killed in a dream. Of course he did not tell anyone, no one would believe it.

Yet, he didn"t expect, to one"s surprise, was that there was a man who had this same absurd notion.

It was a middle-aged man who suddenly appeared the day of his father"s funeral.

Jiu Jie still remembered that day. It was cold; snow fell that morning; and he was under a canopy, looking down at the portrait of his deceased father, lost in thought.

When the man caught his eye, Jie Jie was stunned. It was the man he had seen in his dream that night.

The man came up before his father"s portrait, took of his fur hat, and burnt an incense. He leaned over to pray, murmuring a few words. His voice was awfully soft, so even though he was long-winded, Jiu Jie couldn"t catch a single word clearly.

After, he approached Jiu Jie and asked, "Are you Jiu Jie? I am Luo Yi De, your father"s friend. He should have mentioned me?"

The man"s voice was quite steady, but also swift.  Although he spoke right in front of him, the man"s voice made it seem as if he were far away.

Jiu Jie, of course, knew the name Luo Yi De. His father"s letter clearly mentioned that he should follow this person.

He looked up at the middle-aged man. Luo Yi De was tall and straight, he had a square face with a clean beard, only but his hair loss was grave; perhaps he had just taken off his hat as the top of his head was slowly steaming. His Mediterranean hairstyle and manly face made him look like an early version of the French star, Zinedine Zidane.

In the end, in regards to the question, Jiu Jie merely gave an apathetic not, "Mmm".

"What did your father say about me?" Luo Yi De asked again.

"He said go with you." Jiu Jie said simply.

"I see…" Luo Yi De turned to look at the portrait under the canopy and said, "We"ll first send your father off, and then after we"ll talk."

He then glanced at Jiu Jie and muttered in a slightly audible voice, "There is hatred in his heart. No, it"s more than that.1

Jiu Ming Shan"s ashes were buried in the suburbs of Shen City"s Dragon Mountain"s Public Cemetery. After period of time, friends and relatives gradually began to depart. The only one to remain was Jiu Jie; he had been silent all this while and to accompany him was Luo Yi De.

At this time, the snow stopped falling, the mountains and rivers covered in silver, but the sky was gloomy and the clouds were dense, the atmosphere both solemn and oppressive.

"Uncle Luo, we"ve met before, haven"t we?" Jiu Jie broke the silence and asked.

"Mmm, when you were one year"s old, that year I came and met you. At that time your mother was still around. Old Jiu truly was blessed, to be able to get married and have a beautiful wife and son. Don"t know how many were envious, only it"s a pity. A beautiful woman was born under such an unlucky star, it could truly permit a man to lament."  Luo Yi De said.

"I didn"t mean that."

"Then what did you mean?"

Jiu Jie stared closely at Luo Yi Di. "That night, that dream, you were there!"

The two men"s gazes both seemed as sharp as two double-edged, steel swords slamming into each other, sparks flying.

Luo Yi De was the first to shift his gaze, and he forced out a smile. "Yes, we met each other in the dream. I entered your dream."

Jiu Jie reacted keenly, immediately catching the meaning of what Luo Yi De said and asked, "You can enter someone else"s dreams?"

Luo Yi De nodded.

Jiu Jie was shocked, to think, what the man said was impossible, but as he looked at Luo Yi De, the man also didn"t appear to be lying.

"Who the h.e.l.l are you?" Jiu Jiu asked warily.

"My official ident.i.ty is the Director of Division Seven of the NSB."

"And unofficially?"

"Of course, I"m a Watchman."

"A Watchman? What is a Watchman?" Jiu Jie asked, puzzled.

"It"s a long story, but you can simply interpret Watchmen as Guardians of Dreams. As for the details, you will get to know them, in time."

The more Jiu Jie listened, the more surprised he was, but deep inside he was more concerned about something else. It became difficult to suppress the question any longer, and he asked, "My father was killed in that dream, right?"

The idea of that was absurd, but Luo Yi De looked calm, and that weather-beaten face did not show a sign of a stir when the man heard it.

Luo Yi De hesitated a moment, but then nodded slowly.

Jiu Jie suddenly turned red in the face, and he yelled, "What is all of this? Who did it? My dad, how the h.e.l.l did he die? You must know something. Tell me!"

Luo Yi De sighed, and said softly, "Child, you should be concerned but not about how he died."

"The F**k! Fart! Jiu Jie bellowed in rage. "He was my dad! The night before, all was fine. Now he"s been buried under dubious circ.u.mstances.

"Did truly you know your father?" Luo Yi De asked.

Jiu Jie wanted to say something, but the words at his lips found it impossible to come out; he searched for the memory of his father, and suddenly realized something.

The impression he had of his father was that he was always quite busy. During the day, he had cla.s.ses at school, and at night, he would be cooped up in his study.

Everyday, the man was occupied. What his father was distressed about, what he liked, what he hated, he did not know.

Jiu Jie was appalled to discover that all this time that he was with his father, that he did not really know him!

Luo Yi De did not pay attention pay attention to Jiu Jie"s blank expression. He turned to the tombstone, waving to Jiu Jie and asked, "Have you ever seen your father"s epitaph?" In accordance to his wishes, it was by my hand that that it was engraved.

Jiu Jie turned to the gravestone, and precisely as Luo Yi De said, he had not really taken a careful look at the epitaph on his father"s grave.

The gravestone was made of a yellow hillrock, and on the back, crafted with skill were a few lines in small print:

"When I was young and frivolous, I believed I had an extraordinary power that far exceeded the average man, and so I dreamed of changing the world.

"When I was an adult, I realized I couldn"t change the world, so I shortened my sight and decided to change my country.

"When I was near the end of my days, I found I could not change my country, and so my last wish was to change my family, but that was not possible.

"When I was at the very end of my life, I suddenly realized that if I had only changed myself at first, and acted as an example, I might have changed my family, and with help and encouragement from them, I might have done something for the country. And who knows? I might have even changed the world."

A very brief few lines, ones he looked at for a long time. It was not so much as an epitaph, but rather a doctrine of life – a soul"s introspection.

He was agitated. All this time, he found himself living with his father for more than a decade without actually the man.

It"s not how he died you should care about, but how he lived.

Ji Jie understood the meaning of what Luo Yi De meant; he wanted him to put aside his hatred, and pursue his own life.

"Child, what do you think after reading this?" Luo Yi De asked.

Jiu Jie"s eyes never left the gravestone. He was silent, not knowing how to answer. He only felt that the image of his tall and imposing father became even bigger, and now also, a trace of mystery.

Luo Yi De watched as Jiu Jie stood alone in the cold wind, lonely and stubborn, just as the boy"s father had been when he was young.

In his line of sight, a vague image of a young, first-year university student overlapped the boy in front of him, and the two silhouettes gradually seemed the same. It was as if another young Jiu Ming Shan stood before him.

He felt moved; he sighed and said, "Child, your father was an extraordinary man. When I was young, I was pretentious. The world was like a herd of sheep3. Your father was an exception though. We rarely saw eye to eye, but he was one of the few people I admired in this world. His death, I"m sorry. I know you have hate in your heart, but you should not cling to vengeance. You should find your way as your father did.

"I"ll find a way…"

He clenched his fists. Remembering a life with his father, he felt a formidable power surging within him, and in a flash, it bubbled up all over, head to toe; the power seemed to surge through his veins, and they felt as if their were going to burst into flames, like the eruption of a volcano, enough to destroy the heaven and the earth.

Jiu Jie"s eyes became red, and through his clenched jaw, he spat, "…but before that, I will have my vengeance."

Owner’s Drawing Board:

So o/ Everyone, another chapter, and the mystery get’s deeper.

Things we know.

1. A. Luo Di Yi is a Watchman, B. Jiu Jie confirms his father was killed and wants revenge against who did it.

Things we don’t know.

2. A. What a watchman is, B. Who or what truly killed his father, C. Anything about entering dreams, D. what his father was so busy doing, and E. What the NSB has to do with this?

Whelp, let’s stay tuned and figure it all out.

Again, I plan  to TL this, but if there is anyone who wishes to join JFB and take up the novel, let me know.

From what I could gather, it’s supposed to be: "Truly a bad boy, I have never seen such libido before” It was literally put in English “libido”.. >.> I just put something else. It made no sense to me, sorry.Not sure if I got this right, but I think he"s saying that it looked like it could be suicide, his father dying of suspicious circ.u.mstancestranslated actually as herbivores, but a common phrase is to say "sheep" in English.