NOVEL NEXT
Book 1: Chapter 26: The Invitation Letters Are for Under-the-Table Transactions?
Faillen Angel Gabriel: That’s why there’s the saying that some people remain silent to net a greater gain. This is the “In order to capture, one must let loose” in China’s Thirty-Six Stratagems, right?
[TL Note: The Thirty-Six Stratagems is a famous Chinese essay illustrating a series of stratagems used in politics, war, and civil interaction. Here is the Wikipedia entry on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-Six_Stratagems. The “In order to capture, one must let loose” stratagem is the fourth one in Chapter 3.]
Kal’tsit: This is truly capturing everything in one go. However, I now know that Efreet’s name is Itsuka Kotori.
He Who Knows Fate: I will unmute them one hour later. However, do remind me about it. I might forget. I’m going to study now.
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“How frustrating!” Yakumo Yukari was so frustrated that she rolled around on the ground in her home in Mayohiga.
[TL Note: Mayohiga is a lost village near the Great Hakurei Barrier. You can read more about it and other related information here: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Mayohiga.]
“What’s wrong, Master?” a beauty with nine bushy tails asked. This was Yakumo Yukari’s shikigami, Yakumo Ran.
[TL Note: A shikigami is a summoned spirit, similar to a familiar. Here is Yakumo Ran’s profile: /wiki/Ran_Yakumo. As before, the arrangement of the name in my translation is different from the profile, as I choose to follow the arrangement of names in the name’s original language. In this case, Japanese, the family name comes before the given name. From henceforth, if the arrangement of any name is different from any references, just know that it is due to me following the original language of the names.]
“Is it that Dimension Administrators Association again?” When Yakumo Yukari first started giggling at nothing, Yakumo Ran had thought that her master had finally gone mad from sleeping. She even planned to bring Yakumo Yukari to Eientei.
[TL Note: Eientei is where humans and youkai go for medical services. It means House of Eternity. Here is its profile: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Eientei.]
Yakumo Yukari finally stopped rolling after hearing Yakumo Ran’s question, only to say a bunch of things that Yakumo Ran felt strange. “I got tricked by a brat. Even if I—Yakumo Yukari—die and get placed in a coffin, I will use this rotten voice to shout ‘He Who Knows Fate is a lolisiscon!’ from the grave.”
Hah! Ever since my master joined this Dimension Administrators Association, she has become more interesting and comical. Yes, that’s the way to describe her.
“Ran, I sense someone insulting me. It’s not you, right?” Yakumo Yukari suddenly felt a malicious intent and glanced at Yakumo Ran beside her.
“How can that be? You are the person who single-handedly built up Gensokyo. You are the noble Youkai Sage Yakumo Yukari who created a place for the last youkai.”
“Never mind. I’ll spare you this once. Many of the tangible items newly added to the association’s stores are useful to Gensokyo. It looks like I have to complete more missions.”
“Thank you for your hard work over the coming days, Master!”
“Isn’t it all for Gensokyo?”
“The administrator can get one invitation letter every month. I can use that. Perhaps it is time to get those old fellows to put in some effort for Gensokyo. However, the most important thing now is how to obtain that invitation letter. Furthermore, it would be best if I could become an administrator.” After venting, Yakumo Yukari started thinking seriously about the information she had just received.
As the youkai who built up Gensokyo single-handedly, Yakumo Yukari suffered from tremendous pressure that kept accumulating. Not only did she have to maintain stability between the various Gensokyo factions, but she also had to fix any holes appearing in the Great Hakurei Barrier. Yakumo Ran could fix the small holes, but only Yakumo Yukari could handle the big holes. However, joining the Dimension Administrators Association had given her an opportunity to change things for the better.
[Author Note: This is why the people in the chat group behave so comically. After all, no one knew who they were behind the anonymity of the chat group. It was an excellent channel for venting pressure, just like how one could not say certain things before family or friends but could do so on random Internet chat groups. For example, lewd conversations. →_→]
Yakumo Yukari had grown stronger after completing some missions and undergoing the ability third awakening, so the pressure on her had decreased. Furthermore, the newly added tangible items gave her another choice.
Yakumo Yukari: Do you have any interest in selling that invitation letter?
This was a private chat between Yakumo Yukari and Chen Heng.
He Who Knows Fate: I will get the invitation letter only one month later. Furthermore, I do want to use it. We can discuss it again after I get it.
Yakumo Yukari: Alright.
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Actually, Chen Heng felt rather upset. If he received the invitation letter at the start of the month, he could let Sirin use it. That way, she would not have to die once. After all, the Dimension Administrators Association members are no longer bound by fate and could change their future. However, that only worked for themselves.
Take Sirin, for example. If she joined the Dimension Administrators Association, she would not need to become a Herrscher. She would have a choice.
If she did not join, even if Chen Heng helped her through her calamity, the world would make her die once to correct fate.
However, Chen Heng would receive the trashy invitation letter only after one month. By then, Sirin would be gone.
That meant he could only give it to Ryougi Shiki or sell it to Yakumo Yukari.
Chen Heng could give it to Yakumo Yukari in exchange for her help with stealing back the ancestral crystal and killing the culprit. Giving it to Ryougi Shiki would allow Ryougi Shiki to seek refuge in another world for some time while he smashed ten or so meteors on that culprit before leaving for another world. If that plan failed, he could continue bringing more meteors down. In any case, he had more than enough to pay the 100 points fee for traveling to another world. What about simply using the moon? The chances of that succeeding were not high. Not that he could not pull the moon down, but there would be many deities and immortals coming to stop that.
Even if that could succeed, Chen Heng did not want to cause trouble for the entire world just to kill one person.
As for the specifics, he had to observe the developments over this month.
Of course, Chen Heng hoped that he could take revenge with his own hands.
“Sirin, I’m going to Uncle Mo’s house first. I’ll be back in the afternoon. Don’t sit too close to the monitor when using the computer, alright?”
“Got it.”
Chen Heng intended to leak the questions of the college entrance exams to Mo Qingtong. He had found similar questions among the papers of previous years. As long as he could direct her to the same solving methods as the college entrance exam questions, it would be a done deal.
Actually, Chen Heng did not get any vision of the college entrance exams from his Precognition. Even so, he did have some impression of them. However, how much could one recall from their major examinations a few years later? When the Absolute Precognition activated for the first time, he got to view his future. Why would he focus on the college entrance exam questions then? Why would he think about the college entrance exams when he was going to die?
After guiding Mo Qingtong in her studies, Chen Heng saw her smiling foolishly. He started to harbor doubts. Given her brains, I’m confident of her entering a prestigious university. However, she is still far from making Jindu University. Don’t tell me she got in by connections?
The more Chen Heng thought about it, the more he found it possible. Then, he recalled that the Special Affairs Bureau had a policy. The children of the Special Affairs Bureau members would get bonus points on their college entrance exams.
Grade D added six points, grade C added eight points, grade B added ten points, and grade A added 12 points. Furthermore, this addition was per parent. If there were special contributions, more points could be added on discretion. Don’t complain. These people risked their lives for the nation, sometimes even influencing the victory of a battle. They protected the nation’s critical secrets and their leaders. When this policy came out, several people joined the Special Affairs Bureau. Most of them had awakened their abilities after becoming parents, and their abilities’ ranks were low. However, their children were approaching their college entrance exams, so they came for this policy.
When the Special Affairs Bureau initiated this policy, the officials from the other nations mocked them: Who are you going to scare with exam results? What use is that? Is there going to be a Special Affairs Bureau branch getting more points?
Clearly, these officials did not understand the value of exam results to the Chinese, especially their importance to parents.
[TL Note: As a stereotype, the Chinese have always been obsessed with high scores in exams since ancient times. They invented standardized testing in ancient times for selecting people to serve as officials. Even today, the Chinese pay a lot of attention to exam scores. There are stories of students going to specialized tuition centers to help them get good scores, some even going to extreme lengths for any advantage. For example, here is a link to a news site that reported on one school where students took in amino acids via intravenous drips to aid them in their studies: .cn/china/2012-05/07/content_15227568.htm. Do note that this is just an extreme case, and it is not happening everywhere in China. I only brought it up to show how far the Chinese are willing to go. In reality, students face tremendous stress for the college entrance exams, as these essentially determine the rest of their lives—deciding which universities they could go to, and from there, what jobs they could take and how well a life they would live. Furthermore, China previously had a one-child policy, resulting in parents placing all their hopes on their single child. That policy is now scrapped.]