Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: GaeaTiamat
The surroundings were quiet, as they should be. There was only the sound of the wind, softly winding through the tree tops and leaves. It blew across his shoulders, and playfully ruffled his short hair.
Xie Ning spun around several times. He didn’t dare go too far away from his original spot, at that moment, he still had an ostrich mentality, like seeking a sword dropped in the water while in a boat. He feared that if he moved even a little bit farther away, he would miss the chance to return to Earth, the key, the door…anything.
He had been an atheist for twenty years, but now he was so anxious that he begged his grandparents in his heart, the spirits of his ancestors, the Jade Emperor and the Three Pristine Ones…even Jesus, the Heavenly Father, and Mary. His hands shook and his feet trembled in panic, as he kept hoping that once he closed his eyes and opened them again, the wall of the cubicle would appear in front of him.
Unfortunately, reality always disappoints. Without knowing how long he waited, his lips began to burn, his mouth got dry, and the night was cold, Xie Ning was freezing. His teeth chattered, and he felt like the night wind was pouring into the cracks of his bones, and that he was cold to his soul.
He tightened the thin coat around his body, sat on the ground, hugged himself and sobbed.
There was nothing. Not a cell phone, not a glass of water, not a self-defense tool…Xie Ning was tired, hungry and exhausted. Earlier, he had thrown a few sticks of gum in the compartment of his backpack, which was the original mint flavor he hated the most. However, right now even the most hated flavor had become an unattainable and inaccessible luxury. After all, it was sugar which could save his life at such a critical moment.
Why did I hang my backpack on the hook in the first place!
Xie Ning couldn’t help but spit on his own order of doing things. If he could have carried the bag, while not much food, at least water wouldn’t be in short supply. That was an 800 ml large-capacity bottle of water…
Now, what was left for him?
Xie Ning patiently began to search his belongings, hoping to find something usable.
Clothes aside, he had an eight page sketchbook, which had a strap and could be slung directly on his body, thus enabling it to follow him into this hellhole, along with the two pens clipped on it. After emptying his pockets, he could feel there were still two piles of unused toilet paper in there, but other than that, there was…nothing! Nothing.
It was all gone.
Xie Ning was really dumbfounded.
Pens and sketchbooks were his favorite things, but they were of no use at this time! Toilet paper was barely enough to start a fire, but he didn’t have any matches, and he couldn’t make a fire by drilling wood in this wet and mossy place, that would be the same as changing his destiny!
Xie Ning was complaining bitterly, while his teeth creaked from freezing, when above his head, a bright light suddenly appeared.
Xie Ning raised his head in surprise, and looked towards the sky.
In his field of vision, the heavy clouds scattered and disintegrated like flotsam, melted and cracked, as they gradually revealed the stars and bright moonlight above the canopy. As the night sky broke free from the dark clouds, Xie Ning found that it wasn’t completely dark there, it was absolutely clear, almost demonic, with the starry river and bright moon bathed in a beautiful and magnificent color of ultramarine.1
The beauty of the scene was beyond words. Xie Ning’s eyes widened, and his lips unconsciously opened. If he had a painting tool at hand, he really couldn’t eat or drink until he had completely reproduced everything in front of him on the canvas.
However, in the midst of his fascination, a thought came to the surface, silently and unnoticeably, breaking through his self-deceiving delusion.
… It was unearthly, or rather, it was unEarthly.
The silvery moonlight on his face caused Xie Ning to have a vague illusion that the light, like the wind, was solid. It was as if a hand caressed his cheek, and made him slowly close his eyes as his mind drifted away for a moment.
After that first big reveal of the moon and stars, Xie Ning leaned backward. Now he went backward again, until finally, he was lying on the ground, asleep.
The next morning, Xie Ning was woken up by hunger and the sound of chirping birds.
Xie Ning opened his eyes in a daze. The grumbling in his belly was so loud that it almost overpowered the clear chirping sounds coming from all directions. He sat up, confused for a while.
How did I end up sleeping here?
The forest was lush and green, with spring trees, pale green leaves, vibrant green grass and bright green moss. It almost colored the eyes with all the shades of green. Xie Ning sat in a daze for a moment, then his body suddenly shook.
Damn! Why am I still sleeping here!
He jumped up in a hurry. However, he hadn’t eaten for more than ten hours, then stood up too quickly, so he was dizzy and fell to the ground again. Only after a while did he feel better.
“Mom…” Xie Ning really wanted to cry. “What kind of god have I offended? I’ve suffered a lot…”
However, on second thought, even though he slept paralyzed in a field for a night, he actually didn’t freeze to death, and wasn’t bitten or eaten by passing beasts. It wasn’t to say that could count as God’s blessing, but it was a burst of luck. A little bit of gratitude rose in his heart.
While his mood was better, his empty belly was more difficult to ignore. Xie Ning turned left and right, looking everywhere, but only saw the exuberant and luxuriant foliage. However there were stars, ruby-like berries dotted in the bushes.
He was immediately energized, but his body was weak, so he crawled over on hands and knees. People in the grip of hunger could dredge up amazing power.
…Wait. What if it was poisonous?
Xie Ning dog crawled to the bushes and picked a berry. He hesitated for a long time, and tried to find a little trace of insect infestation on it. Fortunately, the fruit was beautiful and the skin was intact. There wasn’t a trace of bird or insect bites. It was really unusual.
Xie Ning felt like there was a fire burning in his stomach. He brought the berry close to his lips a few times, but he couldn’t bring himself to eat one.
With nature’s fruit, the more eye-catching and brightly colored it was, the more unknown dangers it could hold. The birds and animals weren’t blind, if they could see such a beautiful fruit, how could they not eat all of them?
He thought about it for a long time, but still opened his mouth. He was afraid of stomach poisoning, but he couldn’t throw it down and just give up. Xie Ning weighed the possibilities again and again, then finally took off his coat, picked the large and plump berries until he had a few dozen in his arms, then stood up.
First, he had to find a way out of the current hellhole, and hope that he could find a human population. If it was impossible to get out, then he would eat the berries. It would be best if they weren’t poisonous, but if they were, it would be a shortcut to getting out.
With that in mind, Xie Ning braced himself for the journey through the verdant bushes. avoiding the dense branches hanging from the trees, and trekked one foot deeper and one foot shallower on ground covered with thick, downy, fuzzy grass.
The warm sunlight penetrated through the sea like canopy layers of the forest, and on every leaf, there were bright spots of green color. Deep in the forest, the birds also cawed and chirped. Even though his body was hungry and thirsty, Xie Ning still stopped and listened for a long time, because the sound was really beautiful and pleasant, like sparkling rain striking jade, and was the most touching sound that he had ever heard before.
He gradually realized something strange.
In the past, Xie Ning’s family was well-off. His parents had a car and a house in a first-tier city, and not counting his distant grandparents, the family loved him. When he intended to take the art exam, his mother was angry at first, but also worried, “You gave us nothing to worry about, but you also refused to study well, and now you want to go into art! How can you afford to eat in the future when you’re already so unproductive?”
As an only child raised in comfort and ease, it was true that Xie Ning’s ability to take care of himself was relatively poor, but just because it was poor, it didn’t mean that Xie Ning lacked common sense.
Even if he hadn’t seen any animals, Xie Ning should have at least seen an insect along the way.
Whether it was a scavenging midge, a mosquito that stung, or ants, spiders, earthworms, crickets…nothing. Nothing. Even when he lay with bare skin on the moss to sleep for a night, it didn’t result in itchy red spots.
Two gorgeous butterflies fluttered up and down, as they meandered and flew past him.
Xie Ning’s mouth twitched.
…Oh, except for the butterflies.
Which made the feeling even weirder! The breathtakingly beautiful and warm forest was like a fantasy world that could only reproduce and contain beautiful things. It was only by being in it that could one understand the sense of dissonance that permeated it.
The berries in Xie Ning’s hands were getting heavier and heavier, and if it weren’t for his hunger, he would have thrown them to the ground and never looked at them again.
He gulped and absentmindedly thought, if it wasn’t for the weirdness of the situation, this would have been good material for a painting…
After walking for an unknown period of time, Xie Ning finally saw a clear sky in front of his eyes. The grass under his feet was thinning out, and there was actually a forest path that had been trampled wide and flat!
In a flash, Xie Ning’s heart was filled with ecstasy! His eyes cleared and he almost shouted out loud.
Someone! Animals would never step into such a regular way, there must be someone around!
The joy of hope for survival, instantly overrode his wariness of the weird forest. Xie Ning forgot about everything while his body simultaneously filled with inexhaustible strength. Following the beautifully shaped path, he hurried forward with big steps, his face flushed.
At the same moment when Xie Ning stepped onto the path, back in the place where he had slept last night, there was the rustling sound of branches and leaves being moved apart.
Long-horned, long-eared figures poked out of the trees, and furred, sheep-hoofed beasts stepped out of the grass. The strange-looking god, Pan, held a flute, opened his divine eyes, and stared in wonder at the bare bushes. 2
“Who has plucked my fruit?”
His voice echoed like the wind through the mountains, and the satyr, perplexed, asked everyone in the ancient language, but the mountain spirits were silent. None of them came out to answer the master of the forest.
.
Yes! The light was ahead!
Xie Ning forgot about his hunger and strode along the road, as optimism swelled his chest.
He could feel it, close, so close! The exit was near! It was right there…!
He stepped out of the shade of the forest, pushed down the exuberant and abundant bushes, as he squeezed through the wall of nature’s defenses, and jumped gleefully out–
Xie Ning stood still, his smile stiffening.
A group of adult men in strange costumes, their average height more than a head above his own, held sharp weapons and carried large shields as they surrounded an old man with a crown. They looked at Xie Ning who had suddenly jumped out of the forest with a variety of different expressions.
Xie Ning was like a deer caught in the headlights, surprised and terrified.
…This feeling was just like the blackened version of Doraemon taking out an arbitrary door, and the unknowing Nobita jumping in his backpack, and ending up in Darkseid’s lair in the Apocalypse Planet. 3
“Oh, King!” cried Palaemon in the silence. His mother was a princess of Aetolia, his father was the god of the great river, both called Achelous, who was also a renowned hero in his country, “This may be an omen! This youth is no demon of the mountains, but a messenger of the Oracle! Let us listen to his words. Let us hear them, and be warned of what the Gods have declared!” 4
“You are right, Son of Achelous,” said the old king as he looked at the dark-haired youth in wonder. “You are right. That is the proper thing to do.”
It was all over.
Xie Ning’s heart turned to ashes.
I don’t understand what they’re saying, I don’t understand a single word…
Moreover, after his initial shock wore off, he clearly saw that the big men were not actually wearing “strange clothes.” Their armor was brilliant and shone like gold, so it should be made of bronze. As for the old man, his robe hung down to his ankles, an although the embroidery on it was brilliant and exquisite, there was no trace of tailoring, the pleats flowed naturally, like the lines of a river, while on his shoulders there was a fuchsia-bordered cloak decorated with gold brooches and golden ribbons. He had a pair of strappy pointy-toe sandals on his feet.
Xie Ning had seen, drawn, and disassembled this kind of clothing.
The robe was an undergarment called chiton, and the cloak was a himation, the two together were the basic outfits of the ancient Greek citizens. 5
I’m finished. Xie Ning shivered like a chicken in the wind. I’m really finished.
The men in front of him all had short hair, their foreheads covered with curly bangs, and some of them also had hairbands. With black hair and brown eyes, at first glance, they didn’t differ much from Xie Ning. However, the features of those heroes and heroines were as deep as a ditch. The junction of the eye sockets and the bridge of the nose could literally hold three liters of water, coupled with bodies full of strong muscles and olive skin, that were so virile that it made people want to die. 6
Compared to them, Xie Ning thought of his own soft Asian silhouette, and pale complexion that hadn’t seen the light of day for many years…
I’m no different than a walking noodle! He let out a heartfelt cry of sadness.
Aeson, King of Iolcus, an old man of great honor, looked upon the young man, who was grotesquely adorned, but had a face as fair as a woman’s, while his garments were of a slender make, so that he was dressed in a manner very different from anything he had ever seen in his life.
He dealt with the messenger before him with great caution, and said to him in a loud voice, “This boy! If you bring the will of the God, have mercy on me, an old man, and inform me of the portents of the expedition! Of the fifteen sons that were born to me, five died in the wars for the defense of the city, five were slain by the pestilence of disease, and of the remaining five, four, determined to free the people from the evils of the years, and embarked on an expedition that pleased the Gods. Ten months have gone by, and I have had no word from them so that I might have peace and joy in my heart. If thou knowest about them, tell me! I pray thee earnestly!” 7
Xie Ning’s expression was dumbfounded. His eyes were completely lifeless.
The old man had spoken a great deal, but he couldn’t understand even half of the syllables. He turned back slowly, trembling, only to discover that the path had long since disappeared, and that stone pillars towered behind him like an ancient altar.
Just kill me right here. Xie Ning couldn’t help a rueful smile. What the hell has happened to me…?
Aeson begged urgently, but heard no answer from the boy, just saw him turn his head away silently.
Inside the old man’s heart, a sudden fear of being lost rose up. He trembled, but still held on to his dignity as a king, and said in a mournful voice, “O messenger of the Oracle! Even if you were born the child of a God, you are not a fatherless soul! Have mercy on this miserable old man! It is the fate of mankind to endure sorrow, but Zeus 8 has not yet taken away all joy and happiness, and still bids us enjoy earthly pleasures in virtue. Yet, I cannot eat or drink, or close my eyes to sleep until I hear from thee. Have I not done the will of the Gods? Have I not taught my sons, and required my subjects to be diligent in the worship of the Gods?”
His tearful and sorrowful speech aroused the infinite sympathy of the heroes, so much so that they all became enraged, and shouted like thunder, as they forcibly commanded the young man to speak.
…I’m just kidding! Don’t kill me! I really have a seventy-year-old grandma and grandpa waiting for me to go home!
Xie Ning panicked and shook like a leaf. His face was bloodless, both of his ears buzzed, and his eyes were dazed. It took all the strength he had not to collapse, to keep from losing face despite his weak legs and knees. It was a good thing that his face was originally white and he’d been starving all day, so they couldn’t see he was pale from fear…
The group of big brothers were really impressive as they shouted like lions. The battlefield kills of military generals who were like that was simply something a mere modern man could not match.
However, he didn’t speak up. He never spoke.
Behind his countless trepidations, fear, and stiff facade, Xie Ning had only one hazy thought.
I can’t speak, absolutely can’t speak, he thought. My hair and eye colors aren’t much different from theirs, so at least I can pretend to be the same kind of people, but once I open my mouth, that will be completely different. I obviously speak a different language, and it will completely reveal the fact that I am not one of theirs, that I’m really a foreigner.
What do they do to outsiders who are obviously different in that place? Ancient Greece was a typical slave society. If he pretended to be a stranger who didn’t understand and couldn’t speak, maybe he could still have a chance to learn the language and eventually communicate with them.
In a moment of desperation, Xie Ning tremblingly raised his coat. His intention was to present its modern workmanship, the seamless assembly line production, as a commission for ransom, but he forgot that inside the coat was piled up a handful of red, round berries.
That was an unexpected turn of events! When the old man saw the berries, he went from sadness to joy, then fainted.
Love and hate are just a moment away, Xie Ning thought blankly. You ancient people, it’s really easy for you to get overexcited…
Addis note: This entire book is going to be a headache to translate. Lol. All the Greek gods, kings, and heros have different Chinese spellings based on the people writing the names. So this makes it harder to be 100% sure that the names I am guessing are the right pneumonic are the correct ones.
GaeaTiamat addition: Luckily I’m an ancient mythology geek and can find just about anything to help Addis out.
