No Hero Volume 1: Vampire Butler
Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)
Diary of a Butler Chapter 1: Trying Hard to Become Familiarized with the Work Environment – translated by Raylight
Dear Father,
At the moment, it is the year 2112. I have finally managed to find another job as a butler, and moreover, the employer isn’t someone from the criminal underworld. Ah, according to my employer, he isn’t a criminal. Therefore, it is certainly a year worth commemorating.
Please bless me from the heavens. At last, I can become a genuine butler.
After I had agreed to the butler job, An Xiang Ye’s and my positions were no longer on equal footing. Therefore, with a tone of respect, I said, “Master, there are a few matters which I must inform you1 about…”
Once he heard the form of address, he started laughing and teased, “Do I look that old?”
Indeed, to call this young man of about twenty something years ‘Master’ is a little odd. I could only ask, “Then may I inquire as to who the people of importance within the family are?”
“There’s Bàba2 and Gēge 3.”
I followed the conventions of a butler for addressing people and replied, “Then, I shall address your father as Master, your elder brother as Great Young Master, and as for you, I shall address you directly as Young Master. Is that acceptable?”
This time, he laughed heartily. “If you address them that way, you will definitely be killed by Gēge. The most important person in my family is Gēge. Also, Bàba is not Gēge’s papa.”
I have to say that I was very much at a loss. The person in power is the eldest son and not the father. This I could understand, for the authority of those in rich and powerful families have always been tangled and complicated. However… Bàba is not Gēge’s papa? Might the young master and his elder brother be brothers from the same mother but different fathers?
I hesitated for a moment and then recalled that there was already a secretary-slash-butler in the household. Hurriedly, I asked, “Then may I ask how Mr. Kyle addresses you?”
He tilted his head to one side to think. He said, “Kyle-gē calls me Young Master and calls Bàba Mr. An Te Qi4. He calls Gēge…”
He looked very distressed.
A butler should never let his employer be distressed. I immediately suggested, “Then I shall address you as Young Master, your brother as Master, and as for your father… For your father….”
I was really at a loss as to how to address him. I could only force myself to say, “How about Master An Te Qi?”
“Okay.” The young master seemed not to mind the forms of addresses much. This part of him was quite like a young man.
“Then, Young Master, shall I come over every day to serve you, or should I live here?”
Without any hesitation, An Xiang Ye replied, “You can live here. There are still empty rooms here anyway, and it’s really boring to live alone.”
“Okay.” I nodded my head and answered, “Then I shall move in tomorrow.”
The young master thought for a moment, ran into a room, and following that, ran out again. He shoved a cell phone and a key into my hands, saying, “Right, this is for you. Kyle-gē said that if you were willing to accept the butler job, I’m to give this to you. Then, you should give him a call. His contact number is already saved inside the cell… Do you know how to use a cell phone, Charles?”
At the last part, the young master stared at me, his eyes uncertain.
I understood his misgivings. In an ordinary person’s eyes, a vampire seems like they have no relation to science or technology. However, the truth is not as such. Many vampires walk on the cutting edge of the era’s technology. Though I myself am considered part of the conservative faction, for the sake of properly fulfilling my role as a butler, I have learned a lot regarding the modern era’s science and technology.
I gave a smile and respectfully answered back, “I do know, Young Master.”
“Good, this is for you! Congrats on having found a job, Charles.”
Young Master An Xiang Ye smiled broadly as he picked up the blood bag I had brought over. Then, he poured the scarlet liquid into an extremely beautiful cup he retrieved from the cupboard. Around the cup was a ring of decorative runes made of gold. Moreover, I suspected that the ruby in the center of the gla.s.s, one the size of a fingernail, might actually be genuine.
As he handed it to me, he said, “The cup is yours. Treat it as a congratulatory gift for having found a job!”
I received it and looked at the ruby. As expected, it is a real gemstone…
At this moment, I saw that the young master had poured blood into another cup as well. Following that, he picked up the cup.
He actually used his cup to touch the cup in my hands. After they gave a clear resounding sound, he said, “Cheers!”
My eyes widened as I cried out in surprise. “That’s human blood!”
“I know.”
After he spoke, he drank the cup’s contents with his head raised, facing the sky. Then, he tilted his head to one side as though he was pondering something, and then he said, “I wanted to see how human blood tastes like. Hm, it’s icy and isn’t too disgusting.”
“…”
I had a premonition that I was going to have an employer unlike any other.
At night, I packed my luggage and took a light nap until ten in the morning. Only then did I pick up that cell phone and call Kyle, the secretary-slash-butler the young master had spoken of.
Once the phone picked up, before I could speak the other person had already started talking.
“You are the butler that the young master has found?”
“Yes, Head Butler Kyle. I am Charles Endelis, Young Master An Xiang Ye’s butler.”
From what I know, a genuine influential family would always have quite a few butlers in charge of tending to different masters. However, the butler that holds the most authority within the family is definitely the master’s butler, commonly addressed as the head butler.
“… I am a secretary, not a butler.” Though the other person said so, he muttered to himself, “Though there isn’t a big difference between me and a butler.”
He asked, “I hear that you are a vampire?”
“Yes.” I was a little astonished. To think that the young master had actually told the truth. I thought that he would have hidden the fact from his family. After all, a young man living alone has found a vampire to stay by his side as a butler. No matter what, that is not something that would make someone feel at ease.
The other person stayed silent for a long time, so long that I even a.s.sumed that he had already left. However, he spoke again, “Pardon me. Just now… my master was looking for me.”
“I understand.” I nodded my head. To prioritize the master’s affairs first, it seems like the other party is indeed an exceptionally well-qualified butler… Though he believes himself to be a secretary.
“As for your being a vampire, that is a good thing. With the young master’s penchant for stirring up trouble, only a vampire would be able to withstand being his butler.”
I was very doubtful as I replied, “The young master is extremely cultured.”
The other side went quiet for a moment. With a tone that sounded very helpless, he explained, “The young master is definitely very cultured. However, being cultured has nothing to do with stirring up trouble. You will understand this in due time… Anyway, I have already sent a group of people to you, dedicated to helping you fulfill the young master’s requests. Their telephone numbers are all inside the contact list in your cell phone. That said, are there any more questions?”
I stated cautiously, “Mr. Kyle.”
“Yes.”
“I am a vampire.” I was puzzled. As humans, they would actually accept a vampire, just like this?
The person on the line flatly replied, “I know. Charles Endelis. Your father was an ordinary human and was born into an old and influential family of butlers. Your mother on the other hand is a vampire. Thus, you are a rarely seen pureborn vampire. Your “Vampire Generation Number” is the fifth generation. Since childhood, you have been raised by your father, who was a butler. After you came of age, you have gone everywhere to search for a job as a butler. Though you are a strong vampire of the fifth generation, through a safety evaluation, your danger factor doesn’t even reach 10%. Your personality is extremely gentle, which is an oddity among vampires.”
I was extremely shocked, unable to open my mouth in response.
The other person understood me extremely well and started explaining, “Charles, you are not the only vampire within the family. You are very unique and extremely famous among the vampire folks. With just a couple of inquiries, I knew about your affairs. The truth is, I had also once thought about letting one of the vampires within the family become the young master’s subordinate, but the young master didn’t like her, so I could only drop the matter. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about your ident.i.ty as a vampire. Just focus on serving the young master.”
It looks like the young master’s family is much more ill.u.s.trious than what I had imagined.
“Understood, I will do all I can to fulfill my duty as a ‘butler.’” I still couldn’t help but give a slight reminder to the other that I am a butler, not a hired thug.
“That is enough.” The other’s reply made me feel very rea.s.sured.
Following that, he casually mentioned a few things to take note of. “The young master’s food intake is very large. He has a food intake of approximately three to five people’s share, more or less. So when you’re cooking, cook a bit more. He likes to eat fried food and meat. He also likes to play virtual games. He likes motorcycles, fighting, his brother… Right, if you discover monitoring devices within the house, don’t be too astonished. That is the young master’s elder brother showing care for him.”
I was silent for a moment, and then I lightly said, “Mr. Kyle, the person I serve is the young master.”
He too went quiet for a while, and he seemed to bear praise in his tone as he said, “Then you can tell the young master. It’s just that the young master definitely knows about the monitoring devices. Now, I am going to tell you something very important. You must remember it.”
“Yes.” I replied extremely earnestly.
The other person slowly said, “The young master is a very unique person. Since childhood, he has seldom left the house, and has had even less contact with other people. It was only in the recent few years that he has come out to take a breath of fresh air. Thus, he is proficient in various kinds of knowledge, yet is lacking in basic general knowledge and is even more lacking in matters of interpersonal relationships. When he doesn’t understand some matters, don’t be surprised. Just guide him through the learning phase.”
I nodded my head. This finally explained the peculiar conduct of the young master.
“Do you have any more questions?”
“There are none at the moment. I am very grateful for your explanation.” I thanked him courteously.
“If you have any questions, you can always give me a call.”
“I give my utmost thanks.”
At night, the young master came back home from his cla.s.ses. While I was helping him change into leisure wear I told him that there were at least thirty monitoring devices in the house. This number had really surprised me. One has to know, this apartment wasn’t big. Except for the toilet and the bathroom, there were monitoring devices in all the rooms. The secret workroom alone held eight of them.
As expected, the young master had known about them.
He indifferently replied with a shrug, “I know, my brother is very worried about me. It’s not just the monitoring devices. Quite a few of the neighbors were actually sent by my brother to protect me.”
I was a little doubtful and asked, “However, the night I met Young Master, Young Master had ran into trouble, but no one had appeared to protect you.”
The young master started grinning. “I had thrown them off. If I don’t want them following me, no one among them can follow me.”
Young Master An Xiang Ye’s tone was a little proud at this moment. Till now, this was the only time that I could see some aura befitting a child from a rich and powerful family.
Since the young master did not mind the monitoring devices, then as a butler, I would not have any right to interfere. I asked, “Young Master, what would you like to eat for dinner?”
After thinking for a moment, the young master replied, “Hamburgers, lots and lots of hamburgers.”
“Do you want Charles to personally make them or do you want to call for delivery?”
The young master asked, full of curiosity, “You know how to cook?”
I gave a modest smile in return. “Charles is a butler, Young Master. Though I cannot compare with top chefs, simple dishes are no problem for me.”
The young master smiled as he said, “Then I want to eat your cooking, and I want a lot of french fries too.”
Seems like the young master greatly enjoys junk food. This part of him is also like a young man.
“Would you be needing a drink?”
“Milk,” was the young master’s reply without any hesitation.
This part doesn’t seem like a young man.
Following that conversation, I went to the nearby supermarket to buy the ingredients needed for dinner.
When I returned home, the young master was obediently writing a report, an act extremely unlike a young man. Moreover, he was writing it by hand, and the words were so neat that it looked like it was typed on the computer. In the few times I helped the young master refill his gla.s.s of milk, I saw the report expand from one page, to two pages, five pages… By the end, it was almost half the thickness of a book.
However, I had not seen the young master refer to any resources.
“Young Master, what are you writing?” I asked, a little curious.
Even though the butler’s code of conduct states that a butler should not ask their employer anything unrelated to their job as a butler, my father had also said before that “The butler’s code of conduct is dead, but the employer is alive.” If the employer likes to chat, then, as a competent butler, one should learn to chat with the employer.
I believe that Young Master An Xiang Ye is the type of employer who belongs in the category of liking to chat.
The young master lifted his head up and answered, “The history and future trends of the development of combat weapons.”
It was at this point that I suddenly realized that I did not actually know what major the young master was studying and hurriedly asked him.
“Combat major!” The young master said as though it was to be expected.
I looked at the young master’s slender and slim figure. He simply did not look like someone who was good at fighting. However, no matter what the subject is, it is always divided into the practical type and the theory type. Perhaps the young master is the theory type!
I thought for a moment, and then asked, “Is it the university nearby?”
“Yeah.”
As expected, he is a theory type. Generally speaking, true combat experts mostly come from combat schools. Combat schools look for neither age nor educational backgrounds, but rather one’s skill and physique. As long as one’s physical fitness is good enough, they should be able to get in.
In contrast, universities still have to look at one’s educational and liberal arts background and so on. Thus, the combat majors in universities are mostly just afterthoughts
“What a fragrant smell! Can I start eating?” The young master looked at me, full of antic.i.p.ation.
“Certainly. Young Master, do you wish to eat in the living room?”
“Yup!”
I tidied up the young master’s homework, and then delivered dinner.
The young master took a bite out of the hamburger and shouted, “What a delicious hamburger!”
Just as I was about to modestly respond, I watched the young master finish the hamburger in his hands with an alarming chewing speed. In the time gap of stretching out his hand to take another hamburger, he rapidly swallowed a dozen french fries. He had chewed them one by one before he swallowed. Yet, in the blink of an eye, he had already swallowed a dozen of them…
The young master’s motions could not be said to be uncultured. As a matter of fact, he was still extremely graceful. Only, it was “fast-forwarded” by a dozen or so times.
Following that, the young master finished off five more three-layered hamburgers, an entire plate of french fries, and three gla.s.ses of milk. When he finished, he told me that if the food portion were to be just a bit bigger, he would be satisfied. I could only carry bewilderment in my heart as I cooked another hamburger and fried one more plate of fries.
This time, after the young master finished, he was extremely happy as he said that he was full.
For the first time, I began to suspect. The young master is definitely not a vampire, but perhaps he is a werewolf?
After finishing dinner, the young master walked to the study and sat down in front of the computer. I had originally thought that he was finally going to start the recreational activities of a young man. However, I heard him give a call of brother. Following that were sounds of non-stop chitchat. Only then did I realize that he was using the computer to communicate with his brother and was absolutely not engaging in a youngster’s recreational activities.
After clarifying with the young master that he had no other requests to make of me, I started to prepare to clean the interior of the apartment. Thankfully, the apartment wasn’t extremely clean. Otherwise, I would really start to suspect that other than frying hamburgers, what purpose would I, as a butler, hold?
One hour of sitting in front of the computer later, the young master walked out. At this moment, it was roughly eight o’clock. He opened the secret workroom and sat at one of the desks inside. The top of the desk was filled with all kinds of firearms, both finished and semi-finished products. If I were not mistaken, there was even a bomb among them.
The young master picked up his work tools and started to work on those semi-finished products. If I did not understand wrongly, I believe his actions were called remodeling firearms.
The young master had said before that his family was not from the criminal underworld. I believed him. However, perhaps they are arms dealers?
While the young master was engrossed in remodeling firearms, I had already cleaned half of the living room. This included taking out all the books in the five giant bookcases, and, after cleaning and applying wax to both the inside and the outside, putting back into their original positions the books that had been dusted. I had discovered that among these books, there were quite a few that were three hundred or more years old. Normally, they would have been locked in a library’s antique cla.s.sics cabinet.
The five giant bookcases were all completely made from mahogany.
When I was maintaining the sofa and giving the wooden coffee table a good cleaning and waxing, I found out that though the sofa was of a common style, it was actually made from genuine lamb skin. The coffee table was not eye-catching either, but it was made of cypress wood and the trim in the corner was not actually bra.s.s but karat gold.
The cushions that were placed under the coffee table were all woven from the highest grade of Kashmir fleece, moreover the starry sky and moon decorations were made of gold and silver threads interwoven together. Embedded in all four corners were silver ornamental spheres, made fully from platinum.
I couldn’t help but walk to the kitchen, pull open an inconspicuous drawer, and take out various kinds of cutlery. I did not know whether I should be happy or astonished. The cutlery was not silverware, a good thing for me as vampires are weak against material like “silver,” though I could still maintain them by wearing gloves.
The knives and forks were all made of platinum. There was absolutely no need to maintain them, for platinum would never tarnish.
Hence, when I was mopping the floor and discovered that the ceramic tiles on the floor were not ceramic but some kind of metal that I did not know the name of, I was not in the least bit surprised.
I had once said that this small house wouldn’t need a butler… I was truly wrong. Every piece of furniture in this place requires a butler’s attentive care.
Even the rubbish bin in the corner is a high-grade ceramic work of art.
Just when I was cautiously wiping a pen container made from twisting pure gold threads around various gemstones of different colors, the young master walked out and told me, “Good night, Charles. I’m going to sleep.”
I snuck a peek at the clock on the wall and suppressed a feeling of shock.
Sleeping at ten o’clock? If this were the norm, I would really have to re-examine the young master’s living habits. I courteously asked, “Good night. May I inquire as to when Young Master intends to get up tomorrow?”
“Five o’ clock.”
I was dumbstruck. Sleeping at ten o’clock at night and waking up at five in the morning?
The young master looked at me and started smiling. “Charles, you don’t have to follow me and get up at the same time. I’m going for a morning run at five and will only come back at approximately seven o’clock. Would you help me make breakfast? Ah… Don’t you have to sleep during the day? Then never mind, I can go out to buy breakfast.”
“Young Master!”
My face immediately turned stern, and I replied back politely but firmly, “Though Charles may be a vampire, Charles will definitely do his part as a butler. If there is anything you need please feel free to tell me so. You do not need to be concerned about anything else, for taking good care of all the affairs of their master is a butler’s duty.”
Looking at me, the young master smiled as he said, “Okay. When I come back from my morning run I’m going to take a shower first. Please help me by preparing breakfast at seven twenty.”
“Understood.” I respectfully received my orders, then followed up with a question. “Should I prepare your clothing for going out?”
The young master nodded his head without hesitation. “Okay.”
The young master returned to his room to sleep. I cautiously tried not to make a sound and cleaned the entire house. Again and again, my eyes widened while doing so: when I discovered that the object that I was currently wiping could have more or the less the same price as a race car, or when I was pondering over which era the antique I was holding in my hands belonged to…
Just like this, I cleaned until the morning. When it was five minutes past five o’clock, the young master appeared wearing sportswear, apparently just finished with freshening up.
With a smile on my face, I greeted, “Good morning, Young Master. This morning, do you have anything in particular that you would like to eat?”
The young master thought for a moment, and then shook his head saying, “Nope, Charles, help me choose.”
I asked in further detail, “Are there any foods in particular that you do not eat?”
The young master shrugged his shoulders and replied, “I eat anything.”
I nodded my head. For a person who could even drink human blood, it is indeed possible that he could eat anything.
The young master left the house to go for his morning run, and I started to prepare the ingredients needed for today’s breakfast. There is a saying in the butler’s code of conduct that the first time you make breakfast for your master, it is best to make various kinds of foods to let the master try, so that in the future, they can indicate which type they want to eat.
The ingredients were all prepared, and save for some pre-cooked food, I would wait until the young master came home and started showering before I started cooking. This way, the temperature of the food would stay warm.
Following that, I started preparing the clothes that the young master would wear after his shower. When I opened the young master’s wardrobe, I was once again flabbergasted.
Two sets of pajamas, one set of sportswear, three sets of shirts and jeans, one jacket, and one suit. Sitting on the bottom was a pair of leather shoes. Including the sneakers and sportswear that the young master had just gone out in, these are all the clothes the young master possesses?
With no other options, I took out a shirt and a pair of jeans. Then, I continued to wait for the young master’s return.
The young master was as expected, extremely punctual. He returned home at exactly seven and then started showering. He stepped out of the shower at exactly seven twenty and sat at the table in the living room. I then served the five different types of breakfast to the young master one-by-one.
Afterward, I waited upon the young master as he dined… Basically, I stood blankly at one side and stared at the young master as he polished off all five different types of breakfast, the portion roughly about twelve person’s share.
At long last, the young master stroked his stomach, and, with a long face, he complained, “I’m so full… Charles, this might be a little too much.”
I panicked a little as I explained, “I-I was intending to let you eat a little of everything, so as to see which type you prefer. Then, in the future, you would be able to say which type of breakfast you would like to eat. It was not my intention to have you finish all of them…”
“Oh.” The young master seemed to think for a moment. Then, he gave a smile as he said, “Then in the future, I want one of each type. Half the amount would be fine.”
“Understood.” I gave a sigh of relief. Thankfully, the young master’s food intake was not as terrifying as I thought… Though having six people’s worth of breakfast was already shocking enough.
The young master went out to attend cla.s.ses at eight, exactly on the dot. After I saw him out, I turned around to tidy up the cutlery. Only then did I return to my room and lie inside the metal cabinet. Of course, the cell phone that the young master gave me also followed me into the metal cabinet, in case the young master needed to look for me.
I slept until four in the evening and then woke up to go to the market to buy groceries. Afterward, I came home punctually at five o’clock. The young master arrived home at five thirty sharp, and I started dinner at six.
After dinner, the young master followed the previous night’s exact schedule.
For the next few days, almost every day was a repeat of the first day. The young master’s life was incredibly routine. There was only one exception, the night when the young master wanted to go out to have a late night snack. He is especially fond of having barbecued meat for a snack, and he had brought me along. Of course, I didn’t eat the barbecued meat and only drank the blood in my canteen.
The night when we had a late night snack, the two of us, servant and master, attracted a lot of attention. First of all was my outfit. A western styled vest and a bow tie had caught the crowd’s attention. Afterward, all of the customers had stared blankly at the ever-growing mountain of empty plates beside the young master.
I could not help but open my mouth to suggest, “Why doesn’t Young Master eat at a buffet? Surely that would be more cost-effective.”
The moment the words left my mouth, I immediately regretted them. These words sounded almost as if I was poking fun at the young master’s food intake, and was definitely not something that a butler ought to say to his master. I truly had no intention of poking fun at the young master. I truly wondered.
“Hehe,” Young Master chuckled as he lifted his head and said with a smile, “Charles, even if you’re a vampire, you can’t do something that cruel! The boss of the store will cry.”
Hearing that, I tried my best to suppress the corners of my mouth that were going upwards and to not show too big a smile. I then apologized, “My sincere apologies, Young Master. Charles should not have spoken as such.”
At that moment, the young master put down his barbequed meat and looked at me. He seemed a little worried as he commented, “Ever since Charles became my butler, you’ve been speaking so politely. I’m really not used to it! Can’t we just talk like we did that first night? Speaking like friends would be enough.”
I looked at Young Master An Xiang Ye, and his face showed a sense of disappointment. However, as to whether the young master was being serious about it or not, I was a little uncertain. Though there are many masters who have spoken to their subordinates about being friends, it does not necessarily mean that one can truly believe them.
Sometimes, this was only a form of test, a test to see whether their subordinates would forget themselves and overstep their boundaries. Other times, the master truly wants to maintain a relationship as friends with their subordinates. However, the master would not be as humble as he imagines himself to be.
“Charles?” The young master was looking at me, puzzled.
I gave a small smile, as I answered, “Of course we can.”
The young master’s eyes lit up, and he sounded excited as he commented, “That’s really great. Then you can stop calling me Young Master. Just calling me Ah Ye would be fine…”
“That won’t do!” The words immediately slipped from my mouth.
The young master jumped and stared at me with wide eyes.
I inwardly rebuked myself. A butler ought to maintain a graceful demeanor at all times and should not speak rude and impetuous words. More importantly, a butler should not frighten their master.
Following that, I resolutely explained, “Young Master, we may maintain our relationship as friends. However, the form of address absolutely cannot be changed. The form of address is like a master’s and butler’s contract. It constantly reminds both parties of each other’s position, as well as the rules that should be obeyed in one’s role.”
Both my father and the butler’s code of conduct agree that no matter how good the friendship is between the master and the servant, they are still master and servant, and they should definitely never overstep their boundaries.
The young master gave a laugh as he replied, “You’re so interesting, Charles. Okay then! If you don’t want to change it, then don’t.”
Why is it that the young master always says that I’m very interesting?
That night, the young master ate five thousand yuan worth of food in a BBQ store where a plate of beef was only a hundred yuan.
Perhaps I had underestimated the young master’s food intake.
Returning to the present, I shifted my attention from the young master’s food intake back to the proper business of the moment.
It was already near the time that the young master would return home, and I was preparing today’s dinner. In the pot was a thick simmering soup, and my hands were currently cutting the vegetables needed for the salad. The oven on the side released a fragrant smell of baked bread from time to time. Tonight’s main dishes, ten slabs of beef steaks as big as one’s palm were also placed on the plate. I was just waiting for the young master to come back. While he ate the salad and the baked bread, I would cook the steaks. Only then would I be able to ensure that the steaks would stay warm…
“Charles!”
I froze for a moment. This was the young master’s voice. However, the young master has never spoken in such a frantic manner before.
I quickly put down the kitchen knife in my hand and went into the living room. Before I could even manage to say anything, the young master noticed me and shouted, “Charles, Charles! What to do? What should I do?”
I comforted him in a hurry. “Young Master, Young Master, calm down a little. Don’t hurry, say it slowly. No matter how grave something is, there will always be a way to solve it. Come, breathe in, breathe out.”
The young master followed my instructions to breathe in and out extremely obediently. After he had done so three times, I saw that the young master had calmed down. Only then did I do my best to ask slowly but steadily, “Young Master, what has happened to make you so nervous?”
Hearing those words, the young master, who had just managed to relax, started to be nervous again, and stammered, “Charles, my c-cla.s.smates asked me to go together with them to s-sing!”
If one ignored the meaning of the sentence, then just by the tone, I would have thought that the young master’s cla.s.smate had asked him to go destroy the world.
I was stunned and questioned him back. “Do you not wish to go?”
“I want to go…” The young master finished his words with a little hesitation, and then he nervously spoke again. “But, I’ve never sung before. I’ll definitely make an idiot of myself, so it’s probably better not to go.”
I comforted him with a gentle tone, “It doesn’t matter whether you sing well or not, your cla.s.smates are only looking for you to go hang out with them, not to enter a singing compet.i.tion.”
“It’s not the problem of the singing.” The young master scrunched his brows and was extremely vexed as he said, “I-I just don’t know what I should do. They were all talking about it so happily, discussing which songs they’ll select, which songs’ MVs are very good, which singer recently released a greatest hits alb.u.m… I can’t understand them at all!”
After he said that, he looked at me pitifully, as though he were trying to find understanding on my face. However, I was not sure how to react, for I simply did not understand what the young master was worrying about. What he had just said were all words that any normal person would speak of. What was there not to understand?
In the end, he raised an example, extremely discouraged, “When my cla.s.smates asked me which song I like the most, I said that it was Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, also known as ‘The Symphony of Destiny.’ However, my cla.s.smates all felt that I was very strange.”
I understand now.
“When are your cla.s.smates inviting you?”
The young master seemed even more nervous as he replied, “It’s this weekend!”
I nodded my head, and then respectfully opened my mouth to invite him. “If Young Master has nothing happening tonight, are you willing to go together with Charles to sing?”
The young master looked at me with a gaze as though I had just saved him. He seemed moved as he said, “Charles, you’re so nice… But, I seem to smell something burning.”
Ah!
Footnotes1 “you”: Whenever Charles refers to An Xiang Ye he uses the respectful form of “you” which does not exist in English.
2 “Bàba “: Bàba means father.
3 “Gēge”: Gēge means older brother.
4 “An Te Qi”: An Xiang Ye’s Bàba. The surname “An” in An Te Qi and An Xiang Ye means peace. “Te Qi” can mean “special contract.” Odd Squad Scanlations translates his name as Theodore Avery.