You Look Like You’re Drawing Me

“Sister Yuan Yuan, your handwriting is so nice. Can you teach me how to write as nicely as you?”

”Eh… my handwriting has always been nice, my teachers praised me for my handwriting in school too. But my handwriting was too structured, always feels kinda rigid.” 

Yuan Yuan Yuan and Xiao Ying kept writing. They only finished when the street lights outside lit up. While the two of them had been jotting away, Xiao Ying’s mother had called for Xiao Ying to head back home for dinner soon. During which, she came over to see what they were doing and even exclaimed in pleasant surprise when she saw how nice Yuan Yuan Yuan’s handwriting was. 

…In Xiao Ying’s mother’s perspective, she was probably an illiterate. Yuan Yuan Yuan probably looked like she’d escaped from somewhere even more tragic then her current state — jobless, income-less and probably could barely read or write.

Yuan Yuan Yuan scrunched her hair. She really had been too rough with herself in the recent years, so she really looked nothing like the student she was just a few years ago. 

Speaking of the past… Yuan Yuan Yuan was quite an obedient and good student back in the days. 

When Yuan Yuan Yuan was younger, her gossipy mother would always remark, “aye, Auntie Sun’s daughter, the family that stays one block in front, she went out again. She was quite the intelligent kid when she was younger, how did she turn out like this. She’s got no talents, and can’t find a job, this is what happens when you take the wrong path…”

When she was between seven and ten years old, the little Yuan Yuan Yuan would listen as she cupped her chin, and would even nod her head. 

When she was between ten and fourteen years old, Yuan Yuan Yuan deep in her chunninyou phase would glance at her mother in disdain, and tell her to stop talking about it, what’s the point of gossiping behind others’ back. 

After fourteen, the grown up Yuan Yuan Yuan would just listen silently, but she wouldn’t interrupt her, nor would she argue; in fact she would even give a polite smile sometimes. 

Well whatever her reaction used to be… honestly speaking, Yuan Yuan Yuan had never expected that she herself would end up in the same state as “Auntie Sun’s daughter”. 

She’s not joking, this really wasn’t something she’d thought of. 

Yuan Yuan Yuan had always been very hardworking. In fact, she was the complete opposite of “Auntie Sun’s daughter” who had been mischievous when she was a kid, lazy when she was older, headed out all night with her unscrupulous friends and drank until she puked. 

She’d always been an obedient child, she’d go to school punctually, follow the route planned out for her, and even went on to find a proper job after graduating. If nothing went wrong, she would probably get married, have a child, retire and die normally…

Yuan Yuan Yuan would always be very proud when she heard praises from her parents, her teachers and friends. ♢ YOU LOOK LIKE YOU’RE DRAWING ME, CHAPTER 38 is hosted at ZHANLANN.COM ♢ 

Normally, if you were to go on with life routinely, you would end up with a wonderful and perfect future. 

However… she didn’t seem any different from “Auntie Sun’s daughter” right now. 

Perhaps there were people pointing fingers at her behind her back saying: “Aye, the ragged girl from the block in front, the one that wears clothes cheaper than 20 bucks, who knows where she’s gone off to, she doesn’t have any talents, can’t find a job, and picked up a ton of bad…”

It’s not that Yuan Yuan Yuan didn’t try, she’d always been trying to stay good. 

She sighed, ruffled her chicken-nest hair, looked at the rest of the photo cards and continued filling them up one by one. 

…

”Aye… this is just a contest to scam your money…” Yuan Yuan Yuan picked up a new issue of DreaManga from the bookstore. 

Ever since Xiao Ying mailed out the completed photo cards, Yuan Yuan Yuan had been home all day with nothing to do. It was only this morning did Sister Xue updated her that the saloon was finally patched up and open for business again. And so, she tidied herself up ready to head off to work. 

Yuan Yuan Yuan’s potato coach days were finally over once again. Speaking of heading out, her “black shirt guy” identity’s been quite in the limelight around here, and she was quite a scaredy cat herself too, so she didn’t even dare head out in the streets in this identity. Hence as to why she was lazing around at home all day. 

Their line of work — her job at the saloon — had no such thing as weekends; she had to go to work even if it was a public holiday. And so, even though it was a Sunday, Yuan Yuan Yuan was still going down. In contrast, even a busy student like Xiao Ying would be able to go out to play over the weekends.

How was she like during her high school days? 

Yuan Yuan Yuan tried to recall. Their school had been very academic-centric and studious. It felt as though everyone was keeping an eye out for competition. Those that didn’t bore the best intentions would even gossip about you behind your back if you studied longer than them. Grades were everything — those that did poorly literally had no rights or say. Even their dormitories were streamed according to their grades. Students with poor grades wouldn’t be allocated campus accommodations. 

School would end at 9:30pm, and start at 6:30am. You get less than five hours of sleep every night. Anyone would turn out haggard after living for a year like this. 

In the recent years, the reforms by Ministry of Education had greatly improved the academic environment. Their juniors had been having it increasingly easier every year, and school ended earlier every year too. 

So… it’s not just a demon thing, even the competition among humans could get very scary. 

As Yuan Yuan Yuan walked towards her home, she heard a wide variety of sounds from her neighbour’s units. There were sounds from the television, and the sound of Xiao Ying and her classmate chomping on food. 

She entered her apartment, closed her bedroom door, crawled onto her bed and silently pulled out her jade pendant to check the contents inside. 

She’d almost finished translating the text. The actual content however was quite different from what Yuan Yuan Yuan had been expecting. Before she read the contents, Yuan Yuan Yuan had suspected that it might be all kinds of strange information. It was only after she read did she realise the extent of the strangeness. 

By the time she was done going through everything, she didn’t know what to feel about the incredibly powerful author — should she be in utter admiration, respect or horrified. 

But whatever kind of person the author was, there was no doubt that he was a freaking genius. 

Even though Yuan Yuan Yuan’s Classical Chinese was not exactly at the level of professional working proficiency, the stuff she learnt in high school was enough to get her going. Basically, this demon author invented a series of demon craft cultivation techniques. The method to practise this demon craft however was quite uncanny — it required a very strange and eerie ingredient.  

That item was the one that appeared several dozens of times in the text — 【blood】

And it must be… human blood.