Chapter 62: Shopping Together at the Bookstore

“You are quite right!” Chen Mengyan nodded her head and followed him to take a look. “Eh? Look at this strange novel’s author’s name. He called himself ‘Fishman II’, why doesn’t he call himself ‘Fish Man’ or ‘Fish Man I’?” [1]

“Who knows? I have even seen people with a name called ‘nonsense fish’. How would we know how these people named themselves? Maybe they are retarded?” Yang Ming simply said.

“<Rebirth and Beauty>? What does that mean? What’s reborn? Yang Ming, have you read this book before? Was it interesting?” Unbeknownst to Yang Ming, Chen Mengyan seemed to take some interest in the book by Fishman II.

“Uh… This book is not suitable for you. Let’s go…” Yang Ming said to himself, I read this book before. That lewd main character actually kept a lot of women as his wives. How could this kind of book be passed to Chen Mengyan?

Yang Ming pushed Chen Mengyan far away right up to the doorstep of the bookstore. She inquisitively asked, “Why? Is there a problem with the book?”

“Actually, not really. Just that it is a harem novel about how the main character fell in love with many women and kept all of them. The novel fulfills the desires of some men!” Yang Ming simply explained in a few sentences. He didn’t dare lie to Chen Mengyan. It wouldn’t be good if she bought the book later and realized that he lied to her.

“Some men? Are you one of those men?” Chen Mengyan stared at Yang Ming and asked with an ambiguous expression that looked like she was smiling.

“Me? Hehe… About that, which guy actually isn’t thinking that way? But it is just a thought! How could there be such a thing in reality?” Yang Ming laughed dryly, hoping to get away from it.

“Humph!” Chen Mengyan voiced out a cold humph after hearing it.

“Mengyan, don’t be angry. I can’t even handle you. How could I be thinking about anyone else?” Yang Ming explained shamelessly.

“Who wants to be handled by you? What an ugly word! I don’t care about you anymore!” Even though Chen Mengyan said she didn’t care about Yang Ming, she didn’t immediately walk away. They still went on the escalator side by side.

Of course, Yang Ming knew that Chen Mengyan was just joking but he also knew that girls tended to be more sensitive. Therefore, he should really care for their feelings. As such, he started to act afraid and said, “Then, I can’t really be a gentleman in the future.”

“Can’t be a gentleman? Why?” Chen Mengyan heard Yang Ming’s completely mismatched response and curiously asked him.

“A gentleman uses his tongue but not his fists. Since you don’t want me to talk about it anymore, then I can only take action!” Yang Ming said seriously. [2]

“I will stop talking to you.” Chen Mengyan said angrily.

“Alright, I will stop joking. What books are you buying?” Yang Ming changed the subject. Even though now he could joke with Chen Mengyan occasionally and she didn’t show any signs of unhappiness or disgust, everything should be done in moderation. Yang Ming grasped this balance very well.

“I am buying some exam practice books. I heard that Haidian came out with <The Latest Trends of the College Entrance Examination> which received good reviews. A lot of people in the school bought it!” Chen Mengyan said, “Oh ya, Yang Ming, why don’t you buy a set too? It will be really helpful to you!”

Yang Ming wasn’t interested in these reference books. Moreover, he hadn’t stepped foot into the bookstore in four to five years, let alone buy a reference book. Furthermore, he didn’t come here to buy reference books, therefore, he could only ambiguously reject the suggestion. “I came here to help my dad buy some books. Let’s talk about exam drills next time!”

Chen Mengyan heard that he came here to help his dad to buy books. She couldn’t help but ask, “You are buying books for your dad? What kind of books? It’s really close to our exam now and he still asked you to run errands? What a waste of your time!”

“Hehe, I asked to help him myself. We just finished our exam so let’s relax a little!” Yang Ming said.

Chen Mengyan didn’t say anything. They parted ways once they went upstairs and agreed to meet up at the stairway exit downstairs later. Yang Ming didn’t really know how “l(fā)ip-reading” would be categorized. Therefore, he found a bookstore staff member and inquired, “Where are the books to learn about lip-reading?”

“Lip-reading? It is together with the teaching materials for the mute and deaf school. Walk in that direction and it’s on the 3rd shelf!” The clerk pointed towards the left.

Indeed, Yang Ming found a series of books for the mute and deaf on the 3rd bookshelf. In recent years, the rapid development of culture allowed the book market to have a wider variety of reading materials. It was a lot more convenient to buy books! Yet it created another kind of inconvenience. In this instance, Yang Ming was facing a shelf of learning materials and didn’t know where to start!

The books covered a wide variety of topics. It was especially difficult for Yang Ming to pick any one book as he knew nothing about lip-reading. He had no choice but to choose based on topics and publishers. In general, books from the People’s Education Press and Beijing Normal University Publishing Group had the approval of the government education department. Yang Ming purposely picked those type of books.

Even though the learning materials from these publishers may not be substantial, Yang Ming didn’t expect to learn lip-reading merely through these books! This was just a pathway to get him started with it. To master this skill, it would depend on his continual practice in the future. As long as the books had some good content, it would be fine!

After choosing his books, Yang Ming was about to leave. Suddenly he saw the other side of the bookshelves. There were a few books by professors about “sign language.” Although Yang Ming felt like he might not need it now, he couldn’t guarantee that he won’t use it in the future! Therefore, he simply picked a book from the I Teach You Publisher.

After paying, the cashier told Yang Ming that two of his books came with DVDs and he could get them from the bottom of the shelf where he got his books!

Not bad, Yang Ming thought. Initially, he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to understand it by himself. This time, it was even better with video learning materials. He went back to the bookshelf and found a series of CD display stands. But the discs in the stands were all mixed and it was messy. It took quite some effort to find the DVDs for the two books.

After kneeling for a long while, his legs were a bit numb. When Yang Ming attempted to stand up, he accidentally took a step back and fell down with his face facing upwards. This fall was fine by itself but Yang Ming’s head went under the short skirt of a woman!

Chapter Notes:

[1] 魚人二代, Fishman II, is the name of our novel’s author. The literal translation is “Fishman, 2nd generation”.

[2] 君子動口不動手- “A gentleman uses his tongue but not his fists.” means that a man of honor reasons things out, and does not resort to force.