Schedule


You're My Belated Happiness releases every week Tuesday and Thursday at 11am PST.

Monday, October 31, 2016

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 18

“The following question is very basic, a give-away question --- ---”  Halfway through the commentator’s words, the little boy behind Ai Qing had already stood with his hand raised high above his head.
“Eh?” The commentator started laughing.  “This boy had gotten two chances to answer, but wrong both times.  Do you want an autograph that badly?” The young boy was so excited that his face was flushed.   “I want Solo’s!”
……
Ai Qing suddenly wanted to dig a hole to bury herself.

But she had already made a promise, she had to carry it out.
“For this award, the questions will be the toughest I can think of.”  The commentator bowed his head and began to ask five consecutive questions.  “Usually in a competition, what kind of keyboard do most contestants favor?”
She said in a low voice.  “Mechanical keyboard.”
The boy repeated.
“What is a mechanical keyboard?  Briefly explain it?”
She continued to answer for him without even thinking.  “Every key in a mechanical keyboard is composed of spring, stand, and circuit switch.  Every key has its own mechanical switch. It’s the most popular type of keyboard in the early days and a game enthusiast’s first choice.”
The boy continued to repeat the answer.  There were already people beginning to marvel at his answers.

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Undefeated - League of Legends - Book 1: Chapter 6

Book 1: The Return of the Lost King
Chapter 6: You Don’t Play ADC Like This

……

Yu Luocheng mainly plays ranked matches and hadn’t played this kind of game for some time. So LoL at level 20 something was having a line up of 212.

“Yu Luocheng, you’re only level 13 and don’t have any runes so play dirtier for bot.” Wang Qin said.

“Yeah, they almost have all of their runes.”

Ha, so you guys did know about runes, thank goodness.

Yu Luocheng was really afraid that when he reminded them to get corresponding runes and masteries ready, they would looked at him suspiciously and ask ‘What’s a rune?’

“Alright, everyone play seriously!” Wang Qin cheered everyone on, like a team captain.

At this moment, the selection screen started to count down and gradually switched to a loading screen.

Yu Luocheng took a look at Wang Qin and found that he was quite nervous and serious.

With a thousand RMB on the line and, more importantly, this was a rare chance to show off in front of Yang Qian Qian, it’s quite normal for him to be nervous.

Zhao Kesong also looked quite grim; he’s always been the timid one.

Cao Sheng didn’t talk much and was focusing on the screen.

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 17

“Do you have any plan to continue competing? Nowadays, a lot of tournaments have awards for female teams.”
“No plan.” Ai Qing shook her head. “Didn’t you retire too?”
“Yeah,” the commentator sighed. “I officially retired last year. I work at a bank now. All my free time is devoted to doing commentary for various competitions. Sometimes, for specially good competitions, I’m always sure to be there even if I have to pay for the trip out of my own pocket. My esports dream, I figure I won’t wake up from it all my life.”

“I have always felt sorry for all of you.” The commentator was becoming rather emotional. “Everyone of you looked like you had such bright futures, but then you all disappeared.”
“Luckily, Dt is back.” She looked over to the contestants area not too far from where they stood and discovered that Dt was walking towards her.
“Yeah.” The commentator also turned around to take a look. “We have too few world champions. If we can have more world champions and more gold medals, then esports will be definitely become more mainstream.”

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Tea of Summer - Chapter 4: Summer Tea 2.1

Chapter 4
Summer Tea 2.1

According to Zhao Ge, recording for the video game would take about one week based on the condition of Bei Yan’s voice.  Unfortunately, Bei Yan came to studio in the evenings for the following few days and missed Xia Liang’s work hours.
On Saturday, Xia Liang rested listlessly on top of her desk at work, regretting that she had missed her idol.
“Xiao Xia.”  Somebody patted her shoulder from behind.  It was the voice of Zhao Ge’s assistant, San Qi.  “Come.  Come over.  Zhao Ge needs some help.”
Xia Liang followed San Qi over and saw Zhao Ge sitting on a chair.  He looked at her.  “Girl, San Qi said you know a bit about dubbing?”
Xia Liang took a look at San Qi and waved her hand.  “Uh, as an amateur, just an amateur.  Just a little internet voice acting.  It’s not that professional.”                                                                                                           Zhao Ge felt his chin.  “Not bad, not bad.  Your timbre is ok.  We need a young girl’s voice.  Why don’t you take the part?”
“Ah? Ah? !”  Xia Liang was at a loss.
Zhao Ge turned on the printer and a sheet of A4 paper was printed out from the printer shortly.  Zhao Ge picked up the paper and passed it to Xia Liang.  “Not many lines.  There’s only a couple of sentences.  The voice actress had missed this character since she’s voicing multiple roles when we were recording.  Now she’s on vacation overseas.  We need somebody to take this role.  This character is the lead actor’s younger sister, about 7 or 8 years old.  She appears just once in a recollection scene.  That’s the script of the scene.  It’s a game so there’s no need to lip sync.  We can start recording after you get familiar with the lines.”
Xia Liang: “……”
Xia Liang was a little bit anxious and a little bit happy.  Though there were only a few lines, this was the first time that she had a chance to record in a studio!  She was a bit excited when she thought about this.
But, after she looked over the lines------ah, a little loli, she wanted to cry.  She was always assigned as the loli when she did voice acting on the internet.  Now she was in the recording studio, why was she still voicing a loli…...Ah never mind, never mind.  Let it be a loli then; an opportunity was better than no opportunity at all.
“Uhm, almost ready.“  Xia Liang told Zhao Ge. Then she went to the studio and sat down under Zhao Ge’s guidance.  She followed Zhao Ge’s instructions came through earphones and started recording.
“Ge Ge. Ge Ge[1].  The weather is so nice today.  Let’s go to the countryside, okay?”
“Ge Ge is the best~” “Ge Ge.  Come here! Look, look, what a beautiful butterfly!” “Wow, Ge Ge is awesome!”
Xia Liang finished recording the few lines very quickly and surprisingly passed on the first try.  Zhao Ge, who was outside the recording room, was amazed and gave her a thumbs up.  “Girl, not bad.”  At first, Zhao Ge thought that it was only a minor role, it didn’t hurt to let Xia Liang to give it a try.  It would save a lot of trouble for him and the worst case would be letting her record many times to get it right.  But the result was that Xia Liang’s skill level was far above his expectations.  Once she started, the impression of a 7 or 8 years old, naive girl was instantly established.  Though the script did not have it, she was able to naturally add laughter into her dialogue.  Her ability to create a convincing scene was also not bad.
“Hey, you do have some skills.”
Xia Liang’s face flushed.  She was very happy that she was being praised so much.
She was going to take off the earphones when she heard Zhao Ge spoke again.  “Xiao Song, you listen to this. Isn’t it pretty nice? “
Xiao Song?
Xiao Song!
She swiftly raised her head.  She saw, through the glass to the other room,  a young man with a cap stood next to San Qi was just about to take the earphones handed over by Zhao Ge.  He listened to her recording with a serious look.
Oh my gosh……Xia Liang’s heart almost couldn’t bear the shock from the surprise.
After quite a while, the voice in the other room, through the microphone, clearly came into her earphones.  His voice was magnetic and warm, “Yeah, nice.”
Xia Liang was stunned for one second.  Her cheeks instantly began to turn red.
Zhao Ge saw that she was still inside the recording room.  “Girl, what are you doing there.  Don’t you want to come out?!  Haha!  How come you’re blushing so much!  Is our young lady too shy……”  Xia Liang took off her earphones right then and walked out of the recording room.  When she opened the door, she was vigorously fanning herself.  “Ah, it’s so hot inside, so hot.  Zhao Ge, I am going to drink water, hah.”
Three men stood there watching Xia Liang hurriedly left, her left foot almost tripping over her right foot. They were all amused, even Song Qiyan’s lips curled every so slightly.


[1]: 哥哥, “ge ge” in pinyin is Chinese for “older brother.”

Monday, October 24, 2016

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 16

He wasn’t just back.
The commentator hadn’t told the whole story.
Nowadays, esports was basically dominated by a few seeded players.  Yet, this person who had disappeared for three years chose the most competitive event, Warcraft, to come back into the arena.
For just this one reason, it had made this year’s WCG China preliminary full of uncertainties.

Amidst the heated discussions around her, she looked over to the competitors resting area.
Dt was very easy to pick out.  He had his arms folded in front of his chest, his head quietly bowed down, and didn’t seem to pay any attention to the commentators…...just like he had fallen asleep.
Actually, he was really asleep.
A staff, holding a stack of lunch boxes and disposable chopsticks, walked near him.  Seeing that there was no response from him, the staff had to bend over to call him.  He woke up quickly, pushed his cap up, and took one of the white lunch boxes.
“Ai Qing, I’m hungry.  How about we go get something to eat?”
Her sister was asking next to her.
“Let’s go.”  She stood up and looked over at Dt again.  He had already opened the box, pulled apart the chopsticks, and started eating.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Undefeated - League of Legends - Book 1: Chapter 5

Book 1: The Return of the Lost King
Chapter 5: You Two Play Solo Top

……


“Let’s start, let’s start. I’m tired of waiting!” Lin Xu of room 3 said.

Lin Xu seemed to hold some influence in the internet cafe. This table, with five computers facing the other five, was reserved just for them. All ten computers were flashing with the solemn, metallic dark blue color of the front page of League of Legends.

Usually everyone was facing boring textbooks, but after seeing the screens, their eyes were all shining bright!

“Yu Luocheng, you sit next to Zhong Xiaoyun.” Wang Qin pointed to the empty chair next to Zhong Xiaoyun.

Wang Qin sat in the middle, it looked like he was playing mid.

To Wang Qin’s right hand side sat Cao Sheng and Zhao Kesong, while Yu Luocheng and Zhong Xiaoyun sat to his left so obviously they must be playing bot.

Behind these five, there were many of their buddies who usually hung out at internet cafe. They were here to give support. There were about 7 or 8 of them; one of them was a girl.

“Wipe them out!” Room 8’s vice president, Huang Yu, said.
“Yeah, we lost to them in basketball. Can’t lose to them in LoL. Otherwise, we can’t even raise our heads in front of those guys from room 3.” The captain of the class basketball team said.

“If you guys win, I’ll reward you with a kiss each!” Xiao Mei said smilingly.

“Ah, go away Yu Luocheng. Let me play.”

“Get lost. You’re not even level 10 yet. How can you play.”

Wang Qin took off his earphones and turned around to speak to all the cheerleaders, “Don’t worry, we won’t lose.”

As he was saying that, everyone signed onto their accounts, and entered Telecom’s server Steel Burning Sun (钢铁烈阳 gang tie lie yang).

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 15

One could tell how famous a player was on the field of competition.
One indicator was the number of fans.  The other indicator was the introductions given by the commentators.  From the beginning of the competition, the two commentators on stage, in order to excite the audience, kept chattering about the participating players.
“In the past two years, Grunt has been closely gaining on Solo.  Frankly these two players have quite a lot in common.”  One of the commentators spoke with a more teasing tone.  “For example, they’ve both doubled up on Warcraft III and Starcraft II.  From talent to performance, they both are the best players in the country.”
Double up…...such a nice phrase.
“The Warcraft rankings in the past few years have been quite stable in competitions in both China and internationally.  Can’t say if there will be any surprises this time.”  The other commentator was obviously trying to raise another topic.
“There certainly will be, especially at this stop at Guangzhou.”
“Tell us about it?”
“Let’s not spoil the suspense just yet.  I bet he’ll be the one to give Grunt quite the headache this round.”
The two looked at each other and laughed after they finished talking.
The audience, also esports fans, immediately exploded into cheers.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Tea of Summer - Chapter 2&3: Summer Tea 1.2 & 1.3

Just so everyone knows, this story isn't broken up into chapters neatly.  Each section is basically labeled with a title like "Summer Tea" and then numbered.  We are essentially making each part a chapter, though some are short so we'll post multiple in each release.





Chapter 2
Summer Tea 1.2


After about an hour, Xia Liang looked at the time displayed on her cell.  She filled up another pot of tea and brought it to them.  Recording heavily depleted the vocal cords, especially on a hot summer day like today.
They seemed to have just finished recording one section and were playing back the recording.  That young man sat on the desk in front of Zhao Ge.  He was holding an empty transparent plastic cup in his hand.
He smiled.  His voice sounded a little tired, but it was somewhat pleasant to listen to.  “The tea is good.  But it was a waste to use this type of cup.”

Monday, October 17, 2016

New Project at Path of Translations

Hey everyone!

We just wanted to let everyone know that we're currently translating a new project at Path of Translations.

It's called Immortal, a xianxia novel, about an old man's attempt to become immortal.  Though he doesn't stay old for long.  Anyhow if you're into xianxia/wuxia style novels you should look at their site, they have quite a collection.

Cheers!

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 14

When Ai Qing and her sister arrived at the stadium, they were assaulted by a multitude of ad banners.
Her sister had never watched an official competition.   She suddenly sighed after seeing all the men and women esports fans, holding little flags, animatedly talking with each other, “I finally understand why you fell for Solo before.  They’re just like movie stars, with millions of crazy fans…...and they’re all so tech savvy.”
This was the first time she had come to watch a competition as a spectator since she retired.
She was also shocked by the size of the crowd.

It just so happened that today’s event was Warcraft, so indeed they have arrived for the most popular event.
Nowadays in all the international competitions, the seed players from China and Korea basically represented the highest level in the world.  Therefore, the preliminary match in China benefitted all esports fans.  Who wasn’t overjoyed to watch a world level competition right in front of one’s door?  Fortunately, 97 gave them two tickets when he heard that they were planning to watch the game……

The two weaved their way through the crowd.  Before they reached the gate, there were several esport players walking by.  Fans enthusiastically greeted them as they came by.
She turned to size them up, they were all unfamiliar faces.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 13

He looked at her with one hand resting on the edge of the bed.
Ai Qing thought he was going to say something, but after a while, he hadn’t said a word.


Suddenly it was just like that night in Singapore.
She had to rack her brain to come up with topics to chat with him and this young boy was always a person with few words.
Ai Qing also took out two bottles of green tea from the plastic bag and handed one to him.  “Welcome back.  Where have you been all this time?  Why haven’t you continued to compete?”
He took the bottle and twisted the cap off to take a sip, but there was no answer.
She took a look at the laptop on the desk.  Actually, she should have recognized it before; it was obviously the same one he used in Singapore.  “You are here for the WCG China Preliminary?  Which event?”
“Warcraft.”  he put down the bottle.

Undefeated - League of Legends - Book 1: Chapter 4

Book 1: The Return of the Lost King
Chapter 4:  The Beauty Knows Me

……

Yu Luocheng walked out of the house onto the noisy street.

Unfortunately, he saw two familiar faces walking towards him.

A mother and a student.  The student had his head bent down and was being scolded by his mother along the way as if he had committed a crime.  The student did not dare talk back and just kept walking with head held low.

Yu Luocheng knew the student, he’s Sun Yang, the person who was supposed to play support.  Just like what Wang Qin had said he’d been taken home by his mother.

“You no good brat.  Who only knows how to play all day!”
“Is the internet cafe someplace you have the time to hangout at?  Don’t you know how much money your dad and I have spent to support you and your sister to go to school?  You think money is something you just pick up off the street?  What about you?  Wasting money on playing games.”

“Alright, you want to play games, right.  Wait till I tell your dad, he’ll break your legs for sure!!”

The slightly overweight middle aged woman kept scolding him; her voice could be heard from half a block away.  Sun Yang, keeping his head low, felt like a thief that had been caught red-handed and didn’t even see Yu Luocheng pass by him.

Yu Luocheng could only pretend not to see him either while listening to the reprimands of Sun Yang’s mom.

Not many parents in this world can understand esports. They can’t comprehend anything that has nothing to do with studying.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Tea of Summer - Chapter 1: Summer Tea 1.1

Sorry for the late posting guys. I had a midterm test today and it's a new story so we had to discuss translations a bit longer than usual. So though this is being posted at about Thursday, 12:21 am PST, know that these stories will still be posted on Wednesday as usual. Description is in the project page.






Chapter 1: Summer Tea 1.1

It was a scorching summer day.
Xia Liang looked at the burning sun outside. It was only 8 am in the morning. She reluctantly glanced at the air condition at home, then gritted her teeth and shut the door.
Xia Liang, Xia Liang. She silently repeated her own name twice, then indignantly looked at the shining sun. Why couldn’t summer be cooler just like her name?[1] Summer was really disgusting.
She took two subway lines to reach her workplace. Xia Liang blew out a long breath.
New Sound.
This was the recording studio she was currently working for. It was said that the owner was a professional voice actor. She had just finished her freshman year in college abroad and returned home for summer break in May. Her family insisted that she should “make good use of the 3 months summer break” and forced her to look for a job. She had looked around for internships in recording studios since she was a minor internet voice character. Maybe she could meet some voice character idols during her internship. Luckily she was hired by this New Sound Recording Studio as a receptionist for the summer.

Monday, October 10, 2016

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 12

Guess who's back, back again.



It’s still the old rule, two out of three rounds.
Since there were limits on the movement keys, they couldn’t jump or move back.  This was a match focused solely on offense.  The two could only use their ears to determine the location of the opponent.  If one showed his/her face, the round would be finished.
97 pretentiously opened a can of coke, but the whole match was over just after he had taken a few sips.  
Two wins out of three, she won two rounds.


It’s a pity though, due to her old habits, she subconsciously touched the back key even though the key was not there.  “I had a violation, so do you want to do one more round?”
“No need.  It’s not a shame I lost to you.”  Grunt stood up and picked up an apple from the table, using his own pocket knife to peel it.
A thin layer of peel quickly fell down and he cut it into several pieces.
He picked one up with a toothpick and handed directly to Ai Jing.


Ai Jing was somewhat stunned and at a loss, which was rare for her.
But that was just for a short instance, she soon recovered and took the piece over.  “Thanks.”
Grunt grinned and put the other pieces onto a plate and push it towards her and 97.  He used his fingers to pick up one for himself.


The four of them had just met, so naturally there weren’t many topics they could talk about.  Luckily, there’s still esports that they could talk about.  Ai Jing had followed her career for so many years, so she could also join in the conversation with Grunt and 97.  After they chatted for a while, she looked at all the computers on the bed and asked curiously, “Why are the two of you using so many computers?”
“There’s one more person.”  97 beamed and pointed to the computer that Grunt was using just then and said, “This computer is his.”
He was going to say something more, but was interrupted as the door opened from outside.


A man walked in with one hand holding the card key and the other hand carrying a huge plastic bag.  When she raised her head, he happened to look over at the people inside the room.  His
eyes under the cap fixed on Ai Qing without any hesitation; he could easily distinguish the twins.


He had grown at least 20 some centimeters taller.  The contour of his face hadn’t changed much.  It was like it had been outlined by a single light stroke, without any extra line and without any expression.


“Here, this is the other guy.  Your sister should know him.  He’s Dt, the captain of the DotA championship team of that year’s WCG Asian Tournament.”  97 greeted Dt with a high five.  “I’ve almost died of thirst.  Give me a drink first.”
Dt came over and put the whole bag of cold drinks on the bed.
97 quickly opened the plastic bag and took out what he wanted to drink,  Grunt was still eating his apple.


She felt that the whole situation was so inconceivable that she just watched Dt.  Slowly her lips parted into a smile.


As she was about to say something, Dt had already knelt down in front of her with slightly tightened lips serving as a smile.
“I’m back.”

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Undefeated - League of Legends - Book 1: Chapter 3

Book 1: The Return of the Lost King
Chapter 3: Just One Word, Dammit!

……

Yu Luocheng opened his computer at home after dinner.

He opened the League of Legends box and started the game.  When he saw the exciting screen jumped out, Yu Luocheng’s somewhat dispirited eyes were beaming.

His love for esports was deep down to the bone, which was hard to conceal.

He chose the Freijord server on the screen.

Yu Luocheng clicked open his friend list and saw an ID which couldn’t be more familiar: Xue Yi Yi.

The ID was somewhat feminine.  There were times that Yu Luocheng thought this online good friend who had partnered with him for so long was a girl, but he couldn’t be completely sure.  In the world of the internet nowadays, you could never be sure of the gender until you met the real person.  Even then, you couldn’t be totally sure of the person’s gender, could you?

Today’s society was just too complicated.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 11

Guess what guys? Someone we know is coming back in Chapter 12.





Since she already agreed to go, Ai Jing certainly would not let her back out of it.
When Grunt opened the door, she really was holding a laptop.  “I want to have a friendly match with you.”


“CS?”  Grunt leaned against the door frame.  Even though he was answering her question, he was looking at Ai Jing quite unexpectedly.
Seeing his expression, Ai Qing only took a second to understand everything.
She murmured amusingly.  “You two are already interested in each other, why do you need me as an excuse?”
Grunt pretended that he didn’t hear.  He stepped aside to leave the doorway open.  “Come on in.”


When they walked in, they discovered that the room was extremely messy.  That huge suitcase they saw at the airport was open, filled with computer accessories…...Ai Qing took a short glance, she could still recognize some of them and those were all top notch equipments.
On the bed, there were four or five laptops strewed around.
It looked like this top player was not just a top player, he was also a zealot.
In addition, there’s more than one person in the room.