Chapter 324: The Mask of the Comedy King
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After spending a very high price to buy a small leather stamp-like portrait under the guidance of his intuition, that mysterious intuition never appeared again.
Zhang Lisheng turned the portrait around and could not find anything unusual about it. As he was feeling agitated, he suddenly saw the layer of five-colored rubber stuck on his left palm.
That rubber was the jelly gem, which was also the sky-patching stone that Nuwa used last time, that had been turned into soil not long ago. After Zhang Lisheng had infused his wizard power into it for a long time, it slowly transformed from the soil to this. Upon seeing it, the young man’s eyes lit up right away. Holding the portrait with two fingers, he placed the portrait on the back of his hand with force.
“You’re called the Comedy King so please don’t turn out to be a Tragedy King in the end…” As Zhang Lisheng was muttering, he motioned the wizard power in his body to seep out from the pores on the back of his hand into the portrait. However, when he turned his hand around, all he could see was the clown portrait dropping onto the table.
Even after he had used his wizard power, he still could not detect anything unusual about it. Feeling helpless, Zhang Lisheng sighed and began to eat his dinner sullenly.
With a sip of the cold refreshing Coke and a bite of the savory burger, he watched the crowds outside the windows absent-mindedly, and suddenly heard somebody shouting in the burger shop. “Mike, Mike, can’t you see that there are a lot of empty spaces in the shop again? It’s so bustling outside but our burger shop can never be full! How can an employee with even the slightest professionalism sit still like this? Not mentioning that your half-hour break has already up a long time ago! Go out and distribute the flyers! You receive a wage of 11 dollars per hour and yet you’re still so lazy! I warn you, boy, I’ll fire you if you continue to be lazy!”
The instant the scolding ended, a young man wearing loose comical clothing who had a red nose on his face that was colored with colorful paints holding a wig, struggling to grab a large stack of colorful flyers, pretended to add on a few white lines on his face. Hastily, he ran out from the counter and explained incoherently, “I’m sorry, Manager Henry. My comical mask was a bit faded and I had two cigarettes in the bathroom so I kinda lost track of time. I really didn’t mean to be lazy. Look, I’ve added some paint on my face. Don’t I look more comical and funny now? I’ll immediately go distribute the flyers now! I’m going immediately.”
After dealing with the manager mockingly, the young man single-handedly clasped the colorful weed-like wig onto his head as he was muttering under his breath. “Yeah it’s true I’m receiving a wage of 11 dollars per hour but I’m also dressed like an idiot doing tricks in the night wind along the street. This is really f*cked up man! Did he really think that this tattered shop will become a McDonald’s by having a clown giving out flyers on the street? So now it’s my fault that your business is bad?”
He rushed out of the burger shop, and began to distribute the flyers outside while making eye contact with passersby.
Upon seeing this interesting scene, many guests in the fast food restaurant burst out chuckling in a whisper. Zhang Lisheng, on the other hand, stared with utmost concentration on the face of that young comical clown and was suddenly hit with a pang of realization. “Face! Since it’s a mask, of course it should be worn on the face…”
Then, he touched his face and took out the clown portrait from his pocket, before sticking it on his forehead.
After the portrait was stuck on, everything was still normal and nothing happened at all. The only difference was that the grease on the young man’s skinny face was more than the back of his hand, causing the clown portrait to be firmly stuck on it for a long time.
“Has it failed?” Not seeing anything unusual, Zhang Lisheng could not help but mumble in disappointment. However, when he saw the bright floor-to-ceiling window of the burger shop that acted as a mirror, he was shocked when he looked at himself, that there was nothing at all on his forehead.
After being dumbstruck for a while, the young man touched his forehead with his hands, and could still feel the thin layer of leather. however, when he looked at his own reflection in the floor-to-ceiling window, despite the blurred reflection, he could still confirm that there was nothing at all between the dull yellow and pale spots between his brows.
“As expected, this mask is ought to be worn on the face, but after I’ve worn this Mask of the Comedy King, I look exactly the same as before…” Zhang Lisheng sighed a long sigh of relief and turned his head left and right to take a look at himself from every angle, imagining his face getting longer and wider but nothing changed at all.
As he was feeling puzzled, a bird chirping sound suddenly rang from the phone in his pocket.
He took out the phone and saw that it was a call from her girlfriend. The young man immediately picked up the call, “Hey Tina, you’re awake already?”
“Yeah I’m awake! I woke up early, baby! Now I’m hanging out on the street with Trish, Sheila and a few other friends of ours. This time, it’s Sheila who forcefully dragged me out…” as Tina was complaining to him about her best friends’ crime, a drunken female voice resonated by her side, “That’s because I know that you’ll never come out with us again when Lisheng arrives. It’s our last day of indulgence today so why don’t we go to the strip dance show! It’s my treat so I’ll look for the sexiest guy to give you a solo dance…”
“And then let Lisheng twist his neck and feed the body to a strange monster? Sheila, this is really f*cked up! It’s not even 8pm yet and you’re already so drunk! What were you doing actually when Trish and I were asleep?” Tina interrupted her best friend’s sentence and snapped in annoyance.
Upon hearing the girl’s words, Zhang Lisheng grinned. “Tina, I’m not as ferocious and conservative as you say. If it is just for fun and relaxing, and that you go with many friends together…”
As he was speaking, he suddenly looked at the window and choked.
“Oh my god! Y-You’re already here in Boston, baby!” The phone went silent for a moment and then Tina’s pleasant cry of surprise resonated. Immediately, the girl, who was walking into a street together with a group of beautiful girls and inadvertently locked eyes with her boyfriend, rushed into the fast food restaurant and kissed Zhang Lisheng.
“What the hell? I can’t believe that Tina can actually run so fast in nine-inch heels! Looks like she really loves this little yellow man a lot!” A blonde with beautiful facial features, who wearing a casual pullover shirt, watched her friend kissing through the floor-to-ceiling window from the outside and said with amazement, “But, this boy doesn’t seem to be that eye-catching.”
“Well, even though he’s not eye-catching, dear Atelis, if you spend more than a month with him, let’s say if your Willis is a beautifully packaged top mint cigarette, then he is the purest Heroin. Quitting smoking makes you feel agitated but quitting drugs makes you wanna die!” Sheila, who was staring at Zhang Lisheng and Tina kissing through the window, suddenly whispered in a slight trembling voice.
Upon hearing her words, Trish, who was by the side, said with a blank expression, “Sheila Z. Beyat, I’ll remind you on behalf of Tina! You’re describing your best sister’s boyfriend now.”
“Trish, did I say anything wrong?” Sheila looked at the red-haired girl beside her and smiled drunkenly.
Trish became silent for a moment and saw that Tina had already separated herself from Zhang Lisheng and was waving at herself now. In a whisper, she said, “Let’s go, Sheila. We should go in and greet Lisheng.”
“Yeah, we should go and say hello,” Sheila regained her grin and replied.
Just like this, the two girls entered the burger shop together with the members of Harvard Sisters’ Association who were staring at each other in surprise but with their eyes flashing with the excitement of gossiping. These beautiful women had naturally attracted the attention of many young boys when they entered, some even whistled out loud.
“Oh, it seems that the ‘Athens of America’ is not as solemn, sacred and full of rich academic atmosphere as I thought.” Upon hearing the whistle and a few strange shouts, Zhang Lisheng opened his mouth in surprise and joked.
“Baby, you’re not in a Harvard lecture hall, but in a burger shop on the street, not mentioning that your first girlfriend is me. Of course you wouldn’t know that a beautiful girl is actually a scarce resource,” Tina smiled and replied.
“Hey, Tina, not only does Lisheng have a very beautiful girlfriend, he also has two female friends who are equally beautiful that he has an unusual relationship with. It’s completely understandable that he doesn’t understand the vexation of other ordinary boys.”
“Sheila, then I must be, well as quoted from our Chinese saying, taking it for granted!” When Zhang Lisheng saw the two girls with similar figures, a burgundy red-haired girl and a long brown-haired girl, Zhang Lisheng shrugged. “Trish, long time no see. How are you doing recently?”
“Well, I’ll go to class during studying period and will go traveling with Tina and Sheila during weekends and holidays. And, I’ll also hang out with the sisters from the Sisters’ Association.” Trish smiled. “It’s not bad.”
The instant her words left her mouth, Sheila, who was next to her, said drunkenly, “Lisheng, even though you didn’t ask me, I’ll pretend as if you did. The way I spent my time recently is about the same with Trish’s but the only difference is that I’ve had three to four new boyfriends.”
“Oh, congratulations then!” The young man did not know what to answer for a moment, so in the end, he could only give a wry smile in reply.
When Tina saw her boyfriend’s helplessness, she glared at her friend and pointed at the other girls in front of the table to explain, “Baby, let me introduce to some of the good ‘sisters’ I have met in college. This is Atelis, our esteemed Executive Committee of Foreign Affairs. It’s because of her birthday that I spent the entire night drinking yesterday,”
Upon hearing the introduction of his girlfriend, Zhang Lisheng stood up and politely reached out his hand, “Hello, Miss Atelis, I am Zhang Lisheng.”
When Atelis saw the polite manner of this thin Asian young man whose height only reached her eyebrows, she suddenly felt that he looked very comical. Holding back a laugh, she shook hands with him. “Hello, Mr. Lisheng. You’re Tina’s boyfriend so you can just call me Atelis directly.”
“In that case, call me Lisheng then!” The young man nodded and let go of his hand.
“That girl who is being chatted up right now is Bonnie, the most unrestrained girl in the Sisters’ Association other than Sheila!” When Tina saw that the two of them had given each other a short greeting, she pointed to a short girl, who had a proportionate body and is sweet looking, who was now whispering with all smiles to a tall burly guy, who had just walked up to them, and continued to introduce.