In Sumeru, pretend to be a scholar

He is very famous in Sumeru, after all, he once served as a representative of the Great Sage. Even though he has now retired, his resume still stands.

However, because Elhesen dislikes being disturbed, ordinary Sumerians would not intentionally approach him even if they saw him.

Just like when he was queuing to buy breakfast, no one dared to talk to him.

But Wang Yan is clearly no ordinary person.

First of all, he did not have that kind of awe for the 'great sage' in his heart.

Secondly, as a former player, Wang Yan knew that Elhesen was not a bad person. If he made contact with him, at worst he would be ignored and there would be no worse outcome.

Therefore, Wang Yan could greet Elhesen openly and naturally.

“I am a friend of Tina’s, and he has mentioned you before.” Wang Yan introduced himself. “My name is Wang Yan. I come from Liyue. I came to the Order of the Arts to study because I have research in ancient scripts and languages.”

Upon hearing this, Elhesen nodded slightly: "Hmm, hello (in the Red King's language)."

“Hello, Your Excellency the Secretary (in Remuria's language),” Wang Yan said in a low voice.

Elheisen's pupils contracted, finally revealing a hint of surprise: "It's been a long time since I've met such an interesting scholar. Are you an exchange scholar from Liyue?"

He switched back to Common Tongue.

Wang Yan shook his head: "I don't have a certificate from Liyue Academy... I came here on my own."

"Hmm...I see." Elhesen glanced at Wang Yan. "Who did Tinari recommend you to?"

"Huh?" Wang Yan was taken aback, somewhat puzzled. "How did you know that Tina Li wrote me a letter of recommendation?"

“That guy is cold on the outside but warm on the inside. You are a capable person, and the fact that he knows me from his mouth means that he recognizes you. Since you don’t have a student status in Liyue, the best way to get into the Order Academy is through a letter of recommendation.”

"In conclusion, you are here most likely because you received the letter of recommendation from him, and the fact that you look at me without expectation suggests that the letter of recommendation was not written for me."

Al-Hysen easily laid out the logic.

“Impressive, it’s for Senior Falushan,” Wang Yan said.

Elhesen nodded: "Although Erossan... she majored in mechanical arts, she is also familiar with site investigation and has studied ancient scripts."

"Haha, Tinali said the same thing," Wang Yan said with a smile.

"Hmm... I look forward to seeing you at the Order House. I'll be going now."

El-Heinz was a typical daydreamer. It was almost time for him to go to work, and he had no intention of chatting with Wang Yan for long. He nodded, picked up his breakfast from the stall owner, and headed towards the church.

Wang Yan watched his retreating figure and thought, "He really is... unconventional."

"Hey, are you buying or not? If not, don't block the way," a person in line behind Wang Yan said discontentedly.

Wang Yan quickly apologized: "Buy, buy, boss, what did the secretary just buy? Give me one too."

As he spoke, Wang Yan handed over a twenty-yuan Mora coin.

He didn't know the price of breakfast here, but twenty mora was definitely more than enough to buy it.

Sure enough, the shopkeeper took the money and gave him a ten-dollar Mora coin, a five-dollar coin, and three one-dollar Mora coins in change.

For two Mora, Wang Yan obtained something resembling a chicken roll.

Take a small bite, and you'll find it filled with broth, with a rich and fragrant aroma.

"Hmm, as expected of Elhesen, the taste is alright."

Wang Yan continued eating with a smile, while walking towards the Menaka shop.

...

Menakali Shop.

Khalid, who had just arrived at the store, checked the time, then looked at Wang Yan and gave him a strange look: "Why are you here so early?"

Wang Yan certainly couldn't say, "Let me set an example."

He smiled and said, "The accommodation area was bustling with people early this morning. I couldn't fall back asleep after waking up, so I had breakfast at Baobao Shopping Street. With nothing to do, I came over here first."

"Haha, is that so? Then come in first. A scholar has made an appointment for this morning," Khalid said with a smile.

As Wang Yan entered the room, he asked curiously, "Is this a scholar's appointment?"

In his view, translating ancient texts is a scholar's job, so why does it sound like he's doing the scholar's work now?

Khalid smiled and said, "Because translating ancient texts is often a thankless task. Many scholars need ancient texts as references for their papers, and translating them themselves takes a lot of time, so they pay someone to translate them for them."

For those of us who do classical Chinese translation work, we actually only have two major clients.

One is a wealthy merchant who collects antiques. These people love to acquire strange and unusual items that others don't have, and then show them off to their friends.

If there are inscriptions on the antique, recording some story, then it becomes even more interesting to boast about it.

The other one is the scholar Khalid mentioned.

Not all scholars who need classical Chinese are specialists in ancient writing. Often, other aspects require the assistance of classical Chinese, such as the analysis of ancient architecture. In such cases, scholars are not proficient in ancient writing and have to do the translation themselves, which is time-consuming and laborious. Therefore, it is better to find someone to help with the translation, which can ensure accuracy and save time.

Chapter 29: Running into an 'Acquaintance' on My First Job

As a jewelry and antique shop, the first thing Menakali does every day when it opens is to clean the display stands, shelves, jewelry stands, and customer mirrors.

Make sure there is no dust, fingerprints, or stains.

Often, some valued customers might lose interest in buying something just because they see a small stain.

In addition, cleaning and tidying up guest seats, checking merchandise and display are all very important.

Wang Yan wanted to help, but Khalid refused.

“You are a scholar, someone I hired specifically to translate ancient texts. You cannot do menial tasks,” Khalid said in a very serious tone.

Wang Yan was taken aback, but quickly understood.

In layman's terms, this is a matter of sophistication.

If Wang Yan were a renowned expert in ancient scripts, then whatever he did would be explained reasonably by others, and great scholars would naturally defend him.

But now, Wang Yan is just an unknown ancient script translator. In this situation, what he needs to do is not to be humble, but to be arrogant.

Even if you don't have to adopt a superior attitude, you should at least have a reserved demeanor.

Cleaning is something that Wang Yan absolutely cannot be allowed to do.

Otherwise, if the guests who come and go see this, they will definitely doubt Wang Yan's professionalism.

To put it simply, you're an expert, why would you need to clean for the boss? Are you a fraud?

At this moment, Wang Yan recalled what Tinali had once told him: You had better show the confidence of a scholar.

“…Then I won’t help.” Wang Yan nodded to Khalid.

Khalid smiled and pointed to a spot to the side: "You can sit there and read a book. I'll call you when there's something to do."

"After a while, you will go to the Order of the Church to study. You may not even need to come to the store. I will let you know if there is any work."

After a pause, Khalid continued, "Perhaps you Liyue people are more humble, but this is Sumeru, and scholars should act like scholars."

Wang Yan heard these words again.

Scholars should act like scholars.

"Okay, I understand. Thank you, Khalid." Wang Yan nodded, walked to the seat he had sat in yesterday, took out a book called "Analysis of Common Ancient Characters," and began to read it.

Before long, Ferretes arrived.

As soon as the little boy arrived at the store, he started helping his father, cleaning the floor and organizing the goods, and he seemed to know how to do it very well.

He looked at Wang Yan curiously, but did not disturb Wang Yan from reading.

Perhaps, in the minds of Sumeru children, adults should not be disturbed when they are studying.

Time passed little by little.

Around ten o'clock, a scholar in a hurry came to the Menakali shop.

"Hello, Mr. Khalid, I made an appointment for ancient script translation. Have you found a translator for me yet?"

The scholar was a young man, who looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old. The white badge on his hat indicated that he was studying at the Shakya school of the Myo-ropa school.

Of course, even without seeing the insignia on the other person's body, Wang Yan could tell that the other person belonged to the Mysterious Theory School.

Because he knows this person.

“Of course, of course, Scholar Kavi, the translator has arrived.” Khalid went out to welcome Kavi in, and then introduced him, “This is Mr. Wang Yan, an ancient script researcher from Liyue, who was introduced to me by the Tinari ranger.”

When Kavi first saw Wang Yan's age and appearance, he had some doubts in his heart.

After all, in the study of ancient scripts, generally speaking, the older one gets, the more knowledge one accumulates.

But when he heard that it was Tinali who introduced him, his doubts disappeared.

"Hello, Mr. Wang Yan, I am Kavi, a scholar of the Wonderful Theory School. I hope you can be of great help to me today," Kavi said politely.

In fact, except when he was facing Elhesen, Kavi was very polite.

"Hello, Scholar Kavi, I've heard of you before. Back in Huacheng Guo, Ke Lai showed me some of your collections, which were quite interesting," Wang Yan said with a smile, trying to build rapport.

Kavedon chuckled, then said angrily, "That guy Alheisen gave my stuff to Cole without even consulting me..."

As he spoke, perhaps feeling that saying this made him seem stingy, Kavi added, "If you had told me, I would definitely have given Cole something better."

Among the younger generation of scholars in Sumeru, Tinari and Kavi were considered senior and junior peers, while Corei was Tinari's student and naturally considered Kavi's junior.

It's acceptable for seniors to give gifts to juniors.

"Haha, spare Cole. What she has now is enough for her to study," Wang Yan said with a smile, then got back to the main topic, "What do you need to translate today? Please take it out and let me see."

Seeing that Wang Yan was having a good chat with Kavi, Khalid remained silent and stood by watching.

As a businessman, he had no need to interrupt the exchange between scholars.

Kavi took out several photos from his pocket: "The original is still in the ruins and can't be taken out. These are photos I took. See if you can translate them."

Actually, Kavi initially wanted Elhesen to help him.

After all, whether Kavi is willing to admit it or not, Ehrlich is the most outstanding epistemologist he knows.

Unfortunately, the thought that Elhesen might mock him made Kavi abandon the idea.

In addition, he had sold the prize cards to Seno during the previous celebration of the Faculty Academy, which paid off his debts and left him with some spare money. He thought he might as well find a translator.

This search led them to Khalid, where they met Wang Yan.

Wang Yan reached out and took the photo, his eyes scanning its contents.

This is a stone tablet that looks about the same height as a person, with hundreds of crooked characters densely carved on it.

[Language Proficiency]!

The characters transformed into understandable content, flowing into Wang Yan's mind. He listened, read, and wrote as a unified whole, and absorbed it.

-----------------

[Prologue: The Wind Rises and the Sands Surge]

Listen, to the fierce wind howling through thousands of valleys!

It was no longer a chaotic rage, but the breath of a king.

Look, that golden light that devours the sun, moon, and stars!

It is no longer a desolate wasteland of death, but a territory of red earth.

……

As the first rays of dawn pierce the chaotic night,

The great name trembled between the grains of sand—

Ahmar!

Lord of the Yellow Sands, King of the Red Sands, the One True God of the Sand Sea!

-----------------

After translation, the stone tablet in the photo is inscribed with a very ancient hymn, praising the Red King Ahmar, also known as the demon god Amun.

Yes, Ahmar is the name of the Red King, while Amun is the name of the demon god.

However, the above content is incomplete, consisting of only a prologue. Wang Yan speculates that there should be at least three or four more chapters to follow.