Chapter 15: I’ll go explain it to them now

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Time flew when people were focused. Since the first day he travelled through time, Zhang Sushang had always been serious about losing weight, earning money, and improving his quality of life. Unknowingly, he went from 180kg to 135kg.

This was an acceptable weight for someone 1.8m tall and further weight loss may be bad for his health; the next step was to ensure a healthy diet and exercise regularly.

Although the body he occupied wasn’t as good as the one before time travel that had trained since childhood, in this era, his body’s fitness was probably better than 99.99% of all humans.

“Ugh.”

Seeing Zhang Sushang sigh as he ate noodles, Alexei poured him a cup of milk. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

Zhang Sushang flipped open a small notebook. “Didn’t I write a summary of my life after coming to Saint Petersburg? I always felt very busy and tired at the end of every day, but once I wrote it down, I found that I haven’t actually done any big things.”

Alexei leaned over and took a look.

End of 1926 University Semester, Summary:

1. Lost 22kg
2. Ranked top 3 of the department in exams
3. Solved lack of food & clothing

Although there were only three things listed, they were all major events — Alexei felt that it was quite remarkable that Zhang Sushang was able to achieve them all.

Meanwhile, Zhang Sushang cracked his knuckles. “I originally wanted to finish translating Li Yuan, Wu Yeming, and my textbooks, but I couldn’t.”

“Didn’t you already finish translating it?”

“Only the parts used for this semester.”

Speaking of this, Zhang Sushang still felt a little exasperated. In his opinion his classmates who came abroad to study were all good seedlings for the country, they just needed to study well and leave all the translating to him, but they insisted on being polite and taking over half the workload.

Alexei was quiet for a while, then, “The students from your country are all excellent.”

He said this from the bottom of his heart. Generally speaking, university courses took four years to complete with higher degrees requiring even longer. These Chinese students knew exactly how difficult it would be to study in Russia, and worked harder than anyone else when they arrived.

For example, the chemistry student Li Yuan. He finished an entire year’s course in the space of a single semester and would be a second-year student next semester. This was the result of being hampered by a language barrier at the beginning of the year, otherwise, he could have done it even faster.

Another example was the engineering student Wu Yeming. Diligent and with a solid foundation, Alexei heard his supervisor say that there was an associate professor from the Faculty of Chemistry who wanted him as a son-in-law.

Zhang Sushang didn’t fall behind either; he had a strong learning ability, a cheerful personality, and was good at sports. He had even set a new record at the sports festival for the 3000m run. He was popular among his class and was currently their class’s vice president.

After writing his summary, Zhang Sushang calculated his savings again.

The copyright fee given by the publishing house was extremely high, enough for him to eat meat every day and save a large portion, but Zhang Sushang already knew what he wanted to use this money for.

First, the three who came with him to study in Russia were all hard-working and forbearing people; Zhang Sushang couldn’t bear to see them endure so much, so he would boil three extra eggs every morning for them, and he would also send over good food when he had any.

He felt like his mentality was similar to those enthusiastic uncles and aunts who felt so distressed for disaster relief soldiers doing search and rescue and eating dry rations in the rain that they went to deliver hot meals for them.

Jiang Jinghu, Li Yuan, and Wu Yeming insisted on refusing any money Zhang Sushang tried to send and would instantly turn their faces if he tried to press them. Sometimes when Zhang Sushang stayed in their dormitory all afternoon to translate books, a steaming hot baked potato would be stuffed into his hands when he left.

Their mode of interaction could be summed up like this ↓

Zhang Sushang: Let me take care of you, I have money, really!

The other three: We won’t take advantage of you, just take care of yourself!

Zhang Sushang: QAQ please take advantage of me!

The other three: Here, bring a baked potato on your way home.

Alexei sometimes felt like this group of Chinese international students all wanted to be each other’s dads.

In addition to sending money to his compatriots here, Zhang Sushang also took out half his royalties and sent it to the Chinese students studying at other Russian schools via Li Yuan.

Though when the copyright fees arrived, he still saved up 2000 rubles. Looking at this money, he mentally calculated the expenses for returning to China from Russia, then travelling from China to Switzerland, and immediately shuddered. He vowed that he wouldn’t touch this money unless it was a matter of life and death.

Speaking of the source of his wealth — that is, Divine Detective Ilya¹previously Detective Ilya, changed to differentiate it from the character — the sales volume within Russia was as high as ever, and any intellectual with a little spare money was willing to buy such a book. There weren’t many kind characters apart from the protagonists, but they could all make readers laugh from time to time.

Alexei sat next to Zhang Sushang as he sorted through the account books, spread out a piece of paper, and continued to translate textbooks. “It was two months ago that you translated Divine Detective Ilya into English yourself and posted it, right?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Zhang Sushang held his chin in his hands.

“Have you received any feedback on the novel from that side?”

“I have, I received a review that I personally think is a bit excessive. They said that I’m an author who respects women and that the female characters in my novel have inspired many of them, just like Nora from A Doll’s House.”

A Doll’s House was a play written in 1879 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It told the story of a middle-class woman named Nora, who went from being intimate with her husband to separating, and finally opening the door to leave. It was regarded as an early example of classical feminism.

Zhang Sushang truly thought that his novel was only a detective novel written purely to make money, so this evaluation was too excessive.

But it was undeniable that the novel sold well among Western female readers, becoming a rare detective novel that was favoured among women.

It was said that newspapers from foreign concessions in China were also reprinting Divine Detective Ilya. Zhang Sushang hoped that his countrymen could see this story and also hoped that they liked it, but upon thinking of the word ‘concession’, his smile faded.

In a middle school located within Shanghai’s British concession, a group of girls walked into the campus together. Most of them were fifteen or sixteen years old, cleanly dressed and well-groomed.

Families that could provide their children with education in this era had to be of a certain prosperity, not to mention this school that employed foreign teachers who could teach students Russian, French, and English. Many students who were interested in studying abroad would work hard to get into this school, so the tuition here was naturally also rather high.

Li Yan’s grandfather was a famous tea merchant and her family was quite wealthy. Children in the family would be sent to private schools for enlightenment once they reached a certain age, and those with good grades would be sent to higher education. She had an older cousin from another branch of the family who had grades so good that he was sent abroad to study.

The first period that day was English class, for which the teacher was an American called Mike. He was one of Li Yan’s favourite teachers because although he was a man, he was always polite to female students and Li Yan could tell that he respected them.

When class was about to end, she saw him write a few words in Chinese and English on the blackboard.

Morning report, 晨报.

Detective, 侦探.

Mr. Mike turned around and picked up a book. “A new day usually starts with a cup of coffe and a newspaper. A newspaper contains the news you want to know as well as some interesting stories and opinions, such as the Saturday Review from Britain, which is published every Saturday morning. It is a highly entertaining newspaper that not only gentlemen, but also their wives and children, like to read.

“Recently, they published a unique detective novel with characters full of personality. The author is called Chyushka, from Russia. We don’t know whether they are a man or a woman — he’s very mysterious — but the female characters in his novel have wisdom and courage that transcends gender. There are good and bad men, and there are also good and bad women. Some old-fashioned people think this isn’t something girls should read, but I think you should give it a try.

“The name of this story is Divine Detective Ilya, and what I have here is a collection of all its cases thus far.”

Mr. Mike took advantage of the break time to read aloud the first and second cases.

Speaking plainly, the first case of the novel was pure comedy. The author used a relaxed tone to create a smart yet cowardly detective, a violent yet beautiful man, and an unusually clever donkey. Li Yan couldn’t stop laughing as she listened, and didn’t think there was anything scary about it at all.

But starting from the second case, Chyushka began to exert his efforts. He was good at creating various characters with full personalities. The villains in Gu Long’s²Taiwan novelist best known for writing wuxia novels in 1960s-70s novels were all despicable, and Chyushka was no different. Except for those in the protagonist’s group, everyone else in his book were more or less mentally abnormal.

As female readers, they inevitably had sympathy for the unfortunate experiences of Mila and Nika, the murderers.

In fact, as long as they had some common sense, no one was willing to harm others or sell themselves. The two murderers in Twins Who Share No Blood were more like ordinary people who had been forced into a desperate situation.

As the author himself wrote:

If they were placed in a kinder society and allowed to receive education, growing up safely and happily, they would be like any other girl. Their biggest worries would be what to wear when going out, what snacks to eat, which university to go to after high school, and which major to study that they liked and would contribute to their country… but since the day they had been hurt, it seemed as if the world had stolen their right to happiness. They had no other path except revenge.

This passage was exceedingly powerful for women of this era. Even as most people considered a society where men and women were equal and women received the same education an elusive goal, they still yearned for it.

The protagonist of Divine Detective Ilya was timid but had an agile mind, while his partner looked like a violent rose but in fact was careful, righteous, and protective. They weren’t the mainstream type of protagonists who excelled in everything, but they were unforgettable.

Thus, without Zhang Sushang’s knowledge, the Chinese version of Divine Detective Ilya spread throughout the Shanghai concession thanks to the translation efforts of an enthusiastic fan, Yun Yan, who coincidentally was the literature teacher at Li Yan’s middle school. Yun Yan was a rather well-connected person. At a book club, he reconnected with an old classmate who now worked in the publishing industry — Li Di, the chief editor of Shanghai Evening News.

Li Di, holding the translated draft, sighed with feeling. “Yun-xiong has worked hard, translating such a thick foreign book in less than half a month. But… without the original author’s permission, we probably can’t print it to sell.”

It might be possible if some third-rate tabloid magazine privately translated and reprinted foreign works, but they were one of the top ten newspapers in Shanghai by sales volume, it would be too unseemly.

“The author Chyushka is from Saint Petersburg, Russia, okay, I remember that one of my reporters has elders in his family who are fluent in Russian. I’ll put aside my face and ask them to write a letter, we can send it to Russa and see if we can buy the rights to Divine Detective Ilya.”

However, Zhang Sushang was too busy to read the letter they sent.

The reason was that something happened with his little disciple, Misha.

The next Olympic season was in February of 1928. Before that, Misha’s most important competition every year was Worlds. His loss to Gillis and Willy in the 1926 season gave him a big shock and made him question his talent, which ultimately led to him choosing Zhang Sushang as his coach.

Letting a Chinese person be the coach of someone who won silver at the Olympics and bronze at Worlds? Don’t joke! This was something that wouldn’t even happen in dreams.

After Zhang Sushang and Misha trained at the ice rink in the city centre a few times, several people raised objections.

“Misha shouldn’t let a yellow man be his coach, it’s an insult to our country’s figure skating!”

“Yes, we need Misha to give us an explanation!”

“Is Misha crazy?”

When Misha’s brother Ivan A hurriedly knocked on Zhang Sushang’s door and conveyed the news, he only smiled.

Picking up his skates, he said, “And here I thought it was something big. Let’s go, I’ll go explain it to them now.”

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• 1
  previously Detective Ilya, changed to differentiate it from the character
• 2
  Taiwan novelist best known for writing wuxia novels in 1960s-70s