Ten Thousand Books, But Only One You

02 The book Romantic Mélancolique

Chapter 2: The book Romantic Mélancolique

Over the past two weeks that I was stuck in this alternate universe, I learnt that time passed faster here than in the real world. While I could not be certain how many days have passed in actuality, I knew that I could use it to my advantage. Now, I would have more time to complete my holiday assignments and study for the gaokao [1] next year.

I sat in the living room, half pondering over my Literature assignment and half wondering if I should blackmail Ji Kai into finishing it for me after I rescued him. Before I could meet him, Wu-momo said that I would have to undergo some training as a substitute 'Librarian' and wait for the right timing.

After finishing a few simple missions, my current task was to manage the world within a fantasy book titled Romantic Mélancolique, written by a contemporary author, Fu Sheng, and published in 2004. Set in the 1920s Republican Era, the book narrated the story of a young lady, the female protagonist, who wished to perform Western jazz music, against society's norms. She learnt music under a mysterious young man, Yan Chun, who was half Chinese and half French.

Yan Chun was the male protagonist and little was described about his background. At the start of the story, the author had included minor details about him having an older sister, Felicité, who ran away from their home in the French Concession and vanished when he was younger. This led to Yan Chun's broken family and he spent his teenage years having to take care of his sickly mother who fell into depression. Against this backdrop, he grew up to become a talented musician who groomed the female protagonist into a world class singer and developed a romance with her. However, before any of these major events played out in the book's universe, a teenage Yan Chun gained 'consciousness' and started acting out of the ordinary.

When book characters gained awareness, they may become confused, dissatisfied with their world or act unnecessarily. This would complicate the plot, causing it to deviate from what was originally written. The job of the Librarian was to erase the consciousness of such book characters by entering these alternate fictional universes or by luring them out of the books and into the Tower of Ten Thousand Books.

In Romantic Mélancolique, the teenage Yan Chun, who still went by his childhood name 'Frédéric', gained awareness and realised that his sister was missing and he decided to search for her, wandering around the country. If things continued the way they were, he would not grow up to become that talented musician, would not meet the female protagonist, and would not fall in love with her, and there would be chaos in the book's universe. A Librarian like Ji Kai, peacekeeper of thousands of fictional universes, would have to search for a young Yan Chun in the book and make him drink a concoction of brewed tea akin to Meng Po's Soup. This way, Yan Chun would return to the path that the author had set out for him and forget everything that he did while he was aware.

Unfortunately, as I was not a Librarian, the librarian assistants at the Tower thought that it would be safer if I stayed in the Tower and invited Yan Chun over, instead of leaping straight into the book's universe. Together, we borrowed an enchanted black cat from another book and sent it out into Yan Chun's universe to lead him over to our garden. They called this the "luring technique" for beginner Librarians, who were usually children trying to familiarise themselves with their duty as guardians of books.

"It is a good thing that Miss Yuhan is not dealing with an antagonist who has gained awareness." Wu-momo entered the living room while carrying a tray of clay teapots and teacups. Han Dong, a librarian assistant whom I met the day after I had arrived, trailed behind her with a book in his hand.

Han Dong sat down gracefully on the opposite side of the table. He opened the book in his hand and stared down at the handwritten traditional Chinese characters on the yellowed pages. Holding up the book in a certain awkward position which would draw anyone's attention to its blue cover displaying a complicated and difficult sounding book title, he flipped a page nonchalantly. "I have specially selected simpler books for Miss Fang."