The Rise of Otaku

Chapter 42 Father

Zhou Hong was a teacher. However, he failed to teach his son to behave like every other normal young man. To him, it was a great irony. In order to make his son come out of his room, he had tried all kinds of methods. But in the end, all he did was to make their relationship even more strained. It even had signs of collapsing. Letting his son move back to his hometown was not the best solution. However, if he didn’t do something about it, his home would become a mess.

It had been a year now. In the beginning, his wife – Yang Xiulan was almost crying every day. As time passed, she finally and slowly began to accept the reality. He was also relieved that she finally got through the most difficult period.

However, the phone call he had with the old village chief sometime ago, made him worry again.

The unhealthy lifestyle of staying inside the house for a very long time, seemed to have made his son develop psychological problems.

Zhou Hong didn’t dare to tell his wife anything about this. Who knows what would happen to her if she heard it.

Recently, he had been reading books on mental illness, and he had also consulted some psychologists as well. But all the responses he got were to try not to upset the patient. Otherwise, it would worsen the condition.

After he asked the old village chief to find someone to talk to his son, the situation seemed to have become better. Only then was Zhou Hong finally relieved. But he still had more things to do.

It was lucky that the old village Chief told him in time. However, what if the condition worsened again? Zhou Hong didn’t want to risk it. He no longer wanted his son to live in a closed space forever.

Zhou Hong had a friend who worked in an animation base in the province. He was a relatively famous animated screenwriter. Zhou Hong wanted his son to be an apprentice of his friend.

Animations were his son’s interest, writing articles was also his son’s specialty. Having those two merits, it could be said that his son was most suitable for this job.

Since everything was ready. All he needed to do now was to get his son.

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In Zhou Yu’s yard, the animation movie was still playing.

Of course, those little monsters called Fuzai, didn’t exist in the real world. But the human characters of the movie were mainly the kids from Luhua village. It gave people a wonderful feeling of realism.

Especially the personalities of every child. They were vividly displayed in the movie, making audiences even more interested in the movie.

The children that were in the military uniforms were filled with heroic spirit, and the battle between them and the villain boss was so intense that even adults could also feel the charm of the animation.

No wonder why boy Yu could make money from games. From this movie, they could easily see that he was very good at what he was doing.

The children became even noisier. Whenever “someone” showed up in the movie, that kid would definitely yell loudly, as if they were scared that no one knew it was them who appeared in the movie.

Especially the protagonist – Zhou Hao. He couldn’t even stop his silly smiles. If it weren’t for the fact his father smacked his head to make him calm down, he would have probably already been doing the moonwalk in the yard.

The faces of all the kids, that were from the other villages, were filled with envy. They were all thinking that if brother Yu was going to make another movie in the future, they wanted to ask him to give them a role as well. Even if it was just a tiny role.

At the end of the movie, under the efforts of everyone in the children’s regiment, the naughty Fuzai was finally purified successfully. Luhua village once again returned to the time where villagers could live peacefully with Fuzai.

The adults began to applaud, and then the children copied what adults did and started to applaud as well.

The outdoor cinema today was probably the most successful one Zhou Yu had so far.

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Because of traffic, when Zhou Hong came back to the village it was already evening. He went to the old village chief’s house first. However, surprisingly, no one was home. Normally, they should have already come home at this time. Could it be that there was a circus in the village?

The closer he got to his house, the more strange he felt. Every house on the way were all very quiet. The only place that had lights on was his house. And the closer he got it his house, the noisier it got.

‘Did something happen in my house,’ he started to become anxious. At the same time, he also started to walk faster.

The door of the yard was open. The loud noise he heard earlier seemed to have come from some loud speakers inside the yard. It seemed like someone was playing a movie.

‘What is happening?’

He, who couldn’t figure out what happened, walked into the yard. What he saw next was a strange scene. There was a projector screen hanging under the big banyan tree in his yard. It was currently displaying an animation. And the sound he heard on the way home came from the speakers next to the screen.

Everyone in the village was here. However, apparently, all of them were attracted by the animation, no one seemed to have noticed that someone walked into the yard.

Next to the projector was his son, who had failed to live up to his expectations. At the moment, he seemed to be busy operating the projector.

‘It is not the projectionist from the town? But since when did he became a projectionist?’

There used to be a group of people traveling around towns, organizing the outdoor cinemas. However, that group had already been disbanded a long time ago. Moreover, since when did people started to like this kind of entertainment again? Besides, what kind of projector screen was that. It looked more like the screen that was used for a home cinema.

Zhou Hong’s mind was filled with confusion. But he didn’t make any sound. Instead, he was waiting patiently on the side while watching the movie.

This was a very strange movie. It seemed like it was about a story happened in Luhua village. All the characters and scenes were all taken from Luhua village. No wonder why everyone was so into the movie. It even made him curious as well.

The scenes about the short-tempered and a little bit impulsive leader of the children’s regiment fighting the naughty little monsters with other members of the children’s regiment, was like a fairy tale story.

Such animation was both educational and could be enjoyed by children. No matter from which perspective, it was still a good movie.

It was just that how his son got this movie?

Moreover, how come he never heard anything about someone making such a beautiful animation based on Luhua village?

But the movie was indeed in front of him. He was not hallucinating either. It seemed like he really needed to talk to his son about what he had done in the past year.

After the movie ended, everyone began to applaud. His son shyly thanked everyone and then began to pack everything.

Only after the light was switched on did the old village chief saw Zhou Hong.

Not knowing that Zhou Hong was here to drag Zhou Yu back to the city, the old village chief pulled Zhou Hong aside and began to praise Zhou Yu non-stop.

The movie depicted in such a way that as if Luhua village was an immortal paradise. He who had been living in Luhua village for his entire life, didn’t even realize that his hometown was this beautiful.

“This is the animation made by my son?”

Zhou Hong couldn’t believe it. Originally, he still wanted to ask his son to work for the animation base in the province. But he didn’t expect that he had already made an animation movie. Moreover, it was a very good one.

Only now did the old village chief realized that he had forgotten to tell Zhou Hong about the game that Zhou Yu made. Therefore, he told Zhou Hong everything that happened in the past few days. It almost made Zhou Hong’s mind short circuit.

This kid not only made an animation without telling him, he even made a game. Moreover, he even made a lot of money from that game, and used the money he had earned to buy many things for the children in the village. According to the village chief, he had spent more than 10k Chinese Yuan already.

‘This kid! Why didn’t he discuss with us! Doesn’t he know that his mom is so worried about him?’ A feeling of anger began to emerge within him, but soon it was suppressed by him.

Even if he had discussed it with them, they probably still wouldn’t allow him to do that. After all, getting a real job was what they wanted to see.

But what could Zhou Hong do now? His kid had already chosen his own path. Even if it was not the path that they wanted him to have, they could only learn to accept it now.

As Zhou Yu raised his head after he packed up “The Shadow Demon”, he suddenly saw his father. Seeing his father was standing in the yard, he had complex feelings.

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