Outrageous

T/N: We’re back with another novel! This one is long, so I’m estimating it might take me quite a few months to finish translating everything.
As usual, please join my discord for announcements of delays and reminders of when new chapters are posted!

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My lovely Discord mod is also getting married today (or tomorrow in her timezone), so congratulations in advance Nicole, here’s my present for you! Everybody either go to Discord and congratulate @strega-nil, or leave your well wishes for her down in the comments section!

Additionally, I wanted to give some info on the title of this novel.
There are a few different ways you can translate 离谱, outrageous, ridiculous, absurd… but I figured that Outrageous probably sounded the best for a title.
In the novel though, this term does pop up quite a bit, and I’ll use whichever word works best in the sentence/context.

An City, 6pm.

The horizon was bathed in delicate shades of pink and purple, with a beautiful glow from the setting sun.

In an office building against the sunset, a young, long-haired girl stood up from her seat and stretched lazily, before turning off her computer and preparing to get off work punctually.

Shouldering her bag, she had just taken a single step out of the office when she heard her colleagues start discussing their gathering tomorrow.

Someone excitedly said: “Everybody has to come, everybody has to.”

A female colleague looked around and said: “Only Yi Yi and Xiao-Meng[1] aren’t around, I’ll inform them then.”

“Alright, thanks for doing it!”

They took stock of who was around, recorded who was missing and prepared to inform them when they went home.

But nobody remembered they still had a colleague called Lu Zhi Wei.
It was as if she had never existed in their world.

—— Even if she had just walked out of the door.

Lu Zhi Wei walked with quick, light steps, turning a deaf ear to the conversation in the office.

It didn’t matter whether they remembered her or not.

If they didn’t remember, she would be saving a bunch of money and having a day of rest where nobody would disturb her anyway.

Although she had a lot of such days, but which lowly corporate slave would disdain having free time to rest without anybody disturbing them!

Thinking of this, her footsteps got even lighter.

Getting off work punctually, a good amount of time to rest, the happiness of a corporate slave was just that simple!

She took the train home, ate and showered before she started packing up her house.
To her surprise, she found a discount voucher for a barbecue restaurant.

Tomorrow was the last day it could be used.
Tomorrow was also the weekend, and she didn’t need to work.

Holding on to the voucher, she felt as if God was rewarding her for her week-long slog at work.

Then, how could she refuse?

Plan go-to-Xinghe-Mall-and-eat-barbecue-on-Saturday, commence!

……

The weather was pleasant on Saturday, with clear skies and a nice breeze.
It was the peak of autumn, and the sun rays shining down were warm and comfortable.
The nice weather was expected to last the whole day.

Lu Zhi Wei sat at the innermost corner of the barbecue restaurant, alone.
There weren’t a lot of customers inside, nor were there none.
The waiters on staff were more than adequate to handle the amount.

Even so, Lu Zhi Wei was still forgotten twice and even though she ordered earlier, her food came even later than a table of guests who came in last.

Lu Zhi Wei’s attitude was good, not impatient or annoyed.
To her, as long as the food came, it was fine.
It was useless to stress about whether it came quickly or slowly.

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—— After all, she had such a transparent existence.

The honey-marinated steak was cut into strips, and the meat sizzled tantalisingly as it was placed on the grill.

The air was filled with the fragrance of cooking meat, the scent wafting into Lu Zhi Wei’s nostrils and whetting her appetite.
She was just about to pick up her chopsticks and dig in when she heard a “bzzzt”.
A notification popped up on her phone as it started chiming incessantly.

Unlocking it, she took a look.
It was the group chat from high school, talking about the annual reunion dinner.
The class leader in charge had already texted each person privately and planned out how many people could attend, reminding them enthusiastically not to forget the date.

Chewing on the meat, Lu Zhi Wei looked at the chat with a blank expression.
She didn’t even have to tap in to know that she was definitely not included in the planning.
Because she was definitely going to be forgotten.

It was a tale as old as time, repeating every year.
This was her special power.

—— Invisibility. Please read at jiulian lian .
wordpress .
com

Invisible to the point that it was a common thing to forget about her.
Whether someone could remember her was purely based on luck.

If she was in their peripheral vision, people would at least be able to see her.
But sometimes, even if she was in someone’s peripheral vision, she could almost hear her invisible existence shouting: I can do it! I’m going to let the heavens know I refuse to lose!

Then she would end up continuing to be as invisible as air.
The whole world treated her like that, even her parents.

But it wasn’t completely a bad thing.
At least she didn’t have to worry that she would have any embarrassing history.
At least she didn’t have to concern herself with social matters that were unnecessary but still required.
At least she didn’t have to worry about her off days being taken up.

Most importantly, she could save money.

To a lowly corporate slave who was broke and could only rely on themselves, of course it would be best to save as much money as possible.

Counting the gathering organised by her colleagues and the high school reunion, she had already successfully saved all that money!

Thinking about that, her eyebrows lifted slightly in happiness as she placed her phone down and continued eating her grilled meat.

And reminded the waiter for the third time to refill her tea.

……

Lu Zhi Wei bought an ice cream cone and walked around the mall as she ate it.
She looked lonely as she brushed shoulders with smiling, laughing people walking by.

But nobody will notice her.
Her strange physique and the air would essentially swallow her up, making her look inconspicuous, as if she never existed.

She was actually quite happy about this.
She didn’t have to care about anybody at all.
It was almost as if she was the one who had made the world isolated instead of the other way around.

As she walked, she stopped outside of a watch shop and tilted her head to look at the person in the advertisement.

Meng Lian Yu, a world-renowned actress, was her favourite actress.
It was also her dream.

Lu Zhi Wei had been an actress for a short period of time previously, and she had dreamt of standing under the shining lights like Meng Lian Yu, being looked at and liked by people.

Even if the light that shone on her was just a tiny ray.

But it was proven that everything was all her own wishful thinking.
She couldn’t change reality, and she had even less power to change this world so she could only go back to her boring, insipid life.

The strawberry-flavoured ice cream melted on her tongue as she was thinking about her old dreams.
She suddenly felt unusually cold, as if her limbs were all filled with cold air, resulting in her snapping out of her thoughts.

She lowered her head to look at the ice cream cone.
It was autumn, she should eat less of such stuff.
Counting the days, she should also buy some yarn and prepare to knit the sweaters and scarves she would need for the winter.

Knitting it herself would be cheaper than buying it, and her handiwork wasn’t too bad either.

She purchased what she needed and left the mall, walking toward the bus stand.

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Even though all throughout her life, she was so outrageously transparent, but thankfully, when it came to traffic safety, she had never truly been “transparent”.

But she didn’t know if there would be a day when an accident would pop up.
She walked with her eyes trained on her phone as she started recording her expenses in an accounting app.

She had bought the yarn while the shop was running a sale, two for one, so she ha