Hong Meiling Sleepwalks Through the Heavens

Hong Meiling’s eyes fluttered open.

She is a girl who fits the bill of a typical twenty-year-old, and her majestic, silky red hair flowed heroically in the wind. She dons a traditional Chinese dress as green as the grass beside her, and a white shirt and pants beneath it.

The bright Sun warmed her cheeks, and a light breeze followed soon after to soothe her from the heat.

The chirps of various insects and birds could be heard in the distance, and further away, the frolicking and cheerful laughter of fairies. It seemed peaceful here.

“Ah, Gensokyo is peaceful today,” Meiling puffed out as she stretched her tired arms.

Behind her, a huge mansion known as the Scarlet Devil Mansion towered over her.

A huge courtyard spans across the entire vicinity of the mansion. Combined, the courtyard and the mansion could easily cover several thousand square meters. At the very front of the courtyard stands the tall gate of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Meiling is the gatekeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Her job? Simple – stand guard outside the gate and prevent trespassers from entering the mansion.

In addition, she also acts as the mansion’s gardener, and tends to the plants and flowers of the courtyard.

Despite being a gatekeeper, she often sleeps on the job, and she is the type of youkai to fall asleep almost immediately. The moment she leans against the giant brick wall by the gate, her eyes would unwillingly shut.

This is a well-known fact, however. The mistresses and maids of the Scarlet Devil Mansion were well aware of this ‘habit’ of hers that manifests during work hours. However, they turn a blind eye to it.

After all, her work hours are 24/7. It’d be cruel to not let her at least nap on the job.

Plus, her senses as a youkai are sharp and keen. If somebody were to attempt to infiltrate into the mansion while taking advantage of her downtime, she would still be able to detect their presence and wake up immediately.

Hence, everybody in the Scarlet Devil Mansion is well acquainted with her little work habits, albeit to a certain extent. If she sleeps on the job for too long, the head maid, Sakuya Izayoi, will come over to the gate to wake her up.

However, they were not well acquainted with the fact that the current Hong Meiling is not the Hong Meiling they once knew.

The current Hong Meiling had no idea how she even travelled to Gensokyo.

All he remembered was that he was once a graduate of a top university in his past life, and that he was great in both character and academics. He was hired by a Fortune 500 company immediately after graduating, with a whopping starting salary of 200,000 yuan. He also remembered that he was in a relationship with a gentle, lovely girl. A lovely relationship and a fruitful career – he guessed that he rolled an extremely lucky dice to have such a wonderful combination in his life.

Of course, good things never last. Within two years of his new life, he was diagnosed with an incurable disease and was admitted into the intensive care unit.

The disease weakened and crippled him, and he was bound to his bed. According to the doctor, he may die at any time – if he sleeps, he may not wake up tomorrow.

And one day, he fell asleep, but instead of facing an eternal void of nothing, he saw light.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself transported into the fantastic world of Gensokyo, and took on the identity of a girl named Hong Meiling!

Gensokyo is the setting of a series of games known as [Touhou Project]. A youkai sage known as Yukari Yakumo built this realm that lies between the boundary of dreams and reality so that beings like youkai may be protected from the outside world.

‘Hong Meiling’ considered herself to be a Touhou fan in her previous life. Although she stopped keeping up with the series after she enrolled into university, she was pleasantly surprised to find that she was transported to this fantastical world.

Although the original purpose of Gensokyo was to create a world meant for youkais, similar to how the Taoyuan District¹ is said to house legends and myths, youkais aren’t the sole population here – a small number of humans and other species call Gensokyo their home, too.

Assisting Yukari Yakumo in her endeavors is the Hakurei Shrine’s shrine maiden. The Hakurei shrine maiden aided the youkai sage in building the Great Hakurei Barrier, sealing Gensokyo away from the Outside World.

Of course, there will be the occasional stranger that stumbles through the Great Hakurei Barrier. The vast majority of them will have their memories erased and sent back to the Outside World, but a small fraction of them, at their own volition, choose to remain in Gensokyo forever.

Similarly, Yukari Yakumo will venture to the Outside World from time-to-time to spirit individuals, entities, or groups away to Gensokyo.

Some powerful existences may also be capable of detecting Gensokyo’s existence, and they seek various ways to plunge into the boundaries of Gensokyo.

For example, Hong Meiling’s ’employer,’ a.k.a., the Mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, a.k.a., Remilia Scarlet, is a vampire who was suddenly transported into Gensokyo from the Outside World, alongside the entire mansion. Upon arrival, she immediately launched a Vampire Mutation Program and recruited many youkais to act as her subordinates, with the end goal of seizing the entirety of Gensokyo for herself.

In the end, however, she was defeated by a more powerful youkai, and her subordinates dispersed.

Now, only a few remain in the Scarlet Devil Mansion – Remilia Scarlet, the Mistress of the Mansion; Flandre Scarlet, her younger sister; Sakuya Izayoi, the head maid; Patchouli Knowledge, Remilia’s close friend; Koakuma, Patchouli’s devil familiar; Hong Meiling, the gatekeeper.

There were also several fairies who worked as maids in the mansion, though they possess little fighting ability.

Among the few residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Flandre Scarlet is extremely powerful, but due to how emotionally unstable she was, Remilia restricted her activity to the basement, rarely allowing her to leave the mansion’s premises.

‘Hong Meiling’ has inherited all of the original Meiling’s memories and abilities. Although she felt a little awkward about the change in gender, she gradually got used to it after a while.

Scourging through her memories, Hong Meiling seems to be a youkai who travelled all the way from China to enter Gensokyo. She may look like a twenty-year-old, but truthfully, she is hundreds of years old. The original Meiling enjoyed wearing a hat, but the Meiling now found it hard to get used to wearing one, so she opted not to wear it.

Meiling is a youkai who can manipulate qi², and her abilities utilized Chinese martial arts in conjunction with this qi. Although the Meiling now was very unfamiliar with her abilities, she decided to hone her skills and practice in secret while on the job, and she is gradually becoming proficient again.

Despite this, she found her new life… boring. It has been more than ten days since she arrived, and although she sleeps and practices martial arts, her place of activity is only limited to the gate of the Scarlet Devil Mansion; occasionally, the courtyard to tend to the flowers and plants.

In her previous life, she remembered terms like “MeiSaku” and “MeiFlan” being uttered in the fandom, but there was no sign of it at all. Sakuya would only come and check to see if Meiling overslept, and the only other person she saw over the last ten days was the fairy maid who would come to deliver her meals daily.

As for her Mistress and the other residents, well, there was no sign of them for now.

If things don’t work out, I’ll just resign! She thought to herself enthusiastically. After all, it’s boring to just stand guard here all day and all night with no one to talk to!

Plus! I may not be strong, but I am certainly not weak either! It shouldn’t be that difficult to find a less boring job in Gensokyo!

After a brief recollection, it seems that the Scarlet Mist Incident had not yet occurred, which means that there may not be many religious influences or powerful figures existing in Gensokyo for the time being. However, places like Hakugyokurou, Eientei, and Hell should have existed in Gensokyo for a while now.

I don’t have to change jobs, though. Maybe I can talk to Miss Remi for a change in job positions – if it doesn’t work out… it won’t be too late to change my job.

As Meiling was deep in thought, a ball of ice was launched out of nowhere towards her.

Of course, there is no way that Meiling would be hit by something this weak. She simply waved her arm around in a dazzling rainbow and smashed the ball of ice into pieces.

“Bwahahaha! You broke my ice ball! You must be very strong!” boasted the clear, loud voice of a little girl that resonated throughout the air.

Although she didn’t know who tried to attack her, Meiling had rough guesses on her ‘assailant’s’ identity.

A petite figure bounced in the air in front of Meiling’s eyes.

Well, who would’ve thought… Meiling thought to herself.

A girl who looked about ten-years-old, with short light-blue hair and a sea-blue dress giggled as she hovered in front of Meiling with wings made of ice that gently flapped up and down.

This girl is none other than Cirno, an ice fairy. She is able to manipulate ice, and like many fairies, she loves to play pranks on… just about anyone.

Since Remilia Scarlet’s failed plan, Reimu Hakurei was given directions by a mysterious benefactor, and developed a combat rule known called the [Spell Card Rules]. Of course, for wild, playful fairies like Cirno, they choose not to abide to Spell Card Rules and fire out their attacks with no warning.

Although Cirno is a prankster at heart, she loves to bark up the wrong tree. Despite not being very strong herself, she loves annoying those who are more powerful than her.

Moreover, Cirno is filled with a sense of bravado and blind confidence, eternally convinced that she is the strongest being in all of Gensokyo despite being defeated many times in combat.

Plus, fairies are a force of nature, and thus, are immortal. When death is no longer a threat, no lesson will be great enough, especially since Cirno had no concept of death itself.

And, obviously, Cirno is stupid.

“I wanna go into that big house behind you!” Cirno cackled. “So, get out of my way! Don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

Cirno lives by the Misty Lake, and although she is not very strong, in the Misty Lake, there is nobody stronger than her. In a sense, she is, in fact, the strongest.

Misty Lake and the Scarlet Devil Mansion were not very far apart from each other. Cirno, playful as ever, thought of going in for an adventure when she hovered near the mansion.

Seeing that there was a gatekeeper, she gathered a ball of ice with no hesitation and threw it towards the gatekeeper.

To her shock, the gatekeeper easily smashed through her all-mighty ball of ice!

Meiling smiled upon hearing Cirno’s words and replied, “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you in.”

“Really?!” Cirno laughed as she put her hands on her hips. “Then, I’ll just force myself in!”

As she spoke, she stretched out her hand and gathered several cones of ice in her palm, shooting it towards Meiling.

*******

[translator notes: hello ^.^ i will be TLing this webnovel as part of a little side-gig and also because i like touhou; current planned released schedule is four-times-a-week (monday, wednesday, friday, sunday), so i hope y’all stay tuned <3 -bread]

Footnotes

¹ Typically, in webnovels, Taoyuan District (桃源乡) refers to a place that is inhabited by myths, urban legends, youkai, etc. 桃 translates to peaches (the fruit, which is also commonly associated with concepts like divination, immortality, and fertility) while 桃源 can be interpreted as “Fantastical Land.” In real life, the Taoyuan District is a mountainous region located in Taiwan.

² Qi (气) is an ancient Chinese philosophical concept of a ‘vital force’ within a human’s body (i.e., the breath of life). Qi is usually related to ideations such as air, flow, and spirituality. For example, if you are sick, it indicates that your ‘qi,’ or the ‘flow’ within your body, is interrupted. In stories and webnovels like these, qi can be manipulated to harness the individual’s inherent power by tapping into this ‘vital force.’