Making a scene, going mad.
He had originally wanted to wash his face and pay a few respects to the owner of this body, but there was no water in the shack—neither for drinking nor for washing.
As for the only basin-shaped object, Wei Wuxian guessed it was meant for emptying the bowels, not for washing.
He pushed at the door, but it was locked from the outside, presumably because they were afraid he would get out and run amok.
There wasn’t a single thing that let him take some joy in being reborn at all!
He thought he might as well sit and meditate for a time, adjust to the new body. Once he sat, he sat for the whole day. When he opened his eyes, there was sunlight leaking into the shack through the seams of the door and the chinks of the window. Though he could stand and walk about, his head and eyes still swam without any improvement. Wei Wuxian felt this was strange. This Mo Xuanyu’s cultivation is so low that his spiritual power could be disregarded as negligible. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to control this body. Why’s it so unwieldy?
It wasn’t until a strange noise issued from his stomach that he realized it had nothing to do with cultivation level or spiritual power. It was only that this body was unused to practicing inedia and was hungry, that was all. If he didn’t seek food, perhaps he would become the first malicious spirit in history to starve to death immediately upon being invited into a body.
Wei Wuxian took a breath and had just readied himself to kick down the door when suddenly the sound of footsteps approached, and someone kicked the door a few times and said impatiently, “Time to eat!”
Despite these shouted words, the door had not been opened. Wei Wuxian ducked his head and saw that under this door, there was an even smaller door, just catching sight of a small bowl being set down harshly in front of it.
The servant outside spoke again. “Hurry up! What are you dawdling for, when you’re done eating, hand the bowl out!”
The small door was even smaller than one meant for a dog and could not allow a person in and out, but a person could bring a bowl in. Two dishes and one serving of rice, looking exceptionally terrible. Wei Wuxian stirred the chopsticks that had been stuck into the rice, feeling rather morose.
The Yiling Laozu had only just returned to the land of the living and had been kicked down and cursed out. His very first welcoming meal was just this kind of leftovers and cold rice. What about the foul winds and bloody rains? The merciless extermination? The mass slaughter? Even if word got out, who would believe it! This really was like a tiger bullied by dogs in Pingyang, a dragon in shallow water mocked by shrimp, a plucked phoenix not equal to a chicken.
Just then, the servant outside the door spoke again, but this time he laughed like a completely different person. “A’Ding! Come over here.”
Another voice, bright, coy, and female, called from afar, “A’Tong, you’re here delivering food to the one inside again?”
A’Tong scoffed, “What else would I come to this unlucky courtyard to do?”
A’Ding’s voice came much closer until it was just outside the door. “Every day you only deliver food once, and often if you slack, no one tells you off. So leisurely, and you still complain about being unlucky! Look at me, I have so much work, I can’t even go out to have fun.”
A’Tong grumbled, “It’s not like I only deliver his food! You’d still dare go out to have fun right now? With so many walking corpses, whose house hasn’t sealed their doors tight!”
Wei Wuxian squatted by the door, bowl in hand, and grabbed the uneven chopsticks, eating as he listened.
It seemed this Mo Family Village had not been very peaceful as of late. Walking corpses, as their name implied, were the dead who walked, a type of relatively inferior and very commonly-encountered corpse transformation. Generally, their eyes were dull, their gait sluggish, and their lethality low, but this was still enough to alarm ordinary people. Just that rotting odor was enough to make a person empty their stomach.
However, as far as Wei Wuxian was concerned, they were the most easily-controlled and most obedient puppets. Suddenly hearing them mentioned, he even felt a bit at home.
A’Tong seemed to be waggling his eyebrows significantly. “If you want to go out, you shouldn’t unless you take me along. I’ll protect you……”
A’Ding said, “You? Protect me? You’re bragging! Could you even beat back those things?”
Bitterly, A’Tong said, “If I couldn’t beat them back, others couldn’t beat them back either.”
A’ Ding laughed. “How would you know that others couldn’t beat them back? I’m telling you, an envoy of cultivators already came to our Mo Family Village today. I heard they were from a really incredible, illustrious old family! The madam is currently receiving them in the main hall, and everyone in town has gathered to spectate. Listen, isn’t it very lively? I certainly don’t have time to mess around with you. They’ll probably order me about again in a little while.”
As soon as Wei Wuxian listened closely, there indeed was the indistinct clamor of voices coming from the east. He considered for a moment. Then, rising to his feet, he gave the door a kick, and with a ka! the latch split.
Those two servants, in the midst of making eyes at one another, talking and laughing, screamed in shock as the double door of the shack suddenly burst open. Wei Wuxian threw aside his bowl and chopsticks and walked outside without anyone’s leave, immediately flinching from the glare of the sunlight as his eyes adjusted. His skin tingled painfully. Raising a hand to his brow, he closed his eyes for a moment.
A’Tong had just screamed even more shrilly than A’Ding, but as he composed himself, he saw that it was only the lunatic that anyone could bully, and he grew bold again. Thinking to recover the face he’d just lost, he jumped over and, like one would reprimand a dog, waved his hand and scolded, “Shoo, shoo! Go back! What did you come out for!”
Even towards a beggar or a fly, one wouldn’t be more unpleasant. These servants had very likely acted like this towards Mo Xuanyu in the past. After all, he never resisted, so they could be this unscrupulously reckless. Wei Wuxian, with a light kick, knocked A’Tong head over heels, laughing, “Now, who is it you think you’re insulting?”
Finished kicking, he followed the sound of the hubbub, walking towards the east. The east hall of the east courtyard was surrounded, both inside and out, by a not insignificant number of people. As soon as Wei Wuxian took a step into the courtyard, a woman’s voice, a bit louder than that of her neighbors, drifted out. “…… there’s a junior in our family who was also once affiliated with the cultivation world……”
It was certainly that Madam Mo once again trying to draw connections to prominent cultivation families by any means possible. Wei Wuxian didn’t wait for her to finish speaking, hastily shoving the crowd aside to worm his way into the hall, waving enthusiastically as he said, “I’ve arrived, I’ve arrived, right here, right here!”
At the head of the hall sat a middle-aged married woman, well taken care of, dressed in expensive attire: this was Madam Mo. Seated below her was that husband of hers who had married into the family. Across from them were seated several youths dressed in white, swords across their backs. All the voices came to an abrupt halt as an unkempt and disheveled weirdo burst from the crowd, but Wei Wuxian, seemingly completely oblivious to the frozen scene around him, stuck out his face and said, “Just now, who called me? Affiliated with the cultivation world, now that would be me, wouldn’t it!”
He had so much powder caked on his face, as soon as he smiled, it cracked and began to flake off. A white-robed youth gave a “pft” and nearly laughed aloud, but, when the youth who appeared to be the leader shot a disapproving look from beside him, he immediately put on a solemn expression.
Wei Wuxian casually swept his gaze towards the sound and was a bit startled. He had originally supposed that these were the exaggerations of an ignorant servant, but who knew they unexpectedly really were cultivation disciples from an “illustrious old family”.
These youths with graceful sleeves and flowing sashes gave off an aura approaching the celestial—an extraordinarily beautiful sight. With a glance at their uniform, one knew immediately that they came from the Gusu Lan sect. Plus, they were blood relatives of the Lan clan, for each of them wore on their forehead a white ribbon the width of a finger, patterned in swirling clouds.
The Gusu Lan sect’s clan precept was “Be Honorable”, and this forehead ribbon symbolized “self-restraint”. The swirling clouds were the Lan clan’s family crest. Guest disciples or disciples who did not share the clan’s name wore these same clothes, but their forehead ribbons did not bear the family crest. When Wei Wuxian saw these members of the Lan clan, his teeth began to ache. In his previous life, he’d often silently criticized their clan’s uniform as “mourning clothes”, so he certainly wouldn’t mistake them.
Madam Mo had not seen this nephew in some time, and it took quite a while for her to recover from her shock and recognize this person all slathered in makeup. Irritated, but unable to freely lose her temper, she snapped at her husband in a low voice, “Who let him out?! Have him taken back!”
Her husband hastened to smile at her, and then, with a dark expression, stood to seize the man, but Wei Wuxian suddenly lay on the ground, his four limbs plastered firmly to the floor. Neither pushing nor dragging could get him to move. Even calling in a few servants to help drag was of no use. Had Madam Mo’s husband not been mindful of the outsiders, he long since would have started kicking. Seeing that Madam Mo’s expression was getting uglier and uglier, and that his own face was dripping with sweat, he cursed, “You damn lunatic! If you still won’t go back, see how I’ll deal with you!”
Though each and every one of the people of the Mo Family Village knew that the Mo family had a son afflicted with madness, Mo Xuanyu had already been huddled away in his dark shack for several years, not daring to see anyone. Seeing him now made up and behaving like some kind of monster, immediately a susurrus of whispers kicked up, fearing only that there would be no good show to watch.
Wei Wuxian said, “If you want me to go back, that’s fine too.” He pointed at Mo Ziyuan. “First, tell him to give back the things he stole from me.”
Mo Ziyuan had never expected that this lunatic would have such guts. Only yesterday, he’d disciplined him, but today he still dared to push his way here. With a blotchy face, he said, “You’re talking nonsense! When have I ever stolen your things? Would I even need to steal your things?”
Wei Wuxian said, “Right, right, right! You didn’t steal, you snatched!”
At this, Madam Mo perceived it: Mo Xuanyu had obviously come prepared. His mind was very clear, and he’d come deliberately to disgrace them. She couldn’t restrain her shock and hatred. “You came here today to make trouble on purpose, didn’t you?!”
Blankly, Wei Wuxian said, “He stole and snatched my things. If I come to retrieve them, is this still called making trouble?”
Madam Mo had not yet answered, but Mo Ziyuan was impatient and leapt up, one foot out and ready to kick. One of the sword-bearing youths in white twitched his finger, and Mo Ziyuan’s footing grew unstable, his foot grazing Wei Wuxian as he kicked air, tripping himself. Wei Wuxian, however, still rolled over, as if he really had been kicked over by him. He even tore open the front of his clothes, and on his chest in plain sight was the footprint Mo Ziyuan had left with his kick yesterday.
The townspeople of the Mo Family Village watched the show with great relish and endless excitement: this footprint could never have been left by Mo Xuanyu himself. And besides, when all was said and done, he was still the Mo family’s blood. This family was really too ruthless—when he had just returned, he clearly hadn’t been so terribly mad. It had almost certainly been beaten into him. Whatever the case, so long as there was something lively to watch, it was fine, it wouldn’t affect them either way. This excitement was really even more fun to watch than the arrival of the cultivator envoy!
With so many pairs of eyes watching closely, he could neither be beaten nor thrown out. Madam Mo, with a bitter breath caught in her throat, could only force herself to compromise, saying thinly, “What stealing, what snatching? Saying it that way is unpleasant! Between family and family, it’s just borrowing to have a look, that’s all. A’Yuan is your little brother;1 what’s wrong with taking a few of your things? As someone’s elder brother, how can you be as stingy as this? It’s just a small matter, and you still threw a tantrum like a little child and made us into laughingstocks. It’s not like he won’t return them.”
Those white-robed youths looked at one another, speechless. One youth, in the midst of drinking tea, nearly choked. Disciples who grew up in the Gusu Lan sect were only surrounded by grace and elegance, lest they be influenced, and had probably never encountered this type of farce, let alone this type of absurd idea. Perhaps today they had grown in their experiences. Wei Wuxian laughed hysterically in his heart and held out his hand, saying, “Well, return them then.”
Mo Ziyuan obviously couldn’t return them—he’d long since discarded what had been discarded and dismantled what had been dismantled. Even if he could return them, he wouldn’t have done so happily. With a livid expression, he shouted, “A’Niang!”2 With his eyes, he demanded of her, You’re just going to let him insult me like this?
Madam Mo shot him a glare, not wanting him to stir up the scene any worse. Unexpectedly, Wei Wuxian spoke again, “Speaking of, he not only shouldn’t have stolen my things, he really shouldn’t have gone to steal them in the middle of the night. Who doesn’t know, this son here likes men! He might not know shame, but I know not to tie my shoes in a melon patch!”
Madam Mo gasped in horror, shouting, “What are you saying in front of your village elders! How can you have so little face; A’Yuan is your younger cousin!”
When it came to wild displays of atrocious behavior, Wei Wuxian was a master. In the past when he ran wild, he still had to mind appearances for he couldn’t let others accuse him of having no family upbringing, but now since he was a lunatic anyways, what face did he need! He could go straight to making a scene, acting on whatever pleased him. He straightened his neck and stated with righteous confidence, “He clearly knows he’s my younger cousin, and he still didn’t try to avoid arousing suspicion—exactly who has less face?! If you don’t want any, fine, but don’t spoil my innocence! I still want to find a good man!!!”
Mo Ziyuan let out a roar, grabbing a chair to swing it. Wei Wuxian, seeing that he had finally exploded in his rage, rolled out of the way to his feet and hid immediately. As soon as the chair hit the floor, it broke into pieces. The mass of loiterers around the east hall had originally come to gloat over the Mo family’s great loss of face today, but once the brawl began, they all scattered like birds and beasts, fearing they might be wounded by the fray. Wei Wuxian ducked behind those several seemingly dumbfounded Lan youths, shouting, “You all saw, didn’t you? You saw, didn’t you? From stealing to beating, how completely heartless!”
Mo Ziyuan wanted to chase after him and beat him down, but the lead youth hurried to hold him back, saying, “This…… young master, if there’s something to say, let’s speak peacefully.”
When Madam Mo perceived that this youth meant to harbor this lunatic, her heart grew wary, and she forced a smile, saying, “This is my younger sister’s son. He’s not so good…… up here. Everyone in the Mo Family Village knows he’s a lunatic and often says strange things that you can’t take seriously. Esteemed cultivators, you absolutely mustn’t……”
Before her voice trailed off, Wei Wuxian poked his head out from behind this youth with, “Who says my words can’t be taken seriously? After today, if anyone tries to steal my things again, I’ll cut off a hand for each stolen object!”
Mo Ziyuan was originally being held down by his father, but hearing this, he flared up again. Wei Wuxian “la-la-la“-ed as he escaped like a swimming fish. The youth quickly blocked the door and, changing the subject, spoke with a serious face on the matter at hand. “Then…… Then this evening we’ll borrow your home’s west courtyard. Regarding what I said before, please take great pains to remember: after dusk, close the doors tight, and don’t come out to wander again, and especially don’t come near that courtyard.”
Madam Mo was so angry she was shaking, but as she couldn’t exactly push him out of the way, she could only say, “Yes, yes, thank you for your trouble, thank you for your trouble…….”
Mo Ziyuan, in disbelief, said, “Niang! That lunatic slandered me in front of others, and we’ll let it go just like that?! You said before, you said he was nothing but a……”
Madam Mo cut him off, “Shut your mouth! If there’s something to say, couldn’t it have waited until we went back to our rooms!”
Mo Ziyuan had never suffered such a defeat or lost such face, and had especially never been reprimanded so by his mother. Heart full of fury, he snarled, “This lunatic is dead tonight!”
After Wei Wuxian had finished going mad, he left through the main gate and, in full public view, wandered a lap around the Mo Family Village. He surprised countless passersby, but enjoyed being among them, starting to realize the joy of being a lunatic. He even grew a bit pleased with his hanged ghost makeup, somewhat reluctant to wash it off, thinking, Since there’s no water anyways, I won’t wash it off. He neatened his hair and gave a quick glance at his wrist. The slashes showed no sign of improvement or paling. That was to say, such a minor revenge like giving Mo Xuanyu a quick release of his anger was not nearly enough.
Could it be he really had to wipe out the whole Mo family?
…… honestly speaking, it wouldn’t be any difficult task.
Wei Wuxian pondered to himself as he meandered back to the Mo residence. As he wandered past the west courtyard with small quick steps, he saw those Lan disciples standing on the roofs and walls solemnly discussing something, and with small quick steps, he turned and wandered back again, lifting his head to look up at them vaguely.
Although the Gusu Lan sect made up a large portion of the great families that had besieged him, these juniors had either been unborn or only a few years old at the time and had nothing to do with the matter, so Wei Wuxian stopped to observe how they would handle things. After watching for a while, he suddenly thought something wasn’t quite right.
Why did those black flags fluttering in the wind, set on the roofs and walls, look so familiar?
These types of flags were called “Yin Summoning Flags”, and if one were set upon any living person, then all the dark spirits, resentful souls, fierce corpses, and evil ghosts within range would be drawn over there and only attack that living person. Because whoever bore the flag became a kind of living target, these were also called “Target Flags”. They could also be set upon houses, but the houses had to contain living people. Then, the scope of attack would extend to all the people within the house. Because yin energy would certainly stir up wherever these flags were set like the swirling of black wind, these were also called “Black Wind Flags”. These youths had set up an array of flags and told bystanders to keep away—it must have been in order to lure the walking corpses here and catch them all in one fell swoop.
As for why they were familiar…… could they be unfamiliar? The creator of the Yin Summoning Flag was none other than the Yiling Laozu!
It seemed that though the cultivation world had called to attack him, to kill him, they didn’t hesitate to use the things he made.
One of the disciples standing on the eaves saw him watching and said, “Go back, this isn’t somewhere you should come.”
Though it was meant to drive away, it was with good intentions and the tone was quite different than that of those servants. Wei Wuxian took advantage of his lowered guard and leapt up, plucking off a flag.
That disciple, very alarmed, jumped from the eave and chased after him. “Don’t mess with that! That’s not something you should take!”
Wei Wuxian ran, hair loose and unkempt, hands waving and feet dancing—truly a complete lunatic—and called out, “I won’t return it, I won’t return it! I want this! I want it!”
This disciple caught up to him in two steps and grabbed his arm, saying, “Will you return it or not? If you don’t return it, I’ll hit you!”
Wei Wuxian clutched the flag tightly, refusing to let go. That lead youth, who had been setting the flag array, was alerted by the commotion and also fluttered down lightly from the eaves, saying, “Jingyi, let it be. Just take it back nicely; there’s no need to argue with him.”
Lan Jingyi said, “Sizhui, it’s not like I really hit him! Look at him, he’s made a total mess of the flag array!”
During the conversation, Wei Wuxian had already finished making a rapid examination of the Yin Summoning Flag in his hand. The method of painting was correct, and there were no missing sigils either—there wasn’t a single error or omission, thus there would be no shortcoming in its efficacy. It was only that the person who had painted the flag lacked experience, and the painted sigils could only attract the evil spirits and walking corpses within at most five li.3 However, it would serve.
Lan Sizhui smiled at him and said, “Mo-gongzi, it’s almost dark, and we’ll be catching walking corpses over here soon. The night is dangerous, so it’s best if you hurry back to your rooms.”
Wei Wuxian gave the youth a once-over and saw that he was refined and elegant with remarkable bearing, a gentle smile lingering at the corner of his lips—truly a young man worthy of admiration. Wei Wuxian praised him in his heart. His flag array was perfectly in order, and his upbringing was rather good as well. In the Gusu Lan sect, a frightful place filled with stick-in-the-muds, Wei Wuxian didn’t know who could have brought up such a junior.
Lan Sizhui spoke again. “This flag……”
Without waiting for him to finish, Wei Wuxian threw the Yin Summoning Flag on the ground with a harrumph. “It’s just an old flag, what’s so incredible about it! I could paint one way better than you all!”
Once he threw it, he took to his feet and ran. Several of the youths still watching the excitement from the roofs nearly tumbled from the eaves with laughter upon hearing his unabashed boasting. Lan Jingyi, scoffing with laughter as well, picked up that Yin Summoning Flag and dusted it off, saying, “He really is a lunatic!”
Lan Sizhui said, “Don’t say such things. Why don’t you come back and help?”
Wei Wuxian thus continued to roam about leisurely for a few more rounds, only wandering back to Mo Xuanyu’s little courtyard that evening. The latch had already been broken, and no one had picked up the mess all over the floor. Acting as if he didn’t see it, he picked out a relatively clean spot and continued his meditation.
Who knew, he hadn’t even sat until daylight when a violent clamoring from the outside world pulled him out of his meditative state.
A spate of chaotic footsteps mingled with wails, shouts, and screams rapidly approached. Wei Wuxian heard several phrases repeated over and over.
“…… rush in, drag him out right away!”
“Tell the authorities!”
“Tell the authorities? Just beat him to death!”
When he opened his eyes, several servants had already broken in. The whole courtyard was lit with firelight. Someone called in a loud voice, “Drag this murdering lunatic to the main hall; let him pay with his life!”
NON-ESSENTIAL NOTES:
- “control this body”
驾驭 | jià yù
this verb here is one that can be used to refer to driving a carriage, cart, horse etc. (which you could maybe gather from the horse radicals in both of the characters). I just think it’s a cool one to use in reference to controlling a body.
. - “inedia”
辟谷 | bì gǔ
lit. avoid grain
bigu is a taoist fasting technique. it can vary, but it falls under the general concept of inedia, and is widely translated in fandom as such. I decided it was fine to continue doing so. here’s its entry on wikipedia under inedia.
. - “malicious spirit”
厉鬼邪神 | lì guǐ xié shén
lit. fierce; ghost; evil, wicked; god
once again, chinese coming to wreck my shop with the four-character reduplicative phrases! I might stop pointing out all of these because eventually it just becomes an exercise in repetition. basically, similar concepts grouped together to paint a more comprehensive image.
. - “merciless extermination”
鸡犬不留 | jī quǎn bù liú
lit. chicken; dog; not; leave (behind), remain
this is another idiom I wish I could have translated literally, but alas. it’s so colorful! “to spare not even the chickens and dogs”. four-character phrase.
. - “a tiger bullied by dogs in Pingyang, a dragon in shallow water mocked by shrimp, a plucked phoenix not equal to a chicken”
虎落平阳被犬欺，龙游浅水遭虾戏，拔了毛的凤凰不如鸡
I think the dragon and phoenix ones are fairly obvious, but regarding the tiger: Pingyang is a flat and open area, so when the tiger leaves the mountains, it’s able to be bullied by dogs because it’s at a disadvantage. this phrase in its entirety references a passage from the 增广贤文 | zēng guǎng xián wén, an anonymous ming dynasty text, in a dialogue scene with Zhuge Liang. the passage in question is included on this page here in chinese, if you’re so inclined.
. - “a bit at home”
亲切 | qīn qiè
lit. close, intimate, related; close to, correspond to
I just felt like this descriptor is a bit more intimate than how I managed to translate it. there’s a fondness to it that I’m not sure I captured but wish I could have, so have it in the notes instead haha. I decided to stay with “at home” instead of “fond” because of the idea of familiarity, relation etc. which I think is more clearly conveyed with “at home”.
. - “waggling his eyebrows significantly”
挤眉弄眼 | jǐ méi nòng yǎn
lit. squeeze; brows; play with, mess with; eyes
the dictionary has this as both “to wink” or “to make eyes”. I decided to go with this translation instead because I think it expresses an equivalent action that encompasses the moods of both. four-character phrase.
. - “walked outside without anyone’s leave”
迳自走出来 | jìng zì zǒu chū lái
I just wanted to point this out because I think it’s so funny ahahahaha. wei wuxian really is who he is. :’)
. - “immediately flinching from the glare of the sunlight as his eyes adjusted”
竟被阳光刺得好一会儿睁不开眼
I went a bit looser with this because there was no way I could figure out how to get the literal words in without it destroying the flow of the sentence. more literally, it’s “immediately was stabbed by the light for quite a while and was unable to open his eyes”. you can probably see why I chose to translate it the way I did instead lol. I think it still conveys the same action and mood.
. - “unscrupulously reckless”
肆无忌惮 | sì wú jì dàn
lit. act recklessly/unrestrainedly; without; fear, scruples; fear
a four-character phrase meaning to act without any scruples, to run riot, etc. four-character phrase.
. - “Now, who is it you think you’re insulting?”
你以为你在作践谁呢
going to take a moment to talk about particles here. a lot of tone and meaning is encoded within chinese particles. in this case, I’m talking about the 呢. most commonly, it’s used to indicate the form “what about X?” but in this case is being used at the end of a question to convey a certain uhh mood? I tried to capture it by adding the “now” at the beginning because I do think it’s an important part of dialogue and character. wei wuxian uses particles like this all the time, and they’re often very vernacular and colloquial. @hunxi-guilai on tumblr has a very good post on linguistic register in The Untamed that discusses this, which I cite regularly lmao. give it a read! 😀 I will be trying to retain the mood of particles as best I can in this translation because I think they’re so important to the character of chinese, but… it’s gonna be rough folks.
. - “a woman’s voice”
妇人 | fù rén
I wanted to note here that it specifies in the text “a married woman”. noting it in the translation would have read strangely in english, I think, so I’m leaving it here.
. - “draw connections”
牵线搭桥 | qiān xiàn dā qiáo
lit. to lead along; thread, string, line; build; bridge
I think this is another rather evocative idiom! it can mean to act as a go-between—basically, it’s just Madam Mo trying to place herself in a postition of importance again. four-character phrase.
. - “by any means possible”
想方设法 | xiǎng fāng shè fǎ
lit. think; method; arrange; way, method
this is an idiom to indicate that someone is trying everything in their power, thinking up all sorts of methods to try and get what they want. again, reduplicative four-character phrase.
. - “unkempt and disheveled”
蓬头垢面 | péng tóu gòu miàn
lit. disheveled; head, hairstyle; dirty; face
another four-character idiom!
. - “weirdo”
怪人 | guài rén
lit. strange, weird; person
thanks to roz for convincing me to keep “weirdo”, which I wanted to do anyways but worried it would be. well, weird lol. I considered “strange person”, but it really didn’t have the same flavor.
. - “completely oblivious”
浑然不觉 | hún rán bù jué
lit. completely, totally; not; aware, sense
four-character idiom!
. - “stuck out his face”
腆脸 | tiǎn liǎn
this is pretty literal, but there’s also a connotation of shamelessness and brazenness to this, which you can probably guess.
. - “flake off”
扑簌簌 | pū sù sù
lit. flutter, sprinkle, powder; rustle [onomatopoeia], slight sound, stream down [as in tears]
this is I think one of the first instances of chinese onomatopoeic descriptors in the text! chinese will sometimes use onomatopoeia as adjectives and adverbs, as seen here. this onomatopoeia is often used to describe tears trickling down a face.
. - “exaggerations”
夸大其词 | kuā dà qí cí
lit. boast, brag, exaggerate; big; [indefinite pronoun]; words
four-character idiom.
.
- “Be Honorable”
雅正 | yǎ zhèng
so. chinese and english are out for my BLOOD. I originally translated this as “Righteousness”, but my mother told me it was too harsh. 雅正 has a sense of softness, elegance, gentleness, but righteousness is a very strong and harsh kind of noun in english. the problem is that english doesn’t… really have very good words for being “an upright person” that simultaneously sound good and also don’t come with unwanted associations. the problem is exacerbated by how differently some concepts can read in noun vs adjective form!
for example: justice is much harsher than just. but just by itself is too plain and easily misunderstood without context. upright is like. fine? but also just kinda sounds like something standing straight up rip. I considered trying to combine grace with just, but a) grace has christian associations and b) grace and just are two different parts of speech, but I couldn’t use “justice” for the above reason. noble has kind of the right feeling, but then that’s associated with class and social status! virtuous is also too complicated with the wrong connotations and vibes (ugh). principled is. okay, but vague on the principles themselves.
anyways, it eventually came down to honorable, basically, but honor as a standalone noun is also a bit too strong (too closely associated with like, valor? chivalry? if that makes sense) but I didn’t love honorable by itself. I considered “be honorable” and then @kuro suggested “have honor”, and somehow, the auxiliary word softens it to an acceptable degree and personally, I think it sounds better than “be honorable”. so that’s where we are with that. anyways! translation is hard, and it makes me angry!!! EDIT: AHAHAHA a parody of myself, I changed my mind and went back to “be honorable”. I felt like something closer to “have honor in all things” would have had the right connotations, but that would’ve been a bit too much drift from the original structure I think. anyways! what’s new.
. - “all slathered in makeup”
浓妆艳抹 | nóng zhuāng yàn mǒ
lit. dense, thick, strong; makeup; colorful, gaudy; smear, apply, spread
a four-character idiom to describe someone with very conspicuous makeup on.
. - “talking nonsense”
胡说八道 | hú shuō bā dào
lit. talk nonsense; eight; paths, ways
this is a very common idiom in chinese, basically just meaning to talk nonsense, to be bullshitting, to be saying unreasonable things etc. I’m mentioning it here because I’m pretty sure it’s going to come back at some point where there’s a play on the idea of “eight paths of nonsense” into “nine paths of nonsense”. but we’ll see! I don’t remember clearly.
. - “You didn’t steal, you snatched!”
你没偷，你是抢! | nǐ méi tōu, nǐ shì qiǎng
the operative words here are 偷 and 抢. 抢 actually means to take something by force, to snatch something out of someone’s grasp, to seize wrongfully—there’s an element of violence to it that’s not present in the verb 偷. what wei wuxian is saying here is, you didn’t just steal something from me behind my back—you took it from me while I resisted. it’s hard to convey that in english and keep the same punchiness of the sentence structure. snatched is the compromise ahaha.
. - “great relish”
津津有味 | jīn jīn yǒu wèi
lit. saliva; saliva; have; taste
I considered actually using the word “mouthwatering” here, but I feel like in english, that reads a bit too literal (or like, florid? at least for this instance), so I compromised with “relish”, which I think gets me to the taste metaphor without going too far. four-character phrase.
. - “It had almost certainly been beaten into him.”
八成是被越逼越疯的
chinese has a way of measuring parts out of ten by using 成 | chéng. so here, 八成 (8 cheng) is being used to indicate probability. this is used pretty commonly. the usage of 成 will come back later. you also use it to indicate percentages.
the second part of this, 越逼越疯, is a specific chinese grammatical structure of 越 X 越 Y meaning the more X, the more Y. here, it’s more literally saying “the more they hounded him, the more crazy he became”. all together: it was most likely the result of him becoming more crazy the more they hounded him. this is obviously extremely clunky, so I went with something a bit looser.
. - “refinement and elegance”
雪月风花 | xuě yuè fēng huā
lit. snow; moon; wind; flower
also said in reverse order: 风花雪月. four-character phrase that refers to, according to baidu, the way natural scenery is described in old poetry. it is now has some negative connotations and is associated with kind of empty writing. also associated with love affairs.
. - “lest they be influenced”
耳濡目染 | ěr rú mù rǎn
lit. ear; immerse; eye; contaminate, dye, acquire [bad habits]
an idiom referring to being influenced unconsciously/unintentionally by your surroundings. four-character phrase.
. - “absurd idea”
高见 | gāo jiàn
lit. high, high level, high quality; opinion, view
there’s a bit of sarcasm here, but I worried that the tone would be lost if I had translated this as “brilliant idea”, and it would just be confusing. TTATT
. - “this son here”
本公子 | běn gōng zǐ
this is a third-person address of the self. if you’ve been in this fandom for a while, you’re probably already familiar with the idea of using third-person address for the self as a part of elevating linguistic register/showing a certain amount of humility. wei wuxian used a similar address in the previous chapter (“I’ve been bones for many years”) in which he said 本人 and also called himself the 本老祖 (“me, the Laozu?”). this is the first time it’s really showing itself in the translation as a third-person address. 公子 refers to the son of nobility or a high official, so he’s basically saying, “I, a son of nobility” but with deference. I’m… going to try and keep the third-person self-addresses in the translation because I think there’s encoded meaning that’s lost otherwise. we might run into things sounding a bit weird/confusing, but I think that’s just going to be something we’ll have to deal with.
I know here it’s a bit ambiguous which son he’s referring to exactly, but alas, I’d rather keep it in third person and live with the ambiguity. :’)
. - “not to tie my shoes in a melon patch!”
瓜田李下 | guā tián lì xià
lit. melon; field, patch; plum; underneath
this is such a fun idiom!! the full saying goes: 瓜田不纳履，李下不整冠 — don’t sew your shoes in a melon patch, and don’t adjust your cap under a plum tree. basically: don’t do things that could be construed as suspicious in the circumstances. 瓜田李下 on its own can just refer to suspicious circumstances/situations in general. having the full idiom would’ve been too long, so I went with the half about the melons, since I think it’s a bit more obvious. four-character phrase.
. - “with righteous confidence”
理直气壮 | lǐ zhí qì zhuàng
lit. reason; straight; air, breath; powerful
an idiom meaning to be righteous and confident in your convictions. personally, I find this extremely funny in context ahahaha. four-character phrase.
. - “rolled”
骨碌 | gū lu
you know, I’m not actually sure, but I think this is another case of an onomatopoeic phrase. it means to roll, but if you say it out loud, it really does sound like something rolling. I just like the way it feels in my mouth and thought I would point it out ahaha.
. - “gloat over”
幸灾乐祸 | xìng zāi lè huò
lit. fortune, happiness; disaster, personal misfortune; enjoyment, joy; misfortune
reduplicative four-character phrase that means to take joy in someone else’s suffering. schadenfreude, essentially.
. - “scattered like birds and beasts”
作鸟兽散 | zuò niǎo shòu sàn
lit. to be; birds; beasts; scatter
this idiom was translated literally. four-character phrase.
. - “This…… young master, if there’s something to say, let’s speak peacefully.”
这位……公子有话好说
my darling best boy sizhui! I’m not sure this came through, but his hesitation here is probably because he’s not quite sure mo ziyuan counts as a 公子 | gōngzǐ (due to his frankly atrocious behavior lol. a 公子 is not technically a young master, but a son of the gentry). in addition, 有话好说 is used fairly regularly throughout the story. it’s basically equivalent to “let’s use our words, not our fists, okay?” the translation is fairly literal (“if there’s something to be said, let’s speak properly” is also pretty literal), and I hope I’ve managed to convey sizhui’s politeness here. 有话好说 is a four-character phrase.
. - “Esteemed cultivators”
仙师 | xiān shī
lit. immortal, celestial, cultivation; teachers, masters, skilled professionals
I know I said somewhere that I was going to keep direct address untranslated, but… I felt like that would’ve been the wrong choice here lol. so “esteemed cultivators” it is.
. - “cut him off”
喝道 | hè dào
so this is an archaic verb meaning “to shout to clear the way”, in reference to shouting at crowds to give way for an official. I was just happy with how easily it translates like this and wanted to share! 😀
. - “in full public view”
抛头露面 | pāo tóu lù miàn
lit. expose; head; show; face
originally referring to improper behavior of women in public, but now is used generally—basically, showing your face after shameful behavior, seeking attention lmao. four-character phrase.
. - “catch them all in one fell swoop”
一网打尽 | yī wǎng dǎ jìn
lit. one; net; strike; perfect
four-character phrase meaning to catch everything in one go, to capture everything in one net etc.
. - “hair loose and unkempt”
披头散发 | pī tóu sàn fǎ
lit. hang down; hairstyle; scattered; hair
four-character phrase. pretty literally translated.
.
- “hands waving and feet dancing”
手舞足蹈 | shǒu wǔ zú dǎo
okay, so I guess now is as good a time as any to talk about this thing that chinese does where it splits a multipart uhh, word?? (for lack of a better term) in a parallel structure to apply it to more than one uhh thing. this is an abysmal explanation, but basically, 舞蹈 means to dance. it’s been split here so that 舞 modifies 手 (hand) and 蹈 modifies 足 (feet) to essentially mean “hands and feet dancing”. I changed it to “hands waving and feet dancing” in order to better line up with the structure of the original, if that makes sense? to get that two-part structure. forgive this confusing explanation orz. I don’t think I have the linguistic vocabulary and knowledge to actually lay it out for y’all in a way that makes more sense.
in any case, this is also a four-character idiomatic phrase meaning to dance for joy.
. - “called to attack him, to kill him”
喊打喊杀 | hǎn dǎ hǎn shā
lit. call, shout; strike, attack; call, shout; kill
I really wanted to get “called for his death” in the english, but alas, it was not to be. this kind of evokes like, a mob of people shouting “attack!” and “kill!” which, you know. accurate.
. - “Jingyi, let it be. Just take it back nicely; there’s no need to argue with him.”
景仪，算了，好好拿回来就是，何必跟他计较
okay, so I made concessions on structure here in order to properly convey how nice sizhui is. more literally translated, it can come across as really dismissive: “Jingyi, forget it, it’s fine if you just take it back properly. Is there a need to argue with him?” but that’s entirely the wrong vibe! sizhui is a Good Boy, and he’s emphasizing like, hey, there’s no need for a fight. let’s use our words. that kind of thing. anyways, I love sizhui ;~;
. - “a gentle smile lingering at the corner of his lips”
嘴角浅浅噙笑 | zuǐ jiǎo jiān jiān qín xiào
I just really like the way this was phrased. 浅 by itself is also pronounced qiǎn, and means shallow or light, but 浅浅 is an onomatopoeia for the sound of flowing water as well. 噙 means to hold something in the mouth or eyes. it’s just evokes a lovely image to me that I don’t think is quite captured in the translation! did I mention how much I love sizhui!
. - “young man”
好苗子 | hǎo miáo zǐ
lit. good; young sprout, seedling
this is so cute in chinese! calling sizhui a good little sprout ;~; I think it would have been the wrong tone if I’d translated it literally ahaha. It doesn’t have the same cute connotations in chinese as it does in english, but. I wanted y’all to know about it.
. - “stick-in-the-muds”
古板 | gǔ bǎn
lit. ancient, old; board
I’ve made the executive decision to translate 古板 as stick-in-the-mud. this is translated elsewhere (by several parties) fairly memorably as “fuddy-duddy”, which is not inaccurate, but does sound kind of strange and mismatched to the rest of the text. 古板 just means an old-fashioned, inflexible stickler. I like the vague connection between a stick and a board as well, so that’s what we’re going with.
. - “unabashed boasting”
大言不惭 | dà yán bù cán
lit. big; words; not; ashamed
four-character phrase. exactly what it is on the tin.
. - “Why don’t you come back and help?”
快回来帮忙吧 | kuài huí lái bāng máng ba
this is another moment where I’m going to take a second to talk about particles in chinese. 吧 at the end there is often used to indicate a suggestion, request, or gentle command. unfortunately, in english, the only real structure we have for suggestion is the “why don’t you”, which can end up sounding really condescending if you’re not careful. I also took out the 快 (hurry or fast), because again, it would’ve made sizhui sound much more brusque and irritated than he actually is (which is not at all). more literally, it’s “why don’t you hurry up and come back to help us?” which sounds… bad. sizhui is just trying to gently suggest a course of action to divert jingyi from continuing to badmouth mo xuanyu. chinese particles don’t play well with english, which is unfortunate, because there’s a lot of character contained within them.
. - “Tell the authorities”
报官 | bào guān
lit. report, announce, declare; government official
an old verb for reporting a crime or case to the authorities.
FOOTNOTES:
- they’re actually cousins, as mentioned before and also later, but chinese often uses family terms broadly. here, we understand that they’re family, and that mo ziyuan is mo xuanyu’s junior.
- 阿娘 | ā niáng : 阿 is a familiar prefix. it can also be used for servants (see A’Tong and A’Ding). 娘 is essentially “mom”, but again, trying to preserve direct address. “mom” also feels a little anachronistic, but I might use it sparingly. later, mo ziyuan just calls her 娘, which I will be transliterating without a note.
- 里 | lǐ : a traditional chinese unit of distance. today, it’s standardized as half a kilometer, but its value has varied over time. here’s the wikipedia page on it.
Lan Sizhui IS a good little sprout! I AM CRYING T_T. This continues to be a great and highly educational experience, thank you!
he IS TTATT sizhui… a good sprout….. i love him so much. I’m really glad you’re enjoying it, thank you!!!
Wonderful readable translation, and delightful notes once again!
after so long of interacting mainly with cql i’d forgotten how completely shameless wwx is in the novel xd
he just goes completely wild! reputation? dignity? ha! he’s going feral and heaven help you if you get in his way!
oh! re: direct adressing translating/not translating. maybe you can keep just titles and the like untranslated, and stuff like “esteemed cultivators” translated? bc in english untranslated stuff that ‘functions’ as names sounds/reads fine when left untranslated, but adressess like “esteemed cultivators” don’t? (OTL i feel like there’s a specific word for ‘titles and such’ that would convey my meaning better but uh, i don’t remember it rip)
sizhui is best boy <3
Another delightful chapter, thank you so much for sharing!
As for your note 41, I don’t know if there is a word more specific for that situation, but it sounds like you’re describing the tmesis of a separable verb up there. Latin loves to do that too like separating “circum virum dant” to have the verb (circumdare – to surround) LITERALLY surrounding the man (virum). (German has these too, but for some reason they trip me up there more than in Latin lol)
With the interlocking A-B-A-B word order, it also looks like a synchysis, which Latin poetry loooooves to do as well. Since meaning in Latin is based more on word endings rather than word order, it will shuffle the words around so you might have an interlocking of adjectives and nouns such that, by proximity, you also get the implication that adjective-B also modifies noun-A. For example a line in the Aeneid “saevae MEMOREM iunonis OB IRAM” (capitalization to show which words go together grammatically) which translates to “on account of (ob) the unforgetting (memorem) rage (iram) of cruel (saevae) Juno (iunonis),” but the proximity of memorem to Iunonis thus also carries the connotation that Juno herself, and not just her rage, is unforgetting.
Woo, sorry for nerding out on you there that was…a lot lol. I just really love the different ways rhetorical devices work in languages and how, due to structural differences of the original or target languages, certain things really are just literally untranslatable. So all of that was an unnecessary tangent, I suppose, to my point which was thank you not just for your translation but for the notes that go along with it. They’re always really fun to read as well.
wwx really did rise from the dead & immediately go absolutely feral at the opportunity to be the most gremlin version of himself that he has always wanted to be. god bless.
the lan ducklings are here! sizhui is here! i love that wwx called the boy he used to plant in the ground a ‘good little sprout’, that’s adorable & probably not meant as foreshadowing, but who cares, i’m taking it as ironic foreshadowing on par with ‘who raised this nice young man?’ i really appreciate how careful you were with the connotations of what sizhui says! do you think we’re meant to infer that he was the one who tripped up mo ziyuan, or is the text ambiguous enough for it to have been one of the other ducklings? i know cql has it as sizhui, but personally i’d love for jingyi to have done it. or one of the nameless ducklings, just to prove a point about how decent all these kids are.
also, i like ‘stick-in-the-mud’ so much more than i do ‘fuddy-duddy’, thank you so much for introducing that alternative. definitely feels less old-fashioned, & thus more in line with wwx’s character by a mile.
I’m so glad you stuck with weirdo, I thought that line was so great and funny I read it aloud to my wife.
And given the whole radish scene with Sizhui in flashbacks to come I think it’s super cute that WWX unknowingly thought of him as a “little sprout.”
I have been checking back periodically to see if you’d updated and was so excited to see this today! Thank you!!
Great translation as always! The writing style is a pleasure to read and the notes are wonderful. I especially appreciate your translation of stick-in-the-mud instead of fuddy duddy, it fits the tone so much better. Awesome work!