My Books Arrived From Taiwan. I’m Going To Start My Traditional Characters, Top-to-bottom, Right-to-left

if only priest wrote fanfic, i would totally eat it up 🥹

the 7s translators for spl and guardian have mentioned pipi editing the manuscript for physical eng publication before tho! this would explain why there's so much discrepancy between the online pirated version you're reading and the official eng print

https://x[.]com/lily_ocho/status/1560892610570379270

https://x[.]com/yuka_cchii/status/1696468355836764257

AH! Thank you!! That makes sense.

I rather prefer the online pirated version, probably since I lived in that book for, like, ❤️a year❤️, but I guess that makes sense.

I'll slow the complaining in my annotations, I guess. Sigh. Priest, this is all your fault. 🥰

(Is "pipi" = Priest?)

I now own Stars of Chaos, Vol 1!!! And pre-ordered Vol. 2 while I was out!! Yay!!!

And now, a brief yet pathetic looking-for-sympathy note:

The 南疆山匪 (southern border mountain bandits??) arc is So Hard for me! It’s all “This character who is a friend of that character who you just met is laying a trap for this other character who is a friend of yet another character that you have Not yet met yet, plot plot convoluted plot” with absolutely no kissing and practically no pining and this is exactly why I am re-reading 杀破狼 Stars of Chaos while making a chapter-by-chapter Notes document of Romance Only for future rereads.

My 杀破狼 Romance Only Notes only have a couple of paragraphs from Ch 40, and it doesn’t look like I’ll have much from Ch 41.

This is taking too much discipline to read.

Priest, give me less massacring and more Mutual Magnetism!

MDZS Vol 4 Annotations

Part 1, pages 1-49

I finally finished Book 4! It was beautiful! I loved it! But a lot of word and phrasing choices didn’t fit my personal interpretation of the MDZS world, and the final chapter of Book 4 was translated based on an earlier version of MDZS, so I have a ton of notes.

Alright. Here we go:

The author is very affectionately roasting LWJ here, and simultaneously showing how LXC is an expert at reading his enigmatic little brother. The contrast between the high-register language of the brothers’ conversation vs the relatively informal narrative language is obvious in Chinese, and serves to make this short and otherwise rather somber exchange more interesting and a little bit fun.

I had a hard time with contractions and slang in this book. I’m sure it’s in all the other books, too, but this time the “gonna”s and “gotta”s and “yah”s rubbed me the wrong way.

Every single character in MDZS (except Xue Yang) is highly educated and speaks with care and precision. WWX talks more colloquially than LWJ (or, rather, LWJ speaks like ancient poetry and WWX just talks), and JC tends to punctuate conversations with criticism and threats, but they all speak like they endured years of formal schooling and have hundreds of classical poems and ancient texts memorized.

how to flirt with your crush 101: a guide by wei wuxian for anon 

The Husky and His White Cat ShiZun, volume TWO 2 二

(The one with the very pale cover)

(English 7Seas version) Notes 2 of 4

Pages 137-198

(That was just me sitting there for a second, wondering who “he” was referring to, then wondering if anyone else was momentarily confused by the ambiguity of pronouns.)

More under the cut :)

Back to my Masterlist

Saturday, August 7, 2021. That’s the release date for Mo Dao Zu Shi season 3!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excuse me while I go schedule my Season 1 and 2 marathon so that my memories will be perfectly fresh and ready for Season 3 on August 7!!!!!!!!!

(Sources: https://youtu.be/YzvNsFSw0RY and https://www.yualexius.com/2021/01/mo-dao-zu-shi-season-3.html. I really really hope that they’re right!!!!!!)

Yu Alexius

Grandmaster Of Demonic Cultivation / Mo Dao Zu Shi Season 3 Release And Updates | Yu Alexius

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are coming back in 2021 for Mo Dao Zu Shi Season 3 and I am sure that I am not the only one who is excited to see

杀破狼 Stars of Chaos:

This book has more plot than I have Chinese reading comprehension, but I think I see it now.

Chapter 52 is where Chang Geng asserts his superior intellect and problem-solving skills (because his vision isn’t clouded by pesky things like emotions for people who aren’t Gu Yun); and Chapter 53 is where he/Priest lays out Chang Geng’s evil master plan to bring peace and prosperity to the nation so that maybe he can convince Gu Yun to take a vacation.

No details or anything; just “this is the problem and that is what must be done.”

https://player.vimeo.com/video/428359960

For those who watched The Untamed on Youtube and Netflix, here is the true ending we deserved. The same footage shown in a different order tells a completely new story.

As you may know, drama aired in Japan wouldn’t have to work around the same restrictions that the original version faced, so two guys getting their Happily Ever After isn’t going to get a show axed at the censorship board there. This is from the finale last night – what the show’s cast and crew would’ve wanted you to see.

(source: https://m.weibo.cn/profile/5813837205)

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼

Vol 2, Notes 3, pages 63 - 87

Another ten pages of notes!

Like I've posted before, Priest has more plot than I have reading comprehension, but, after a few rereads, I think I know what's going on.

In case you are in my same boat but you can't read my handwriting: Fu Zhicheng was originally a bandit, so the emperor at the time (the previous one) was worried (with good cause); but Fu Zhicheng was still given command because there was no other option at the time -- no one else was strong enough to hold the area.

土地公. Soil God. Local god.

I learn all my Chinese Mythology and Religion via trying to understand Priest novels.

静虚 Silent Empty. It's a very good name for a Daoist monk.

穿一条裤子 Wear one pair of pants. Isn't that super evocative? :)

And yet another place where I feel that the original paragraph break would have been very helpful for reader comprehension.

"Consolatory" = to console him on the loss of his mother.

It's the same poem referenced on page 54.

In the version I first read, the implication was that the wooden bird was there the entire time, and you only noticed it as it was flying away.

望穿秋水 look, penetrate, autumn water ( autumn water = "trad. description of girl's beautiful eyes" according to mdbg.net).

Nice way to describe looking at/for something really intently, yah?

Yet another sentence that was not in the (pirated) online version that I read. It doesn't really matter, I know, but I lived in that book for a year, so, well. It wasn't there before.

Another possibly different version, plus different ways to translate 冷笑 (if that is what was in the newer edit given to the translators).

In the version I read, there is no mention of facial expressions; Chang Geng just acts.

If Priest added a 冷笑 (I think that phrase has been used with Chang Geng before), then I would translate that as a Bitter Smile or a Cold Smile rather than as a sneer, since, in my head, only yucky villains sneer, and Chang Geng is a super elegant handsome symmetrical graceful mastermind who sadly but frequently lifts the corners of his mouth without any warmth reaching his eyes.

绊马索 trip horse rope.

Top:

男鬼 male ghost/monster/zombie (some type of supernatural being, derogatory)

...pulverizing the double layer of iron. Those mech-suits are Thick.

Bottom:

远在天边，近在眼前。 Far as the side of the sky, close as in front of the eyes. <3

And that's another ten! Just 44 more to go... :)

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links

I’m reading 病案本 Bing An Ben (Case File Compendium)!

As of ch 30 (of 254), it’s reading as a super slow burn with all the usual romantic tropes, except that the two protagonists hate each other.

They work together and successfully save the day! But they hate each other.

There is only 1 bed! But they still hate each other.

Trapped on a rainy night in a cave on a romantic island with nothing but a book of love confessions and condoms! But … they hate each other.

One gets sick and the other nurses him back to health! Wait… they still hate each other?

The other gets sick and forcibly kisses the one in his delirium! … Why do they Still hate each other?

Anyway, I am enjoying it. They’ll start to like each other eventually, I’m sure.