Stars Of Chaos 杀破狼 Vol 1, Notes 5

refseek.com

www.worldcat.org/

link.springer.com

http://bioline.org.br/

repec.org

science.gov

pdfdrive.com

This scene killed me, quite unexpectedly.

Babe, I’m with you. Our Shining Days

Astronomy I-

Still reading 病案本 Bing An Ben (Case File Compendium). I’m on chapter 106 (out of 254) now. And I can totally see why Meatbun needs another 148 chapters. I have no idea how she is going to resolve the basic romance, much less the mafia murder mystery treachery conspiracy thing.

Instead of thinking of this book in terms of Plot Arcs, I’m thinking of it in terms on Intractable Relationship Arcs.

(Minor spoilers under the cut.)

So, ch 1 - 51: Xie QingCheng and He Yu hate each other. They get thrown in every romance trope imaginable, but they both hate each other. It’s cute. I’m enjoying it.

Ch 52: oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. I don’t see how they are going to come back from this. Oh no.

Ch 54 - 87: So… I guess this is… something? I mean, at least one of them is appreciating the other one now. There’s a lot of sugar to read. And bitter. Ugh. This is not healthy.

Ch 88 - 101: Finally, some mutual respect. Sort of.

Ch 102: 23,730 words. This scene was 23,730 words. I’m physically and emotionally exhausted just reading this chapter. I think I Really Like It. And now they like each other! Yay!

Ch 103: Wait — Xie QingCheng doesn’t want to continue with liking each other? But… we read 101 chapters just to finally get to a mutually consenting kiss! And then another 23,730 words of consensual kissing ☺️ (kinda 😏).

Ch 104 - ?: It’s great that He Yu is finally self-aware, but how in the world is He Yu going to get Xie QingChen to ever Talk to him again?!?!

This is why there is a mafia murder mystery, isn’t it? Because without fresh corpses and the threat of imminent death, there is no way to move their relationship forward. Or sideways. Or any way at all.

Man. This story is such a roller coaster. I’m pulling my hair out.

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼

Volume 3, Notes 4/5, Pages 267 - 350

I had to look up this poem and its meaning. In essence, the poem is about revolution. Kicking out the old aristocracy and installing a new regime. Via nice, sweet poetry about birds flying away from Wang and Xie's homes (the "noble halls") into the homes of ordinary folk.

The nice Chinese 5-word version of "heads up their asses" is a much more elegant "顾头不顾腚" = attend to the head an forget the buttocks, as in "can only handle things coming from one direction".

Croaker is a type of small fish. 小黄鱼。

“若非烂到根里，恐怕也不会养出这种滚刀肉一样胆大包天的地方官。”

The "stubborn as cheap jerky" phrase is the translation of 滚刀肉, which is, broken apart, "rolling""knife""meat", like meat that is so sinewy and hard that it turns your knife instead of just letting itself be cut.

The "in their crooked ways" phrase is, I think, just an extra little modifier to help you understand that these difficult officials are not just stubborn, (and definitely not righteous,) but also crooked.

Pg 304: When I read this in English, it felt to me like the emperor was questioning if he himself still held power; in Chinese, it sounds to me more like he is stating that someone is trying to hide a really big secret, and he is questioning who that wrong-doer is.

"朕倒不知道这朝中是谁一手遮天了。"

Bad translation: "We (royal) do not know who in this court is using his hand to cover the sky." (一手遮天 One hand cover sky = "to hide the truth from the masses" mdbg.net)

Here is another place where the English confused me a little bit. Because, of course, it's really hard to translate.

方钦心里暗叹一声“扶不起来的东西”

Bad translation: Fang Qin sighed in his heart (he did the sigh entirely in his head, so no one actually saw him sigh), "hold him up and he still can't stand, that less-than-human thing."

Fang Qin is majorly disparaging Assistant Minister Lv here.

It's customary for older, retired men to put their bird in a carry-able size cage and then take it out on a walk to a local park or into the local wilderness, swinging the cage all the while so that the little bird can exercise its perching muscles and enjoy some fresh air. It's called 遛鸟, just like walking your dog is 遛狗。

The verb used here is 讹 é = error / false / to extort （mdbg.net), and where I have found elsewhere as "blackmail" or "cheat".

Sassy bird, yes?

"White Cut Chicken" is 白斩鸡 which is an amazing dish that we used to have every time we had banquet-style dinners at any Cantonese restaurant. It's super good. The only way I like to eat chicken. Very tender boiled chicken, served with a side of green-onion oil. Oh I'm getting hungry.

Top: Chang Geng is limping. His leg was hurt in the crash-landing.

Bottom: A 肚兜 is a cute hanky-sized bit of cloth with ties that go around the neck and the waist. It's meant to keep the belly warm. I usually only see little kids (like, babies and toddlers) in period movies wear them (and that's all they wear if it's warm enough).

If you watch the animated masterpiece Nezha 1979, a dudou is the only thing that Nezha wears from the time he emerges / is born until he kills his first dragon prince. You have to prove yourself as a dragon-killer before you get to wear pants.

They come in adult (woman) sizes, too, but that's for another day.

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links

Who’s The Murderer | Paradise Island “Horror Nursery Rhymes” - Zhou Shen 

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Being both aviation-adjacent and LOTR-adjacent, I feel the necessity of reblogging.

I’m doing my first re-read of Mo Dao Zu Shi, and would like to complain very publicly to a sympathetic audience that I Don’t Want to Read Song Lan’s Death again. It hurt the first time I read it, the first time I heard it on Audio Drama, the first time I watched it on CQL. (Now I skip that chapter in Audio Drama). I don’t want to experience it again; but I’m over halfway through ch 40 already and can’t abandon WWX’s POV via A-Qing.

I’m just looking forward to Drunk Lan Zhan #2. The promise of Drunk Lan Zhan will get me through this. Yes.