I enjoyed the quietness in this chapter. Novel Wen Kexing is kinda more broody/less theatrical when he gets sad. Also, I just like Zhang Chengling as a character.
Thank you Emma P for proofreading! You've stayed with me for over thirty chapters already!
Notes
1. 手无缚鸡之力 translated literally. Makes me think of the scene in the show where ZCL fails to kill the chicken and they all drink water soup on new year's eve.
2. 跳大神 lit "dance the big spirit" is a folk "shamanic" ceremony where two "shamans" or more enter into contact with spirits of the deceased via dancing and music. Still an extant practice, popular in Northern China for example.
A misc. note on Zhou Zishu's training methods. Although they may (and surely should) come off as harsh, Zhou Zishu is actually pretty good on the scale of physical abuse so far by Chinese lit. standard and the tone from the text is mostly humorous.
I find it interesting that from a Chinese perspective, ZZS is meant to come off as a traditionally strict but good teacher/authority figure, with ZLC's grievance coming off as a tongue in cheek and humorous counterpoint, but it tends to sound easily angsty/sad when I'm translating it.
The missing context here is that phrases like "I'll break your legs" are understood as empty, even banal threats by a Chinese audience. What it says about traditional Chinese education is left to debate.