Wherein there is sweetness.
Warning: though the passage is written in a comic tone and WKX's inner voice is related from the POV of a sarcastic narrator, there is a joke that evokes rape ahead.
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And as always, thank you Emma P for proofreading!
Notes
1. This is an allusion to "divination via physiognomy". Note that the full phrase would be “男生女相主富贵,女生男相多劳累” or "a man with a woman's face is fated to riches, a woman with a man's face is fated to toil". This touch on two subjects. 1) Beauty is the primary measure of a woman's worth in ancient China (hasn't changed much, worldwide). 2) As with homophobia, hostility towards men being "effeminate" is arguably a relatively new phenomenon in Chinese culture, and derives from western mores and ideals (i.e. starting with the spread of the teachings of Jesuit missionaries). For example, beauty in men in Dream of the Red Chamber is generally presented in a positive way. And in one instance, a man whom we would nowadays perceive as a cross-dresser kicks another guy's ass because he is offended by his sexual advances.
2. Refers to gay guys in context.
3. The original says "eggplant struck by frost". Changed to turnip due to emoji imagery in English ;).
4. The image here is suggestive of a "blood pact". As seen in one of the web-series episode, mingling a few drops of blood, sometimes by trickling them into a bowl of water, was a symbolic way of sealing an oath/promise. Which gives another meaning to WKX's owl tale: by upturning the bowl of red-water, the owl made a promise become moot, which led to a calamity. WKX is thinking about broken promises.
A quick note on there being suggested underage sex (the "pretty youths" are implied to be the same age as Zhang Chengling) in this chapter.
I find it kinda funny that depictions of underage sex in fiction is now mostly taboo on the western Internet (just to be clear, I think that this specific taboo/ban is a good thing), but makes its way into Chinese danmei quite often, at least in suggested forms, even in pieces that become "mainstream" afterwards (raises eyebrow at MDZS and the whole controversy that surrounds a certain extra). The thing is, since smut is officially banned as a whole in China, nobody ever bothered to draw that specific line in the sand.
But then, Dream of the Red Chamber entire story is about a boy (aged twelve at the beginning of the novel) who discovers love while collecting a few trysts with both genders along the way.
Now that I'm thinking about it: no equivalent exist in western lit. Before the advent of Twilight (in which the protagonist is female, because "love" is considered a "girls' thing"), the trajectory is pretty much Roald Dahl/Harry Potter, straight to Playboy Magazine(pre internet)/pornhub and bdsm fanfictions (post Internet).
Anyway, in the context of this chapter, the (implied) underage characters in question are clearly depicted as being utilized by a villain. Also, it's obviously not graphic or anything.
NB—I do not know the lingo, please bear with my possibly ignorant usage of terms. Also, I am old, and no longer hip. This will not stop me from effusing delight about this chapter.
I am a latecomer to C dramas, finding them a bracing anodyne to Western literary and cinematic tropes—the tropes are still there, just different, wonderfully different. I am finding this story of love and self to be shot through with unvarnished emotion in a way I have never encountered, and it is so much better, more, real, gutsy, than the live action version. My tiny worldview limits my understanding and language abilities, and I am deeply grateful for the altruistic efforts of folks who translate f…
Stew them in broth! Who dares to disturb such an intense moment..? Thank you so much for translating. 💜
Depictions of teenaged sex might not exist much in popular western fiction, but I assure you you don't have to dig very deep at all into the western literature to find them. It's just that talking about that type of content is taboo (especially in strongly Christian countries), so every time the topic comes up it's usually because there's been a call to ban a book.
I'm not gonna stand here and say that we should have more teenaged sex in our books, but seriously the so called current "western canon" of books had pretty much been formed based on puritanistic Anglo-American values and can't really be held indicative of actual history of literature. Anything controversial has very carefully been…
I think you have a good point there. I don't think there were that many romance books for teenagers that included sex scenes. I remember mostly reading them in my mom's romance novels. It might be different now after Twilight. I remember bookstores suddenly being filled with similar stories after the films came out.
I just hope that the depictions include healthier relationships than Twilight (ーー;)
Thanks for the translation!