Chapter 5.2 (2/2)

I made a sound of acknowledgement, withdrawing my gaze from the photos of Yin Xuan. “Is she doing ballet in Europe?”

“Yes.” Yin Li refused to touch anymore on this topic. “Come with me to the study, I have some questions for you.”

Afterwards, I followed him out of the room and watched as he locked the door. Those dazzlingly reflective mirrors were shut away inside and this ballet practice room would once again sink into the dust. At that moment a baffling feeling appeared in my heart; undoubtedly this room made me uncomfortable, yet I felt

I felt a slight sense of loss, the origins of which were a mystery to me. Tucking away my disappointment, I could only attribute my odd feelings to premenstrual syndrome .

Then I obediently followed Yin Li to the study. It was my first time inside, turned out it was different from my expectations and didn’t have a simple, minimalist style. Instead, antique curios4 were arranged everywhere, giving it an elegant atmosphere.

4Chinese curios can be small ornaments carved out of jade or other precious stones, miniature statues of animals or people, little ceramic vases or tea cups, etc. They’re usually displayed in fancy carved wooden boxes/shelves.

Imagine Yin Li’s office with this sorta stuff. (Source: Taiwan National Palace Museum website)

He walked to the desk, took out a newspaper, and spread it out for me to see. “What happened here?” His tone held no reproach, but his eyes watched me closely. I cowered for no reason, but then tremblingly lifted my head back up to look at the newspaper.

Half of its entire page was occupied by a color photo. Above the photo in giant letters was the line “Notice: Looking For This Person”, I guessed that it was probably Mo Xing Zhi who had stuck it on there for me.

Only then did I carefully examine the picture, and what I saw almost made me faint.

Turns out it was a picture of me sitting in the wheelchair. Worst of all, he’d chosen the ugliest one out of the bunch where my eyes just so happened to be mid-blink when it was taken. When I picked up the newspaper with my hands shaking to take a closer look at it, I discovered that under the postmodern-art-looking t.i.tle, besides a line giving a telephone number to contact, there was also this rhyme:

“I awoke

this rhyme:

“I awoke from a nightmare, but forgot all of my past.

Yesterday’s matters, I can no longer grasp.

Will there be anyone who, taking hold of my hand,

Will guide me past today, guide me towards tomorrow, tell me my name and my fate?

I have always been waiting for the knowledgeable you,

To help me regain the treasures that I’ve misplaced.”

Niang Niang: im really sad guys… candle deleted my ghetto af translations  i think they are 10x better than normal english. THIS IS WHAT IT COULD HAVE BEEN:

As expected, when I stiffly turned around I saw Yin Li leaning casually against the doorway like uhh whaddup dawggg. I didn’t even dare look at his face. I hardened my b.a.l.l.s and said: “How could you be like this! You don’t even knock before entering?! GOTTA KNOCK BEFORE YOU TUCK IT DAWG”

“The door was open dawg.”

I couldn’t accept such blasphemy and pointed to the wall of photos, criticizing, “This room’s Feng Shui is s.h.i.+t yoo! All these photos are making me fakking ret.u.r.ded dawg. A f.o.o.kin curse! AISHHH! My brain’s a hot mess! I don’t even know waddaf.o.o.k I’m doing dawwwg!”

Candle: f.o.o.k dat desu

Candle: Also, I spent extra effort figuring out how to translate that last part so it all rhymed while still keeping the original meaning lol. In the original text it’s much shorter, but then again Chinese can be shorter than English syllable-wise yet stuff in more nuance. To make it more ….emotional..or maybe poetic, I guess, I thought turning it into a rhyme would be a good idea.

Niang Niang: Candle and I are going off to the great PRC where WordPress is blocked (we think). The chapters will still update but we might not be able to approve comments. We’ll be back in 3ish weeks.

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