#haoppo reads 2ha

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

ok. done with the book. OMG. SO MANY FEEEEELS. 

i wondered about mo ran being a stealth buttefly clan but ignored it later. he did form core SUPER fast. even in chapter 1 or 2 we hear about it. and that struck me as odd that he wasn’t. 

but i didn’t see it as why he was able to come back

BUT i’m so HAPPY he did

and i love how taxianjun came back with him and they split time with cwn

XD

i feel really bad for shimei being blind and trying to make up for his old crimes. T.T i wonder if he’ll ever run into mo ran and cwn? 

and then hua binan... i actually felt bad for how he went but also he deserved it? at least i respect him. he stood for something and died for that thing. props dude... even if you were deranged and evil. 

ok. time to read the extras! :D 

#haoppo reads 2ha #2ha spoilers #erha #2ha #dumb husky and his white cat shizun #dumb husky and his white cat master #cwn #mo ran

[watch-grok-brainrot]

I've... Come to the point of using bribery to do work. Here haoppo. Read a little erha. And then work and then more erha

#haoppo reads 2ha

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

儒风门的招魂台上,徐霜林看着夜色里点点飘零的金色流光，忽觉像极了那一年元宵雪夜，他投入炉膛的纸。

On Rufeng Sect’s Spirit Summoning Stage, Xu Shuanglin watched the scattered golden lights in the night sky. He was suddenly reminded of the piece of paper he threw into the furnace that one snowy Lantern Festival Night.

瞬间烧成了灰，只有点点星火仍在，隔着岁月,将他烫伤。

It burnt into ash in an instant, with only specks of embers remaining to scald him despite the years that passed.

望罗枫华,南宫絮,南宫柳三人。能一生为亲为友。

I hope that we three, Luo Fenghua, Nangong Xu, and Nangong Liu can be friends and family for life. 

但人间早已没了南宫絮了,如今立在这里的是徐霜林，是疯子是恶魔是从地狱深处爬回来向世间一切正人君子索命的徐霜林。

But Nangong Xu no longer exists in this world. It’s Xu Shuanglin who stands here today; Xu Shuanglin who is a madman, a demon, a person who crawled from the depth of hell to demand the lives of all the good men in this world. 

再没有南宫絮了。

There will never again be Nangong Xu.

他就像他的名字一样，飘零无依,沉浮于苍茫天地间。

He, like his name, has drifted away, alone, floating somewhere between the vast heaven and hearth.

岁月碾过,岩峦也错骨分筋。何况是这一朵渺小柳絮。

Years crushed by, even rocky cliffs shatter and break [1]. Not to mention this small insignificant puff of willow catkin.

那么多年过去了，柳树苍老,枫华凋零,飘絮游游荡荡，看尽的不是天涯花,是漫山遍野的血,铺天盖地的恨。

It’s been so many years. The willow tree has become old. The magnificent maple has started to fade. The floating catkins wander in the wind [2]. What was seen through and through was not all the world’s flowers, but blood soaked mountains and plains and the hatred covering heaven and earth.

Ch 228

南宫絮 (Nangong Xu),  南宫柳 (Nangong Liu) , and 罗枫华(Luo Fenghua)’s names are invoked in the last paragraph of this passage about them and passing time.  I wanted to only translate the last part at first but it didn’t provide enough context, so I expanded the passage. 

There’s something haunting in this paragraph from Meatbun. Things that are images of splendor and spring have been taken and made desolate with the passing of time. And beautiful willow catkins and youthful dreams are replaced by blood and hatred. 

I just love this passage and wanted to share and point out the wordplay Meatbun did in her use of imagery. 

[1] Literally bones slip/grind and tendons separate. But shatter and break seem to work better in english. 

[2] 飘 is to float but implies in the wind so i broke that up. 游游荡荡 indicates wandering but not necessarily in the wind. fun note: Gone with the Wind is translated into chinese as simply “飘”. 

Edit: “ ... Xu Shuanglin watched the scattered golden lights in the night sky. He was suddenly reminded of the piece of paper he threw into the furnace that one snowy Lantern Festival Night. ” is better/more literally translated as “... Xu Shuanglin watched the scattered golden lights in the night sky which suddenly  resembled the piece of paper he threw into the furnace that one snowy Lantern Festival Night. ” I was struggling to get the resemble and the sudden and the night sky to link... and now it makes sense in my brain. oops. 

#chinese language #word play with names #imagery #meatbun writes pretty #haoppo reads 2ha #2ha #2ha spoilers #translation thoughts #my translation #dumb husky and his white cat shizun #dumb husky and his white cat master #erha #punning for devastation #language fun #chinese

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

Ch 212. Get yourself a shizun like cwn. Intimidation and badass level through the roof!!! 😍😍😍

Quick translation of the day:

"I've said before," he said pausing after every word. "Nangong Si is my disciple. If you do not wish to try him at Tianyin Pavilion, then please bring anything you want to say to me first. No matter if it comes to justice or to blows."

He threw out the last phrase into dead silence.

"I will oblige to the end."

#dumb husky and his white cat master #dumb husky and his white cat shizun #haoppo reads 2ha #2ha #erha #cwn #chu wanning #what is this energy?!? #omg. i had to stop reading and scream #so good #😍😍😍 #edit to fix contraction #edit two to play with idiom parallels

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

Despite a the non-con/dub-con/rape, drugging, torture etc I still, by the end, found RanWan to be such a sweet and pure relationship. 🤔🤔🤔

Even taxianjun's existence is heartbreakingly sweet to me.

And the way both chose to preserve the other. Gaaaaaah. 😭😍😭👌😭🥰😭

#haoppo reads 2ha #2ha #dumb husky and his white cat master #dumb husky and his white cat shizun #erha #cwn #ranwan #mo ran #chu wanning

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

So one reason I got really into cql and cql adjacent fandom was all the webnovel recs.

I'm chinese and grew up in the US. I read a ton of wuxia in grades 7-9 and then kinda stopped.

For me, eeading simplified chinese is fun but takes either some mental calibration or slightly more effort for me than reading english; reading traditional chinese is to reading simplified as simplified is to english.

Also, when I read wuxia I inadvertently picked up a lot of vocab.. so I'm reading bl webnovels to try to do that with language skills. Lol

That said, random things (e.g. tea) gets me really excited.

At some point during my 2ha reading I came across the 成语 (I think idiom is the closest translation) 如火如荼: like fire, like suffering/bitter plant is the literal translation. 荼毒 means torment. 荼 bitter plant + 毒 poison. The idiom is used to describe a raging fire.

I think this was my first time seeing the character 荼 outside of reading about tea. So back in the day, tea used to be called 荼, or at least classified under there until it got its own character - 茶. I believe that happened in the han dynasty when tea became more popular.

I read about 荼 when I was trying to read The Classic of Tea (茶经) by Lu Yü (陆羽) (I got distracted and never finished it... Maybe I shouldn't have tried to read it while in line at a Six Flags...). It's the first volume on tea and I need to get back to reading it and memorizing chunks to quote... Some of the stuff is really nicely written... Some of it isn't really applicable imo anymore... But still good to know historically... But I like his take on water and terroir. :D knowing the classic take on that should further my tea drinking... 🤔

Anyway, I was really excited to see that character in a book. >.>

#tea nerd problems #2ha reading #haoppo reads 2ha #2ha #erha #language musings #haoppo rambles #one big midwest ope

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

Ch290: seeing the line/phrase 一晌贪欢 hurts so much.

The line/phrase is from a poem and essentially says "in my dreams I am unaware of where I am. I greedily hold on to one more moment of joy".

And for mengmeng think about his loved ones using that line is beautiful stabby stab.

#haoppo reads 2ha #2ha #dumb husky and his white cat master #dumb husky and his white cat shizun #mengmeng #erha #xue meng #2ha spoilers #stabby stabby stab stab stab #chinese poetry

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

Ch 226

“我余生所求皆在于此，你别想再靠近半步。”

姜曦暴怒：“你余生所求，就是鱼死网破吗？”

(xu shuanglin says) "This is all that I seek in what remains of my life, don't think you can get even a step closer."

Jiang Xi exploded, "Is a life and death struggle what you seek in what remains of your life?"

So it's an intense conversation but I laughed because the words for "remains" and "fish" sound the same. In this case remains is used in place of "what is left of". ( This pun is potentially intentional because the phrase for life and death struggle meatbun used is literally "the fish dies, the net breaks".) Anyway, if we want, we can "hear"/pun this conversation into:

(xu shuanglin says) "This is all that I seek in my life as a fish, don't think you can get even a step closer."

Jiang Xi exploded, "Is a life and death struggle what you seek in your life as a fish?"

And now I'm just imagining Xi Shuanglin as a fish in the middle of a magical array, surrounded by 5 elemental divine weapons, flopping.

Also, cultural note: for the Lunar New Year the reason we serve fish is for this pun. There the idea to have excess every year -- which means you have enough (money, food, etc). And the word for excess in this case is remains -- like to have something left over.

Replacing remaining with fish, the phrase becomes have fish every year.

So for auspiciousness, we eat fish every year! :)

#2ha #dumb husky and his white cat master #dumb husky and his white cat shizun #erha #haoppo reads 2ha #bad puns create ridiculous visuals #what is this blog becoming?! #jiang xi #xu shuanglin #language thoughts #2ha chinese crack puns

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

Ooooh. Just finished 278. Wow. Ouch. owwwwww. Spoilers ahead...

So... Mo ran is bad at reading easy words because he forgot everything cwn taught him due to the flower curse... Right?

Omg. 😭😭😭

#haoppo reads 2ha #2ha #dumb husky and his white cat master #dumb husky and his white cat shizun #erha #ranwan #cwn #mo ran #2ha spoilers

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

Why is it so hard to care about shi mei? Can we get back to mo ran or cwn? Please? K thnx

#ch 274 #haoppo reads 2ha #dumb husky and his white cat master #dumb husky and his white cat shizun #erha #2ha

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

Ch 216 smackdown!!! I now like Jiang Xi at least a little. What good snark. Hahahaha

Quick translation of the day:

"Should I indulge your malice simply because you claim to have no malice? " Jiang Xi coldly turned his eyes and threw a side-glance at Huang Xiaoming. He did not even want to give the man a direct look. "Should I endure your ignorance simply because you're old and feeble?"

Note: it's not 100% accurate to add the word simply in the sentences but I felt like that conveyed his disdain better... :/ So artistic choice. Ope.

Edit: I take the note back. I think the simply ties in with the indulgence and enduring. And there is implication of that in the text based on the character 就which can be used for emphasis. Maybe I should've said "merely" instead... Hmm.. 🤔

#haoppo reads 2ha #2ha #erha #dumb husky and his white cat master #dumb husky and his white cat shizun #jiang xi #smackdown #snark #yaaaaaas #my translation #one big midwest ope

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

Ch 217

Last 1/5-ish of ch 217.

“你想得美”. Literally: you + want/think+ adverb indicator + beautiful.

It's a sarcastic expression better translated as "dream on" or "in your dreams"

In an unlikely serendipity, the word dream actually makes the line work better in english because it's now a play on words in the context of the novel.

#translation thoughts #idk what the mtl says but it needs to read dream on or in your dreams when a human translates it #because it's so freaking apt #haoppo reads 2ha #language thoughts #2ha #erha

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

Hahahaha. Cats and buns in erha.

白猫师尊 - white cat master

胖猫菜包 - fat cat veggiebun

What kind of cat is meatbun?

馋猫肉包 - gluttonous cat meatbun? Based on all the food descriptions I hope so.

Fun fact: my mom used to call me 馋猫. And I'm a foodie and am chubby because I eat way too much. Orz

#haoppo reads 2ha #2ha #erha #dumb husky and his white cat master #dumb husky and his white cat shizun #random thoughts

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

Ch 198

Oh fun! Evil mountains! I like how there's a nice neat set of four.

蛟 - flood dragon

甲 - (tortoise) shell

獠 - fiend/ugly -- often used to describe the teeth of beasts

凰 - female phoenix

So... Cwn explains that these are the 4 mythical beasts: xuanwu (turtle/snake hybrid), zhuque (red bird, often depicted like a phoenix/firebird), baihu (white tiger -- evil tiger would definitely have ugly teeth!), and qinglong (azure dragon).

And that these are mountains derived from the corrupted versions of the beasts' spirits. I am so excited to learn more about the other mountains!!! XD

And to get more backstory!!!

#erha #dumb husky and his white cat master #dumb husky and his white cat shizun #haoppo reads 2ha #i really like importing mythology into world building #2ha

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

I just finished Ch 189.

The last two paragraphs made me have mixed feelings but also really excited for future stuff in the book.

I was upset: Oh shit meatbun is gonna give them backlash due to their teacher student romance. That's not gonna be pretty.

I was also pleased: I'm so used to old conservative people caring way too much about labels in xianxia/wuxia genre. I'm surprised that I haven't come across ranwan being "inappropriate" due to their teacher-student relationship in my accidental readings of fandom rantings. In 神雕侠侣 it was a BIG DEAL... And their age gap was way less. I am excited to watch them suffer more angst!

ANGST! ANGST! ANGST!

2ha feeds me well. Don't feed the fishes. Feed the haoppo

#2ha thoughts #erha #2ha #dumb husky and his white cat shizun #dumb husky and his white cat master #haoppo reads 2ha

[donotfeedthefish-moweiyu]

Apparently 脑白金(naobaijin or pun-wise 瑙白金, the name of the faewolf) is a brand of melatonin.

And I just learned that the username in the extra where we see 脑白金 was part of the commerical slogan:

"今年过节不收礼，收礼只收脑白金"

I'm not accepting gifts this holiday. If I do accept gifts, I'm only accepting naobaijin (melatonin)

#haoppo reads 2ha #2ha #dumb husky and his white cat master #dumb husky and his white cat shizun #erha #puns #wtf meatbun