English translation of Sharing Two Cups with the Mountains and the Moon 《我与山月分两樽》 Wǒ yǔ shān yuè fēn liǎng zūn, the lyrics of the insert song from the audio drama for 君有疾否 Jun You Ji Fou (Art Thou Ailing?) by Ru Si Wo Wen.
English translation of Relentless Longing Pervades My Dreams 《相思续续入梦来》 Xiāngsī Xùxù Rùmènglái, the lyrics of the theme song from the audio drama for 三嫁咸鱼 San Jia Xian Yu (Thrice Married To A Salted Fish) by Bi Ka Bi.
English translation of Another Heart of Snow Upon The World 《还来天地一襟雪》 Huán Lái Tiāndì Yì Jīn Xuě, the lyrics of the theme song from the audio drama for Jun You Ji Fou / Art Thou Ailing?, based on the novel of the same name by Ru Si Wo Wen. on Miss Evan.
“At the time of writing, tens of thousands of published danmei works have ‘disappeared’ from Jinjiang, and many new danmei works have difficulty passing Jinjiang’s ever-tightening censorship. […] Pressed by platform restrictions and online reporting mechanisms, more and more danmei creators have to retreat to private QQ chat groups or WeChat groups to circulate their works. And these groups are also under constant censorship. One direct consequence of this imposed clandestineness is that danmei writings become more fragmented, and it is unlikely that any new talent will be seen to rise to fame. This colossal setback, however, does not mean the end of danmei. Numerous danmei writers are still eager to create and share, even though they might only have a dozen readers. Readers are also supporting their favourite writers through thoughtful reviews, cash bonuses and gifts. It is precisely this endless love, enthusiasm and creativity from fans that convince us that Chinese danmei is—and will remain—alive, regardless of oppression and censorship. With a little more space and time, the genre will bloom again in the future.”
-‘OPENING THE DOOR TO A NEW WORLD’: Danmei and the Gender Revolution in China, by Ling Yang and Yanrui Xu
Posted in celebration of Lin Qingyu’s birthday (11th day of the 3rd lunar month)! English translation of Three Wishes 《三愿》 Sanyuan, the lyrics of the insert song from 三嫁咸鱼 (San Jia Xian Yu / Thrice Married to Salted Fish), the audio drama on Miss Evan based on the novel of the same name by 比卡比 Bi Ka Bi.
English translation of No Man’s Land 《无人洲》 Wú Rén Zhōu, the lyrics of the insert song from the audio drama for Jun You Ji Fou / Art Thou Ailing?, based on the novel of the same name by Ru Si Wo Wen. on Miss Evan.
Version by original singer (Babystop_山竹):
Version by voice actor (Ma Zhengyang):
The Sins of Lord Pei 裴公罪
Chapter 1. Prologue – Execution
In this world, everyone is destined to be an inmate of some kind of prison.
Some are oblivious to the imprisonment their entire lives; some are aware of their captivity from the start, but seek no remedy.
There’re even some who build such prisons with their own hands, laying the bricks and tiles tightly, leaving no gaps. They have never thought of occupying the place themselves and only intended to watch over the nefarious deeds of others; but after a lifetime of sins, they find themselves the only ones in deep dark cells behind iron bars.
The time is the end of the eighteenth year of Yuanguang (1).
It happened to be the downfall and imprisonment of Pei Jun, the villainous minister of the imperial court, along with his lackeys who had dominated the court for years. This shocking and spectacular show where the wise emperor rooted out evil court officials had only just ended on New Year’s Eve, and not all the accomplices outside the court had been brought to justice yet. But inside the court, servants were already busy covering the palace in decor of auspicious red.
English translation of 《没错》 'Indeed’, the insert song from the second season of the Jun You Ji Fou (君有疾否) / Art Thou Ailing?audio drama on Miss Evan, based on the novel of the same name by Ru Si Wo Wen.
Chinese/Pinyin/English lyrics + audio link (free to listen) available under the cut!
Jun You Ji Fou (君有疾否) | Ru Si Wo Wen (如似我闻)
A.K.A. Art Thou Ailing?
Links: Novelupdates | half-eaten mantou (Chrysanthemum Garden)
Tags: Historical, Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Yaoi
Chapters: 92
Read on: 03/23/2025 to 03/26/2025
This novel captivated me for the entire length!! Mantou did such a good job translating this and you can feel their care in every decision made while translating. I very much enjoyed this novel, and its one I will definitely come back to read again.
Upon realization that he knew practically nothing about his political opponent, the Imperial Censor Su Shiyu, after an incident, the Imperial Marshal Chu Mingyun quickly brainstormed ways to gain information without suspicion. Investigating Su Shiyu without alarming those he shouldn’t normally wouldn’t be easy- but he had a plan. All he needed was for Su Shiyu to listen to him.
Imperial Marshal Chu thus sets his plan into motion and declares his undying love to the Imperial Censor Su in the palace after work, within earshot of other officials.
Su Shiyu: …. Are you ill?
Chu Mingyun: Yes, with lovesickness.
They can’t trust each other, but can’t help but fall in love with the other. Their trajectories and stances are complete opposite and from the start they’re doomed to a bitter ending.
Su Shiyu is the minister who is always gentle, always smiles, and does not hesitate to enact the law-even on his own relatives. He projects the image of being heartless- but who can truly have a heart of stone? He cannot waver because he already has in the past, and that cost him dearly. I loved the push and pull between them… The heartbreak Su Shiyu feels every time he struggles with his ideals versus his growing love for Chu Mingyun, and deciding to lock all his feelings and reactions deep in his heart where no one will see. I love him.
Chu Mingyun is ruthless, overbearing, but charming. He has been gathering military power for years, slowly building up his men’s loyalty to him- not the Emperor. He sees that the current Emperor will only lead the country to ruin, and is reaching forward to rectify it.
He is the one who started pursuing Su Shiyu first intending to make it easier for him to gather information on him, but fell even harder for him completely unaware. His bursts of dependency coupled with his threats to completely monopolize Su Shiyu after both had already fallen hopelessly in love with each other.. Su Shiyu allowing it while also unable to reciprocate…. Whew. It was almost agonizing seeing the two of them tear at each other in subtle and overt ways as the plot came to a head….
And I swear almost every character introduced after the first arc or so felt doomed. In a good way! It didn’t feel like the author was introducing characters to kill them off- each person was deliberate and had their own interconnections with the main protagonists… Which made it hard to see some of them get swept up in the plot and killed. I really like how the author slowly reveals the real mastermind- the readers get to be as similarly frustrated as Su Shiyu and Chu Mingyan while they investigate and connect the dots left by the evidence behind. And there was a good balance between the politics, the war, and the feelings and tension between our two ministers 🥺
In short, I’ve gained a new novel I love, two characters I adore and 100% teared up at the end of the novel with the historical account of the dynasty. I will definitely read the author’s other works! Mantou is working on a second of their novels and I definitely will await the completed notification in the CG discord 👀
- How was the translation? Excellent. Half-eaten mantou is an excellent translator, clarifying the many poems included in the text and pointing out when they had to translate things more liberally. I really appreciate the transparency and love Mantou has put into completing it. There were very few typos and missed words in the text. The inclusion of official art of a few of the scenes in the novel were also great 🥺
- Would I recommend this novel? Yes! Its not as dense as some historical novels and like I said has a good balance of everything.
- Would I reread this novel? Absoluuutely. 100%
Trigger warnings: Suicide, Poison, Sexual harassment*, Using “retarded” in the medical diagnosis sense, Gore, Child abandonment, Domestic Violence (mention), Torture, Drugs (Aphrodisiac), Child death
*Done with a purpose, disguised as him taking advantage of Su Shiyu. Past the first pat-down Su Shiyu acquiesces to Chu Mingyun’s actions and its not unconsensual. Su Shiyu would simply Not Let Him if he didn’t want to be there.
Thank you for reading my review, once again no readmore this time !! 💜💜💜
(Edit: I’d initially only placed some of my own input in the tags, but I decided that I should at least attempt to say something…)
Thank you so much for your kind words, especially regarding a translation that I really still find so much to improve on (though admittedly won’t devote much time to doing so at least for the time being, because of real-life commitments, as well as the fact that I will be removing it very soon to support the official English release anyway).
More importantly, I think you’ve captured the gist of the novel beautifully in your review (and I noticed you’ve read it within just 3 days, too). Parts where the novel may have been prone to misunderstanding were thoughtfully appreciated, and I completely agree with the parts of the novel you celebrated. It’s one of my favourite novels, and I’m really relieved to see that those things didn’t get lost in my translation…
If anyone’s seeing this, I’m seconding notnun’s recommendation of this novel – not my TL (anyway it’s probably not going to be up for much longer), but the official English translation by Rosmei, or the official Chinese physical copy by XIRON aka Mo Tie 磨铁 (Volume 1 | Volume 2) if you can read Chinese (or even the Thai release if you’re Thai…if it’s still available for sale?). You could also consider listening to the audio drama on Miss Evan – the voice actors (mainly YangKang but also the rest of them) + BGM + post-production (not to mention the art) were exquisite in my opinion! Those will definitely be fantastic ways to support the author, who has been putting up their stories for free on JJWXC. ♡
the lotus flower
In this post I want to briefly talk about the dual symbolisms of lotus flower in Jun You Ji Fou (the novel I’m reading recently). For people who aren’t familiar with the novel, read it for the Chinese culture trivia if you like, there won’t be too much spoilers :)
One of the most recognizable traits of Chu Mingyun’s appearance is the blood red lotus flower pattern on his clothes. The crimson lotus is beautiful and striking, just like Chu Mingyun, but in Buddhism it’s also associated with hell – one of the strata of hell is so cold that people’s skin would turn blood red and crack open like the lotus flower, hence the name “Red Lotus Hell” (红莲地狱). Chu Mingyun is indeed like a vicious ghost that climbed out of hell for revenge – all his life decisions are defined by his childhood trauma; his entire character is like a bleeding wound. In the words of the novel:
他说他其实是孤魂野鬼，因为有执念才没死干净，苍梧山上灵气充足，他修行完就要去吃人了！
“He said he was in fact a lone ghost in the wild that didn’t dissipate only because he had unfinished business in this world. Cangwu Mountain is rich with spiritual energy, and he’ll be off to devour people after he completes his cultivation here!”
But at the same time, the lotus flower is consistently used as a symbol of love between Chu Mingyun and Su Shiyu in the story. The Chinese character for “lotus”, 莲 (lian), is the homophone of 怜 (lian), which means “love, pity, fondness” (coincidentally, it’s the same “lian” in TGCF’s Xie Lian). And the Chinese phrase for “lotus seed”, 莲子, is the homophone of 怜子, which is an archaic and literary way of saying “I love you.”