Chapter 31: Emerging from the Shell

Now posted!

This chapter is dedicated to Frank @worldoshaking! Thank you very much for donating and participating in the Rally for Palestine event. Some others have generously donated to charity on behalf of this translation, and I will thank them in the next chapter (coming in not too long).

You’re about to die, and you’ve lived your whole life as a spineless turtle hiding in his shell. The thought rang silently in Zhou Zishu’s heart. What’s the worst that could happen, he thought; since it’s already come to this, why keep looking ahead and behind, why keep scheming? If someone never did anything impulsive in his entire life, wouldn’t he suffocate? Wouldn’t that be too tragic?

I have to say that I'm so happy to have found you on here. Thank you for translating a book I love!! I look forward to your future updates. Thank you so much for all of your hard work <33

THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ this made my whole month!!!

thank you so much for your beautiful translation of tyk!! I'm pretty new to danmei and I'm so happy I got in late enough to be able to read your translations :)

hand in marriage????? hand in marriage for anon????????????

I just found this tumblr so wanted to thank you very much for all your hardwork! and for the new chapter :) Love every chapter <3

omg THANK YOU and hehe you caught me!!!! I posted chap 30 but didn't get around to updating tumblr or twitter 🤭 I'm so happy you like my tl!!!!!

thank you for your translation of tyk, I've been slow reading it so that I don't binge the entire thing in one go. However I am so thankful for how wonderful a job you have been doing, I'm understanding more about the characters than I did when I read bits and pieces of translations dotted about online <3

What a lovely message! Thank you so much! I'm sorry I haven't been adding new chapters lately (having some personal issues) but your support means the world to me 🙏🙏🙏

I just wanted to thank you for your translation of TYK! I'm enjoying it immensely! Translation is hard work and you're doing a great job.

You don't know how much this means to me 😭 thank you so much!!!!!!

Audiobook chapters 3-4 posted!!

From now on I will (do my best to) remember to post on Sundays!

We posted audiobook chapter 2!

Check it out on the carrd ❤️❤️❤️

Audiobook announcement!

I'm excited to announce that this translation is getting an audiobook! Check out the carrd for a link to chapter 1 read aloud by the lovely podficcer glittercracker ❤️❤️❤️ be sure to check out her other work as well!

Chapter 29: Yearning Comes Too Late

But he saw Wen Kexing looking at him with an inscrutable expression, so he called out, “Why are you still standing there? Did you get hurt, or…”  

His words died out as Wen Kexing suddenly walked to him, came up close, and cradled his face with an ice-cold hand.

The raindrops slid down Wen Kexing’s face. Everything was silent except for the rain’s pitter-patter. His blank expression, his ashen face surrounded by disheveled hair, his pitch-black eyes made Zhou Zishu remember seeing him for the first time—how he looked down from the restaurant with such an indifferent demeanor.

He heard Wen Kexing say, “When I was little, my mother made me study and my father made me train. All the children in our village played outside, climbing trees and scaling walls; I was the only one who stayed in our yard to read or practice with my sword. I could only go out and play once it got dark. Every time, when I was so happy to rush out and join their games, the parents of the other kids would call them home for dinner.”

Zhou Zishu found this position uncomfortable indeed, and wanted to duck aside, yet he saw something dazed in Wen Kexing’s expression. His lashes were weighed down with raindrops; he blinked rapidly; a raindrop rolled down his cheek and fell from his chin. It gave the illusion of tears.

Posted here.

Chapter 28: Gu Seng

Zhou Zishu’s eyes flew open. He darted a few half-steps to the side, his hand reflexively reaching into his sleeve, murder rising in his heart as it had scarcely ever done—this was the first time an opponent had read him so thoroughly while he knew so little about them. Seeing this, the corners of Ye Baiyi’s mouth turned upwards in a stiff yet mocking smile. He sneered, “If I wanted to do something to you, could you still stand there and speak? That bit of qinggong you showed just now couldn’t have come from any other place. It’s called ‘leave not a trace, soar without bounds’. Siji Manor’s Qin Huaizhang is your shifu, isn’t he? Hmph. Master and disciple both alike. You make a scoundrel out of everyone you meet.”

Zhou Zishu replied coldly, “Master Gu Seng is a martial legend, but my master has long departed this world. Unfilial as I may be, I will not hear him insulted like this.”

Ye Baiyi was shocked. “What,” he cried out, “Qin Huaizhang is dead?”

Zhou Zishu didn’t have a chance to speak before Ye Baiyi’s gaze dimmed and became vacant. Quietly, “Yes, it’s been who knows how many years…how dynasties come and go …seasons never touch the mountain, but a thousand years pass so quickly in the mortal world. Even Qin Huaizhang is gone.”

Posted here.

Chapter 27: Massacre

He turned his head; the one who spoke was Ye Baiyi. Zhou Zishu was astonished to find that this glutton’s expression betrayed a hint of indescribable compassion, lending him the air of a porcelain Guanyin statue.

Reflexively, Zhou Zishu asked, “What?”

Ye Baiyi shot a glance at him and said, his face now devoid of expression, “Are you deaf?”

Zhou Zishu thus turned away, not wanting to provoke further indignities. But Ye Baiyi patted his shoulder and spoke without any sense that something was out of the ordinary: “Come out and go somewhere with me tonight.” His tone had something in it that resembled how Zhou Zishu had spoken to Zhang Chengling the night before.

Zhou Zishu had resolved against paying any heed to this Ye upstart before he learned some manners, but simply couldn’t stop himself from nodding. 

He regretted it to his core the moment he nodded—wanted nothing more than to wring this troublemaking head off his own shoulders. He pondered whether he might feel better if he killed this so-called disciple of Gu Seng where he stood, and silenced him that way.

Posted here.

Chapter 26: Lord Seventh

Next to the little desk was a chaise, and a man was resting on it with his eyes closed. He was dressed in the manner of the Central Plains, with wide sleeves and long robes, and an aged book open on his leg.

A small sable sat at the man’s feet. Since nobody paid attention to it, it found desultory amusement in chasing its own tail.

At this moment, a Nanjiang warrior hurried over with a letter in his hand. Seeing this scene, he quieted his steps without thinking about it, and waited in silence.

The man on the chaise opened his eyes at the sound. He looked to be twenty-five or twenty-six, with a pair of peach-blossom eyes that always carried a bit of a smile; truly his features were exquisite beyond compare. The little sable sprang into his arms, climbed onto his shoulder, and brushed his chin with its tail.

Chapters 24+25 posted!

Ye Baiyi pays a visit to cause Zhou Zishu all kinds of problems: financial and also marital...

Ye Baiyi displayed not a shred of courtesy. In his eyes, commonplace matters like eating and drinking in his company were honors for him to bestow upon others, and for others to receive with reverential gratitude. He certainly had no obligation to demur. Without giving Zhou Zishu a single thought, he called over a waiter and rattled off a whole list of dishes. “Order whatever you want; don’t hold back,” he said nonchalantly to Zhou Zishu.

Zhou Zishu looked strangely at him, thinking, when did you see me holding back?

Zhou Zishu had some suspicion that this disciple of Gu Seng had deliberately come to empty his pockets. These dishes he just ordered—never mind two people, they might even suffice to feed two pigs.

Ye Baiyi saw that he had no intention of ordering more food. With a sudden flash of understanding, Ye Baiyi said, “Oh, right, you’re injured. Of course you won’t have a good appetite. Still, I recommend you eat plenty while you still can; you don’t have much time left.”

Zhou Zishu’s expression became stranger still. If this fellow wasn’t Gu Seng’s disciple, he thought, even beating him like a punching bag from dawn until dusk wouldn’t be too harsh for him.

Right at that moment, someone else strode up to them and also pulled up a chair, uninvited, to sit down. He sized up Ye Baiyi with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile. “A-Xu, I was wondering where you’d gone all afternoon without even a word, but of course…there’s someone else?”

Chapter 23: Stories

Time to feel sad about Wen Kexing!

The two of them fell silent once more. It was a while before Wen Kexing said, in a low voice, “It all happened so many years ago…”

Perhaps it was because there was some inexplicable kinship between them—as soon as Zhou Zishu heard his song and his sigh, it was as though something became clear. Zhou Zishu couldn’t resist wanting to comfort him a little, saying in a soft voice: “Your honored father and mother were the rarest kind of good people. They were a divine couple, journeying through the jianghu and then retiring into seclusion together. If I could live this way, I wouldn’t mind dying tomorrow.”

Wen Kexing laughed once, extremely quietly. “Good people?”

Perhaps there was something about the night’s stillness that made him lower his voice, looking somewhat dazed. “To think that someone remembers them enough, after all these years, to speak well of them. Tell me… what counts as a good person? And why should someone be a good person?”

Chapter 22: The Divine Healer

We discover some intriguing hints about Wen Kexing's history, but not before he gets in some more shameless behavior.

Wen Kexing diligently sucked all the poisoned blood out of Zhou Zishu’s arm, took care of it for him, released Zhou Zishu’s acupoints, and drew a little medicine bottle out of his own bosom. He tipped out two pills. Stuffed one into his mouth and, smiling, held the other out on his palm and brought it near Zhou Zishu’s lips. His voice turned lascivious. “Come on, A-Xu,” he drew out his words, “open your mouth.”

Zhou Zishu regarded him with an icy countenance. Wen Kexing did not waver; his smile remained as dazzling as sunlight. As though, no matter how the other looked at him, his thick skin—as thick as city walls—would remain impregnable. He even looked over at Zhang Chengling meaningfully, making a point of lowering his voice: “I’ve already looked at you, I’ve already kissed you, what are you so shy for?”

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