Chapter 22 - A Whole Suitcase... (Translator's Notes)

[1] Raws: 米虫 [mǐ chóng] Literal translation: ‘rice weevil’, used to compare someone to a rice weevil implying the only thing the other could do was eat (and maybe sleep). There is a longer, four characters version of this same idea.

[2] Raws: 不省油的灯 [] Literal translation: ‘lamp that is not fuel-efficient’, used to imply that someone is troublesome (add trouble to a matter instead of simplifying it) or someone who isn’t easy to deal with.

[3] Raws: 黑锅 [hēiguō] Literal translation: ‘black pot’, used to imply blame or infamy.

[4] Raws: 不健康 [] Literal translation: ‘unhealthy’, read as: ‘not suitable for children’.

[5] Raws: 咸鱼 [xián yú] Literal translation: “salted fish”, used to compare to people who are just lying there doing nothing. May also refer to an actual corpse. The main point is that something is just laying there.

[6] Illicit services. More commonly seen from massage parlors though. The relationship maps probably went from massage parlors>> spas >> salons.

[7] The ‘formal’ way to say ‘condoms’ in Chinese is generally three characters, the direct translation is something like: ‘avoid contraceptive sheath’. The reason I translated as such is that the characters were separated by commas in the raws, to which there could have been several reasons. One of which is to bypass the censoring (so it’s all readers friendly), the other is because of emphasis or for the dramatic effect. For me, when I was reading it, I felt that given Geng Yan’s state of mind at that point… I could completely imagine him forcing each character out through gritted teeth… So I made my choice as is.

[8] Equivalent to the English phrase: ‘like holding a hot potato’.

[9] To pretty up their hands to jerk off? I think… I asked for SOS on NUF.

[10] Raws: 醉翁之意不在酒 [zuì wēng zhī yì bùzài jiǔ] Literal translation: ‘the intentions of the drunkard lie not in the wine’ and various similar word choices, it means that there are ulterior motives.

[11] ‘Plane’ is written as ‘flying machine’ in Chinese, this ‘machine’ 机 is a homonym with ‘chicken’ 鸡, sharing the same tone [jī] even though it is written differently.

[12] The pinyin seemed like a homonym for rubbing-up-release?