A Slight Smile is Very Charming (微微一笑很倾城) : Part 19

February 26, 2015 by tofudessert 5 Comments

Part 19: Realization

Wei Wei isn’t worried since the Great Master has never come late, but it’s also normal for him to be a few minutes behind. The clock continues ticking; 7:45pm comes before she knows it. Wei Wei is starting to worry. Although she knows that NaiHe is not online, she can’t help but to send him a message——

“Are you there?”

Naturally, she doesn’t get a response.

Two minutes later, she sends another one. Wei Wei stops sending them after a while and refreshes NaiHe’s name continuously instead; the system reminds her repeatedly that the player is not online, so she cannot refresh his profile.

YuGong, MonkeyWine, and the others are also in grey.

Not online.

7:50pm.

Wei Wei shows up in front of the NPC at the entrance by herself. The team setup symbol sits on top of her avatar, but she is the only one present in the team.

The Destruction of a Triad Boss Trilogy (一个黑道大哥的毁灭三部曲) – Wu Xiu Long Xiang (无袖拢香) : Part 3

February 26, 2015 by LilZah 15 Comments

3. The second step towards destruction

The days of dying with dignity and live with endurance passed one by one. When the school term ended, the two of us brought back our report cards. No one could tell that she was actually very smart. But once she concentrated on studying, her grades rose up very quickly. At the end of the term, she actually tested to be second place in the grade. Comparatively, I was average; didn’t even make it to top 50.

Grandma, Dad, and Mom were very happy and praised Mei Mei for being smart. But Mei Mei had an expression like she had just found her idol in the trashbin, and said, “How can this be? How can this be? Ge Ge is so smart, how can he not test higher than me?”

I couldn’t stand it, but I had to! It had to do with a man’s honor! With my purple face, I blathered, “Of course I can, it’s just that my stomach wasn’t feeling well on the day of the test, so I didn’t test well.

Grandma, Dad and Mom all had shocked expressions on their faces. Only that stupid Mei Mei suddenly nodded with understanding, “That’s right. Like I said, Ge Ge is extremely awesome.”

Grandma and them were all snickering. I couldn’t hold my expression any longer, so escaped from everyone’s eyes, but was still reluctant to admit my mistake, “Just wait, next term, I’ll definitely surpass you.”

*Sigh*, that hateful honor of men! During the new term, in order not to lose honor in front of Mei Mei, I made an all-out effort in studies and eventually got first place on the podium at the end of the term. This shocked everyone. Only Mei Mei had on a fame follows merit — that was the way things ought to be — expression. Read more

The Destruction of a Triad Boss Trilogy (一个黑道大哥的毁灭三部曲) – Wu Xiu Long Xiang (无袖拢香) : Part 2

February 24, 2015 by LilZah 9 Comments

2. The first step towards destruction

Poisoned by a sugarcoated bullet, the starting point of me trying to correct Cheng Yong Kang wasn’t really for anything good. A bad person wanting to do good things would make someone die laughing. However, there’s that so called saying, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure; things that are evil for Cheng Yong Kong, can be good for others. From this I attracted an annoyance that will lead me down the wrong path for the rest of my life.

One Sunday, I went to find classmates to play. When I passed by Lantern Lane, I happened to see Cheng Yong Kang bullying his older sister. Of course I didn’t hesitate and went up to pull him away from his sister using one hand. And then kicked him in the butt. Cheng Yong Kang started howling at once.

It was a major miscalculation. I had forgotten that the place was his front door. Very quickly, his crying attracted that old mother hen. Cheng Yong Kang was easy to deal with, but that old mother hen in his family was someone I could not deal with at the time.

There’s that saying, “Your head may be cut off, you blood may flow, but your honor must be kept.” Even though my power fell short, I still resolved to confront the old mother hen. The scene was very chaotic that day. We started by hurling insults at each other and then hitting each other, neither side won in the end.

The final outcome of the event was that I ended up with an additional younger sister. It was because when the old mother hen and I were fighting and throwing insults at each other, without thinking much about it, I, very heroically, made an exaggerated announcement — saying that I was going to take that girl home to raise. That shameless old mother hen, simply, very despicably grabbed onto that opening and didn’t let go — determined to have me bring that girl back home. And for the sake of that damned so-called honor of men, with a bloody nose and swollen face, I brought that woman’s child back home. Read more

A Slight Smile is Very Charming (微微一笑很倾城) : Part 18

February 22, 2015 by tofudessert 4 Comments

Part 18: The Finals

ButterflyDreams greets Wei Wei: “Wei Wei.”

Wei Wei: “ButterflyDreams, you’re also in the competition?”

ButterflyDreams: “Yeah, of course I have to take part in such a big competition.”

The two chat for a little. Although Wei Wei and BattleTheWorld aren’t on good terms, she won’t let this get in the way of her friendship with ButterflyDreams; it looks like ButterflyDreams also feels the same way.

They are in a competition nonetheless, so they don’t chat for long; the battle begins after the 3-minute wait.

ButterflyDreams isn’t an expert in PK battles, so she isn’t on the leaderboard. Her skill used to be above Wei Wei’s, but since she hasn’t been playing for a while, Wei Wei has caught to her with all her equipment upgrades. Therefore, their skill level is on par.

As a result, ASmileNaiHe and BattleTheWorld are the deciding factor on which side will win.

The winning couple of this round cannot be more obvious.

After the PK battle, ButterflyDreams sends a private message: “Wei Wei, let’s find a place to talk.”

Wei Wei sends a nodding head smiley.

The Destruction of a Triad Boss Trilogy (一个黑道大哥的毁灭三部曲) – Wu Xiu Long Xiang (无袖拢香) : Part 1

February 19, 2015 by LilZah 14 Comments

Happy Chinese (Lunar) New Year! For the rest of the Chinese New Year celebration, I will be bringing you translations of a story called, The Destruction of a Triad Boss Trilogy (一个黑道大哥的毁灭三部曲) by Wu Xiu Long Xiang (无袖拢香) (No Sleeves to Catch Fragrances). It’s a fairly short story (though the author has even shorter ones) so let’s get right to it. Read more

A Slight Smile is Very Charming (微微一笑很倾城) : Part 17

February 18, 2015 by tofudessert 6 Comments

Part 17: For My Wife to Play With

When people say that enemies often cross each other’s paths, this is probably what it’s like.

Wei Wei looks at those across from her; she can’t help but feel speechless about her and NaiHe’s opponents in their first battle of the points accumulation round.

The couples PK competition finally begins on Friday after much wait. The first round is points accumulation competitions; it will take half a month and there are no audiences to watch the games. The opponents are randomly picked by the system; the participating couple just needs to click on the NPC and they will be taken to a battling field. They won’t know who their opponents are until they get there.

YuGong and the others send Wei Wei and NaiHe off as they click on the NPC to enter the field. The moment they enter it, Wei Wei is dumbfound —-their opponents, standing on the other side of the field, are actually RealWaterIsScentless and LittleRainYaoYao (LittleRainEnchantress).

>o<

Participating players don’t begin their PK battles right away; the system sets up a 3-minute preparation time before the battle. NaiHe glances at their opponents and says casually: “I’ll take care of LittleRainYaoYao.”

A Slight Smile is Very Charming (微微一笑很倾城) : Part 16

February 14, 2015 by LilZah 9 Comments

Part 16: Together with me

Wei Wei hastily replies to all of the inquiries from her friends. During this entire time, no message comes from NaiHe. Wei Wei moves the mouse to block the world channel and everything becomes tranquil in a split second.

On the computer screen is still the same blackness. Only the heroine in red’s body is faintly lit, barely making out her silhouette. Looking at the screen, Wei Wei slowly starts feeling a bit lonely.

It’s true that guilds in the game aren’t actually anything, but at least it is a type of memory. She had invested in it and had been happy because of it. She might not regret leaving so suddenly, but it’s hard to avoid the disappointment and frustration.

What’s more, she left in such a manner.

What’s more, the system bot has even shut her in a small black room by herself at this time >o<

Wei Wei isn’t someone who thinks too much about things, but facing such a quiet and dull screen, she gradually becomes a bit gloomy. She randomly clicks the mouse to make the heroine in red walk back and forth. After walking in a whole bunch of circles, she still can’t break out of it. Just as she is suffering from pent up frustration, there is a ding sound and a message pops up on screen.

Your husband, ASmileNaiHe, has passed the test of the last stage, “Yearning for Each Other Enchantment.” Congratulations, you have completed The Return of the Condor Heroes quest.

A Slight Smile is Very Charming (微微一笑很倾城) : Part 15

February 10, 2015 by LilZah 9 Comments

Part 15: Till we meet again in Rivers and Lakes

YuGong and MonkeyWine? It’s true, they were going to go kill a boss, but how can they snatch someone else’s boss? Wei Wei still has faith in them for something like this. It is probably a misunderstanding.

With this in mind, thinking to clear up the misunderstanding, Wei Wei calmly says: “Can you please provide more details on what happened?”

BattleTheWorld: “Reed, shouldn’t you give me an explanation? You are a part of our guild after all. Your team snatching a guild member’s boss cannot be explained away. Plus the items that the boss dropped were things the guild member needed urgently. I leave it to you to resolve this.”

The other party is persistently condemning her and still can’t clear it up after so long. Wei Wei doesn’t feel like asking him again, so she says: “Which guild member’s team was it? Tell me the name and I will go ask YuGong.”

After a pause, BattleTheWorld replies with four words: “LittleRainQingQing.”

Wei Wei: “……”

Extremely frustrated doesn’t even come close to describing Wei Wei’s current feelings. She looks at her friends list, StormGoddessNiNi (StormGoddessGirl) is online; she sends a message to her: “When did LittleRainQingQing join our guild?”

Wei Wei knows about LittleRainYaoYao (LittleRainEnchantress) joining Sound of Blue Ocean Tides Pavilion and wasn’t surprised about it. After marriage, it is common for the wife to join the guild of the husband or the husband to join the guild of the wife. But how come LittleRainQingQing also joined? When did the standards for joining Sound of Blue Ocean Tides Pavilion get so low?

StormGoddessNiNi quickly replies: “It was last week. WeiWei you didn’t know?”

Wei Wei: “I didn’t know. Who accepted her?”

StormGoddessNiNi: “The Guild Master. She was accepted because of her relation to RealWater and YaoYao. Oh, that’s right, you weren’t online when they joined the guild. The entire LittleRain clan has joined our guild.”

Wei Wei: “……”

StormGoddessNiNi: “I was wondering why you didn’t have a reaction to it. I was afraid to bring it up myself. *sigh*, actually LittleRainYaoYao isn’t that bad as a person, but that LittleRainQingQing is extremely annoying. She always acts coquettishly towards the men in the guild. It’s disgusting. WeiWei, I’ll tell you this in secret, I’ve seen LittleRainQingQing and Guild Master Battle (BattleTheWorld) alone together many times. They even rode on the same horse together…”

Book Review: Waiting For A Person, Coffee (等一个人咖啡) – Giddens Ko (九把刀)

February 10, 2015 by LilZah 2 Comments

Waiting For A Person, Coffee

Title: Waiting For A Person, Coffee (等一个人咖啡)
Author: Giddens Ko (九把刀)
Published: January 2013

A Slight Smile is Very Charming (微微一笑很倾城) : Part 14

February 6, 2015 by tofudessert 3 Comments

Part 14: Torturous Quest

When it comes to gossip, StormGoddessNiNi’s typing speed increases twofold; another message arrives right away: “They’re both in City B. It’s such a coincidence. Wei Wei, are you also there?”

Wei Wei: “Mm, I’m studying in City B.”

It’s not really much of a coincidence. The server they’re on is called, “Imperial Storm,” and it’s normal for people from City B to all be on it. Speaking of which, maybe the Great Master and YuGong and the others are also from City B……

Wei Wei falls into a daze.

StormGoddessNiNi: “I’m in City T, 555 (boohoohoo), otherwise I would meet up with you guys. Oh right, I have a photo of RealWater and LittleRainYaoYao together. RealWater is actually quite handsome. I have their photo. Wei Wei, do you want to see it?”

Wei Wei: “>o<, not interested”

Wei Wei is not the least bit curious in what RealWaterIsScentless looks like, otherwise, she would’ve asked for a photo a month or two ago before they “divorced.” Another pair from the guild exchanged photos at the time, but they immediately separated after seeing how each other really looked like. That was also when RealWater suggested trading photos; Wei Wei was caught by surprise and replied uneasily: “I don’t have a digital camera, so I don’t have any digital photos.” Although it was true, it clearly sounded like a fake excuse to turn him down.

Wei Wei feels that regardless of what excuse is used, it doesn’t matter, as long as he understands that she has no interest in trading photos. They are only acquaintances on the internet; they don’t know who they really are in real person, so they should be cautious of exchanging photos. Furthermore, exchanging photos when they are a “married couple” in the game suggests a possible love relationship in real life, and Wei Wei doesn’t like this feeling at all.

But RealWaterIsScentless obviously didn’t think the same. Thinking back now, that was when RealWater’s attitude changed. Read more