Water Recovery System Chapter 2.6

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T/N: Hi! Sorry for the wait! I kind of realise I'm still very noob at this whole translating thing because some people (like the awesome Rainbowturtle-san) seem to be able to translate a chapter or more a day. So I apologise for my speed, especially since my first month translating at a chapter a week could have been rather deceiving. Should anyone feel like taking up translating this novel (and save it from agonisingly slow updates), just let me know! 

On a related note, would you guys prefer me to upload half a chapter twice a month or one chapter once a month? (Note that this is just an estimate of my current abilities)

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Arc Two - Chapter Six

When Su You kicked the door open with one foot, that Shen Jiayan's white s.h.i.+rt had already been taken off halfway, his exquisite clavicle reflected the flush that dyed his skin, and he had a dazed look. It was obvious that Dong Yi had fed him something.

Su You was so angry his eyes were scarlet red, immediately hauling Dong Yi over to give him a ruthless punch, such that his eyes emitted golden blossoms. Then, without waiting for him to react, what greeted him was a rain of fists in unbroken succession. And all the hits were in places that he wanted to harm—eyes, abdomen, temples……

(“眼冒金花”, a phrase describing a dazed state. I could have translated it as ‘he saw stars', but felt the literal description was funnier~)

If not for the sound of Shen Jiayan's light gasps, reminding Su You, it was actually very likely for Su You to simply beat Dong Yi to death here today.

Su You tossed away Dong Yi who had been beaten until his face was b.l.o.o.d.y. He lifted Shen Jiayan into a princess-carry, unconsciously softening the sound of his voice: “Luoge, endure it, I am going to send you to the hospital now.”

“Don't—Don't go to the hospital! In the event that we are recognized, as well as with this kind of drug, we won't be able to properly clarify things.” Shen Jiayan said with great difficulty, “A'You, take me home, it's fine to just return home.”

Su You couldn't help but hold Shen Jiayan even tighter, just like holding some kind of rare treasure: “Okay, let's go home.”

During the night, Shen Jiayan tossed and turned for a long time. The characteristics of the drug acted up from time to time, a soak in a cold bath was needed whenever it acted up, after soaking he would also shout about the cold. Su You wholly served him for a night, took care of him for a night.

It was only when there was a misty brightness on the horizon, and the first rays of the morning sun had shone in, that the both of them fell deep asleep while embracing each other.

Early the next morning, all the big Vs of Weibo began to frantically forward an audio. The voices from two men's conversation could clearly be heard from the audio, the words spoken were ambiguous, and one of the voices could obviously be discerned as the voice of Su You, Film Emperor Su.

(“大V” i.e. ‘big Vs' refer to verified users that have many followers, where V stands for ‘verified'.)

At first, Su You's fans still wanted to lie to themselves, saying that the audio had been synthesized. However, after going through an a.n.a.lysis by the Technology Emperor, this piece of audio completely bore no trace of editing, and all these fans fell into insanity.

They simply could not accept the reality that their male G.o.d could have a partner, and that person was actually a man. Within a moment, the other man in that piece of audio became a public target.

(“众矢之的”, literally, target of a mult.i.tude of arrows, an idiom to mean the b.u.t.t of public criticism.)

All they thought in their heads was that it must be that man's fault. They must definitely find the man and let him scram out of the entertainment circle. However, no matter how they ruled out, they couldn't figure out who the man who called Su You “A'You” in the audio could possibly be.

At this very point in time, a Weibo of Mo Ming pushed Ji Luoge into the eye of the storm.

This was what he said in his Weibo, “A clean person is self-evidently clean, believing that Senior Su is innocent.” At the end, he even deliberately tagged Ji Luoge and Su You.

(“清者自清”, a phrase meaning that an innocent person, even if they do not clarify themselves, they will still be naturally proven innocent.)

(“艾特” i.e. ‘@')

This Weibo only mentioned “believing that Senior Su is innocent”, so whoever it is that isn't innocent can be seen at a glance. In addition, Ji Luoge had been s.h.i.+ningly tagged, then it goes without saying who the other male leading role in the audio really is.

People only believe in what they are willing to believe.

And this Weibo of Mo Ming's undoubtedly gave Su You's fans a shot of stimulus. Mo Ming was filming together with Ji Luoge and Su You, so he must know the truth of the matter, then the truth was just that Ji Luoge was dead set on tangling with Su You and refusing to let go.

Hence, Su You's fans finally found someone to vent on, it wasn't long before they stormed Ji Luoge's Weibo.

“Really don't want face, without a man, you can't live anymore, is that right? Then can you please don't pester our Master Su!”

(“大大”, an honorific with seemingly no readily available translation. It seems to denote great respect for a talented individual…? Anyone know a better translation for this?)

“Ah ah, now even flower vases can come and act in films. Hugging thighs, hugged to addiction, is that right? Sorry, carrying away my family's Emperor Su, we don't agree!”

(“抱大腿”, hugging someone's thigh is a term for relying on that person's power. Also, while I used different English words i.e. ‘hugging' vs ‘carrying', in Chinese, the same word “抱” is used instead, which is probably more poetic(?))

“Disgusting to death, scram out of the entertainment circle!”

“Scram out of the entertainment circle +1”

“Scram out of the entertainment circle +2, boycott all the works of Flower Vase Ji.”

“Whatever Flower Vase Ji acts in is whatever we won't watch, put me right at the top for others see.”

…… There wasn't just one case but numerous of these.

Shen Jiayan woke up earlier than Su You. As soon as he opened Weibo, he saw that it was filled with the sound of abuse, there were Su You's fans that specially came over to blacken him, and there were blackened fans that came to rebuke him.

Sporadically, there were just a few of his familiar fans, encouraging and comforting him.

Shen Jiayan hesitated a little, but he still replied a bit to those few girls: “The matters on Weibo are real, I will respond later. Thanks for the concern, I am very good.”

Those few girls did not expect that they would one day get a reply from their idol. Within a moment, they were at the same time overwhelmed by the favour and also felt warm at heart. They have all the while been fans of Ji Luoge just because of his beauty, but today, the moment this matter came out, they wanted to become die-hard fans instead.

No matter which star this kind of thing is placed on, it would definitely be a scandal. But Ji Luoge did not deny anything, did not defend himself, he's unable to even take care of himself, yet he would actually free out some time to specially respond and comfort them.

It really is, too warm!

After Ji Luoge finished dealing with the private messages on Weibo, he found that from early morning to the present, he had received more than one hundred missed calls, as well as more than ten unread messages, and all of them were from Little Ai.

The first few messages were still questioning why Ji Luoge had such a special relations.h.i.+p with Su You, yet didn't report it to the company; towards the end, it was already asking him to deny it all, and if he really couldn't deny it, he still shouldn't directly respond in acknowledgement.

Shen Jiayan thought about it for a moment and replied back with a message: “Relax, I have already thought of a solution.”

The moment he saw that piece of news, Little Ai already had a premonition. Sure enough, the Weibo that Ji Luoge sent next completely verified his conjecture.

Ji Luoge transferred an audio clip, and attached some words with it, saying, “The person in the audio is me, saying that I like A'You is also not wrong. But I am not gay, it's just that the person I like happens to be Su You. Everyone can also hear from the audio, A'You doesn't like me, it's me who keeps hara.s.sing him, he just couldn't harden his heart.”

In one speech, Su You was painted very clean, but also took the whole matter upon his own head.

Xiao Ai couldn't help but caress his forehead, it's finished, Ji Luoge did even worse than he had imagined. This time, even if there's a desire to remedy this, it also can't be remedied.

While Su You's fans were sighing with relief, they also spared no effort to attack Ji Luoge. All sorts of nasty words began to pile up on Ji Luoge's head, oftentimes, the moment Ji Luoge's fans appeared, they would be sprayed until no skin was left intact,  without the slightest ability to parry.

Everyone guessed that Ji Luoge was really doomed this time, the endors.e.m.e.nts and dramas that had previously been arranged were all cancelled, there were even some directors who would rather pay the penalty for breaching the contract than to accept Ji Luoge.

(“栽”, a word with many definitions, but one of them is “to fall headfirst”.)

Shen Jiayan sighed with some resentment: “System, it seems like only the first wish can be achieved this time, the second wish can no longer be realised.”

The black cat jumped onto Shen Jiayan's knees, licked the back of Shen Jiayan's hand and said: “Your Excellency Host, please don't be discouraged, perhaps things can still make a turn for the better.”

The voice of the black cat had just fallen when straightaway there was a phone call: “h.e.l.lo, I am Zheng Qi. It's Ji Luoge, right? I have a movie here, don't know if you're interested?”

The black cat's pair of eyes widened until they were very round, it had only been casually saying things, it didn't expect its words to really have spirituality! Could it be that there's really such a luck bonus? But this is still too lucky, right?

(“言灵”, a term possibly borrowed from the j.a.panese ‘言霊 kotodama', literally “words spirit/soul”, which refers to the concept and belief of words, names and language having spiritual power.)

The movies that Zheng Qi filmed were mostly literary pieces, the kind that is well-praised but has a small audience, its expertise was in its exquisite and fresh filming style. His films would speedily gain prizes, and one could consider him a well-known director.

Shen Jiayan responded cautiously: “It's me, h.e.l.lo Director Zheng. May I ask what kind of movie it is?”

“The subject matter is h.o.m.os.e.xuality, if you can accept this, then you come and try the lens tomorrow.” Zheng Qi's style of speech was surprisingly orderly and straightforward, there wasn't a single extra sentence spoken.

“I can accept. But I still have a question, why would Director Zheng look for me?” Although the subject matter was somewhat special, but relying on Director Zheng's reputation, wanting to find a good actor should still be quite easy. Shen Jiayan was somewhat puzzled.

“It's good if you can accept, I'll send you the script in a while. The address is No. 308 Zhengfeng Building, the time is 1:30 pm.” Zheng Qi paused for a bit. “As for why I'd choose you, it's because of the Weibo that you just sent, I think you're very suitable for He Jinshu's role in the script.”

Director Zheng Qi's efficiency was really high, not a moment later, the script was sent over. The name of the script was called “How was the Brocade Letter Sent”, the whole script was narrated from the perspective of He Jinshu.

(“锦书何寄” jinshu he ji – 锦书: brocade letter, 何: how/what/which/when, 寄: send; more explanations later.)

He Jinshu and Gu Ji were a pair of bamboo horses. When they were young, they went to one primary school, then it was one junior high school, and one senior high school.

(“竹马竹马”, literally ‘bamboo horse and bamboo horse', see end of chapter for explanation.)

Studying ancient poetry during elementary school, there was once when they learned about Zhu Dunru's “Young Ruan's Return”, the language teacher raised an example, “Here, this ‘the brocade letter is difficult to send, and the wild geese fly with haste'”, the ‘brocade letter' was precisely the ‘jinshu' in He Jinshu's name, and ‘send' was precisely the ‘ji' in Gu Ji's name. Since then, He Jinshu fell in love with this poem.

(“锦书”, if I'm not wrong, this usually refers to a letter or message that a wife sends to her husband expressing her feelings of missing him, it could sometimes be used vice versa i.e. husband to wife.)

During junior and senior high school, Gu Ji began to receive pink-coloured letters, and He Jinshu inwardly looked forward to Gu Ji never accepting a single one of them, even secretly throwing away several of them.

Gu Ji belonged to the category of talented students, even if he were to chat about love, even if he doesn't bother studying, his results would be ranked among the best as always. But it wasn't possible for He Jinshu, and for the sake of following Gu Ji to attend the same university, he practically risked his life studying.

The college entrance examination results came out, and He Jinshu was admitted to Gu Ji's ideal university. But Gu Ji unexpectedly had a break-up on the eve of the college entrance examination, messed up his test and went to a second-rate university.

Having reached university, even deeper feelings should also fade.

But He Jinshu could take a train ride of seven to eight hours weekly, then take another seven to eight hours of train back, just to see Gu Ji's face. Four years pa.s.sed, and the two people's feelings deepened without lessening.

Sometime later, Gu Ji got married. On the day of the wedding, He Jinshu was the best man, and Gu Ji had a joyful face as he introduced He Jinshu: “This is my best buddy.”

The very night of the wedding, the bride tore open a red envelope and was astonished, saying: “Strange, that buddy of yours actually wrote a poem, not willing to even give a bit of money?”

Gu Ji brought it over to have a look, written on it was He Jinshu's delicate handwriting—“The brocade letter is difficult to send, and the wild geese fly in haste, the herbs of the pond grow long.” Impressively, it was the “Mr Ruan's Return” that was learnt that year.

Gu Ji was suddenly stumped for words.

It was already said that brocade letters are hard to send, but was the brocade letter ever sent before?

After Shen Jiayan finished reading the entire script, he can't help but feel that the script was really good. If it was performed well, Ji Luoge's second wish was also not impossible to achieve......

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T/N: So “竹马竹马” comes from the phrase “青梅竹马 green plum and bamboo horse”, which comes from a poem by Li Bai, meaning childhood sweethearts, because the sentence it came from described the couple as children who played with a bobby-horse and unripe plums. And from what I can tell, so do correct me if I'm wrong, the green plum is usually used to refer to the girl, and the bamboo horse refers to the boy. In this case, the ‘green plum' was replaced by another ‘bamboo horse' because, well, it's a BL script.

Also, as usual, comments, feedback and questions (because I'm not sure if there are some stuff I missed out on explaining) are all very welcome! 

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