Now that the finals are officially over for me, as promised, here"s the update!
Wanna clarify something first, rather than the word ‘weird" the phrase that is nearest to the raw is ‘have loose screws in their head" is there any other word to replace the phrase or do I leave it be?
The phrase itself don"t really appear much at the back so I"m thinking of asking first in case there"s any appearing at the back.
And also for the town/village/city/country etc name, shall I translate it to English as well or do I keep the pinyin of the raws?
Yun Cheng = Cloud Town
San Zhong (Chapter 1) = Third Junior High/Middle School
*This is actually a scheduled release as I think at this time, I"m still out and not available, celebrating the end of finals with my friends for the whole day. And so, the update in NU might be a little later, depending on what time I"m reach my dorm.
Translated + Edited: Winter Leaf
Chapter 4: The Weird Song Family
While riding on the public transport, Song Ye felt the reality of being reborn as a 15 year-old hitting into her for the first time when she looked at the rows of low-rise houses outside the window.
She really came back, after changing her fate and attaining new life, she is really back to this familiar town.
Even for someone as cold-hearted as Song Ye, she can"t help but feel nostalgia towards the scenery in front of her.
But this nostalgia only lasted until she reached the front of her house door. Although it"s been nearly 15 years since she last got in touch with her family, Song Ye can still remember clearly how much of a difficult and bitter life that she had in the Song family.
The old door of the house squeked when she pushed it open. The noise had made the laughter in the house to stop instantly.
The Song mother that sat in the living room glanced over the door and had a look of disgust in her eyes when she saw that it is Song Ye. Without her opening her mouth, the second daughter and the third daughter of the family, Song TingTing and Song MeiMei had spoke out to Song Ye rudely in a high pitched voice,
“Song Ye, hurry up and close the door! Are you trying to freeze us up in this cold weather?”
Upon hearing that, Lu Lan frowned and dropped her gaze at Song Ye"s dirty and tattered clothes,
“Did you have fun until you"ve become bonkers? Such dirty clothes and not even looking like a proper girl, come in right now!”
At this time, as the only man in the house, Song YuanZhi did not say anything and only put on airs. Towards this daughter that is not loved, he did not even bother to look at her at all.
Song Ye covered her eyes that are now frosty with her fringe. The triumphant feeling that she had due to being reborn had dropped rock bottom. Even though 15 years had pa.s.sed, the faces of the Song family is still so despiseful.
She bit her lips and swallowed down the greetings that she was about to give to her parents. She closed the entrance door and walked back to her room by herself. The spiteful voice of Lu Lan that she had expected can be heard,
“Not greeting us at all, are you thinking that this is a hotel or an inn? What a wastrel you are, knowing the difficult situation the house is in and still insisted to go on a trip.”
Even though Song Ye is behind a door now, she can still hear the reproach of her mother and sisters that agreed with their mother.
Song Ye sat by the bed and look at the narrow bed that was stacked with laundries. She sat on the other bed in the room without looking at it.
The Song family"s house is a very simple one, with only two bedrooms and a living room. So the three Song daughters had to share the same bedroom. Song TingTing and Song MeiMei had occupied the lower bunkers, leaving Song Ye with the top bunker where she will hit her head on the ceiling even when she had bent her body down.
In the past, all the house ch.o.r.es are done by Song Ye alone, so during the three days she is not in the house, the room had become messy and her bed especially, as it is now filled with the laundries of Song TingTing and Song MeiMei.
If it is the her before, Song Ye will do it without any complaint. Now that she is reborn and knowing the reason behind this treatment, she won"t be bullied again.
Song Ye took out the raw stone from her s.p.a.ce and observed it under the dim light.
Black and rough surface, a fine but hard texture; this is a raw stone with high density. In her last life, Song Ye had some knowledge involving emeralds, so she knew that this raw stone had emerald inside upon opening it up. Seeing that the goatee man had hidden this carefully, it must be something that is very valuable.
There"s this saying: “It is difficult even for the G.o.ds to determine if there"s any jade in the stone.”
In the world of stone gambling, there are people that become rich overnight through the raw stones, there are also some that went bankrupt in just a night. Even with the most advanced technology, it is still very difficult to determine if the jade inside are genuine or fake.
Thinking about the ability that she had acquired, Song Ye decided to try something out with the raw stone that she was fidgeting on her hand.
Focusing on her thoughts, a black raw stone appeared in her mind. When she focused her mind into the deeper layer of the raw stone, she suddenly saw a hue of green appearing.
There"s green hue in the raw stone!
Song Ye"s heart jumped and begin to seriously research the transparency and colour of the emerald. The initial deduction that she had of the emerald is that it is a gla.s.s type emerald with high density. The cost of this emerald will be very high, with it only a level below Imperial Green Emerald.
Who would"ve thought that the thing she had pilfered would be a priceless treasure. Song Ye glanced over the narrow top bed bunker and decided to earn some money with her ability later.
When she was thinking if there"s any raw stone market available near Yun Cheng, someone called out to her outside the room.
“Hey, did you really think that you"re a daughter from a wealthy family? *Not leaving the first door and not even stepping into the second door, are you waiting for someone to serve you?”
Song TingTing"s way of talking is spiteful just like Lu Lan, completely different from her appearance that look harmless and pure.
“Second Sis, she might be cleaning the room up.”
There"s a smile in Song MeiMei"s eyes. She"s a 14 years old that looked cute and lovely, but in her eyes, it is filled with calculating thoughts. Thinking that there"s someone to clean up the messy room now, her mood lifted and she shouted into the room,
“Song Ye, it"s time to eat.”
The Song family treats Song Ye as a servant and both the sisters had never called Song Ye elder sister. Due to that, Song Ye don"t find it weird at all when she walked out of the room and looked at the leftovers on the table.
The Song family is always like this – they like to order Song Ye to do ch.o.r.es when they are eating, and when they are done eating, Song Ye is only left with the leftovers from their meal. After finishing the meal, she will proceed to clean the dishes. It has always been this way as far as Song Ye can remember.
But when she looked at the two to three dishes of leftovers on the table, Song Ye had lost her apet.i.te. Maybe due to how she is scared to the feeling of hunger, her demand for the quality of food had become quite high ever since she became an a.s.sa.s.sin. And so, when she saw that, it is hard for her to consume them.
After standing beside the table for three seconds, she decisively turn her body around.
“I"m not hungry. I will be heading out for a moment.”
After leaving that sentence behind, she"s already stepping towards the main entrance. When she was about to leave the house, all the people in the house that blanked out came back to their senses.
“Stand there!”
Lu Lan shouted in a high pitched voice, the pitch is so high even the eardrum felt painful. Her anger can be felt from her voice.
Song Ye stopped in her tracks but she did not turn around. This gesture that show how uncooperative she is had Lu Lan"s face darkened.
“Song Ye, did your wings grow hard after coming back? The food in this house can"t feed the great you now, so suit yourself if you want to eat it or not; but you better wash the dishes before you head out.”
You can choose not to eat the food, but you must do the ch.o.r.es.
Song Ye had never felt how partial Lu Lan is until this moment. She silently turned around and looked at Lu Lan that is standing beside the table and replied in a flat tone.
“I have something to do. The house has so many pairs of hands, there won"t be any difference even if I"m not the one cleaning the dishes.”
After ending her sentence, a large smack can be heard. Lu Lan had smacked the table.
“I can"t have you move as I want now huh, Song Ye? Asking you to do some house ch.o.r.es and you are now refuting me. You are not even acting properly as the eldest sister in the house. I see that you are itching for some lesson.”
Saying that, Lu Lan had reached out to the broom beside the toilet, seemingly wanting to hit Song Ye with it.
This broom is what Song Ye had used exclusively. While she used the broom to clean the house, Lu Lan used it to beat her up. She beat Song Ye with it with all sorts of reason, even if it is a very minor problem.
The Song Ye before will just let Lu Lan beat her without saying anything, but it will be different today.
Notes (It"s going to be extremely long this time…):
1. Although the saying said jade, the same thing still apply as long as it"s stone gambling.
2. High density – some might refer to as old pit.
3. The transparency is what some call as water head.
4. I"m sure you all know what it means by ‘type", but for clarity for those that had read about stone gambling/emerald grade determining novels, it would be what some might refer to as ‘seed".
5. An easy explanation in regards to emeralds" quality:
6. For future reference, I will have "翡翠" as Emeralds, as the colours mentioned are green only – a colour typical for emerald; while jade mainly has 7 colours. I will only say jade when it is mentioned in the raw as "玉".
To make things easier, this is the example of the emerald closest to the one described in this chapter, with all the characteristics found (Imperial Green Emerald, gla.s.s type high density):
*I put the asterisk here to avoid some confusion. That is a chinese saying based on the traditional Chinese house for the wealthy families, there"s 3 doors that were built on the same wall, but all had different function – the first door/main entrance is where the servants enter and exit to buy daily necessities, the second door is the door towards the living room, and the third door that is not mentioned here, refers to the door that connect directly straight into the courtyard of the house:
As for the some chapters at the back, I will put appropriate warnings, and so for chapters like this where some might feel rage/anger/triggered, shall I put in those cautions or leave it be?
The moments when Song Ye is reborn is only mostly mentioned in these first few chapters, the chapters later on won"t be mentioning about it as much so do bear with it a little till then ?