Bao Chun sat frowning by the lake, a complicated expression on her face. Ever since she got back from the temple, she’s been sitting in the same place holding the same pose.
“What’s wrong? Is there a word that you don’t know how to read?” Huangfu looked amusingly at Bao Chun’s many changing expressions. Recently, he’s taught Bao Chun a considerable number of characters and words, as long as the number of strokes in a character doesn’t exceed thirty-five, it won’t be a problem for Bao Chun. But there is only one explanation for the grave expression on her face right now.
“Great Misfortune![1] This is actually worse than the fortune I got before I met you ….” Bao Chun scrunched up her face, “But I’m all messed up with happiness!”
“You can’t use ‘all messed up’ like that.” Huangfu took the fortune paper[2] from her hands. He was never one to believe in G.o.ds and deities, and glanced down at the piece of yellow paper with disdain. If everything in life can be predicted by words, then what need is there for people to live and experience it?
“Is the oracle poem[3] implying that I can’t marry you?” Imagination ran wild in Bao Chun’s little head, and in the heat of the moment, she spoke out loud her innermost thoughts.
Huangfu’s lips curved into a smile, and quite “accidentally” ripped up the fortune paper, letting it fall to the surface of the lake.
“Why did you rip it up Huangfu?” Bao Chun shouted anxiously, but was still too late.
“This d.a.m.ned piece of … I mean this adorable piece of oracle poem is a hint for you.” Huangfu held Bao Chun’s face in his hands in all apparent seriousness, forcing her to focus all her attention on him.
“A hint?”
Huangfu nodded, his joking expression faded, and looked quite serious.
“If you don’t marry me … yup, great misfortune.” Huangfu explained as he nodded his head in self-admiration.
“Huh?”
“If you marry another man … yup, great misfortune.” He sounded pretty well argued and impressive.
“Well … ”
“And if I don’t marry you as my wife … yup, great misfortune.”
“Then … ”
“To avoid great misfortune befalling us, let’s just follow what the oracle poem says and follow through.” Huangfu explains everything how he likes, this way, it doesn’t matter whether the fortune was good or not, he’s able to twist anything into a good thing.
“But this explanation seems a little strange ….” Bao Chun couldn’t quite follow what Huangfu was getting at, she knew his arguments were lame, but still couldn’t raise any questions about it.
“You might not know this, but aside from having medical knowledge, I’ve also got quite the silver tongue.” Huangfu pointed to his beautiful lips.
“It’s all clever talk and ingratiation.” She wrinkled her nose and used the idiom she had just learned a few days ago to show that she agrees with what Huangfu was saying.
“Not only will I say it, I’ll do it too!” And as soon as he finished talking, Huangfu puckered his lips and kissed Bao Chun on her slightly opened cherry lips. Bao Chun hadn’t a chance to react, giving him the opportunity to steal several kisses from her.
“You!” Bao Chun raised her fists and swung them towards his chest. “Perverted cat!”
Huangfu kicked up with one foot and leapt onto the tree, lying there with an annoying expression as he roared with laughter, pausing in the middle of laughing to cough. Although Bao Chun was pet.i.te, but a beating from her still hurts quite a bit.
“Get down from there!” Bao Chun stomped her feet at the bottom of the tree.
“Why don’t you come up?” Huangfu found a good spot on the tree to lie down flat, stretching comfortably, knowing that she obviously can’t come up.
Bao Chun thought hard about what she could do, then suddenly remembered a plant she saw growing in the corner of the garden, a smile slowly appeared on her face. Who said that Huangfu would always be in control of the situation in their relationship?
Today, she will get the opportunity of seeing a big perverted cat falling off of a tree. Bao Chun shuffled over to a safe area, to avoid the unexpected calamities of getting crushed by a falling cat later.
“Get the h.e.l.l down from there!” She engaged her diaphragm and shouted into the sky, “HUANG, FU, CANG, ZHU!”[4]
Translator’s Notes:
Finally, everyone! The last chapter is up! I kept a rough record of how long it’s been since I first started to translate this, and it’s been 183 days!
For all those Qiu Yue and Nineteen fans out there, there is another book by the author (not in this series) that’s about Huangfu and Bao Chun’s daughter. Qiu Yue and Nineteen made a very brief appearance in that book. And yes, they got married!
If you aren’t quite ready to say goodbye to Huangfu and Bao Chun, don’t worry. They make appearances later on in the series. Huangfu is a busy guy!
I’m getting ready to translate the next novel in the series, there are a lot of terms that I have to figure out how to deal with so I won’t have to go back and forth correcting myself. I’m thinking of posting up a page with a glossary of words that are better left in Chinese for the sake of eliminating awkwardness when reading. But that’s for later.
I’d like to start posting up ebook links soon, but I haven’t done this before, so it might take some time for me to figure it out.
As always, please like, comment, and follow if you’ve enjoyed reading!~ Ciao! <>
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1 The fortune she received says 大凶, or great misfortune. To see a list of possible fortunes one could receive click here—>LINK. One receives their fortune by shaking a bamboo tube full of sticks and if a stick falls out, that is your fortune. This process is called 求签, Kau Cim in Cantonese, Qiu Qian in Mandarin, and O-mikuji in j.a.panese. Click here to read more about it —>LINK, or see pictures of it here—>LINK.
2 Fortune paper is the fortune printed on paper that matches the sticks used in Kau Cim. The sticks you shake out has numbers printed on them and you look for the corresponding fortune. To see an example of it, click here—>LINK.
3 Oracle poems are how your fortune is presented to you when you receive them on the fortune paper. Click here to read more about it and see an example of it—>LINK.
4 Cang Zhu or 苍术 cāng zhú. Click here to see it —>LINK. Yes it does look a bit like ginger! xD