Love Knot v1c9

IMPORTANT TRANSLATOR’S NOTE, PLEASE READ:

Hi, this is a bit of a long note since I’m back! (for now at least)

I’m posting again since it’s summer plus social distancing due to covid19 and I felt bad for leaving this for so long. But I suddenly found out a few days ago after checking NU that someone had also posted translations for this on the Webnovel app. If you didn’t know, I think NU has some problems posting real-time updates from the Webnovel app so I wasn’t aware of this until recently even though those translations had been out soon after I disappeared. I felt pretty bad about that since I had actually already translated to ch12 at the time but didn’t post because I was scared I might leave you guys hanging again. If any of you are like me, I’d prefer not starting something if it isn’t completed yet haha (no false hopes or repeated anguish at not knowing what happens next). And despite my disappearance, I wasn’t asked by that person if they could pick this up instead, though that was also my bad since I never published my contact info on this site (a comment on one of my posts would have been nice though). I have fixed that now: if anyone wants to privately contact me, you can do so in the “Contact Me” page on the menu.

I will still be posting the next few chapters I translated (each Wednesday) because I don’t want my hours of toiling to go to waste. As for more updates after ch12, we’ll have to wait and see since I’m also using my free summer to study for the GRE. Now, as someone who has read the raws and can partially understand Chinese, I think my translations are pretty accurate/detailed although wordy since I also want to convey the author’s original words. China has many different idioms/sayings that are often lost in official translations, and I’d like to appreciate the culture and accurately translate/explain these to you. Many times, I have thought it would probably be faster if I paraphrased this or that to give a similar meaning, but this feels like I’m cheating you. The other person either did that or straight up MTLed the raws, idk. If you don’t care and like her translations better then.. there’s nothing I can do since I will stick to this method. But if you do like how my translations read and you do appreciate the culture that goes along with the story, then I sincerely thank you and hope you enjoy this chapter!

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Author: Shi Ding Rou
Translator: yuejiin
Please do not steal my translations!

Although she didn’t know what it was, Pipi’s guard was still high, “May I ask, will I get a heart attack if I wear it for long?”

“You won’t.” Helan Jingting moved the bead away from her palm, lightly saying, “Even though this thing isn’t worth any money, it’s always been with me. If there’s a day you don’t want it anymore, don’t throw it away, give it to me still. Ok?”

“Ok.” Pipi held her forehead with both hands, fixedly staring at him, “But, Mr. Helan, why must you wear sunglasses? You can obviously see at night.”

“Call me Helan Jingting.”

“Helan Jingting, why must you wear sunglasses?”

“I don’t have to wear them.”

“Oh?”

“But I don’t dare to take them off.”

“…why?” Pipi picked up some tea and drank a sip.

“I’m afraid you’ll fall in love with me.”

“…what?” Her eyes opened widely.

Hesitating to speak, Helan Jingting finally darkly said one sentence, “Because I am too handsome.”

“Puu—” Pipi sprayed out.

Pipi thought, in this world there was no man whatsoever that was more handsome than Jialin. What’s more, being acquainted with one another for so long, appearance had already become not that important between her and Jialin. Now, there was a person who unexpectedly declared himself to be handsome to her, who unexpectedly thought that this was charming. Pipi thought it was hilarious.

“Will I?” She used a napkin to wipe her face, “You can be narcissistic, but I can’t be infatuated like that.”

“Don’t say that, loving beauty is human nature.”

He took off his sunglasses and raised his eyes to her, assuming a very cool appearance.

The comical look almost made Pipi laugh.

But she was soon stunned. Because Helan Jingting was telling the truth. The big, loud truth.

He was simply too handsome, actually giving people the suspicion of being a scourge.

Pipi thought that although Helan Jingting’s forehead was sharply contoured when wearing sunglasses, it only gave people a cold, calm, handsome impression. Helan Jingting without sunglasses had a pair of bottomless black eyes, yet shining like they were coated in lacquer, and could entice one’s soul. But, after looking more, Pipi also thought, compared with common people, Helan Jingting’s eyes seemed to be missing something. Those pitch-black pupils were sensitive like morning mist on the distant mountains, elusive, yet also like a pool of spring water, so clear you could see the bottom. They were obviously very mysterious, but also made one have trust. Pipi didn’t know why his pupils could give a person two completely different feelings at the same time.

Even if Pipi had never in her entire life seen a handsome man, at least she had seen quite a few photos of handsome men when looking at newspapers everyday in the news line of work. Sexy men in Hollywood, trendy men in magazines, muscular men in the gym, black bellied men in Japanese dramas, the gentle and affectionate men in Chiung Yao’s* movies, and even the boorish western man in the cigarette commercial – Pipi could admire all of them. Because no matter how handsome they were they all had a share of ‘human’ airs.

*T/N: Chiung Yao is a Taiwanese writer/producer who is often regarded as the most popular romance novelist in the Chinese-speaking world. Her novels have been adapted into more than 100 films and TV dramas. (source: Wikipedia)

This was precisely what Helan Jingting’s body was lacking. He was very handsome, but his handsomeness was somewhat unreal. It was like Rodin’s sculpture, originally used for viewing and admiring, suddenly put on clothes and walked through the streets. It was rather frightening.

Having been stunned for a long time, Pipi’s lower jaw ached a bit. Moreover, she didn’t know why, but her heart was beating very fast as well.

Helan Jingting’s pupils gleamed and suddenly shifted, his eyes full of a smiling expression, “Pipi, accompany me tonight to bask in the moonlight.”

“Eh—”

“Pipi.”

Coming back to her senses, Pipi remembered her mission, “Alright ah. Then can I interview you? Don’t be nervous, I only want to talk about your everyday life.”

“You can interview, but you can’t make a news report.” His voice was very gentle.

“Our evening paper wants to do an exclusive interview promoting traditional culture. This, this is all a great publicity opportunity for your museum.”

“I don’t like being publicized.”

“Not publicizing you, it’s publicizing traditional culture, publicizing your contribution to traditional culture.”

“That’s all the same idea. No.”

“It definitely won’t touch upon your personal privacy.”

“No.”

“If it’s not me interviewing you, there will still be other people coming to interview you. This is a world controlled by mass media, you can’t possibly escape.”

“I’ve already said, I refuse a report.”

“Then fine,” Pipi said, “I’ll interview you, but not report.”

The report could be written by Wei Qingtan.

“Let’s go back.” Helan Jingting said, “Will you ride in my car?”

“Ok.”

Walking back to the parking lot together, Pipi again thought of a strange phenomenon: although Helan Jingting wasn’t wearing sunglasses, his eyes were always slightly closed like that of Lu She Na Buddha*, a look of not being able to lift one’s spirits.

*T/N: Lu She Na Buddha is a big rock Buddha carving at the Longmen Caves in Luoyang, Henan, China.

While waiting for him to use the remote key to open the door, Pipi finally couldn’t help asking, “Why are your eyes always half closed? Has your brain suffered from injury?”

Helan Jingting breathed out a sigh, giving her a helpless look, “Do you think I seem like someone who’s suffered a brain injury?”

“Mm—It’s hard to say.”

Helan Jingting was originally going to open the door, heard these words, and stopped, “How so?”

“Let me correct myself. Your brain may not have suffered from injury, but you are definitely not human.”

Lowering his head in silence for a moment, Helan Jingting avoided answering, “Get in the car.”

The car traveled on the pitch black suburban road, passing by several open fields.

It was that radio station again. Playing that Serenade in E minor that made one feel sleepy. This seemed to be Helan Jingting’s favorite music, which he never got tired of hearing.

Having nothing to do, Pipi could only keep drinking mineral water.

After half an hour, she suddenly nudged Helan Jingting’s arm, “Can you stop the car?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I want to use the restroom.”

“There’s a gas station in another 45 minutes—”

“I can’t wait.”

The car stopped immediately, Pipi hopped out of the car and looked around, “Where is there a restroom in this area?”

“From what I know, this area is all farmland, there is no restroom.”

“Then…then what do I do?”

“Settle it on the spot.” He pointed to a tree in the distance.

“Er…over there?” Getting to that tree required crossing a very long shrub that was pitch dark all around it.

Pipi was a bit scared, “There—will there be snakes?”

“Do you know why the character for snake(蛇) has ‘它’(it) in it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Because ‘它’ means little snake. In ancient times, there were a lot of snakes in the grass, so when people in ancient times greeted each other, they all said ‘无它乎’?”*

*T/N: ‘无它乎’ (wú tā hū) directly translates to something like ‘no it’, but I think it was the ancient people’s way of saying ‘how are you?’ or ‘is everything good?’. To me it sounds like the greeting meant something like ‘are there no snakes, is everything good?’ and ‘there are no snakes, everything is good’.

“You’re saying, this grass also has a lot of snakes? Small snakes?”

“There definitely is.”

“Helan Jingting, troubling you to get out for a bit.” Pipi put on a straight face.

“Get out for what?”

“You have to protect me.”

“Why?”

“I protected you before, right? Now it’s your turn to protect me.”

“…fine.” He replied with difficulty, adding a premise at the same time, “If a dog comes, I’m going to run away by myself first.”

“I know.”

They helped each other walk into the thick growth of grass, after a while, Pipi washed her hands using mineral water, then they walked out together.

The night was quiet.

The mountain air was misty, the lone moon was high up in the sky.

Pipi puffed out air, warming her hands, “Today’s moon is just right, you should bask well.”

“Well said,” Helan Jingting smiled, “how about we bask right now.”

Pipi was slightly surprised, “Bask right now? How?”

“On top of the car.”

He reached out and nimbly climbed on top of the car, then pulled Pipi up. After that, he took off his coat to let Pipi lay on top of it, and he also laid beside her.

“Cold?” he asked.

“It’s tolerable.” Pipi sniffed.

“Wear my scarf.” The scarf was wrapped around her face.

Looking up at the sky, Helan Jingting’s eyes finally slowly widened, indifferently staring at the full moon overhead.

“Ai, Helan,” Pipi suddenly asked, “Are you an alien?”

“Do I seem like an alien?”

“A bit. I think you’re receiving signals from your planet.”

“En, then guess which planet I came from. Oh right, before asking you this question, I have to ask how many points you scored on the geography section of the college entrance exam, can you talk about this question with me?”

“…610 points.”

“In other words, you actually have no astronomy knowledge.”

“…I don’t. Are you possibly like Superman and come from the planet Krypton?”

“Of course not,” he said very seriously, “I’m not an alien. I’ve always lived on Earth.”

“But, just now why did you always hang your eyelids, opening your eyes right when you saw the moonlight?”

“Mm, that is a very good question. It shows that you have very strong observation skills.”

“Thank you, can you tell me why?”

“Look, right after boasting that you have strong observation skills, you just give up observing and ask for the answer. That won’t do, you have to keep observing.”

“So to say, you’re already admitting that you’re not human.”

“Does my body have a spot that doesn’t look human?”

Pipi sat up, looked at him, pondered, sighed, and laid back down, “No. But, I’ve never heard of a person who has to bask in the moonlight.”

“How is there none? ‘Moonlight before my bed’ isn’t?”*

“That counts ah?”

“Is he not ‘lifting his head to look at the moon’?”**

*T/N: He is referencing Li Bai’s poem 靜夜思 (jìng yè sī) or “Quiet Night Thought”. The asterisks above correspond to the ones below.
Moonlight before my bed *
Perhaps frost on the ground.
Lift my head and see the moon **
Lower my head and miss my home.

“Alright, you* can just keep tricking me.”

*T/N: She uses the polite form of you (您) in sarcasm.

“Speaking of tricks,” Helan Jingting suddenly changed the topic, “Your newspaper counts as the most deceptive in this world.”

“How is our newspaper deceiving?”

“Come come come, bring out your newspaper.”

Pipi was not convinced, taking out of her bag a C city evening paper that was just published today, “Here.”

The two flipped their bodies over, spreading the newspaper on the car roof, Helan Jingting took out his flashlight and shined it on the paper, “You look closely, I’ll read it for you.”

“This is the front-page news: ‘A series of accidents occurred on the second highway, 2 dead and 1 injured. T Public Security Department reminds people to pay attention to traffic safety.’”

“What’s wrong with that? Aren’t there car accidents everyday? This is a true report.”

“Of course it’s true, look here.” He turned the page over and pointed to an advertisement, “‘An Shun Insurance, giving you the promise of happiness and peace.’ Do you see the connection between these two?”

“I don’t see it.” Pipi was very honest.

“That’s ok, let’s look again. Allow me to slowly enlighten you. This is supplementing the headline: ‘Hong Kong Beauty Pageant enters the final stage, ten candidates for the variety competition.’” Pipi looked carefully at the pictures of the ten faces, each of them splendid with the appearance of a goddess.

Helan Jingting noisily turned the page, pointing at an ad on the last page, “Thousand Beauty Hospital, the first plastic surgery company in C city.”

Pipi was suddenly shocked.

“Do you get it?”

“You’re saying…”

“The newspaper is always telling you, this world is not safe, anything can happen. Right? In order to make yourself more safe, what do you have to do? Buy insurance.” Pausing for a moment, Helan Jingting then said, “Newspapers are full of celebrity pictures, right? It’s telling you, your face should be as flawless as theirs. But, do you have a face that flawless? You don’t. What to do? Buy makeup, go to a beauty salon, get plastic surgery.”

Pipi was tongue-tied, “You’re saying, the news in the newspapers are all a conspiracy?”

“Basically. At least in a sense, it’s like this.”

“So…you never look at the newspaper?”

“Never.”

“You’re never concerned about changes in the world?”

“I’m very concerned, but it’s not necessary to read the newspaper.”

“You’re an epicurean, aren’t you?”

“I’m not. I’m my own faction.”

Pipi chuckled, and seeing thick clouds up ahead she said, “There’s no more moonlight, let’s go.”

Returning to Lushui* Mountain Villa, Helan Jingting went straight to the bottom of the well to bask in the moonlight. Pipi sat beside him, looking at the round night sky. After a moment, seeing Helan Jingting didn’t speak the entire time, she said, “If it’s raining at this time, what do you do?”

*T/N: So I just found out Lushui is an actual river flowing from Jiangxi Province to Hunan Province. The setting of this story might be in this area as well or the mountain villa is just named randomly lol.

Helan Jingting touched the well wall, seeming to press a switch, and two boulders at the top of the well suddenly shifted. Within two seconds, they perfectly fit together to block the well opening.

Pipi was startled, “So there was a mechanism in here!”

“That’s right.”

“It’s too dark!”

Helan Jingting pressed the mechanism again, the boulder shifted, and the wellhead opened, “It’s that simple.”

“Where is the mechanism? Let me try.” Pipi jumped off the lounge chair to feel the well wall. According to the direction Helan Jingting pointed out for her, she indeed felt a shallow little hole with a circular knob inside. She lightly gave it a push and the boulder noisily shut close. Pressing it again, the boulder withdrew. 

Pipi thought it was very fun, pressing it a countless number of times. She kept pressing until Helan Jingting was nearly bothered sick by it.

“Have you pressed it enough?”

“No. I’ll play one more time ha!”

Pipi pressed it once more, this time, the boulder closed and suddenly didn’t open back up.

The mechanism was out of order!!!

Pipi hurriedly pressed the knob a dozen more times, but those two boulders didn’t budge an inch.

“Helan, what to do? The mechanism is broken! Can you fix it?”

“No.”

“Then we can only suffocate to death here?”

“Have you watched a movie called The Ring?”

“Wuu— Helan Jingting, don’t scare me!!”

“The well bottom is quite nice, just a little dark. For a blind person like me, it’s nothing. If you stay in here every day, you’ll also slowly get used to it.”

Hearing that, Pipi’s vellus hairs immediately stood upright and she tightly grasped hold of Helan Jingting’s hand, “I’m begging you don’t joke around, quickly get up and fix it alright. Perhaps it’s just that one of the gears is broken. Do something and it’ll be fine.”

Her voice was already sobbing.

However, Helan Jingting was still pleasantly reclining, not making a single move, “It’s simply broken, unable to be fixed.”

“Helan Jingting! Don’t you scare me…If you’re scaring me, then you simply aren’t human!”

In the dark, the person in front laughed huskily.

Hearing this laugh, Pipi nearly swooned, “ Helan Jingting, who exactly are you?”

That voice was very gentle, “You said it right, I’m not human.”

Pipi abruptly jumped to her feet, retreating to the well wall, assuming a ‘guarding against assault’ posture, “Nonsense! You’re obviously a human, you! Every part of your being has a human appearance!”

“I’m really not human.”

“You…prove it for me to see.”

“Let me ask you, how many times does a human heart beat every minute?”

“Seventy times.”

In the dark, Helan Jingting extended a hand and pulled her hand over, pressing it onto his own chest.

Like a hibernating animal, his temperature was very low, so much so that there was a faint, unspeakable chilliness.

“I’ll count from one to sixty, exactly one minute.” Helan Jingting slowly opened his mouth, “One, two, three, four, five, six….”

Pipi was scared stiff.

Don’t know if it was due to body temperature or due to fear, Pipi thought her hand suddenly lost feeling. Not only feeling, even intelligence was lost along with it.

Three times.

Helan Jingting’s heart only beats three times per minute.