Mari's ramblings for BLU's finale

 

Ah… this is the very last chapter of this book. My thoughts were exactly the same as one of my commenters — not satisfied. I don’t know why, but when it came to the last leg of this book, I just felt that the author was trying to end this book as fast as she could because there was nothing more she could add to the storyline.

My biggest frustration when it came to this book was how Yixuan’s violent stint in the middle of the book (chapter 64 & 65) didn’t even mean anything in the end.

Second pet peeve is what came after chapter 102. It felt almost dream-like after their teenage years. The first time I read those chapters, I just came to another conclusion that chapter 103 to 112 might just be Yixuan’s hallucination when he went stark raving mad after Nainai had left him.

There is just this sudden disconnection to the previous events that led to its fantastical qualities. The author could have written just a little prelude to what happened in between those ten years, especially from Huo Yixuan’s side.

I decided to translate this book initially because of how Yang Nainai had cornered him after he started harassing her from the beginning. I thought that their exchange was just hilarious. After that, I was only concerned about one thing— I only wanted to translate it if it was a happy ending. So I read the last chapter and thought it was alright. (Who knew that it was the chapter that frustrated me the most in the end!!) I didn’t think too much about it so I just started to do it. When the middle came, I was just like, no way… this is just too violent. I almost wanted to give it up by then, but I didn’t like doing things half way so I forced myself to complete it. I’m glad I did. After that violence in the middle, the chapters after that were so sweet. That sweetness ended at chapter 90+. Other than that I learnt a lot of slangs and curse words from this book.

Although I am of Chinese descent and my first language is Chinese, I was still not that familiar with China’s slang and their more modern obscenities. One very funny one was Mahler Gobi… I was thinking to myself why she was cursing the Gobi desert… then when I looked it up, it was where Alpacas stayed at. So instead of using alpacas or Cao Ni Ma in Chinese (sounds similar to F— You.), they just say Mahler Gobi. I found it both hilarious and interesting at the same time.

Overall, the book was pretty interesting to translate into English, but as for guys like Huo Yixuan, I could only say “Please stay far away from guys like him if you meet him in real life!”

Haha… I rambled on long enough! Anyway, let me know your thoughts about this book! I would really love to hear from you!

XOXO,

Mari