CH 3

Princess Anle was the  eldest daughter of the Emperor and the most beloved. Seven years ago, she had been married to the first born legitimate (di) son of an aristocratic family, surnamed Wang. The married  couple too had passed a period of time when they were stuck together like glue. Later, Wang Fuma unexpectedly went so far as to surreptitiously support a mistress outside. After learning of this, Princess Anle thrashed him with a horsewhip and drove him out of the Princess’ Palace in anger.

At that time, this incident created a sensation all over the city. It finally ended with the death of Wang Fuma by falling off a horse. Some people once said that Wang Fuma’s cause of death was suspicious, but no one could find any evidence. In addition, after the decline of the Wang family, no one dared to mention the matter again. At most, they secretly sighed behind Princess Anle’s back that she had a poisonous heart. But who asked Wang Fuma to daringly set up a mistress after marrying a Royal Princess? This is simply a centenarian committing suicide and bringing disaster upon oneself.

After Wang Fuma’s death, Princess Anle did not want to marry again. She entertained herself by going on binges and partying with a flock of actors and singers whom she raised in her villa. Otherwise, she would invite the elite girls in Beijing to ride horses and amuse themselves.

Now, Princess Anle held a chrysanthemum feast. Almost all the noble ladies who had the honor of being invited, arrived at the venue rapidly and soon the villa was bustling with excitement.

“Have you seen Ban Xiangjun?”

“No, she wouldn’t be here today.”

“Why?”

“I heard that Shen Tanhua went to Jingting Hou Fu a few days ago to break the engagement and he was beaten up by Jingting Hou. A lot of people saw it when he was beaten up. “

The noble ladies usually have nothing much to pass the time. So, they inevitably gather together to chat about each family’s gossip. Ban Hua being jilted again is now a hot topic among them.

“If I were her, I wouldn’t even have the gall to come out and join in feasts and excitement,” Xie Qilin’s sister Xie Wanyu gently patted the corners of her mouth with a handkerchief and whispered to the companion around her, “That whole family is degenerate. Whoever dares to have ties of marriage with them is simply unlucky.”

Her companion Shi Feixian was the granddaughter of the Right Minister. Not only did she look beautiful and free from the dust of earthly troubles, but she was also a famous talented girl in the capital. Even the queen mother had personally praised her.

Shi Feixian has an indifferent temperament and not many people could make good friends with her. However, Xie Wanyu was one of them. She didn’t like Ban Hua’s arrogant temper, so when she heard Xie Wanyu mention her, she frowned slightly and said:. “Well, a noble family’s daughter has had three broken engagements. This is not a good thing. Let us not talk about it.”

“Even if we don’t talk about it, others will still gossip, ” Xie Wanyu remembered her brother and twisted her kerchief viciously with both hands, ” If it weren’t for her bad fate hindering him, how could my brother’s eye be hurt? “

The Imperial court rarely had a history of employing officials with disabled eyes. Now that, her brother had a blind eye, not only would he be unable to enter the Imperial court as an official in the future, even his future marriage expectations would have to be lowered. Now, her mother is bathing her face with tears at home every day and she can only come out to breathe and escape from the  oppressive atmosphere at home.

Xie Wanyu can’t take her anger out on her loved ones and she doesn’t care whether the rumours are true or false. Anyway, she doesn’t like the arrogance of Ban Hua and she feels much better  after bad mouthing her.

Shi Feixian listened quietly, not speaking, and naturally not mentioning that Xie Qilin had been riding to give her a book of poetry on the day of his accident.

You can click the author’s name at the top of the chapter to see a list of her works in the original Chinese. If you’ve found this translation interesting, please do support the author if you can.

Here’s today’s chapter!

I honestly thought that translating this would be much easier than it is. While I was reading the book, it just flowed. But now that I’m trying to pull the meaning of the author’s words in one language onto the page in a different language, it feels so difficult. How even does the brain work? Why can I read a chapter fluently in 15 minutes but if I try to convey the meaning in a different language, it takes hours?

I do feel like I’m getting better at this though. I’ve been translating faster and some idioms and phrases are becoming more familiar.

I also need to work on wordpress skills. I want to create links to previous and next chapter on each chapter page. To any readers who’ve done this before, please teach me your tips and tricks Sensei!

Also, I hope the reading experience is comfortable for you. If you’d like changes to font size or colours, or any other improvements you’d like let me know in the comments!

Ban Hua’s carriage arrived and the maids and ladies-in-waiting who were at the gate of the villa greeted her respectfully. No matter how the rich and noble women viewed this Ban Xiangjun, they who served as slaves had to serve this master well. Who made it so that this Xiangjun had a good-looking face and a pleasing mouth that could coax even the empress dowager in the palace to like her?

“Welcome to the Xiangjun. You’ve arrived in good time. The princess has been awaiting you in the inner courtyard and this servant will guide you.” Ban Hua, who was fond of beautiful women around her like stars surrounding the moon, showed a bright smile. Pulling a few grains of silver peanuts from her purse, she tossed them to the girl in front of her who said that she would lead the way: “Lets go! The chrysanthemums here at Anle jiejie’s place have always been more beautiful than others. How could I not come?”

“Thanks to Xiangjun for the reward,” The smile on the face of the maid who had been rewarded grew brighter. “Please come this way. Be careful of the steps under your feet.”

So boring!” Princess Anle idly flicked the jade beads on the tray in front of her and looked across the elegant and noble ladies in the courtyard. Turning her head to the momo beside her, she asked “Has Hua Hua arrived yet?”

“Princess, Ban Xiangjun hasn’t arrived yet, today,” the momo recalled the rumors floating around Beijing in recent days, but she dared not reveal it in front of the princess. “She must be on the way.”

As the master and servant were talking, suddenly, the voice of women talking and laughing came from outside. A woman dressed in a flamboyantly gorgeous formal palace dress walked in smilingly with a beauty on both sides.

“I said who could make such a big sound of activity except her,” Princess Anle’s face suddenly brightened as she stood up and walked towards the person who had entered, “Well, you’ve again come to tease my household’s girls.  When the time comes for you to leave, they will sing  Ban Xiangjun’s praises to the left and the right and forget all about me. “

” Jiejie ” Ban Hua let go of the beauties in her hand. She went forward to salute Princess Anle but the Royal Princess held her up admonishing, “Stand up quickly! There are more than enough people saluting me and I won’t miss yours.”

“I haven’t seen you for a fortnight but we must always keep up appearances.” Ban Hua and Princess Anle walked into the garden hand in hand.  As she entered, she felt countless eyes falling on her. The buyao dangling at her temple shook mesmerizingly as she flashed a beautiful smile to the noble ladies.

Since they wanted to see, she would let them look their fill.

The skirt she wore was made of tribute satin from the Imperial Palace and her Yu Pei was made of chicken blood jade that can’t be bought with mere money. From head to toe, every single piece of clothing and ornament were simply exquisite and tastefully chosen. She had been dressing up with great care for most of the day just to see the dampening effect that her appearance would have on the gathered noble ladies.

Xie Wanyu looked at her beautiful and arrogant look and her face was almost distorted. Her brother had lost an eye, but Ban Hua was in high spirits and dressed glamorously, almost seeming to radiate light. The anger in her heart rose to almost choke her.

She finally understood why her mother liked to scold certain women as sluts when noone was around to hear. It was because these words could let her vent the anger in her heart that has no outlet.

Princess Anle’s household lacks nothing in beauties, fine wine and delicacies. The noble ladies in the yard happily painted and created poetry while listening to the music played by the musicians. Ban Hua, who had not learnt any art since childhood, was not good at poetry or painting. Her only talent was an extraordinarily sensitive tongue. She only needed a taste to recognize which food ingredients were in any dish, old or new.

“This wine was sent by the people from my country estate. What do you think of the taste?” Princess Anle asked Banyu to taste the new fruit wine.

“It’s tolerable.” Ban Hua leaned her head towards Princess Anle’s ear and whispered, “Look at that Xie Wanyu. She’s been staring at me so intently for a while till her eyeballs are almost about to fall out.”

“Why can’t you two play together? “Princess Anle is seven years older than Ban Hua  and she can almost be called a child she watched growing up. So she is naturally inclined towards Ban Hua.

“How can I play with them?” Ban Wei took a sip of fruit wine, lazily, “They are talented women of a gentle temperament who love poetry and painting. And don’t you know me? Since when have I liked to study? “

“Don’t complain. If it weren’t that Xie Qilin eloped with someone else, she would be your younger sister-in-law.”

“Who wants to marry a man with a blind eye?” Ban Hua snorted. Leaving behind a marriage with her, a dignified Xiangjun of Marquis’ Household and eloping with a woman from the red light area, Xie Qilin had made her utterly lose face. “Fortunately, he eloped, or I would have had to live with a half-blind man.”

She had initially had a good impression of Xie Qilin. After all, he had looked good and had the ability to sweet talk people. At that time, she was young and ignorant and so she hadn’t raised any objections when her parents agreed to his family’s proposal.

Later, she realized that it’s better to believe in ghosts in daylight than to believe a man’s words. While he was courting her, he had been considerate and gentle. Later, when he eloped with someone, he put on an attitude that he hadn’t known better before and now he’d found true love.

And then there was Xie Wanyu. It was her brother who broke the engagement and embarrassed her family. But now she looked at Ban Hua like she finds her displeasing from all aspects. Isn’t this a mental illness?

“Ban Xiangjun, everyone is writing poetry. Why don’t you come and join us?” Xie Wayun smiled and waved her handkerchief at her, “Come on.”

“Huh,” Ban Hua, who was too lazy to care about Xie Wanyu’s pretentiously friendly appearance, turned her head and continued to chat with Princess Anle

Xie Wanyu was a little embarrassed that Ban Hua didn’t give her even that much respect. She looked up to meet the eyes of the noble ladies and barely smiled: “Maybe Ban Xiangjun has some misunderstanding about our family.”

Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding could it be?

Naturally it was the matter of being jilted by the Xie family.

Although women are more unrestrained now than they were during past dynasties, they still lived in an era where men were superior to women. If a man broke his engagement, it still had a great impact on the reputation of the woman involved even if it was entirely the man’s fault.

If you were good, why would someone break the engagement? Since the man insisted on breaking the engagement, there must be some fault in the woman.

It was originally a lack of sincerity by the Xie family. But looking at the foppish style of the Ban family and the uncompromising lifestyle of Ban Hua, many noble girls agreed tacitly with Xie Wanyu’s interpretation.

What’s the use of being pretty? The Xie family’s second son still doesn’t wish to approach her.

This kind of thinking made many noble girls feel happy and gave them a sense of superiority over Ban Hua. Although the reality is that they didn’t dare to be like Ban Hua where if she’s not happy, she can immediately reject people, and if she is happy, she will bestow generous rewards of gold and silver. And they definitely couldn’t wear the kind of extravagant attire that Ban Hua wears.

This was simply wrong. As a woman, what ought to be more important were attitude and inner beauty. A woman like Ban Hua was too superficial and vulgar and simply lowered the family’s dignity.

“What’s the matter with Shen Yu?” Princess Anle frowned, “Wasn’t he crying and begging to marry you?”

“Who cares about what’s the matter with him.” Ban Hua took a piece of fruit with a silver fork and put it in her mouth. Her moist, red lips were like ripe and juicy peaches so that Princess Anle couldn’t help but reach out and poke.

“If he breaks the engagement, he breaks the engagement. Except for that face, he has nothing else worth my attention.” Ban Hua put down the silver fork and blinked her beautiful eyes. She remembered that Shen Yu had not had a good end in her dream and had been banished to the frontier with his face tattooed.

“Since you like good-looking men so much, why not marry Rong Xia?” Princess Anle said with a smile. “There is no man in the whole capital that looks better than him.”

You can click the author’s name at the top of the chapter to see a list of her works in the original Chinese. If you’ve found this translation interesting, please do support the author if you can.

TL’s Meanderings:

I know that the trope of the blindingly beautiful heroine is way overdone in C-Novels but I like Ban Hua’s almost attitude towards her beauty. I feel like she has made her peace with her looks. She enjoys being beautiful and she even more enjoys using her looks to infuriate women who don’t like her carefree attitude to life.

I’ve had people tell me that I’m selfish and wrong for spending my own hard earned money on expensive bags, shoes, clothes or anything that they deem a luxury. So, I feel like I want to cheer Ban Hua on everytime she flaunts her flamboyant attire and jewellery at those who look down on her.

Go Ban Hua!

Princess Anle was the  eldest daughter of the Emperor and the most beloved. Seven years ago, she had been married to the first born legitimate (di) son of an aristocratic family, surnamed Wang. The married  couple too had passed a period of time when they were stuck together like glue. Later, Wang Fuma unexpectedly went so far as to surreptitiously support a mistress outside. After learning of this, Princess Anle thrashed him with a horsewhip and drove him out of the Princess’ Palace in anger.

At that time, this incident created a sensation all over the city. It finally ended with the death of Wang Fuma by falling off a horse. Some people once said that Wang Fuma’s cause of death was suspicious, but no one could find any evidence. In addition, after the decline of the Wang family, no one dared to mention the matter again. At most, they secretly sighed behind Princess Anle’s back that she had a poisonous heart. But who asked Wang Fuma to daringly set up a mistress after marrying a Royal Princess? This is simply a centenarian committing suicide and bringing disaster upon oneself.

After Wang Fuma’s death, Princess Anle did not want to marry again. She entertained herself by going on binges and partying with a flock of actors and singers whom she raised in her villa. Otherwise, she would invite the elite girls in Beijing to ride horses and amuse themselves.

Now, Princess Anle held a chrysanthemum feast. Almost all the noble ladies who had the honor of being invited, arrived at the venue rapidly and soon the villa was bustling with excitement.

“Have you seen Ban Xiangjun?”

“No, she wouldn’t be here today.”

“Why?”

“I heard that Shen Tanhua went to Jingting Hou Fu a few days ago to break the engagement and he was beaten up by Jingting Hou. A lot of people saw it when he was beaten up. “

The noble ladies usually have nothing much to pass the time. So, they inevitably gather together to chat about each family’s gossip. Ban Hua being jilted again is now a hot topic among them.

“If I were her, I wouldn’t even have the gall to come out and join in feasts and excitement,” Xie Qilin’s sister Xie Wanyu gently patted the corners of her mouth with a handkerchief and whispered to the companion around her, “That whole family is degenerate. Whoever dares to have ties of marriage with them is simply unlucky.”

Her companion Shi Feixian was the granddaughter of the Right Minister. Not only did she look beautiful and free from the dust of earthly troubles, but she was also a famous talented girl in the capital. Even the queen mother had personally praised her.

Shi Feixian has an indifferent temperament and not many people could make good friends with her. However, Xie Wanyu was one of them. She didn’t like Ban Hua’s arrogant temper, so when she heard Xie Wanyu mention her, she frowned slightly and said:. “Well, a noble family’s daughter has had three broken engagements. This is not a good thing. Let us not talk about it.”

“Even if we don’t talk about it, others will still gossip, ” Xie Wanyu remembered her brother and twisted her kerchief viciously with both hands, ” If it weren’t for her bad fate hindering him, how could my brother’s eye be hurt? “

The Imperial court rarely had a history of employing officials with disabled eyes. Now that, her brother had a blind eye, not only would he be unable to enter the Imperial court as an official in the future, even his future marriage expectations would have to be lowered. Now, her mother is bathing her face with tears at home every day and she can only come out to breathe and escape from the  oppressive atmosphere at home.

Xie Wanyu can’t take her anger out on her loved ones and she doesn’t care whether the rumours are true or false. Anyway, she doesn’t like the arrogance of Ban Hua and she feels much better  after bad mouthing her.

Shi Feixian listened quietly, not speaking, and naturally not mentioning that Xie Qilin had been riding to give her a book of poetry on the day of his accident.

You can click the author’s name at the top of the chapter to see a list of her works in the original Chinese. If you’ve found this translation interesting, please do support the author if you can.

Here’s today’s chapter!

I honestly thought that translating this would be much easier than it is. While I was reading the book, it just flowed. But now that I’m trying to pull the meaning of the author’s words in one language onto the page in a different language, it feels so difficult. How even does the brain work? Why can I read a chapter fluently in 15 minutes but if I try to convey the meaning in a different language, it takes hours?

I do feel like I’m getting better at this though. I’ve been translating faster and some idioms and phrases are becoming more familiar.

I also need to work on wordpress skills. I want to create links to previous and next chapter on each chapter page. To any readers who’ve done this before, please teach me your tips and tricks Sensei!

Also, I hope the reading experience is comfortable for you. If you’d like changes to font size or colours, or any other improvements you’d like let me know in the comments!

Ban Hua’s carriage arrived and the maids and ladies-in-waiting who were at the gate of the villa greeted her respectfully. No matter how the rich and noble women viewed this Ban Xiangjun, they who served as slaves had to serve this master well. Who made it so that this Xiangjun had a good-looking face and a pleasing mouth that could coax even the empress dowager in the palace to like her?

“Welcome to the Xiangjun. You’ve arrived in good time. The princess has been awaiting you in the inner courtyard and this servant will guide you.” Ban Hua, who was fond of beautiful women around her like stars surrounding the moon, showed a bright smile. Pulling a few grains of silver peanuts from her purse, she tossed them to the girl in front of her who said that she would lead the way: “Lets go! The chrysanthemums here at Anle jiejie’s place have always been more beautiful than others. How could I not come?”

“Thanks to Xiangjun for the reward,” The smile on the face of the maid who had been rewarded grew brighter. “Please come this way. Be careful of the steps under your feet.”

So boring!” Princess Anle idly flicked the jade beads on the tray in front of her and looked across the elegant and noble ladies in the courtyard. Turning her head to the momo beside her, she asked “Has Hua Hua arrived yet?”

“Princess, Ban Xiangjun hasn’t arrived yet, today,” the momo recalled the rumors floating around Beijing in recent days, but she dared not reveal it in front of the princess. “She must be on the way.”

As the master and servant were talking, suddenly, the voice of women talking and laughing came from outside. A woman dressed in a flamboyantly gorgeous formal palace dress walked in smilingly with a beauty on both sides.

“I said who could make such a big sound of activity except her,” Princess Anle’s face suddenly brightened as she stood up and walked towards the person who had entered, “Well, you’ve again come to tease my household’s girls.  When the time comes for you to leave, they will sing  Ban Xiangjun’s praises to the left and the right and forget all about me. “

” Jiejie ” Ban Hua let go of the beauties in her hand. She went forward to salute Princess Anle but the Royal Princess held her up admonishing, “Stand up quickly! There are more than enough people saluting me and I won’t miss yours.”

“I haven’t seen you for a fortnight but we must always keep up appearances.” Ban Hua and Princess Anle walked into the garden hand in hand.  As she entered, she felt countless eyes falling on her. The buyao dangling at her temple shook mesmerizingly as she flashed a beautiful smile to the noble ladies.

Since they wanted to see, she would let them look their fill.

The skirt she wore was made of tribute satin from the Imperial Palace and her Yu Pei was made of chicken blood jade that can’t be bought with mere money. From head to toe, every single piece of clothing and ornament were simply exquisite and tastefully chosen. She had been dressing up with great care for most of the day just to see the dampening effect that her appearance would have on the gathered noble ladies.

Xie Wanyu looked at her beautiful and arrogant look and her face was almost distorted. Her brother had lost an eye, but Ban Hua was in high spirits and dressed glamorously, almost seeming to radiate light. The anger in her heart rose to almost choke her.

She finally understood why her mother liked to scold certain women as sluts when noone was around to hear. It was because these words could let her vent the anger in her heart that has no outlet.

Princess Anle’s household lacks nothing in beauties, fine wine and delicacies. The noble ladies in the yard happily painted and created poetry while listening to the music played by the musicians. Ban Hua, who had not learnt any art since childhood, was not good at poetry or painting. Her only talent was an extraordinarily sensitive tongue. She only needed a taste to recognize which food ingredients were in any dish, old or new.

“This wine was sent by the people from my country estate. What do you think of the taste?” Princess Anle asked Banyu to taste the new fruit wine.

“It’s tolerable.” Ban Hua leaned her head towards Princess Anle’s ear and whispered, “Look at that Xie Wanyu. She’s been staring at me so intently for a while till her eyeballs are almost about to fall out.”

“Why can’t you two play together? “Princess Anle is seven years older than Ban Hua  and she can almost be called a child she watched growing up. So she is naturally inclined towards Ban Hua.

“How can I play with them?” Ban Wei took a sip of fruit wine, lazily, “They are talented women of a gentle temperament who love poetry and painting. And don’t you know me? Since when have I liked to study? “

“Don’t complain. If it weren’t that Xie Qilin eloped with someone else, she would be your younger sister-in-law.”

“Who wants to marry a man with a blind eye?” Ban Hua snorted. Leaving behind a marriage with her, a dignified Xiangjun of Marquis’ Household and eloping with a woman from the red light area, Xie Qilin had made her utterly lose face. “Fortunately, he eloped, or I would have had to live with a half-blind man.”

She had initially had a good impression of Xie Qilin. After all, he had looked good and had the ability to sweet talk people. At that time, she was young and ignorant and so she hadn’t raised any objections when her parents agreed to his family’s proposal.

Later, she realized that it’s better to believe in ghosts in daylight than to believe a man’s words. While he was courting her, he had been considerate and gentle. Later, when he eloped with someone, he put on an attitude that he hadn’t known better before and now he’d found true love.

And then there was Xie Wanyu. It was her brother who broke the engagement and embarrassed her family. But now she looked at Ban Hua like she finds her displeasing from all aspects. Isn’t this a mental illness?

“Ban Xiangjun, everyone is writing poetry. Why don’t you come and join us?” Xie Wayun smiled and waved her handkerchief at her, “Come on.”

“Huh,” Ban Hua, who was too lazy to care about Xie Wanyu’s pretentiously friendly appearance, turned her head and continued to chat with Princess Anle

Xie Wanyu was a little embarrassed that Ban Hua didn’t give her even that much respect. She looked up to meet the eyes of the noble ladies and barely smiled: “Maybe Ban Xiangjun has some misunderstanding about our family.”

Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding could it be?

Naturally it was the matter of being jilted by the Xie family.

Although women are more unrestrained now than they were during past dynasties, they still lived in an era where men were superior to women. If a man broke his engagement, it still had a great impact on the reputation of the woman involved even if it was entirely the man’s fault.

If you were good, why would someone break the engagement? Since the man insisted on breaking the engagement, there must be some fault in the woman.

It was originally a lack of sincerity by the Xie family. But looking at the foppish style of the Ban family and the uncompromising lifestyle of Ban Hua, many noble girls agreed tacitly with Xie Wanyu’s interpretation.

What’s the use of being pretty? The Xie family’s second son still doesn’t wish to approach her.

This kind of thinking made many noble girls feel happy and gave them a sense of superiority over Ban Hua. Although the reality is that they didn’t dare to be like Ban Hua where if she’s not happy, she can immediately reject people, and if she is happy, she will bestow generous rewards of gold and silver. And they definitely couldn’t wear the kind of extravagant attire that Ban Hua wears.

This was simply wrong. As a woman, what ought to be more important were attitude and inner beauty. A woman like Ban Hua was too superficial and vulgar and simply lowered the family’s dignity.

“What’s the matter with Shen Yu?” Princess Anle frowned, “Wasn’t he crying and begging to marry you?”

“Who cares about what’s the matter with him.” Ban Hua took a piece of fruit with a silver fork and put it in her mouth. Her moist, red lips were like ripe and juicy peaches so that Princess Anle couldn’t help but reach out and poke.

“If he breaks the engagement, he breaks the engagement. Except for that face, he has nothing else worth my attention.” Ban Hua put down the silver fork and blinked her beautiful eyes. She remembered that Shen Yu had not had a good end in her dream and had been banished to the frontier with his face tattooed.

“Since you like good-looking men so much, why not marry Rong Xia?” Princess Anle said with a smile. “There is no man in the whole capital that looks better than him.”

You can click the author’s name at the top of the chapter to see a list of her works in the original Chinese. If you’ve found this translation interesting, please do support the author if you can.

TL’s Meanderings:

I know that the trope of the blindingly beautiful heroine is way overdone in C-Novels but I like Ban Hua’s almost attitude towards her beauty. I feel like she has made her peace with her looks. She enjoys being beautiful and she even more enjoys using her looks to infuriate women who don’t like her carefree attitude to life.

I’ve had people tell me that I’m selfish and wrong for spending my own hard earned money on expensive bags, shoes, clothes or anything that they deem a luxury. So, I feel like I want to cheer Ban Hua on everytime she flaunts her flamboyant attire and jewellery at those who look down on her.

Go Ban Hua!