CH 25

Nearing the time of the third night watch (11pm-1am), there was a sudden sound of footsteps passing by and taking off on the eaves. It was especially clear in the quiet autumn night, but it went away in a different direction without pausing for even a moment.

(T/N: The reason this took so long to come out, is because I lost the previous draft when it didn’t save, so I had to translate half the chapter all over again. I lost patience and ended up reading most of the novel yesterday, and I’m glad I did, because I realised some of the poem references are listed in the author notes for later chapters. The ending was…unexpected, and I have kind of mixed feelings about it tbh. I might take a break after chapter 28 to translate the extras for Luan Shi Wei Wang aka. To rule in a turbulent world. If you like my translation, please leave a comment.)

1.To tear face is to not care about acting civil in front of someone because your relationship has soured.

2. 另择木而栖 – A phrase originating from the idiom ‘even birds pick which tree to perch on. Basically that people of intellect choose good masters or backers to serve.

3. Referring to the ranking of officials by salary.

4. For a heavy crime like treason, anyone within ‘nine degrees of kinship’ with the primary offender are executed along with them. So 1) Parents, 2) Grandparents, 3) Spouses 4) Parents-In-law, 5) Siblings and sibling-in-laws, 6) Aunts and uncles (both blood and married-in) 7) Children 8) Grandchildren and their spouses 9) Cousins. Technically SSY falls under this. Children below a certain age may be spared and sold into slavery instead.

5.彼此彼此 – a phrase one usually uses to return a compliment.