So, for those of you who peruse through SSB, you might have seen me blathering on (and on and on and on) about Mo Bao Fei Bao’s novel, 很想很想你 Really, Really Miss You.  This novel has become my newest c-novel obsession.  I thought I had washed my hands in the golden basin and retired from the translation world, but this novel and its perfect male lead have pulled me out of hiding.  I love it so much I will be picking it up as a translation project to spread the love and also so I can have other people squeal over it with me.  Hui3r and peanuts are kindly allowing me to guest blog and post the translation here, and I look forward to getting to know and discussing with all of you. 🙂 

You can read the translation of the official novel synopsis and the review I posted on SSB .

And this is what I wrote as my summary of the story:

Our male and female lead are in the online entertainment circle, he on the dubbing side and she on the music cover side. The circle is one where physical appearance is generally anonymous and you are known by your online handle and your voice. Gu Sheng, a relatively unknown online singer who goes by the handle Sheng Sheng Man and who specializes in cover songs of ancient-style music, is a huge fan of Qiang Qing Ci, a very famous and well-loved CV (character voice) artist (i.e. dubber, voiceover artist). It was like, love at first listen.

One morning, she was chatting with a friend in her online “room” when his voice suddenly appeared in her headset, describing to her in detail how to prepare a food dish she had been talking about. This began their online chats about food. Gu Sheng can scarcely believe that she is talking to her idol, and he seems to be trying to progress the relationship further.

The author stated that this was her fun project to combine her love of food and ancient-style music. Food recipes and descriptions and song lyrics are interlaced into the story.  I will be including MVs or links to the songs when they come up.  Make sure you listen while you read the relevant part of the story.  Trust me; it changes the reading experience completely. And maybe you’ll be converted into a lover of ancient-style music like I was.  Or maybe you’ll just get hungry reading about the food like I did.

As a bit of a teaser and an introduction to the novel, I’m going to repost one of my favourite chapters that I translated and posted on SSB.  If you have read it in SSB already, come relive it one more time with me.  (I’ve read this particular scene seven or eight times… can’t get enough of it. LOL)  For the song that is mentioned, I even chose an MV that had nice eye candy in it. 😉 I’ve included a translation of the lyrics at the end.

I promise that the next post will have new translated material.  It’ll be the start of the official translation.  For now, enjoy.

To set the scene, Gu Sheng is at a recording studio where she has just met her idol, Qiang Qing Ci (real life name, Mo Qingcheng but also lovingly known as Toupai). They have finished what they were going to do there and are about to leave. The other people there are all Toupai’s friends, and they are all huge names in the online entertainment circle.

After a while, he seemed to have eaten until he was satisfied, and he gave an indistinct chuckle. “Forget it. Let’s think about what we are going to have for dinner first. We’ll leave this to decide later.”

“Wait, no,” Wwwwk suddenly let out a laugh. “I have a suggestion. Before we go, how about we make a private little souvenir?”

“Private souvenir?” Feng Ya Song [Elegant Ode] chimed in.

“Sheng Sheng loves Toupai ’s[1] voice the most. This, we can all tell. Toupai also said that he loves Sheng Sheng’s voice the most…… Since Fei Shao [Young Master Fei] has offered us the use of his recording studio for free, this is a rare opportunity. It’ll be a waste if we don’t record a few more things as souvenirs. Since the two of you so… *love*… each other…” Wwwwk deliberately paused for half a beat and rubbed his chin before continuing, “… ‘s voices, why don’t you record a duet right now?”

Fei Shao’s eyes lit up as he ripped off his baseball cap excitedly. “Dang! Awesome suggestion!”

A…… live duet with Toupai?

Gu Sheng’s blood pressure, which had just fallen back down not long ago, immediately soared. She stole a glance at the studio, imagining herself and Toupai in that soundproof room… face to face singing… and…

This was not a KTV, k? There’s honestly so much ambience in there, k? Two people in that glass room, a bunch of onlookers on the outside…… T T

Even when she was at a KTV before, she had never sung a duet with a boy in front of a whole bunch of people. T T

“Mm. Sure,” Toupai agreed, not showing any awkwardness. “We can upload it onto 5sing[2] after we are done recording. Consider it as a Valentine’s Day gift to the fans.”

Valentine’s Day… gift…

Alright… Many daren[3] in the online world like to do something on special occasions like Valentine’s Day, Children’s Day, etc. Normal, totally normal.

Gu Sheng was still digesting this suggestion, but he, after thinking briefly, was already saying, “Shang Ye [Oh Heaven]… okay with you?”

Those two words, shang ye, coming from his lips, seemed to carry a heartrending sense of bleakness.

The heckling crowd surrounding them went completely quiet.

The mountains will crumble, heaven and earth will come together, and only then will l cease to love you.[4]

Wha…?

Really. So. Attention-Grabbing.

Gu Sheng had completely frozen.

Qiang Qing Qi was an action-oriented person. After saying this, he was already asking the recording engineer to search for the background music and motioning to her that she could go into the soundproof live room. Soon, Fei Shao, with an evil smirk on his face, had very considerately printed off the lyrics and brought them over to the two of them.

Gu Sheng walked over to stand next Qiang Qing Ci, put on a pair of headphones, and glanced at the faces of everyone standing on the other side of the glass wall. She honestly felt like she was going to have a heart attack……

DaRen, were you planning on completely changing over your style right before you retire from the entertainment circle and starting to seek out rumors and gossip? T T

Meeting for the first time and already recording a duet in the studio. Was this really okay…?

With one hand covering her headset, Gu Sheng heard Qiang Qing Ci ask her, “Need to practice a few times?”

“I…” Gu Sheng forced herself to forget that there were actually seven or eight other people quietly listening in on what the two of them were saying. “I might need to practice along with the background music one time. DaRen… how would you like to work out the parts?”

Qiang Qing Ci’s eyes sparkled with laughter. Glancing at her, he put on his headphones and answered, “The opening of this song is really high. I’ll sing that part. The rest…” He picked up a pen and marked off a few lines. “We’ll sing these lines together. The rest you sing by yourself, okay?”

Was this really ok……?

Girls were supposed to be able to sing higher than men… T T

If Toupai’s fans heard this, they would on one hand be saying, all starry-eyed, “DaRen, you’re amazing!” while on the other hand be saying Sheng Sheng Man was completely useless… But Gu Sheng guessed that, even if she did try to sing that high, her voice would crack. Based on the fact that Toupai had so effortlessly sung “Zue Meng Xian Lin” [Drunken Dream in Divine Rain][5], Toupai was probably more suited for this song.

But…

That other little spirit in her that was Toupai’s diehard fan was reprimanding this little spirit that was trying her best to keep level-headed: Even if I never heard him sing Zui Meng Xian Lin, I still have complete faith in my DaDa[6] . No problem at all!!!

Fine.

The level-headed spirit surrendered.

In reality, from the moment she stood in this soundproof room next to Toupai, level-headedness had completely left her.

Gu Sheng was very familiar with this song. In a low voice, she read through the lyrics once or so, making sure she wouldn’t not know the words while halfway through singing or something embarrassing like that. Feeling that she was about ready, she said, “DaRen, I’m good.”

Qiang Qing Ci answered her with an “uh huh” and then said, “You can call me Qiang Qing Ci, or you can call me Mo Qingcheng. You don’t have to keep calling me ‘DaRen.’”

In her headset, she could hear clamoring coming from the group of people on the other side of the room again.

“Sheng Sheng, say it, say it. The best would be to call him Qing Ci or Qingcheng…”

“That’s enough, Feng Ya Song.” Dou Dou Dou Bing [Bean Bean Bean Cake] frowned at him before turning to the glass and offering her advice. “Sheng Sheng, calling him Qiang Qing Ci will make it seem like you two aren’t very close. Mo Qingcheng would be better, yes? Huh?”

“I agree.” Wwwwk’s opinion was concise and to the point.

“I agree, too.” Fei Shao immediately chose his group to join.

Even Jue Mei [Perfectly Beautiful] finally stood up from the sofa, walked over to stand behind Fei Shao, placed a hand on Fei Shao’s shoulder, and said seriously, “Sheng Sheng, if you want to progress the relationship further into the world of real life, you will need to call him Mo Qingcheng.”

All you, DaRens…

Did we really need to be this serious about this kind of thing? T T

“Whatever you wish to call me will be okay.” Even Toupai could not tolerate the people outside anymore. He couldn’t hold back his laughter as he said, “I just didn’t want you to feel too uptight.”

“Alright…” She nearly slipped and said DaRen again but immediately managed to stop herself. “Uh. Mo… Qingcheng.”

( ⊙ o ⊙)…… Why did I suddenly get the feeling like this was a blind date?

And it was a blind date surrounded by nosy aunties watching as my date and I introduced ourselves to each other…

Gu Sheng could swear she must have been blushing right then. She raised one hand unconsciously to the side of her headphones, acting as if she needed to study the lyrics, to partially block her face from view. Seeing that the two of them were ready, the recording engineer quickly started the background music. The two of them followed Toupai’s plan and without much trouble, familiarized themselves with the song along with the music.

Seriously, Toupai was someone who could really sing.

Gu Sheng had to sing her part while still giving part of her attention to listen to Toupai sing.

Listening to someone sing at such a close distance like this, especially when this someone was the perfect Toupai, was definitely a scene she had never imagined before. After practicing through nearly once, Toupai very diligently told her that they would have to sing through another time and even did not forget to thoughtfully advise her, “Don’t put too much effort into your voice right now. This time, we will find the feeling in the song first before we start to do the actual singing. Save your breath and energy for later.”

Gu Sheng nodded.

But, when she discovered that the second time around, Toupai did not even need to look at the lyrics… she realized that this second practice was really only for her benefit…

This time, besides singing himself, Toupai was mainly paying attention to her. After he had finished singing his own part, he immediately looked over at her. Gu Sheng originally could have come in at her part just fine, but with his one glance, she actually stumbled in early.

“Sheng Sheng, don’t be nervous, don’t be nervous,” Dou Dou Dou Bing could not help teasing. “Even though I totally understand you, that completely normal feeling where you can’t stay calm after the exceedingly gorgeous Toupai DaRen has taken one look at you… But, it gets better after you get used to it.”

Mo Qingcheng’s eyes glanced over to the other side of the glass wall. Silence fell immediately.

Gu Sheng forced herself to not get distracted and was finally able to get through this round.

“It’s for real now, little girl.” Even the recording engineer was finding this situation very amusing. “It’s okay. Once you have officially sang through once, there will be a lot of lines you will each have to go back to re-record separately.”

“Alright.” Gu Sheng’s face was burning.

Everyone here was clearly amusing themselves by making fun of her, k? T T

First time meeting all of them too, you know…

“Don’t be nervous.” Toupai’s voice was low and soft and had the power to calm a person’s heart.

Very quickly, the musical intro of the song could be heard.

With one hand on the microphone’s frame, Mo Qingcheng finally started singing the first line along with the background music:

Henceforth, the setting sun will sear my heart [‘til red] like vermilion…”

When he opened his mouth to sing the first note, Gu Sheng swore she clearly heard her own heartbeat.

Seriously, it sounded so good it could make people cry.

Effortless high notes that carried an intense sense of anguish and unwillingness to let go.

He even gave the listeners the feeling that he was the general in the story – someone who did not want to give in, did not want to let go of the woman he loved, but caught between the country and the princess, he had no choice but to only stand and watch as the princess left, to allow her to enter into a political marriage…

Gu Sheng was a person who loved music, and at the same time, she loved any stories set in the ancient times.

The cruelest thing in the world, perhaps, was after having possessed something, to lose it again. Those beautiful feelings, if one had never experienced them before, would not be etched into the bones and engraved on the heart. And then to use a knife and slice away, one inch at a time, those veins and bones that were joined together because of love. That was really too cruel.

As she sang this song, she could not help looking straight up at Mo Qingcheng.

Mo Qingcheng’s deep black eyes also carried her reflection in them.

As the two of them neared the end of the song, that gentle yet sorrowful section, she deliberately sang slightly offbeat to Mo Qingcheng. His male voice sang first followed by her clear and somewhat mournful repetition of his lyrics.

Yet your wedding gown is more brilliant than those falling flowers

But what you say is ‘I am willing to part from my love for him.’”

What a sorrowful sentence: I am willing to part from my love for him.

As Gu Sheng sang the last note, she found she was having difficulties removing herself from the story.

But she was suddenly surprised to hear Toupai suddenly start to speak some lines, lines that had not even appeared once when they were rehearsing. “I desire to know you deeply and love you. Forever may this be unchanging…[7] ”

He even… changed the word in the poem from “jun”[ancient style; means “you” when addressing a man] to “er.”[ancient style; means “you” when address a woman]

In Mo Qingcheng’s voice, she could hear a sense of understanding, as if he, too, was captured within this story.

Blossoms swirling in the sky of Chang’an. The smell of blood, strong as wine, carrying on the wind.

He looked straight into her eyes and told her, “’Til the different directions of the world no longer exist, ‘til the seas dry, only then will I cease to love you.”

[1]头牌 Toupai. Nickname for Qiang Qing Ci. This word means “leading actor/singer/performer” or “star” or “headliner performer” i.e. the biggest name and biggest crowd-drawer.

[3] Literally meaning “big person.” A respectful form of address to a person of authority. In this case, the big names in the online entertainment circle are addressed as “DaRen.”

[5]

[7] The first two lines of the ancient poem, Shang Ye.

The ancient poem, 上邪 Shang Ye is a love song — a song about a girl who will stay faithful to the love in her heart.  Here’s a translation of it.

上邪！

我欲与君相知

长命无绝衰

山无陵

江水为竭，

冬雷震震

夏雨雪

天地合

乃敢与君绝！
Only then will I cease to love you!

And here is the translated synopsis and lyrics for the entire song, Shang Ye, which is currently my most played song in my playlist.  Read through and let me know if it made you cry like it did to me.

Synopsis:
[0:01] In 2012, the Shanxi Xi’an archaeological team discovered a tomb. From the epitaph inscription in the tomb, it was determined that it was the joint tomb of a general and a female of imperial lineage. The main chamber of the tomb contained a double coffin to allow the burial of two people together, but that coffin contained only a single male corpse. What was unexpected, however, was that the title of the woman of imperial heritage that was inscribed on the epitaph was identical to that of a princess who, in historical records, had married to a border area in a political marriage.

[0:18] Your wedding gown like fire has scorched the horizon

It is said that peach blossoms can be found in your eyes
But how is it that in one evening, those blossoms fell like rain?

[0:47] I ask, who can lend to me a chance to look back?

To follow along, again, as you softly sing to me ‘Shang Ye’ [Oh Heaven]
To see you once again

[1:13] In those yesteryears that have long ago passed
I laughed at you for too easily promising your hand in marriage

[1:26] It was you who used all of you to recite ‘Shang Ye’

That year, flower petals filled the sky of Chang’an

In my ears, the sound of warfare seems to swallow the wilderness

The sound of weeping carries far

[2:48] That song, ‘Shang Ye’ that you used to sing
Hereafter I will never again be able to clearly hear it

[3:00] What cannot be defeated is the passage of time that flows like water

And so, you carved your name into the historical scrolls
So now, let me carve your name onto my tombstone

[3:28] Drifting petals are falling again in this season,

Your lips move, as if to once again sing ‘Shang Ye’
But what you say is ‘I am willing to part from my love for him.’