Volume 1, Chapter 36: Daylight
TL: flarewk
"Zhang Jian, wait for me first at the courtyard, come in only when I ask you to do so!"
"All right....."
Traditional people sure are full of trouble....
In the courtyard, I boredly used a tree branch to tease the carps within the pool, as the moon hanging in the sky started to be gradually covered up by a sea of clouds. Just at this moment, I suddenly felt a strong unnatural otherworldly feeling.
It was as if.......that the whole world had-only-me-left that sort of feeling.
"All right, you can enter now!"
As instructed by Yè Zǐ, I once again pushed open the old worn wooden doors, and the moment I pushed it open, the sight that appeared before me ended up permanently etched within my heart.
The big hall.....was very crowded, and crowds of "people" sat onto the chairs placed at the sides of the big hall, they had men and women, and were joyously clapping their hands, as their mouths kept saying congratulations, or congratulating phrases.
"The groom have entered!"
"Yè Zǐ xiaojie, congratulations, you've finally attained your wish!"
"Good granddaughter, I wish you happiness!"
"Xiao Zǐ, I wish both of you will live together to a ripe old age!"
Yè Zǐ didn't say a word, and only kept bowing to them repeatedly, although her face was covered up with a red cloth, but the floor had unknowingly became wet a little.
What exactly is going on right now.....
"Since the groom and the bride have arrived, well then, let's begin!"
A rather kindly looking old man sat on the big hall's most frontal chairs, and according to the seating ways of traditional times, this should be a rather important and respected old man..
"Good son-in-law, what are you doing still standing there? Come on in!"
"Ah.......okay."
So this old man is Yè Zǐ's grandfather, huh....
"First bow, towards the heavens!"
I knew it, we would have to go through this process.
(TL: the ancient chinese when marrying would bow three times as a tradition, first to heavens, second to parents (offer tea as well), third to themselves)
Things started to be a little concerning, I won't be taken away, right.....this charade seemed to be a little frightening.
Having no choice, right now I could only accompany Yè Zǐ and bowed together with her towards the skies outside at the courtyard.
"Second bow, to the parents!"
We turned around, and bowed towards Yè Zǐ's grandfather, and I even followed the traditional wedding rules and poured a cup of tea in respectful salute.
"You guys don't need to rush onto bowing towards each other first, Xiao Zǐ, your father and mother have returned to see you."
The old man grinned broadly as he pointed towards a corner of the courtyard, and there had a middle-aged couple sitting onto the mats while drinking wine.
The instance Yè Zǐ saw them, she straightaway rushed forward, not caring about anything else.
"Dad! Mom!"
"Zǐ 'er, Mom is really very happy, finally this day had arrived."
Yè Zǐ's mother gently stroked her hair, as slightly-transparent tears welled up in the corner of her eyes.
"You! Come here! I want to see who exactly took away my daughter from me!"
Yè Zǐ's father in retrospect doesn't look like he's the type who could be easily talked to.......I'm innocent, it's just a charade only!
"Umm.......Guard of the Ocean dàrén, good day......"
I don't really know what to say already, right now, my brain is like sticky paste, being in a total messed up state.
"Mm? Think carefully again, what should you call me!!!"
Yè Zǐ's father roared towards me loudly, and looked to be rather angry......as expected of an official from the imperial court in the ancient times, he have such a strong presence.
"Bà! No wait, Diē!"
(TL: No, he did not ask him to die. Diē is pronounced as 'D-eee-airrr'. Both means "dad")
Scary.....it feels like I'm about to be eaten by him.
"Ha ha, good boy! Brat, if you are to bully Zǐ 'er, even if I'm to be a ghost I won't let you off!"
By the way aren't you a ghost right now!!!
As such, I had really become confused already.
If humans experience too much unbelievably unreal things in such a short period of time, their brain would probably go haywire, and right now I'm in that kind of condition.
"Mom, please have some tea."
Yè Zǐ' passed some tea towards her mother, and her father sternly looked towards the cup of tea I held within my hands.....
I think I understood what to do already.
"Diē......please have some tea....."
"Mm, very good. Oh right, is the Emperor still in good health?"
Emperor? He probably died a few hundreds of years ago!
"Umm....right now it's five hundred years later already....."
"It's been that long huh......forget it, tonight, we've completed our final regrets, and we can finally rest in peace."
Suddenly, all the crowd from the big all ran towards the courtyard, they accompanied Yè Zǐ's parents together, and stared towards me and Yè Zǐ.
"Couple Bow, Couple Bow, Couple Bow~"
The crowd clapped as they encouraged us to proceed onto the final step.
I'm scared.......after bowing will I be taken away......
Forced by the circumstances before me, I faced Yè Zǐ and we bowed towards each other respectively, the moment our waist was lowered, the strange unnatural otherwordly feeling disappeared, and the whole courtyard immediately quietened down.
The luminous moon, shone upon the entire courtyard once more.
"This way, Second Uncle, Third Aunt, Xiao Liu ge, Mom, Dad, Grandpa, ............everyone won't need to worry about me any more."
"Hubby, let's enter the bedroom."
Hubby and whatnot.........forget it, as long as she liked it.
Being dragged by her, I walked into a room, the interior of it was roughly similarly decorated as the big hall, the only difference was that there was an additional large red-colored bed in the room.
I feel that I'm about to be doomed.....I'm going to go back to the police station again......
Wait, wait.......Yè Zǐ is older than me by five hundred plus years, so I can't be considered to be committing a crime! By the way, is there any such offence in the law-book about humans and spirits?
"Take it off then."
She stood in front of me, waiting for me to pull off the red-cloth covering her.
"Yè Zǐ, have they left already......."
Once I pulled off the red cover, I casually asked that question.
"What should you call me?"
"Lao.......lao po?"
"I'm not an old granny*~ although I already existed for five hundred plus years, but my real age is only twenty years old!"
(TL: it's a joke, wifey = "lao po" in modern chinese, and "lao po po" means old granny in chinese)
She looked like she completely don't understand the modern-age calling between a couple.....
"Wifey?"
I can only think of this name-call already, and if Ma Qing Xue and Xiao Ling saw this situation right now I'll definitely be beaten to death.
"Here."
"Umm, about my question just now....."
"Everyone shouldn't appear any more already......we, are actually a form of unfinished strong feelings that made us continue to exist in this world.....after the feelings had been completed, we'll probably be gone like the wind.."
"Since it's like that then don't complete the feelings then, since it's not simple to see them once more......just like that simply separate from them again?"
"We are being made out of feelings, and for us, completing our wishes is our everything, as we had long passed away.....and under this kind of situation still being able to resolve our regrets, I think it's fine already."
"It's........easily satisfied huh, you guys."
-ch 36, vol 1 end-
Footnotes:
Second bow, towards the parents = they bow in the order of hierachy in the family, the grandpa being the oldest so he's first, followed by the real parents, except that Yè Zǐ wasn't expecting them as they were supposedly outside for a long time.
"Dad" = (爸 bà /爹 diē) , the difference between the two is that, one is modern age chinese character, another is traditional chinese character. Zhang Jian being a modern-age guy, he accidentally blurt out the modern chinese calling in the first try.
Xiao Liu ge = someone probably close to Yè Zǐ, like an older relative cousin or a younger nephew.
bedroom* = it was referred to in the traditional chinese context, that bedroom was the ancient chinese bedroom, where it is mandatory for a just married couple to go to at night, to have baby-making sessions.
five lakes and four seas = indirectly meaning travelling the entire world
across the ends of the great changjiang = changjiang river is a really long river nearly splitting china into two, to go from north to south of it (one end to another) will indirectly mean you would want to travel across the country.
large eagle = aeroplane (she thought it's an eagle)
Glossary:
-xiaojie = it's an appendix placed behind a name, this meant "young lady", and is usually termed to a woman belonging to a wealthy or influential family
Xiao- = it's an appendix placed before a name, this meant "small", and is usually termed to someone younger than the caller, calling him/her rather affectionately
'er = it's an appendix placed after a name, this is usually termed to someone whom you really treasure, and is usually called between families (or lovestruck couples)
dàrén = this appendix is similiar to the japanese append "-sama", it's placed behind a word to signify respect to that person.
wanna = informal way of saying "want"
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