Note for all :
I came across this word – 勾欄院 (gou lan yuan) yesterday and I translated it as brothel.
A fellow translator said it’s an old word for brothel.
The current word for brothel is 妓院 (jiyuan).
勾欄院 can be used to describe theater or entertainment place too but not sure when, people started to use it to describe only brothel.
I’m guessing it’s how gay (happy) was gradually turned into gay (homosexual) by the majority of people.
Now why am I explaining this?
It was because I encountered this sentence while translating – 寧可死在妓院,也堅決不去勾欄院!
The translation will be “Rather die in brothel (jiyuan) than to go to brothel (gou lan yuan).”
That doesn’t sound right, right?
I asked fellow translators, fellow Chinese-speaking friend, online search, dictionary, my sis but none of us can decipher what the author meant.
Then I realized previous chapter 56, WuXin said “If the brothel owner found out that she don’t have a ‘bird’, won’t the owner hack the ‘birds’ off of these kidnappers instead?”.
As if being a male is important. (Raise your hand if you don’t know what bird means in this sentence ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) )
So the conclusion is this keyword was being used by the author to describe male brothel.
That would make sense, though it’s entirely guessworks.
Fellow translator suggested brothel theater/strip club but I still think male brothel make more sense.
That’s all (0w0)/
Thanks for reading.
“Stop howling, we are not here to kill you!”
One of the men who can’t stand Zhu WuXin’s noisiness, finally said on behalf of the rest.
The instant he finished his words, the men behind him nodded together at the same time, to express confirmation on what was said.
Zhu WuXin can at least feel assured when she heard they don’t want to kill her.
As long as they don’t want her life, anything else can be discussed.
“Then you want to blackmail?”
“Not interested.”
“Then you want to sell humans? I need to tell you first ah, I am a woman, not a man. You must not sell me to male brothel ah.”
No matter what, if they really wanted to sell her, they must sell to suitable places.
Maybe she can even display her abilities.
If sold her to male brothel, not sure who is the top, who is the bottom ne!
Her principle is she rather die in a brothel than going to a male brothel!
The man gave Zhu WuXin a look, then turned to walk to the edge of the cliff with an expression of unlimited sorrow.
Seeing him looking like he lost the will to live, Zhu WuXin curiously went to ask another person, “Don’t tell me he is trying to suicide ba.”
Not even sparing her a glance, the head of the men said, “Don’t mind him. He will be fine after the wind blown over him for a while.”
“……”
They are not trying to kill her, and not trying to extort money either.
Then, they tied her up and brought her over here for what?
People from this period, they don’t announce what is their purpose before doing something ah!
Raising up her head, Zhu WuXin said with a sincere look full of seriousness, “Did anyone among you men took a liking to me and want to make me the wife of the bandits?”
“Or you think catching people from Zhu House to take as wife would equals to being well-matched in terms of social status, will gain face?”
Pausing a bit, she then changed to a meaningful and heartfelt tone saying, “If I were you, I think it’s better if you kidnapped the Misses from Zhu House instead.”
“Look at me and my shabby appearance, I’m obviously a servant. Now that you wanted a bandit wife, you should at least get someone with higher social status.”
“If you don’t get the Miss, then even getting the head of maidservants would be much better than capturing me. Don’t you think this is right?”
As soon as she finished talking, the men who were surrounding her earlier, now all stood together uniformly at the edge of the cliff.
Letting the wind blow over them.
囧
Why these people can’t stand reasonable arguments?
At first, Zhu WuXin thought she would take advantage of them blanking out in the wind to make a run for it.
Unfortunately, as soon as she got up from the ground, a carriage was seen rushing towards them from a distance.
The men saw the incoming carriage and immediately came back to stand in a row, waiting with a solemn posture.
A glance at these men and Zhu WuXin already knew that the person who ordered for her capture has arrived.
[Translator note : Whew, today was hard. 囧 is my facial expression too 😛 And lol, all the men lost their will to live after listening to WuXin’s rambling. Might suffer internal damage as well, if their defense level is not strong enough XD]
Poor kidnappers they got their punishment…..listening to WuXin… ramble 😂😂😂🤣🤣
Yeah XD