I don’t know what spade talk means as well. I may have miss this earlier.
@ohmyvalar Hope you could enlighten us? =)
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@violet @resuri08 oops, I think I may have been using it wrong, but what I meant to describe is one of those “if you do my friend wrong I’ll bury you w this spade myself” scenarios where someone’s friend warns their SO not to mistreat them lol (as you do…)
Now you can imagine the different scenarios between different ROs 
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Keep away from your siblings, Jaime. Don’t make me cut off your other hand.
Anyway, I do enjoy this update. Plotting to kill Long Qing. I regret nothing.
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The Dragon Emperor sits the throne, as he inherited it from his father before him. But all is not well in the realm.
Shouldn’t it be the Emperor sits on the throne?
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@anon49824592 you’ll have to wait until near the end of the game to see the results, but yes, that is possible 
@Frogs 
I thought they mean the same thing except that one sounds more archaic…
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It could be sits upon the throne, it sounds pretty archaic too.
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Sounds good! Thanks for the suggestion! 
It would be cool if assassins would try to kill you later and you’d run into the mountains, and then the tiger will come back and defend you. Maybe you could even make him a familiar or something later.
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As hinted before, the tiger may make a brief but touching comeback near the end of the game (if I don’t forget its existence OH NO) depending ofc on MC’s treatment of it. I’m glad to hear you like the idea!
As for a familiar, we already have something close to one in a less eye-catching but no less deadly companion: Yue 
(the feline motif is intentional).
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I don’t even like cats but I love Yue (because she’s obviously not JUST a cat ). Between cats, tigers and dragons we could conquer the country with our animal army.
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that’d make a nice gag ending… stares at Nier Automata
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Ancient China Trivia Pt. 3: Poetry
While researching for suitable lines to name endings, I’ve fallen in love once more with ancient Chinese poetry. And now there’s an excuse to share my love muahaha ft. be warned these are amateur translations by me, who has never officially had translation lessons (those few half-hearted ones in high school don’t count shh).
Here’s a few I’ve decided on for certain death endings that players can choose to view w/o actually dying late in the game its complicated and spoilery shh. So far these are romantic(?!) endings, but I plan to tweak some of them to make aromantic friendship/platonic soul mates endings too. (none of the endings can or will be sexual in nature so I don’t think a separate set for asexual players is necessary(?)) Feel free to guess which character each poem is for~:smiling_imp:
《国风|王风|大车》(The Carriage) from 诗经 (Classic of Poetry)
榖则异室，死则同穴。谓予不信，有如皦日！
In living we are parted, but in death we shall rest together. If you doubt my heart, look only to the clear sun!
《水调歌头|明月几时有》(When Will A Clear Moon Rise) by 苏轼 (Su Shi)
明月几时有？把酒问青天。不知天上宫阙，今夕是何年。我欲乘风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒。起舞弄清影，何似在人间？
转朱阁，低绮户，照无眠。不应有恨，何事长向别时圆？人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全。但愿人长久，千里共婵娟。
When will a clear moon rise? I raise my wine-cup and ask the blue sky. Not knowing what years have passed today in the halls of heaven above. I wish to return there by the forces of wind, and yet fear the unbearably cold heights up alone in the jade towers of the moon. I dance and paint shadows across the earth; how can anything in the mortal realm compare to those above?
The changing moon illuminates the decored halls and shine on my sleepless self. Does it bear us some special hatred, that it grows full only when we are parted? That mortals experience the sorrows and joys of partings and reunions; that the moon passes through phases from crescent to fullness; since the beginning of time there have always been such things that cannot be perfect for everyone. I wish only for all I love to endure, and enjoy this moonlight together across our distance.
(there is a pun (I think) in Chinese reunion is 团圆, but 月圆means a full moon. Thus the poet laments that the moon is only full when they are ironically parted. Btw apparently Su Shi actually wrote this about his brother, wow is this fate or what?? I didn’t intend to translate the entire poem, and I probably butchered all its beauty w my bad translation sorry;;;
《浣溪沙|谁念西风独自凉》(The Unknowable Cold of the West Wind) by 纳兰性德 (Nalan Xingde)
谁念西风独自凉，萧萧黄叶闭疏窗，沉思往事立残阳。
被酒莫惊春睡重，赌书消得泼茶香，当时只道是寻常。
Who can know the cold I feel, alone under the west wind? The scattered yellow leaves of fall shut my view from the windows as I stand in the dying light, pondering deeply on past events.
Falling asleep with cheeks blooming spring-red from wine, literature contests and sleeves filled with the fragrance of tea; all these too, I only thought would last forever in our lives of normalcy.
(literature contests here referenced the adage of the after-meal habit of famous poet Li Qingzhao and her husband of having a contest out of guessing which page of a book a particular poem/literature is from - tldr: Nalan Xingde is comparing his relationship w his late wife to the fulfilling and happy relationship between his senpai poets)
《黄鹤楼送孟浩然之广陵》(Bidding Meng Farewell at Yellow Crane Tower) by 李白 (Li Bai)
故人西辞黄鹤楼，烟花三月下扬州。
孤帆远影碧空尽，唯见长江天际流。
My old friend leaves Yellow Crane Tower for the west, travelling down to Yang Prefecture on this March where the flowers grow thick as smoke.
The sole boat leaves a faraway shadow that fades at the edge of the azure sky, until only the long river can be seen flowing towards the horizon.
(Yellow Crane Tower aka 黄鹤楼 is a famous tower in China that apparently got its name from the Three Kingdoms period General Fei Wei 费袆 landing there for rest after he became a minor god according to legend. Also, 西辞has a second meaning of death, although I don’t think it’s employed in this poem - but which I’ll be referencing for this particular ending…)
That’s all so far! Would anyone be interested in more of this kind of trivia? I’d love to hear your favourite poems too, regardless of language or age.
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Just curious about this. What do you mean by “denouncement of her child”? Is this referring to the mc? And if so, did something happen when they were a child?
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I was wondering, were Chinese poems meant to be sung or just meant to be read? Lastly, who was the target audience? I can just imagine my MC writing love poems about forbidden love to console himself…
Oh Chen Ku, how can life be so cruel?
Due to our upbringing, we are destined never to be
Like water and oil, destined never to be one
(Yes, I know my poetry is horrible compared to the great poets but I just thought to scribble something together for fun 
)
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These are interesting. =D
I am not into poetry much so I don’t have particular favorites. But Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabel Lee was the one of the poems that I remembered very well.
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@Vanessa_Pang well, character intros are from an old draft (I won’t change them yet bc there may be additional divergences lol) when the denouncement was set pre-game when MC was born. In the current plan it will take place at the end of Chapter 2 instead - as for what exactly, I won’t spoil it entirely but I think I’ve already dropped some hints in the thread lol
@Darkner ahaha it’s okay, Chen Kun would probably be moved to (genuine) tears by something like that. “For Master to put effort into something like this…!” clenches fist I had to search this up, but apparently most poems back then came with fixed rhythmns, so if not meant to be sung they could at least he recited like some kinda weird rap lmao. In modern times, some ancient poems have been adapted into songs - in fact the referenced 明月几时有 by Su Shi was used as the lyrics to the song Dan Yuan Ren Chang Jiu by Wang Fei.
@resuri08 ah, that’s the one that goes “I and my Annabel Lee”, right? I never used to be super into poetry either, but after being exposed to analyzing them for Lit lessons, I acquired a taste for them lol.
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Yes. That one. =D I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to read some more poetry to expand my knowledge for it.
Looking forward to more Chinese history. =D
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Well, that made my mind up on that issue.
I had been wondering.
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Why are you so amazing? 
I love poetry but sadly I do not speak any other languages. I am attempting to learn but it’s a very slow process for me. What a wonderful thing to be able to do though. Thank you so much for sharing with us.
I would like to share a poem I heard recently. Surprisingly, it was in a Kdrama. One of the last places I would expect to hear good poetry.
Physics of Love by Kim In Yook
Mass is not proportional to volume. A girl as small as a violet. A girl who moves like a flower petal
is pulling me towards her with more force then her mass. Just then, I am like Newton’s apple. I rolled towards her without stopping until I fell on her. With a thump. With a thump thump.
My heart keeps bouncing between the sky and the ground. It was my first love.
Of course it sounds much better in it’s original language. They way thump is said is much more rhythmic and it’s very hard to explain but you can miss a lot in translation. Anyway, just thought I would share. Hope you like it and please give us more lessons. 
Not sure if my interpretation is right, but that one got me right in the feels. You did a wonderful job translating.
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Honestly speaking, I do not think I would give it directly to him. I’d be just too embarrassed sharing the poem with him. So I guess he will have to read it accidentally after discovering it in some hidden drawer 
.
It would probably be bittersweet to hear him say that because while I like that he would be genuinely touched by the poem, I would hope he actually uses my MC’s name instead of ‘Master’. At least when no one is around.
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