1 The Fourteenth Year of Chenghua (Tome 1) Written by Meng Xi Shi Original Chinese work (c) 2014-2015 Unofficial translation (c) 12/21/2020 - 01/14/2022 by Huang “Chichi” Zhifeng Both versions are protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Reposts are not permitted in any capacity. (No, not anywhere, no matter who you are, and no matter what you think you’re doing.) If you have found this translation anywhere except chichilations.home.blog, ko- fi.com/chichilations, or the huangzhifengtheosprey Google Drive, it has been stolen. There is absolutely no authorization for it to be posted anywhere else, especially not any site that charges money for access to those translations or has ads. I have never required payment to access any translations that I do, nor have I ever claimed ad revenue. Anyone else claiming my translation as theirs is fraudulent. Check the dates, eh? If you’re going to steal a translation, steal it from a machine. They don’t have feelings. Stealing from an anonymous bird on the internet is pretty… yeah. The original work was published on jjwxc. This translation was published originally on Wordpress. Translator Contact Information chichilations.home.blog ~ ko-fi.com/chichilations ~
[email protected] The blog is the source site, and the ko-fi has plans for further translations, though it’s a space solely for my original works, otherwise. Please send any inquiries, bug reports, typos, etc. regarding the translation to my email. Also let me know if anyone has reuploaded this translation elsewhere, especially if they’re redistributing it in epub/pdf format; I can and have dealt with them before, I’ll do it again. Ancient Chinese Units of Measurements, for your reading convenience shichen: one of the 12 two-hour time periods ancient Chinese folks used instead of hours cun: equivalent to 3⅓ cm li: equivalent to ½ a km chi: equivalent to ⅓ m zhang: equivalent to 3⅓ m catty: equivalent to 604.79g tael: equivalent to 37.8g Translator’s Foreword Welcome to the fanmade translation of The Fourteenth Year of Chenghua! This was originally an EPUB. I retired those originally, hoping that would prompt more official ebooks and translations. That didn’t quite go as planned, so now I made them hard to copy. Lessons learned, yadda yadda yadda.
2 It’s not perfect, is less interactive than the blog (I like seeing comments :( ), and is missing translator/author notes (for now), but GDocs does prevent copying and downloading. It’s the most I can do. (Don’t request edit access. Those emails go straight to the trash.) FYC is too massive for GDocs to handle, so I had to split it into four ‘Tomes’. Why did I name them Tomes instead of Parts? Because my name’s Chichi and the definition of chichi is ‘pretentious and overelaborate refinement’. That’s your explanation, bye. Here is a content warning for the whole book: pretty much every arc involves one or more dead bodies, so you can imagine the details surrounding it are not pleasant, and this time period is rife with sexism and double-standards. Be sure to buy the work from JJWXC, or donate directly to the author. If you lack in money, you can still contribute to the author’s works by viewing all the chapters that you can, liking everything, giving high ratings, and commenting (in Chinese only, or it’ll be auto-deleted). This helps their algorithms on jjwxc. It’s free to do this, so please do. JJWXC Raws — In-Depth English JJWXC-buying Guide
3 The Case of the Marquis Wu’an Estate 1: Floating Like a Roaming Cloud The capital. At near noon, two people walked out of Jubilance. The leading one was a coxcomb, his face white with a sparse beard. An everyday set of clothes covered his body similar to how it would have covered a bamboo pole, and beneath his eyes were a pair of blue-black circles. He yawned for every two steps he took. Following behind him was a boyservant that matched his pace. Not daring to slight him, the boy held an umbrella up for him in one hand, and carried a lantern whose flame had already gone out in the other. Upon seeing this, passersby sidestepped them, one after the other. The reason was none other than that Jubilance was a brothel, and brothel rules were that they should only open their doors and welcome guests in the evening. Right now, the other party had come out of the building in broad daylight; that had to mean that this Don had not only fooled around the whole night, but had also fooled around all morning, and his backing was so profound, Jubilance had no choice but to break the rules for him. It would be great if someone like that had a good temper. In the case that he possibly had a bad temper and something happened, the ones who would suffer would be the powerless commoners. For that reason, everyone naturally had to duck out of the way when they saw him. He couldn’t be provoked, so he needed to be avoided. The coxcomb’s eyes suddenly brightened, and he gazed dead ahead. The boyservant didn’t understand why. Upon following his line of sight, it suddenly became clear. Their counterpart was in a set of everyday clothes as well, yet the similar style was worn with a dissimilar result. If the coxcomb was stated to be a bamboo pole with clothes on, then this man was an elegant and graceful jadeite tree. If someone that had a bit of literary grace was here, they might recite a few lines like ‘floating like a roaming cloud, darting like a startled dragon’ 1 and such. However, the coxcomb clearly wasn’t able to say such words that were rich with content. He was preoccupied with staring at the other man, eyes giving off light, after which he stepped airily forward to strike up a chat. “I don’t know this Don’s distinguished name. Where are you wanting to go?” The boyservant grumbled inwardly. Their Young Lord’s addiction to intimacy-fishing, where he shied from neither man nor woman, was really annoying. Anyone that caught his eye in passing could be obstructed and harassed. The capital had nobles and officials all over the place; even though his family was hugely influential, if he happened to bump into an imperial censor, he would inevitably get accused of misconduct… and it wouldn’t be the first time. Against expectations, the young man getting harassed merely raised his brows, then spoke his identity aloud. “Marquis Wu’an’s eldest son, Zheng Cheng?” The boyservant suffered a shock at first, but he trailed by his Young Lord’s side year-round, so he had quite a bit of a discerning eye. Immediately recognizing that this man wasn’t a junior of the Marquis Estate, he thus rebuked him. “How bold of you, to state the taboo name 2 of our 1 A quote from A New Account of the Tales of the World, a compilation by Liu Yiqing, section Appearance and Manner. These lines in particular are meant to describe… calligraphy, more so than a person.
4 Heir!” The youth casually cupped his hands in greeting. “Forgive my rudeness, but, to the best of my knowledge, the Dynasty seems to have not yet issued a decree appointing your Don as the Heir. Since he’s not the Heir, you addressing him as such is already a violation, were it to be looked into. If somebody submits a report before His Majesty, then your Marquis will suffer via implication with you.” The boyservant’s head filled with big sweat drops whilst the other spoke, increasingly afraid of being rash. “This lowly one has spoken insolently! Please forgive me, Don!” Zheng Cheng, however, was one-of-a-kind. The conversation had gotten to this point, yet he still wasn’t aware of his own life and death, smiling as crudely as ever. “Since you recognize me, beauty, that makes things easier. Wouldn’t it be better for us to find a spot, drink a few cups, and have a nice chat?” His lecherous eyes swept back and forth over the other’s body, only just short of using them to peel all his clothes off. The young man smiled. “Very well. How about Censor Xian’s home in the city’s east for that chat?” The boyservant jolted. No longer daring to look down upon the man, he stepped forward at once, barred the paw his Young Lord was about to reach out, and cupped his hands. “My Lord drank last night, and now the intoxication has gotten to him. His speech and actions have gotten quite a bit ruder, so may you please excuse him, Don. I’m not sure what your illustrious name is?” The other smiled. “This question of yours is interesting. Why would I tell my name to you? If you go back and file an accusation to your Marquis, wouldn’t I never finish suffering the carriage of that blame?” His intentions having been seen through, the boyservant had no choice but to powerlessly watch him leave. Only then did he wipe his sweat off, sigh in relief, and mentally narrate that that had been a close call. The people of the grand Marquis Wu’an Estate heard the two words ‘Censor Xian’ the same way mice would see a cat, and that was simply because heredity titles of the Great Ming Dynasty were aplenty, from the descendants of the Zhu family to nobility of different surnames. Starting at the Hongwu era and coming to the present time, one could grab a big handful of them, the majority being of little value. On top of that, the imperial censors were overly aggressive, and would even dare to admonish the Emperor to his face. If they learned that Marquis Wu’an’s eldest son, under the full light of day, had harassed a good citizen in the middle of the street, they would likely urge the Emperor to nix his title straightaway, to say further nothing of the fact that the man from just then hadn’t appeared to be an ordinary person. How could a normal commoner clearly know that he was Marquis Wu’an’s son, yet still use that tone to speak to him with? “Are you seeking death? How dare you obstruct me, your Lord!” Zheng Cheng was greatly displeased with having a good time ruined. Milord, that was me rescuing you! the boyservant thought while he smiled apologetically. “The Old Master might be waiting at home this very moment. If you return late, you’ll definitely suffer the rod again, so you have to take some caution!” As soon as he heard his old dad’s title, the still-not-yet-sober Eldest Don Zheng couldn’t help 2 In most of China’s history, people (mostly men) would have courtesy names when they came of age. Their usage depends on the era (and writer, tbh, I’ve seen it go all over the place). In this case, the ‘taboo name’ would be the birth name, which you’re not supposed to use if you’re not familiar with the person in question.
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