V1C8

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Volume 1 – Chapter 8: Foolish Heart¹

“Uncle Zhu, what should we do?” Blue veins appear on the younger leader’s head. “Ten stems and twelve branches can have 60 combinations. One pointer is just one-sixtieth probability. It’s still manageable but we have three pointers. The probability of getting the right combination is so small! If we try one by one, we don’t know when we will be done?

The old bandit rebuked in a low voice: “What do you mean to try? There might be a mechanism inside the stone door containing mercury or some other corrosive liquid. Once the pointer falls in the wrong groove, the tomb’s contents will be completely destroyed.

The younger one was stunned, the grave robbers were stunned for a moment and immediately fell silent.

The old man raised his gun against Hai Lan then looked at the doctor, and sneered, “Old man, you must have figured out how to open the lock on this mechanism! Go and open the tomb door, or I’ll immediately kill your students one-by-one!”

The old doctor burst into tears, glanced at Hai Lan, and said while trembling: “Okay, let me open it. Do not kill her, she is a good child.”

Hai Lan was a little shocked. It’s true that the doctor has already guessed the correct placement of the pointers. The inscriptions have implicitly mentioned the death of the Dongling Emperor and this is likely how the compass needs to be. The doctor favors her the most and only told her this guess.

A bold thought suddenly flashed in her heart. She looked at Qin Ge again only to see his head drooped down, as if thinking about something. He held Lin Siwei in one hand, and grasped the blood-red handkerchief on the other.

This handkerchief… She first saw this when she came and helped him wash his clothes, and when she asked about it, he casually said that it was a property of his first love. She was startled of his honesty and did not ask anymore. Neither did he bring the topic back again.

Later, she found him keeping it always next to himself. She always had been wanting to ask again, but she couldn’t.

On the day of their breakup, she just said a few nice words and went back to their room to pack her things. But she quietly took the handkerchief out of his jacket pocket and replaced it with her pin².

She’s stupid, isn’t she? She doesn’t even know what that woman means to him, but she just stubbornly wants to leave something of her his memory and replace hers.

It was only until now that she understood that she does not have this ability.

He is standing with Lin Siwei and his family— this is his responsibility. He is holding the handkerchief tightly— this is his heart.

And whether it is his responsibility or his heart, neither of them involves her.

Whether the white moonlight³ in his heart nor the red rose⁴ in his hand⁵, neither is her.

Finally, she made up her mind and calmly told the old bandit, “The way to open the lock… the doctor has already told me, so let me open it. There might be dangerous mechanisms behind the door, but since I am his student, I should take it first.”

For a moment, everyone looked at her.

Qin Ge glanced her gently but she avoided his gaze. She saw the shocked and jealous look from the archeological team, blamed the doctor for being biased that he told her how to unlock tomb.

The old man immediately agreed. After entering the mausoleum, he had to rely on the doctor. Of course, this proposal is good.

The young man and another grave robber grabbed the old doctor away like trussing a chicken. The doctor choked up and looked at his student.

Hai Lan then rotated the three pointers to its respective dense grooves in the compass.

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Notes:

Instead of infatuation which was what 痴心 (chi xin) really is, I translated the title as Foolish Heart because 妄想 is usually associated in the phrase 痴心妄想 (chi xin wang xiang) which means wishful thinking which I believe is the essence of these chapters

What was written was 卡 (ka) at first read as card, but I assumed this was (发卡) (fa qia), which is actually hair pin, because duh why would she leave a card?

白月光 (white moonlight) is a term that usually refers to the person or thing that is beyond reach or someone not one’s side. So this is like the one that got away or something. This is first used in Zhang Ailing’s novel, Red Rose and White Rose.

红玫瑰 (hong meigui) This also alludes to the same novel where there it is described that a man meets at least two kinds of women in life: the red rose and the white rose. It’s kinda long to describe the whole anecdote, but it’s said that when a man marries a red rose, the white rose is the “white moonlight before the bed” Therefore these two kinds of women were like always rivals on a man’s heart. And Hai Lan’s point in here is that neither of these kinds of women were her.

The original phrase is 无论是手里的白月光还是心里的红玫瑰，都不是她 where the white moonlight is in his hand and the red rose is in his heart, but I took the liberty to interchange it because I think it fits better.

T/N:

The first volume is a little meandering. But promise, once we get into the main text which is Volume 2, and the time that Hai Lan transmigrated as Qiao Chu, it will be pretty interesting. Volume 1 is up to 20 chapters I suppose, so hang on a little bit and let’s find out how how their three lives are intertwined.

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