Silent Separation (何以笙箫默) – Gu Man (Chapter 1.1)

December 16, 2013 by peanuts 43 Comments

Oh no, I just finished editing and posting this chapter then I found out from Gu Man’s blog that this book will be filmed into a drama as well as a movie next year. I better retire from translating after this book is finished before I destroy all the modern C-novels, lol. Gu Man is currently actively involved in the script writing/adaptation but the leads have not been decided yet. Please, please, please get me someone handsome/pretty as well as able to act, no ugly wood please, haha……. 

You should know by now what is our next translation project:) We respect those who have voted for their preference so we will be translating the book with the most votes. It is a very popular book which has been voted as number one in the 50 Most Influential Chinese Romance Internet Novels poll. The couple also got number 2 in the 50 Most Loving Couples in Chinese Romance Internet Novels poll. You get to read for yourself why this novel is such a firm favourite with many in China. I hope there is nothing lost in our translation.

Part of the reason why the novel has so many fans is because the male lead He Yi Chen is vey well-liked as he comes up top in the 35 Favourite Male Characters in Chinese Romance Internet Novels and also 100 Most Attractive Male Characters in Chinese Romance Internet Novels, both polls organised by Baidu. Lidge is deeply in love with him and has been seeking high and low for a replica, lol.

You can find the synopsis as well as plenty of spoilers in shusheng bar. I will advise you not to read the spoilers but sit back and enjoy our translation. The book is rather short so it should be finished before the end of 2014:P I have included the audiobook link which follows the book closely in the hope that you can derive more enjoyment from reading our translation. There are only a few chapters, but they are rather long so I’ll divide them into parts in accordance to the audio book.

Chapter 1.1: Reunion (translated by peanuts & edited by Lidge)

Later, I finally know how to love. Unfortunately, you were long gone and disappeared into the sea of people.

English lyrics prepared by: lavender 1509

http://www.tudou.com/listplay/y90mtkb39gg/b1epOcaTdiM.html or

http://listen1.cxt8.com/listening.aspx?ciid=335&cdid=14316

0.31: Seeing him again, was seven years later in a crowded supermarket, packed with weekend shoppers.

Zhao Mo Sheng was pushing a shopping cart alone and struggling to navigate in the crowd. She had just returned from abroad, so she was still not quite accustomed to such a crowd. However, such a vibrant and friendly scene made her unconsciously smile, virtually using a grateful mood to listen to the noisy local accent. She did not know whether other people who have just returned from aboard were like her? Excited, nervous.

Seven years! Such a long time!

However, how come she had just returned from aboard but already met him? No, to be precise, it should be them.

Mo Sheng silently looked at the pair of shadows standing in front of the vegetable stand, once again feeling a strange twist of fate.  Seven years ago, it was them who made her decided to leave.

Now they were here to buy things together so ultimately they were also together! Fortunately, she ran away fast ah, otherwise she would probably hurt deeper.

He Yi Chen and He Yi Mei, she was so silly, why did she think having similar names were surely brother and sister ah?

“We are absolutely not brother and sister. Before, both of our families were very good neighbors. We all have the surname He so the adults just chose similar names. Later, Yi Chen’s father and mother had an accident so our family adopted Yi Chen.”

“You think you can compete and win over the two decades of deep affection between Yi Chen and me?”

“Today, I want to tell you, I love Yi Chen. I do not want to secretly love him. I want to compete openly with you.”

2.03: That year when she was nineteen years old, the day before Mo Sheng’s birthday, her good friend He Yi Mei, who had always been quiet and introverted, suddenly courageously made this declaration to her. Yi Mei, who had always been gentle and non-competitive would say something like that, she must have been extremely in love with Yi Chen.

But what could she have used to compete with her? On the same day which Yi Mei declared war, she had already lost. Then, she fled to the United States for seven years.

He Yi Chen – unexpectedly she recalled his ice-cold eyes on that day and heartless words. There was a trace of light throbbing pain in Mo Sheng’s heart, almost impossible to sense, nevertheless it was there.

They were walking towards her direction. The joints of Mo Sheng’s fingers that were gripping the cart began to turn white, and she almost wanted to turn around immediately. However, the supermarket was just too crowded so she, who was pushing a shopping cart, simply could not turn around. In the next moment, she thought why should she run away?  She should calmly say to them: “Hi, long time no see” then stroll away in an elegant and natural demeanor, leaving behind a beautiful silhouette.

Moreover, they probably could not recognize her. She had changed a lot, the flowing long hair of yesteryear had already become neat and short, and her previously fair skin had become tanned under the California sunshine. Wearing a loose t-shirt, jeans and sports shoes, she looked very different from the past.

They slowly step by step were getting closer, then ……brushed past her.

Not without heartache.

It seemed like someone spoke.

“Do you want to buy some milk?” Yi Mei said in a soft voice.

“……”

She did not hear the reply clearly. She really missed Yi Chen’s deep and low voice. All these years in a foreign country, she could still hear it often and everywhere echoed in her ears.

Feeling a sense of loss, yet also with a sigh of relief, Mo Sheng lifted her downcast head and strode forward.

A “Bang” sound could be heard as the shopping cart hit a pile of discounted soaps shaped like a hill on the ground. The culprit Zhao Mo Sheng innocently looked at hundreds of pieces of soap falling down as the scene was quite spectacular.

4.02: Uh, can she pretend she did not do anything.

“Oh My God! This is already the third time today.” The person who manages the stock in the supermarket appeared out of the blue and complained in a groan.

Thus, she should not be blamed for this la, as where got people put goods in the middle of the path. Mo Sheng quietly complained and tried hard to look regretful.

The movement here attracted the attention of the people around them, including He Yi Mei. She inadvertently looked to that particularly noisy place, then dumbfounded——it is her, it is actually her, Yi Mei almost could not believe her eyes. She has come back?

“Yi Mei?” He Yi Chen was puzzled by her reaction, asked out loud and followed her line of vision.

The tall and lofty body momentarily stiffened.

Zhao Mo Sheng!

That innocent looking small woman who had her head drooping like a guilty child is exactly Zhao Mo Sheng! Her face looked one hundred percent apologetic, but her eyes without doubt sparked with a mischievous smiling expression. Being faraway, in fact, he could not truly see her face, but Yi Chen knew it was her. He has always known she has always been like this, with a habit to disrupt a pond of spring water then leave without taking any responsibility, willful, selfish and hateful.

Exactly seven years ……she still knew the way home.

He Yi Chen dropped his eyes. “Yi Mei, let’s go!”

He Yi Mei was surprised to see a calm Yi Chen. “Don’t you want to say hello? Maybe ……”

“She has not been a part of my life long ago.” His tone was empty, as if it was really nothing.

Yi Mei looked at his expression carefully but could not find any clues. Finally, she had no alternative but to give a sigh. “Come on!”

When she had her last glance at Zhao Mo Sheng, she found that she also just happened to move her head and saw her, their line of vision collided in the air. Mo Sheng seemed stunned for a moment, then a faint smile emerged on her face and she greeted her by nodding her head.

Yi Mei hurriedly turned around and called: “Yi Chen ……”

“Yes?”

“She ……” Yi Mei was shocked until coming to a halt. When she once again looked back at the moving crowd, she could no longer see her figure.

“What?”

“No, nothing.” Yi Mei lowered her head. But she clearly saw them, yet why she so easily went away like that? Whereas Yi Chen also clearly saw her ……

---

6.08: She did not expect to return here one day.

During the interview, the editor-in-chief asked her: “Miss Zhao, why did you choose to work in A City?”

Suddenly, Mo Sheng did not know how to answer. Why lah? Because she studied for more than a year in a university here? Because she met him here? Because she suffered some hardships here?

At the beginning, she also did not know. Before coming back, the first place she thought of was here. Until she met him that day, she only came to understand that she wanted to see him. Although he no longer belonged to her, she just wanted to see him.

It was only to see him.

“Probably because I cannot go home.” Mo Sheng said. The editor-in-chief looked at her strangely for a long time and hired her as a photojournalist for a certain woman’s magazine.

However, the editor-in-chief’s excessive attention to her work experience in a magazine publisher aboard made her uneasy.

“It is just a little magazine publisher.” Mo Sheng said to the editor-in-chief.

“Hey! Ah Sheng.” The female editor-in-chief who was in her forties affectionately called her name. “Are you praising my knowledge? That I even know so well about an uremarkable small magazine publisher in the US.”

Mo Sheng started to laugh, and her anxiety disappeared.

The editor-in-chief said sternly: “Ah Sheng, I know the great difficulty Chinese people who are photojournalists in the United States face. You have to be better than the white people. They always think we Chinese people have no artistic talent.”

Like this, she settled down. She still went to that supermarket to shop but has never encountered them again. Until one time, the security guard in the supermarket stopped her.

“Miss, would you please follow me to the security room.”

Mo Sheng looked distracted and intuitively felt this could not be good.  There were too many incidents regarding security guards in supermarkets forcefully conducting body searches and even beat up people being reported in the newspapers.

Mo Sheng stared at him cautiously so the security guard helplessly said: “Miss, I mean you no harm. I just want to ask if you have lost something a month ago.”

She had just returned to the country a month ago so could it be that she lost something but did not know? Out of curiosity, she went with him to the security room. The security guard handed her a black wallet.

8.02: Mo Sheng did not need to look inside to know it was not hers so she smilingly shook her head and said:. “You made a mistake, this is not mine.”

The security guard was unexpectedly stubborn. “You open it and take a look.”

She took and opened it. Then, she saw her own photograph.

The security guard said with satisfaction: “Miss, this is your photo, right? Although it is very different compared to now, I can still recognize you instantly.”

The difference was really big because that photo was taken when she had just entered university. Her hair was still long and tied into a ponytail, and her smile looked silly.

How could it appear in an unfamiliar wallet?

Mo Sheng gave the wallet back to the security guard. “It’s really not mine.”

The security guard was stubborn. “Aren‘t you the person in the photo?”

“Yes, I am, but the wallet is not mine.”

“Then it must belong to someone who knows you. Miss, maybe the owner of the wallet has a crush on you ……”

Hey, who said that Chinese people do not have a vivid imagination?

“But ……”

“You take it, take it since all this time nobody has come to claim it. It is also rather difficult for us to deal with it. It will be confiscated if we hand it over to our superior so you might as well have it. There is definitely some association between you and the owner of the wallet. Ah! Maybe I contributed to the beginning of a marriage match ……” With such imagination, the security guard must like to watch drama series.

A month ago was also about the same time she ran into He Yi Chen and He Yi Mei. Could it be that he lost it? With this laughable speculation, Mo Sheng took the wallet home.

At night after bathing, she carefully studied the wallet in bed. With a simple design, luxury brand and little cash, it was not possible to determine the identity of the owner.

Mo Sheng carefully took out the photo. There were traces of steel mark on it so it must have been torn from a document. When she inadvertently turned it over, she was suddenly startled by the words behind the photo! She could never forget that elegant and sharp handwriting.

It was Yi Chen’s handwriting, written in black fountain pen ——

                                    my sunshine

The complex urban life could also be lived in a very simple way. Only work, eat, drink and sleep, nothing else.  After a hectic period of adaptation, the following days became just numbing repetition.

9.58: “Ah Sheng ah, I have been looking for you everywhere.”

Mo Sheng had just entered the magazine publisher office and heard someone shouting from a distance.

“Old Bai, what is the matter?”

Old Bai was actually very young and was the magazine publisher‘s other photojournalist. His surnamed was Li but because he always mispronounced it so everyone jokingly called him Old Bai. He was really good at coaxing celebrities so he was responsible for the magazine’s cover shots.

“My wife is about to give birth. Can you help me to take care of the photography session with supermodel Xiao Xiao tomorrow?”

Xiao Xiao? Mo Sheng found it a little difficult. “I don’t have any problem, but I heard Xiao Xiao’s temperament is weird. If you are not an acquaintance, she would probably not cooperate.”

Old Bai also thought of this and said: “Well, you go and try first. If you really cannot, then call me.”

The next day when Mo Sheng met the cool, elegant, glamorous and impressive Xiao Xiao, she was completely stunned. She was not familiar with the celebrities in the country and had never seen the photos of Xiao Xiao before so she did not know she was actually…… Actually, she looked so much like a good friend in her university days.

However, her friend was such a simple and clumsy country girl, but the person in front of her had her long legs crossed and her smoking gesture was so skillful and seductive……

Mo Sheng did not dare to acknowledge her. Maybe they just looked alike only.

However, supermodel Xiao Xiao squinted at Mo Sheng, then walked elegantly over and stopped in front of her.

“Hey, you do not recognise me?”

“…… Shao Mei?”

“Ah!” She chuckled sarcastically. “If it is not me then who could it be?”

“Ah Sheng, you and Xiao Xiao know each other? This is really good.” The colleague who came together with her chimed in excitedly.

“When I was a first year university student, she slept in the upper bed, I was in the lower bed.”

“In university, bunk bed-mates are the closest friends.” Xiao Xiao’s agent also joined in the conversation.

“Am I supposed to be photographed? Quickly shoot la!” Xiao Xiao impatiently said.

She had really changed a lot! While taking photos, Mo Sheng also thought the person under the lens was no longer the cute and clumsy Shao Mei.  Then who could she be?

Perhaps nobody.  A good photographer can capture the souls of the people under the lens.  However, Mo Sheng could not capture Xiao Xiao’s soul. Maybe her skill was lacking or the person under the lens did not have one.

Xiao Xiao felt very empty! A kind of emptiness which made people powerless and desperate. Perhaps it was this kind of emptiness that propelled her to rise rapidly in popularity.

After shooting a session, Xiao Xiao waved her hand. “We will stop here for today.”

“But Xiao Xiao, there is more ……” Her agent eagerly said.

“Stop here.”