Bab 117: EndNotes
As I said, this story doesn't belong to me and I copied it from a website, I am so sorry about that😭 but this story was just to good, I could not help sharing it. Below are words from the Original writer and Translator. This is giving honour to whom honour is due.
From the author:
When it comes to this book, I can't even summarize all of the stories surrounding it in seven entire days. Even its publication process was filled with twists and turns, taking more than half a year to finish. Right now, the first volume is finally born, and it just so happened to coincide with its third anniversary. With this opportunity, I put pen to paper and wrote this special little note for it, for the sake of commemoration.
For an author, when you want to look back on your journey, the work itself is more meaningful than the diary. I was still studying when I planned out this novel and started writing when I graduated. Even now, I sometimes reminisce about the early days when it had just begun to serialize. I didn't earn much, but the writing process was easy and relaxed, indeed an excellent condition for creativity.
Speaking of it, that was also the first time I consciously planned out my characters. Full of enthusiasm, I wrote over a thousand words of I-don't-know-what for each of the two main characters, Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi, though I don't know where they went. Now that I think about it, it was quite a pity, really.
The greater pity was the first version of its outline, almost ten thousand words. I had a habit of deleting the outline as I went, just like checking off every task from a to-do list. It gave me a refreshing sense of satisfaction, and thus, I didn't back it up.
I've said before that I originally wanted to write a story of cold-blooded revenge and triumphing over the scum, but for some reason, the outline became more and more miserable. I think that perhaps it was because nobody likes to be hurt, but I have a thing for people with scars.
—"Stories only scars can tell."
Back when I was young, I especially loved those who are full of scars and stories, and I thought I could be like them—I'd keep going even as knives cut into my skin, never turning back and never looking down. And when I grew a little older, I was even more in love with them. It was because I discovered that they were even firmer and stronger than I had imagined.
I traveled by words, covered in the dust of the journey. Too many things have happened. Too many people have come and gone. No matter the misconceptions, the accusations, or even the impossibly-wounding pain, I've encountered them all along the way. But let me borrow a quote from Mr. Wei WuXian, "It's only another life experience. It'd be a conversation starter when you grow older."
Perhaps when I'm older, I'd fall in love with writing about young, carefree characters. But when the time comes, I hope that it's not because I miss my past youth, but rather because no matter how many years have passed, no matter when, no matter where I'll always be young at heart!
Without care for anything at all, I shall give the entirety of my soul to the pen and the paper.
I no longer like to tell my readers, 'I love you.' These words are too light, and yet these words are too heavy.
I hope each of you who enjoys this book
can be like Lan WangJi in virtue and Wei WuXian in character.
P.S. I received the help of many in the publication process.
Thank you Jinjiang, thank you Motie, thank you Sichuan Literature and Art Publishing House.
Thank you, my two editors, Xingzhou and Yuheng.
And thank you, my two friends, Changyang and cas.
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
2018.10.31
From English Translator K.:
"To finish a project is like confronting a final hurdle. It doesn't matter how you get across it—you can leap over it, you can crash through, you can crawl under it—as long as you somehow manage to reach the other side."
The quote, paraphrased from a friend of mine, is exactly how I've been feeling, finishing the novel after over two years of leaping over hurdles. There's too much to say, yet at the same time, it feels like there's nothing to say at all. All the effort, all the pain, all the sleepless plane rides, as well as all the blunders, all the crashes, and all the times I really couldn't bring myself to care about a single word I was typing, can all be seen in the work itself. Nevertheless, I'd still like to express my gratitude towards everyone, for when I say I couldn't have done any of this without your help, I really mean it.
First of all, thank you, Addis, for literally holding the entire thing together. I don't know how you manage to edit so many projects all at once and at the same time, keep all of the schedules organized. I'm terrible at time management. I really am. If it weren't for you, I would've procrastinated the hell out of this story a long time ago. This wasn't the first time I tried to translate something, but definitely the first time I actually stuck to a solid schedule. I know someone with better time-management skills and a less busy life probably could've finished the series long before I did, but for me personally, finishing the series alone would've already come across as a huge surprise to my past self. Thank you so much for all the help you gave me along the way. You're amazing. Let me buy you coffee someday.
And also, thanks to every single reader of this novel. There was just so much support along the way, with encouraging words from so many of you (and in so many different languages as well). As a complete amateur, I make a lot of mistakes when it comes to translation, so major thanks to everyone who's ever pointed out something translated wrong or just general grammar mistakes. I used to read every single comment and try to fix as many mistakes as possible, but as exam season came, I really had to give up. Nevertheless, I think you guys have absolutely no idea just how much happiness all those nice comments brought into my world. I know I sound really cheesy at this point, but the experience of translating this story—and sharing that experience with readers all around the globe—is really something that changed my life (for the better, of course). I really appreciate all of you.
Finally, thanks to MXTX (who I realize will not ever read this) for writing such an amazing story. I'm a fan translator, but before that, I'm a fan, a reader, and the reason I chose to translate this book was simply because I enjoyed reading it. Like any other book, it's got its faults for sure, but that doesn't mean it's not one of the best danmei stories I've ever read. The Chinese danmei community and its fans have become increasingly questionable if you will, which doesn't exactly create a comfortable environment for writing stories. Still, I hope she perseveres and keeps on writing stories she herself would be proud of, regardless of outside voices.
This has been a huge chunk of text, which I suppose my readers are always used to. All in all, there are just too many things I'd like to express, for most of which I don't have the vocabulary. Perhaps this book has simply been a fun, casual read for you. Or perhaps this book means the entire world to you like it does to me. During the hard days, many people have tried to make me feel better by emphasizing that since I'm translating as a fan translator, I have no obligation to translate the book in the first place and thus the readers should be grateful they even get a translation. That's bullshit. I'm the one who should be grateful that anyone is even choosing to read this. I've stressed countless times in the past that I think this book deserves nothing short of the best translation possible, and my work is far from reaching that standard. Period. And luckily I've also come to realize that nobody at all can reach that standard because I set it so impossibly high. Apologies to all of the translators I might or might not have offended. Everyone was great. I was just unrealistic. Sometime in the two-ish years, I decided that it was pointless to pick on other people's translations and improve my own instead.
So what happens next? I'll be starting college in just a week, so I might need a while to adjust to the significantly busier schedule, especially in terms of balancing paid translation and fan translation. There are many other novels I'm interested in translating. MXTX's fourth book will likely not be one of them, as I usually like to translate a novel after its serialization is finished, but other translators will most probably have begun to translate it in the meantime. Many of the danmei novels that have been translated so far are set in ancient/xianxia China, which is why for my next project, I'd like to introduce to the Western audience a more modern setting of China that hopefully paints a clearer picture of current Chinese youths, current Chinese citizens, as well as the issues with which they're concerned. The phrasing sounds formidable even to me, but really I just want more people (especially given the current political climate) to understand Chinese culture. Through translating danmei. Which is completely valid.
Again, thank you, everyone. Sorry about the long rant. I hope you feel that you've gained something from reading this beautiful story, no matter what that may be.
Projecting lots of hugs and laughter,
K.
From Editor and Creator of ExR, Addis:
"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing…" -Pele
Wow. I'm kind of speechless right now. After two years, GDC is finally completely translated. This may not be the first project Exiled Rebels has completed, in fact, out of our manga and novels it's the 100th. When I first created ExR back in March 2017, the main thing I wanted to do was bring a group to the fans that were dedicated to finishing what we started.
I've read thousands of books, millions of words, and the thing I always hated most over the years was a series that got me hooked then the translator dropped off the face of the earth. Our main focus when we started was Japanese BL manga, then it evolved into Chinese Danmei after some of the girls in the group got me hooked on LMW.
We started looking for more translators of Chinese danmei back in May 2017. We didn't really have a set test or standards back then, we just wanted individuals who loved BL and wanted a wider audience to be able to read different works. We didn't even know Novel Updates existed back then we were so new to the game.
So when K joined us, as a small, small 10th grader wanting to do something over her summer vacation, I asked her what novel she wanted to translate. She was a shy child back then, still stuck in her shell, and it took her a bit to decide on GDC. It was only after we released chapter two that someone informed us that another translator, Enzo, was working on it as well, calling it the Founder of Diabolism. We're sorry for just taking it over without knowing you were already working on it. We seriously didn't know.
We apologize to any other translators that we irritated over these last two years. We were stuck in our own world, wanting our translation to read how we wanted. When others deemed us too slow and started using MTL or other ways to translate ahead of us, we dissed their work and them. We were used to the manga community where, once you started a project, no one else touched it unless you said you were dropping it. Going into the novel community, where translators only cared about the speed of release and where there would be two, three even five different versions of the same novel had us, tbh, quite frustrated. We saw it as them taking our project and taking our fans when they could have easily chosen new novels instead of the one we were already working on and had not dropped. So we apologize to any of you who thought we worked too slow or thought we were never going to finish.
I went through and did a word count for chapters 1 to the end, and there are 476,010 words throughout all those chapters. Which roughly means, by normal American novels, this was eight total volumes over a two-year span.
So huuuuuge thank you to K for making this translation even possible. It was a lot of hard work and effort, but you made it, girl! You made it. All those times I texted you at 6am Saturday mornings asking how close you were to being done for Sunday release finally paid off. Sure, life got in the way several times over the years, but thank you so much for dealing with my nagging and finishing this massive novel. I'd take you up on the coffee, but I'm allergic to caffeine, so let's do lunch or something, my treat.
THANK YOU to all of the fans, good and bad, for reading with us over the last two years. GDC was a fun ride, and a lot of you loved it from day one. After the donghua came out, we saw triple the number of readers for GDC. Then, for a good 4 months, we only had our dedicated fans until the live drama came out, and we again saw triple the number of readers. These spurts show how adaptations really boost the original author.
Thank you MXTX. This novel would never have existed without her brain. It's too bad that we can't support her on JJWXC due to them locking her account, claiming her novels are too violent.
We hope that everyone continues to read all of our other works in the future. You can count on us to finish whatever we start. No translation will be left behind.
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