Hard to Escape Chapter 4 Part1

Translator Note:

h.e.l.lo everyone… I am but a humble reader with a very rough, mostly conversational understanding of Chinese. Normally I’m just a lurker, I only picked this up because I have free time and a desire to improve my reading abilities. As this is my first time translating/publis.h.i.+ng anything of this sort, please be understanding of any issues I run into ^^;; I’m doing my best with the help of the Zhongwen Chinese dictionary pop-up + Googling but what comes out might not always be accurate. My apologies to the author/readers for any mistakes. Also, since I believe in accuracy of meaning > accuracy of words, I miiight change or add things according to my understanding of the text.

This novel was previously translated by Luen Translations and you can find their translations of chapter 1-3 . I will continue in their tradition of splitting each chapter into three parts, which I plan to release once a week. They appear to be on hiatus/disbanded/idk, which is why I’ve picked this up, but if anyone from there plans to continue please contact me so I can stop …lol

Finally, big shout out to my editor/proofreader Niang Niang for her help. Da Shen I bow down to your cnovel-reading expertise.

In any case, here is chapter 4 part 1:

Mo Xing Zhi dawdled for a week before coming to seeing me, his "good friend".

In that time, Yin Li hadn't warmed up to me at all and remained both aloof and courteous. All of my meals, clothing, and various other needs were handled very thoughtfully, but I could sense that in his heart he was completely indifferent to me. Despite the slow progress of my leg's recovery, he was so unbothered that I knew he didn't actually care about whether I could regain use of it or not. In any case, he was wealthy enough to let me pa.s.s the rest of my days peacefully in a wheelchair at his beautiful house.

This all made me increasingly irritated, yet I had nowhere to vent because he was truly too tolerant, or to put it another way, he truly didn't care about me. All of my different moods might as well have been a fist punching into cotton1. And after he seemed to have gotten the sense that I had settled into my new life, Yin Li gave up the pretense of dutifully coming around to check on me. From then on, I spent the majority of my time by myself. Alone, I sat in my wheelchair and watched sunrise, then later, sunset.

As a result, Mo Xing Zhi's appearance was both timely and a huge relief.

Actually, that week he didn't have any easier of a time leaving the house than I did.

The crowd of news media and the head of the Mo family took turns hara.s.sing Mo Xing Zhi, but to my surprise, after recovering from his hangover Mo Xing Zhi had stoically regarded the drawing splattered on the wall outside his house and actually felt that it was quite stylish; unexpectedly, even drunk he could create something with such an artistic air of abstraction. On the spot, he firmly decided to preserve it intact.

Consequently, every time Yin Li came or left home, at the intersection he would inevitably encounter on the wall that eye-catching, bright red painting of an upright middle finger. Perhaps, this was another reason why his visits home happened more and more infrequently.

This time when Mo Xing Zhi showed up, he seemed to have a much more arrogant and haughty  att.i.tude, giving off exactly the feeling of the so-called "young master returning from overseas"2. But that atmosphere was destroyed the moment he opened his mouth.

"Whaaat?! Are you joking? You're saying you're an amnesiac?! And can't even remember your own name? Absolutely can't recall anything? No past, no idea what to do in the future? But Yin Li still said you were his fiancée?" After I had introduced myself, Mo Xing Zhi stared at me with a ridiculously shocked look in his eyes.

I sighed: "To be honest, I'm skeptical about the fiancée part. You see, Yin Li and I don’t have any chemistry, moreover he's such a distinguished and wealthy elite, currently holding the rank of number one most desirable bachelor in the magazines. Getting engaged to someone like me should have been a huge scoop; how is it possible that no one managed to dig it up? But you should already know, with my current injuries like this I have no choice but to live with Yin Li, and in any case there must have been some connection between us in the past."

Mo Xing Zhi had continuously looked me up and down as I talked, and now he rubbed his chin thoughtfully and spoke: "En, I'm also suspicious. Even though I don't like Yin Li, I admit he certainly should have higher standards."

I shot him a glare.

"I surrender I surrender! Yan Xiao, don't look at me with such a bloodthirsty expression! Just kidding!3 I only felt, I guess, you and Yin Li are from two different worlds and don't seem like the type to ever interact. I mean, look at how interesting you are and how boring he is. Men like Yin Li are most suited to those brainless, obedient, and well-bred young ladies that orbit around him."

Suddenly he changed the topic: "You don't believe Yin Li, right? That's why you have no intention of depending on him to figure out your past, and don't trust anything he tells you?"

I glanced at Mo Xing Zhi and didn't respond.

Sure enough he lost his composure: "If you don't ask me anything how am I supposed to help you?" Then he continued on, deflated, "Ai, so troublesome, I like it the most when people beg me for help but you're not satisfying at all. Alright I'll help you out; after coming home from overseas it's so hard to come across any interesting people, especially one that hasn’t been deceived by Yin Li yet. I've actually been thinking that your car accident was probably part of some big conspiracy."

After that Mo Xing Zhi asked for photos so that he could help me post a "searching for this person" announcement, and ended up taking a couple of pictures of me, including a selfie together. Before leaving, he warmly encouraged me to speed up my rehabilitation, and added that he hoped I could quickly regain my memories and the use of my leg.

Every person has their own circ.u.mstances; in the end he was unable to come by often. Thereafter, I returned to my solitary lifestyle. Seeing that the sky was beginning to darken, I decided it was time for my daily physical therapy.

1 In Chinese, the idiom 拳头打进棉花里 literally means “a fist hitting into cotton”. According to my mom, it’s often used to describe when there’s a one-sided argument where one person is getting super angry and emotional, but the other person doesn’t react/respond to them. I imagine it feels pretty pointless and frustrating for the first party. (rip our MC Yan Xiao)

2 “young master returning from overseas” probably refers to the practice among China’s wealthy upper crust of sending their kids to receive education/college education at elite overseas, usually American, inst.i.tutions. Y’all might have heard of these rich kids running around on college campuses with their ma.s.sive iPhones, s.h.i.+ny cars, and designer clothes …looking for a rich young master to sponsor me ;__;

3 This was spoken in English so I don’t really have an equivalent language to change it into haha…