rekishi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rekishi) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ghost_valley2021-07-13 05:43 pm
rekishi) wrote in ghost_valley2021-07-13 05:43 pm
Entry tags:
[Tian Ya Ke (Re-)Readalong] Chapter 6-8
We're back with the sparklingwater translation, because I have to dig in the code for the xuxunette translation and it's a pain, to be honest. I'll spotcheck it, just as I spotcheck the original, and of course please feel free to jump in with comments from there at any point!
Chapter 6 - A Beauty
Chapter 7 - Setting Off
Chapter 8 - Moonshade (Moonlight)
Zhou Zishu and Gu Xiang fight their attackers. We meetour antagonist Wen Kexing properly and Zhou Zishu and Zhang Chengling set out on the journey for Taihu Holdings. Assassins plague their path, and Wen Kexing - intent to uncover Zhou Zishu's unearthly beauty - decides to follow them. Along the way they meet with more assassins and nightmares, and also with WKX' continued curiosity.
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Fun with linguistics:
I really do like ZZS very dry and matter of fact humour that his POV has when he almost perishes when GX makes like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. And that he gives back later, basically throwing the sajiao back at her, it's a fun little moment of banter in the middle of a fight. Which, considering he is still bothered by the Nails and they are very much outnumbered if not necessarily outgunned, they're both not desperate and only GX becomes a little desperate when she loses her dagger. ZZS, meanwhile, expands as little energy as he humanly possible. I mean, ZZS even gives her advice (probably because he can't help himself - totally a shixiong moment).
I quite like the way priest writes the fight and that must have been hell to translate. Though we do get an interesting insight into both GX and ZZS' fighting styles (and even fighting back to back for a few moments!) as the only ones who have any experience fighting. Since they're both being attacked here, of course they would find themselves as natural allies.
The Nails do bother ZZS and even after recovering some of his strength he isn't doing too well, but he can still move faster than GX can follow and very casually dispatch the rest of the attackers, because he promised he'd take ZCL to Tai Hu Holdings. It begs the question: Just how powerful was ZZS when he had his full strength available?
Enter WKX and getting touchy feely right away, pretty much setting the tone for a large part of this story (and much of the drama). He says he didn't mean it but...do we believe him? ZZS seems to enough to actually sit down and meditate next to him for several hours while WKX watches him. Is it creepy? Probably, but ZZS has enough faith in his own abilities that it doesn't seem to bother him and they have a bit of banter back and forth about ZZS' disguise, because WKX is convinced ZZS is a great beauty judging by his bone structure and he is never wrong about that [sparklingwater says "this time" but the original is 从未 [congwei], never].
Nothing could have prepared Zhou Zishu for that answer[, either]. Yes, ZZS that is pretty much my reaction as well, though I'm pretty sure I laughed out loud the first time I saw this.
When WKX says, "People never care about a hero’s background, why can’t that be applied to a butcher too?" it's almost certain self-referential to a point, because while he does not see himself as a hero, both he and ZZS are wearing masks - ZZS as a beggar, WKX as a genteel person even though he is the Valley Master and a Ghost - but no one who just looks at them can tell that.
We also finally learn more about Zhang Chengling, ZZS' new charge. We will later learn that he had a fever when he was a child and that is to blame for him being a bit slow (something that was definitely changed in SHL), but he is also a young lord and a youngest son. All of that is gone now, and maybe ZZS wasn't too wrong in sending him to sleep for a while. At 14, he's awfully young to have lost everything.
WKX does keep his pokerface well and starts his own little interrogation which in hindsights… Well. He may not be responsible for the death of ZCL's family, but he's also not an innocent here. Though he seems to dismiss it concluding about ZZS selling his services for that little that, “Now I’m even more certain that he’s a beauty, only beautiful people can be that dumb.” (And I love how bouth GX as well as ZZS basically just decide to ignore him.)
I do keep coming back, both here and in the rewatch, to the question what kind of sect leader (or shixiong, for that matter), ZZS was. And whether that contributed to what happened with Siji Mountain Manor sect. Because look, I'm totally on board with him being very direct and no-nonsense. It's something I appreciate. But also… While mainly a political position, doesn't a sect leader also have to be able to build his people up again after defeat and relate to their troubles? And, maybe depending on the size of the sect, be able to console distraught people? Are martial artists never distraught? Would ZZS get along well with Jiang Cheng???
On the other hand, ZCL latches onto him immediately, considering him a "living Buddha" (or emissary of the gods) which… Well. But he also immediately asks to be ZZS' disciple, which must raise some interesting emotions in ZZS, while WKX mostly enjoys the show. ("I won’t stand until you accept! If I can’t avenge my family, am I even worth existing? Shifu…" ZZS has no clue what hit him, poor man.) At the same time it's, at least to me, quite funny because ZZS says look boy, I can't teach you anything because I am an ivalid who will die soon (true enough) and then sets the large statue to rights that he toppled beforehand (as you do).
GX and WKX' exchange about the Hanged Ghost confused me a lot the first time around. At least back then I thought well, she knows her limits well, but after what we learn during the course of the book - and of course at the end - there is another layer here, that Ghost Valley was not actually responsible for the Zhang family massacre. On the surface, they follow ZZS and ZCL because WKX wants to uncover ZZS' beauty, but in truth he probably suspects that if someone disguises themselves as Ghosts in order to dispatch ZCL, this can't be the end of the story (and he is right of course).
I'm sure ZZS would like to ignore WKX but I can't help thinking that he probably makes a lot of 'helpful' comments along the way, and that makes ZZS thinking fondly of punching him. For some reason I was extremely delighted by this whole dynamic, which is not usually my cup of tea (because WKX is clearly annoying the living daylight out of ZZS), but ZZS' dry internal commentary makes it extremely fun for me. Here's a man who knows what he can do and what he's capable of and yet he's not only settled with a kid who keeps calling him shifu and who he's charged with taking care of - and who sleeps through assassination attempts, because ZZS is just that good, thanks - but also with this annoying dude he tries to shake but can't.
ZZS has plans is the thing (seeing a friend in Nanjiang hmmmmmm who might that be? ^^ side note for all Qi Ye readers: I'm not surprised that ZZS knows JBY is alive, of course, but I don't think he has told HLY? And how closely has he kept tabs? Thoughts?), and they do not involve a disciple or any hangers on who won't leave him alone.
However, he's not quite there yet. ZCL has proven to be extremely tenacious, but the situation has still taken its toll on him (fully understandable!) and he's plagued by nightmares. Though it's only alluded here, ZCL does remind him of LJX, who he lost over four years ago now, and it is somewhat interesting that his death is still eating so much at ZZS. Don't get me wrong, no death should be taken lightly, but LJX didn't die at ZZS' hand or even in the service of Tian Chuang and he can't be the only shidi ZZS has lost over the years. So this callback, especially in light if ZCL's innocence, is...interesting, especially because ZZS is clearly at least developing shixiong feelings for the boy ("It’s alright, sleep all you want. I’ll wake you if there’s a nightmare." my heart, I cannot; incidentally I like this exchange much better in the sparklingwater translation). Was ZZS a better shixiong than he was a zongzhu? This is also squarely at odds with his behaviour earlier at the shrine, where he didn't know what to do with a crying kid. Which one is it, ZZS??
Interestingly we get the Qin Song attack/counter-flute move from the pov of WKX and GX rather than ZZS, which is an interesting choice including "He looked like a ghost empty of human emotions". Hmmm it says "鬼魅" (guimei) which is more demon than ghost, but the gui is indeed the same character as for ghost, that part is an interesting callback to what we now know about WKX (for further information on the wordplay here please see footnote 3 in this translation.
WKX does wonder what's going on that they even recruited Qin Song when ZZS' counterattack via rocks and flute (I refuse to make the blowjob joke here). Honestly, at the time when I first read this this seemed like such a non-event with very little effort to be made by ZZS, but we do get treated a rundown of ZZS' cracked flute and ZCL's internal injuries, so I really should have pinged the significance at the time. WKX is properly impressed and basically says "what goes around comes around" and then leaves a speechless GX behind after calling himself a good person and jumping out the window.
They are staying in an inn here, so he really could use the door. When he comes to ZZS' window, he recites from Songs from outside of Great Wall, No.1 by Li Bai (I think, it's the only one I can find that more or less has that line, please note that this is the best translation I can find but it's not necessarily a good one - poetry is hard, even Li Bai), and ZZS basically thinks he's full of it, but he does grudgingly admire his skill, because not just anyone can sneak up on ZZS, former leader of Tian Chuang.
We also get the first hint that ZZS has narrowed down the number of people WKX can possibly be - to three and a half (I wonder who the half is, actually). And the thing is… To me it seems ZZS is a man very hard to faze, he's prepared for everything and just takes challenges head on and someone like WKX throws him a tiny little bit off his game and he shows that even though he doesn't want to. And mildly flustered and confused ZZS is quite a different sort, because he does obviously not expect WKX to get handsy (though really, he should have).
This is the first time they trade blows, isn't it? A'Xiang interrupts a little...moment they have then and like a typical teenager who caught out her parents makes a bit of a fuss, which I actually think is quite funny. It doesn't actually relieve the tension that was built over the mask, but it does make WKX leave, so the result is equal here, I guess. I guess they remain at an impasse, because the next thing we know is that it's three days later and that ZZS and ZCL arrive at Taihu Holdings.
ZZS, all things considered, thinks being a good person is exhausting which...well, he's not wrong!
What I still wonder: How much does WKX get out of Ghost Valley and does Ghost Valley have a library with poetry books?
Next week, on July 20, we will discuss chapters 9-11, meet people around Taihu Holdings, and...well get to know Wen Kexing better. Not quite by accident.
Chapter 6 - A Beauty
Chapter 7 - Setting Off
Chapter 8 - Moonshade (Moonlight)
Zhou Zishu and Gu Xiang fight their attackers. We meet
Chapter 6
- ""Zhou-xiong, I’m just a frail maiden who has never been attacked by this many before, I’m very afraid, please protect me.”
That last sentence could really scare people to death. Zhou Zishu almost had to struggle to breathe properly, giving Gu Xiang a bothered look while the girl put on her best poker face." - "Zhou Zishu had exhausted all his strength with that move, his yet-to-recover limbs now temporarily numb. He sat calmly on the incense table with no further desire to boast his might."
- "Zhou Zishu replied unhurriedly, “Little Sister Gu, I’m just a frail beggar who has never been attacked by this many before, I’m very afraid, please protect me.”"
- "A fleeting motion made Gu Xiang dizzy — the person who was just sitting at the table was now at the shrine’s door. The masked person nearest to him only had time to slightly lean away before their shoulder was dislodged with a cracking sound. Zhou Zishu had his hand around their throat, twisting it with the gentlest movement; the tip of his toe lifted the victim’s fallen weapon at the same time."
- "A pair of arms suddenly appeared behind out of nowhere, propping him up firmly. Zhou Zishu startled; he couldn’t sense this person coming near at all, feeling his hair stand on end. Fortunately, the person purely wanted to help with no further motives." [Suuuuuuuure, sure. None.]
Chapter 7
- "He opened his eyes, dazedly staring at the ceiling as if his soul had left the body. Until yesterday he was still the Zhang’s young master, pampered by many — even when his tutor told him that he was utterly stupid and useless, even when his martial art teacher was secretly disappointed that he was just bad mud, unable to plaster walls — his life was happy and content."
- "Wen Kexing nodded with a dull face, like Zhang Yusen’s name to him was no more than a fleck of dust."
- "Zhang Chengling’s eyes shifted to look around. The moment they stopped, he covered his face with his hands and curled up into a ball, wailing. Zhou Zishu felt a headache coming with the boy’s cries; he told himself that a scolding was necessary but didn’t have the heart to do it. Comforting children was not his forte either, so silence was the best option."
- "“Master, Zhang Chengling said the Zhang family massacre was done by the Ghosts of Qingzhu, Xue Fang the Hanged Ghost was there.”
Wen Kexing glanced at her with no expressions. “Hm, so?”
Gu Xiang startled a little, chasing after the already-leaving Wen Kexing, asking him with a serious voice, “The Hanged Ghost was clearly fake since I beat them yesterday. Master… did you know something already?”" - "Zhang Chengling spoke cautiously. “Uncle Zhou, I didn’t mean to wake you up, I just dreamt of my father…” His lips quivered, pale. “I can… I can stop sleeping if it’s a problem?”
Zhou Zishu patted his shoulder, voice unintentionally tender, “It’s alright, sleep all you want. I’ll wake you if there’s a nightmare.”"
Chapter 8
- "The girl nodded, asking again after mulling the thought over, “Why do you have to compete with someone stronger when you can just pick on weaker ones instead?”
He turned his head to look at her. Being backlit by the moon, the man’s whole body seemed to bathe in silver light, his expressions getting harder and harder to read. After a good while, he replied, “Or you can pick on no one and be a good person (好人) like me.”" - " The broken twig from the willow tree in the night sings its melody; who for their hometown wouldst not feeleth melancholy — The moon and stars are bright tonight, and Brother Zhou’s flute complimented the zither delightfully. Such a genteel recital could only come from a beauty.”
And Zhou Zishu could only respect so much talent in talking rubbish." - "Were there another person observing — excluding Gu Xiang, of course — they would definitely came to the conclusion that one of these two men was a lunatic."
- "Finally his ancestors would no longer be haunted, Zhou Zishu mused — being a good person was really exhausting."
Fun with linguistics:
- In the quote above, I changed it from Brother Zhou to Zhou-xiong (兄) so we see the form of address at the beginning of Chapter 6, because I'm not sure whether she addresses him thus later on? (Any takers?). CWN does it later (also in SHL). Forms of address are important!
Relatedly, the 'little sister' ZZS addresses her as is 妹子 (meizi) and then later as 'little girl' 丫头 (yatou). And then finally, GX calls WKX 主人 (zhuren, Master) and ZZS calls WKX Wen-xiong, possibly because WKX is the older one (around thirty vs ZZS' late twenties) or alternately out of respect.
I really do like ZZS very dry and matter of fact humour that his POV has when he almost perishes when GX makes like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. And that he gives back later, basically throwing the sajiao back at her, it's a fun little moment of banter in the middle of a fight. Which, considering he is still bothered by the Nails and they are very much outnumbered if not necessarily outgunned, they're both not desperate and only GX becomes a little desperate when she loses her dagger. ZZS, meanwhile, expands as little energy as he humanly possible. I mean, ZZS even gives her advice (probably because he can't help himself - totally a shixiong moment).
I quite like the way priest writes the fight and that must have been hell to translate. Though we do get an interesting insight into both GX and ZZS' fighting styles (and even fighting back to back for a few moments!) as the only ones who have any experience fighting. Since they're both being attacked here, of course they would find themselves as natural allies.
The Nails do bother ZZS and even after recovering some of his strength he isn't doing too well, but he can still move faster than GX can follow and very casually dispatch the rest of the attackers, because he promised he'd take ZCL to Tai Hu Holdings. It begs the question: Just how powerful was ZZS when he had his full strength available?
Enter WKX and getting touchy feely right away, pretty much setting the tone for a large part of this story (and much of the drama). He says he didn't mean it but...do we believe him? ZZS seems to enough to actually sit down and meditate next to him for several hours while WKX watches him. Is it creepy? Probably, but ZZS has enough faith in his own abilities that it doesn't seem to bother him and they have a bit of banter back and forth about ZZS' disguise, because WKX is convinced ZZS is a great beauty judging by his bone structure and he is never wrong about that [sparklingwater says "this time" but the original is 从未 [congwei], never].
Nothing could have prepared Zhou Zishu for that answer[, either]. Yes, ZZS that is pretty much my reaction as well, though I'm pretty sure I laughed out loud the first time I saw this.
When WKX says, "People never care about a hero’s background, why can’t that be applied to a butcher too?" it's almost certain self-referential to a point, because while he does not see himself as a hero, both he and ZZS are wearing masks - ZZS as a beggar, WKX as a genteel person even though he is the Valley Master and a Ghost - but no one who just looks at them can tell that.
We also finally learn more about Zhang Chengling, ZZS' new charge. We will later learn that he had a fever when he was a child and that is to blame for him being a bit slow (something that was definitely changed in SHL), but he is also a young lord and a youngest son. All of that is gone now, and maybe ZZS wasn't too wrong in sending him to sleep for a while. At 14, he's awfully young to have lost everything.
WKX does keep his pokerface well and starts his own little interrogation which in hindsights… Well. He may not be responsible for the death of ZCL's family, but he's also not an innocent here. Though he seems to dismiss it concluding about ZZS selling his services for that little that, “Now I’m even more certain that he’s a beauty, only beautiful people can be that dumb.” (And I love how bouth GX as well as ZZS basically just decide to ignore him.)
I do keep coming back, both here and in the rewatch, to the question what kind of sect leader (or shixiong, for that matter), ZZS was. And whether that contributed to what happened with Siji Mountain Manor sect. Because look, I'm totally on board with him being very direct and no-nonsense. It's something I appreciate. But also… While mainly a political position, doesn't a sect leader also have to be able to build his people up again after defeat and relate to their troubles? And, maybe depending on the size of the sect, be able to console distraught people? Are martial artists never distraught? Would ZZS get along well with Jiang Cheng???
On the other hand, ZCL latches onto him immediately, considering him a "living Buddha" (or emissary of the gods) which… Well. But he also immediately asks to be ZZS' disciple, which must raise some interesting emotions in ZZS, while WKX mostly enjoys the show. ("I won’t stand until you accept! If I can’t avenge my family, am I even worth existing? Shifu…" ZZS has no clue what hit him, poor man.) At the same time it's, at least to me, quite funny because ZZS says look boy, I can't teach you anything because I am an ivalid who will die soon (true enough) and then sets the large statue to rights that he toppled beforehand (as you do).
GX and WKX' exchange about the Hanged Ghost confused me a lot the first time around. At least back then I thought well, she knows her limits well, but after what we learn during the course of the book - and of course at the end - there is another layer here, that Ghost Valley was not actually responsible for the Zhang family massacre. On the surface, they follow ZZS and ZCL because WKX wants to uncover ZZS' beauty, but in truth he probably suspects that if someone disguises themselves as Ghosts in order to dispatch ZCL, this can't be the end of the story (and he is right of course).
I'm sure ZZS would like to ignore WKX but I can't help thinking that he probably makes a lot of 'helpful' comments along the way, and that makes ZZS thinking fondly of punching him. For some reason I was extremely delighted by this whole dynamic, which is not usually my cup of tea (because WKX is clearly annoying the living daylight out of ZZS), but ZZS' dry internal commentary makes it extremely fun for me. Here's a man who knows what he can do and what he's capable of and yet he's not only settled with a kid who keeps calling him shifu and who he's charged with taking care of - and who sleeps through assassination attempts, because ZZS is just that good, thanks - but also with this annoying dude he tries to shake but can't.
ZZS has plans is the thing (seeing a friend in Nanjiang hmmmmmm who might that be? ^^ side note for all Qi Ye readers: I'm not surprised that ZZS knows JBY is alive, of course, but I don't think he has told HLY? And how closely has he kept tabs? Thoughts?), and they do not involve a disciple or any hangers on who won't leave him alone.
However, he's not quite there yet. ZCL has proven to be extremely tenacious, but the situation has still taken its toll on him (fully understandable!) and he's plagued by nightmares. Though it's only alluded here, ZCL does remind him of LJX, who he lost over four years ago now, and it is somewhat interesting that his death is still eating so much at ZZS. Don't get me wrong, no death should be taken lightly, but LJX didn't die at ZZS' hand or even in the service of Tian Chuang and he can't be the only shidi ZZS has lost over the years. So this callback, especially in light if ZCL's innocence, is...interesting, especially because ZZS is clearly at least developing shixiong feelings for the boy ("It’s alright, sleep all you want. I’ll wake you if there’s a nightmare." my heart, I cannot; incidentally I like this exchange much better in the sparklingwater translation). Was ZZS a better shixiong than he was a zongzhu? This is also squarely at odds with his behaviour earlier at the shrine, where he didn't know what to do with a crying kid. Which one is it, ZZS??
Interestingly we get the Qin Song attack/counter-flute move from the pov of WKX and GX rather than ZZS, which is an interesting choice including "He looked like a ghost empty of human emotions". Hmmm it says "鬼魅" (guimei) which is more demon than ghost, but the gui is indeed the same character as for ghost, that part is an interesting callback to what we now know about WKX (for further information on the wordplay here please see footnote 3 in this translation.
WKX does wonder what's going on that they even recruited Qin Song when ZZS' counterattack via rocks and flute (I refuse to make the blowjob joke here). Honestly, at the time when I first read this this seemed like such a non-event with very little effort to be made by ZZS, but we do get treated a rundown of ZZS' cracked flute and ZCL's internal injuries, so I really should have pinged the significance at the time. WKX is properly impressed and basically says "what goes around comes around" and then leaves a speechless GX behind after calling himself a good person and jumping out the window.
They are staying in an inn here, so he really could use the door. When he comes to ZZS' window, he recites from Songs from outside of Great Wall, No.1 by Li Bai (I think, it's the only one I can find that more or less has that line, please note that this is the best translation I can find but it's not necessarily a good one - poetry is hard, even Li Bai), and ZZS basically thinks he's full of it, but he does grudgingly admire his skill, because not just anyone can sneak up on ZZS, former leader of Tian Chuang.
We also get the first hint that ZZS has narrowed down the number of people WKX can possibly be - to three and a half (I wonder who the half is, actually). And the thing is… To me it seems ZZS is a man very hard to faze, he's prepared for everything and just takes challenges head on and someone like WKX throws him a tiny little bit off his game and he shows that even though he doesn't want to. And mildly flustered and confused ZZS is quite a different sort, because he does obviously not expect WKX to get handsy (though really, he should have).
This is the first time they trade blows, isn't it? A'Xiang interrupts a little...moment they have then and like a typical teenager who caught out her parents makes a bit of a fuss, which I actually think is quite funny. It doesn't actually relieve the tension that was built over the mask, but it does make WKX leave, so the result is equal here, I guess. I guess they remain at an impasse, because the next thing we know is that it's three days later and that ZZS and ZCL arrive at Taihu Holdings.
ZZS, all things considered, thinks being a good person is exhausting which...well, he's not wrong!
What I still wonder: How much does WKX get out of Ghost Valley and does Ghost Valley have a library with poetry books?
Next week, on July 20, we will discuss chapters 9-11, meet people around Taihu Holdings, and...well get to know Wen Kexing better. Not quite by accident.
no subject
Yeah, otoh though I wonder what kind of fighters they have in GV. What I mean sure, there are criminals there and whatnot and it's definitely a survival if the strongest society (if you want to call it one), but in the end the marked difference is that ZZS is a highly trained martial artist meaning business, I would assume that his execution is extremely clean and brutal.
It's very hard for me to tell here how much WKX knows, because it sure looks like he knows very little about what's going on. I suppose he just pushed over the first domino and then left to do whatever while the rest of them started falling. He doesn't really care, after all, so long as everything crashes to the ground in the end.
Agreed, but he's been putting puzzle pieces together as well (as we'll see in two weeks), so he must have an inkling about what's going on. He's not as involved in his revenge as he is in the drama, but he doesn't need to be because he fostered that whole business for several years in GV already. And if he's been out of GV often enough (as seems to be the case), then he knows it won't take much for jianghu to tear into each other.
I wonder if the "half" is ZZS himself, because he only has half his strength left?
He is, I think that's made clear in next week's chapters (though the translations don't get this across and I don't have enough Chinese proficiency to judge this for myself).
ZZS really can't stop trying to figure things out, no matter how little he wants to care; it's just how his mind works. And I really appreciate that he recognises WKX and he are probably very similar people, even though WKX mainly has been annoying the hell out of him and they seem very different on the surface.
Yeah, he definitely has WKX' measure and hasn't found it wanting (unlike probably most other people who try to approach him as being on par with him). ZZS is a leopard and can't change his spots though, so of course his brain goes into investigative mode; I think no matter how much he just wants to spend his time drinking and wandering, he's secretly a little bored but doesn't acknowledge it. So this mystery coming his way is just what he's been looking for.
This goes along with their little sparring session after this, because WKX is on par with him (at half strength, naturally), but also doesn't press his advantage when there's clearly something bothering ZZS. If it was just about identity and revealing the mask...well, he could have. He doesn't. He's too intrigued/interested and while he pushes at the boundaries ZZS has put up, he's not tearing them down by force, which does show an amount of respect ZZS might not have expected.
Speaking of, just how taken aback is WKX by ZZS's skin mask? He seems pretty surprised.
Skin masks are a staple in jianghu, but Siji Shanzhuang seems to be exceptionally good at them (see Jiuxiao and his women's mask), but I don't know how far their reputation has spread, especially since they haven't been around in a long while. And in the novel, WKX doesn't have had any prior exposure to them that we know of.
I think ZZS is better at that than he thinks he is, as we see with Chengling. But also, it's a skill he hasn't exercised (or wanted to exercise) since Jiuxiao at the very least, and his self-image at this point is of someone who doesn't have it in him.
As I pointed out in last week's comment on the rewatch (and also with knowledge from Qi Ye), ZZS is probably a pretty decent shixiong but wasn't cut out at the age of 15 as a sect leader (or shifu, for that matter). As shifu, he goes the only route he had to go and that might not have been the best (Chengling, bless him, bears with it pretty well in both versions, though at least in the drama WKX looks like a man glad he didn't end up with ZZS as his shifu), but he's freer to have affections as a shixiong. Or it's the strict Asian parent coming through. 😂
Does ZZS really wish WKX would just go away?
Honestly, I think if ZZS really honestly truly wanted WKX to go away (or give him the slip) there'd be no stopping that. Even at half strength he can throw him across any room he wants, and if his disguises are good enough to give the slip to Tian Chuang, he could just put on a new mask and leave and WKX would not be the wiser until he finds him gone. I also think that's why all the pigtail pulling isn't bothering me as much as it usually would, because ZZS more than can hold his own, so him tolerating WKX in his space is curiosity and recognizing someone of the same flock of person. He's actually having fun despite himself, even if he's grouchy about it.
WKX otoh is, as narie put it a bit ago, badly calibrated. This WKX is probably more socially adjusted, because he's been leaving GV on the regular, but if he's been spending his downtime with courtesans, then that's also not 'real' experience. Hence he's not very good at expressing real interest as opposed to his over the top flirting and poking ZZS for weak spots.
You don't acquire that kind of knowledge and internalise it in a short time ...
No, but I wasn't thinking he had, more like are there people in GV who recite poetry? Then again, that would probably end up being a mix like CWN's later on.
Now I'm imagining the Valley Master's library. XD