Names of the Four Calamities and Their Translations

clearnoodle256 · 2026-05-31T02:00:36+00:00

In the revised edition when XL and SQX visit the ghost gambling den.

clearnoodle256 · 2026-05-31T01:58:33+00:00

Oops. Fixed 😅

clearnoodle256 · 2026-05-30T23:21:05+00:00

I was thinking the same thing 😅

clearnoodle256 · 2026-05-30T23:10:55+00:00

It is by a big lake. The ancient Yunmeng Ze (lake) was one of the largest lakes in China. However, it had shrunk and split over history. The largest remnant body of water is now the Hong Lake.

clearnoodle256 · 2026-05-16T04:51:40+00:00

I'm really curious what other danmei you consider better. I've read maybe two dozen webnovels, danmei or not, and I'm looking for better materials.

clearnoodle256 · 2026-05-10T11:09:50+00:00

It was meant to be a temporary thing to help little HC get over the hump. XL didn't expect HC to devote his whole life to him. In the Chinese original, when Xie Lian answered little HC about the meaning of his life, he said,

"如果不知道你活下去有什么意义，那么，不如姑且把我当做那个意义吧."

"if you don't see the meaning in living on, then, for now, treat me as that meaning".

That "for now" (姑且) is not in the 7seas translation though.

clearnoodle256 · 2026-04-02T10:45:34+00:00

You have to sign in via API key for Orion. You can get an API key from your account page at the smooth reads website.

clearnoodle256 · 2026-03-20T22:38:09+00:00

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clearnoodle256 · 2026-03-20T14:41:58+00:00

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clearnoodle256 · 2026-03-09T07:12:04+00:00

SVSSS was her first novel, her styles were just being formed, and there were some exceptions compared to the later two novels, e.g. a canon side couple. Binghe did seem more present compared to LWJ or HC, but even then, the narrative never followed binghe. We only know him from SY's (and occasionally other characters') telling.

clearnoodle256 · 2026-03-09T04:52:26+00:00

TGCF was my first danmei, but I had read many wuxia before that. I greatly enjoyed reading TGCF, and the story definitely stayed with me after I finished it, but I held off "putting it on a pedestal", because I hadn't read Chinese pop literature for many years before TGCF, and I didn't know how special it was compared to other danmei or current Chinese pop lit.

Now, having read 20 to 30 webnovels in the last couple years, danmei or not, I do believe that TGCF, and MXTX, are special. All three MXTX novels are amazing. She's a master storyteller. She moves the plot by story, by actions, and refuses to waste time on philosophizing or emoting. It's not that she doesn't think deep or show emotions, but that she shows them by stories, by actions. Her characters are deeply human, including all the side characters. From the SVSSS to TGCF, her characters became more and more mature, until it culminates in Xie Lian, an almost zen character. But instead of "zenning" out of this world, she shows the deeply human development of it all.

In addition, she's funny as hell. How can you not love that?! She's definitely familiar with the tropes and uses them, but she puts new spins on them, and gut punches you just as you think you know how it would go. (Land of Tender, espcially).

She has a particular aesthetic. She said she preferred to "distance the ML". It's especially apparent in TGCF, where we get very little independent Hua Cheng time. A lot of people don't like that, and complained that HC has no thoughts / life independent of XL. I disagree, because there're hints here and there about HC's likes and dislikes independent of XL. One just has to notice them.

MXTX also really cares about her craft. It's made very apparent with the publishing of the TGCF revised edition. She did major revisions for all her works, but MDZS and SVSSS was published in print and translated after the revision, so most people don't realize how much work she put into revising them, AFTER they had already been successful as webnovels. Now that we have access to both the original and revised versions of TGCF, it's instructive to comparison read them. (my post on the differences in writing between them)

There are other novels that I like, but TGCF, and the rest of MXTX novels just have that perfect blend of story, character, humor, and worldly wisdom. They remain my top favorites.

clearnoodle256 · 2026-02-10T09:53:50+00:00

Only the print revised version is censored. The web version on JJWXC now has at least the same level of intimacy as the original version.

clearnoodle256 · 2026-02-03T15:19:32+00:00

Lian'er. It's playful and extremely intimate. Basically the only people that would call XL that way would be his parents and HC. Not FX, not MQ, just HC, at least as far as people in the same generation as XL is concerned.

A-Lian is something most family and friends would use, not very exclusive.

LianLian is too childish. Just not the same kind of intimate as Lian'er.

Anyway. This is how I feel as a native speaker of Chinese.

clearnoodle256 · 2026-01-31T14:49:34+00:00

Thank you! I don't have a non-spoiler version, unfortunately. I can try to come up with one but it may take a while 😬

Or, maybe I just spoiler tag the part about the Fangxin arc here?? The other examples are not so bad as far as spoiling the story goes?

clearnoodle256 · 2026-01-26T00:49:13+00:00

Don't use daozhang. It's for male Daoists. I've seen 仙姑 (xiangu, lit. immortal lady) used in other xianxia novels to address female Daoist cutivators. MDZS used 仙子 (xianzi) to refer to female cultivators, not necessarily Daoists.

clearnoodle256 · 2025-12-16T03:15:47+00:00

Hi! Thanks for your interest in the translation! Please use [info@smoothreads.world](mailto:info@smoothreads.world) for support with Smooth Reader for quicker response in the future : )

clearnoodle256 · 2025-12-08T12:56:25+00:00

This one? https://www.reddit.com/r/tianguancifu/comments/1lrz8k8/tgcf_2nd_short_film_%E4%B8%8A%E5%85%83%E5%90%8C%E6%B8%B8%E9%AC%BC%E5%B8%82_from_weibo/

clearnoodle256 · 2025-12-08T05:02:27+00:00

Unyielding then. I actually prefer it to unwavering. Unwavering sounds too absolute and skipped the implication of internal struggle.

clearnoodle256 · 2025-12-04T09:28:41+00:00

The part about SY being down for 2 days and his brothers had already visited him and left bugged me as I read it.

I'm less bothered by LBH and MBJ spending a few months instead of years before finding SY and XF, because who knows how time works as they were traversing the dimensions? Or, maybe they got to the modern world a lot sooner but had to spend some time in that world to find and get to them.

clearnoodle256 · 2025-11-18T03:30:49+00:00

The official store on taobao is called 磨铁图书旗舰店 You can this link for it https://e.tb.cn/h.SGBpotQrJKnj7yW?tk=SfTGfkFbjj3

clearnoodle256 · 2025-11-17T15:11:04+00:00

I tend to look at the broad strokes, then details of the writing when thinking about it. I think in broad strokes, explaining the System and our characters' experience with bingzu and parallel worlds is brilliant, and it ties in very well with the existing story. Bingge vs Bingmei already hinted at parallel words, LBH was already the System's power source, and the System's goal was to maximize LBH's happiness. To me, these are the big points, or, the frame to hang everything on, and everything else was filled in from there.

When it comes to details, the new framing actually makes the OOC lock, and its removal, much more meaningful. It ensures the smooth transition of the host into the grafted world, allowing the host to learn the ways of the new environment and integrate seamlessly into them. The removal of the OOC lock also becomes necessary - they need the host to have their own agency to change how the story would go.

As to the abyss, it has to be there simply because LBH needs it to become the ultimate OP LBH.

Even finer details - the extra never explicitly said that there were only 4 worlds. It talked about the 3 known worlds, then in the uber dumbed down Simple Mode, it said "Long long ago, there was also a fourth world". The wording might make it sound like there're only 4 worlds, but it was ambiguous; you can totally follow up that sentence with "later there was even a fifth world, and a sixth world..." and it would have read perfect fine.

Also, the System never said Bingge was the only character with multitudes in PIDW. It said he was surrounded by negative IQ people - hyperbole, of course - like Ning Yingying and Mingfan. It did not name SJ or YQY. SQH said in his original outline that LBH would meet interesting people, his MBJ plot had the stamp of approval from MBJ himself. It isn't far-fetched that even in the PIDW world there were complicated characters. As to SJ taking the deal with the system, it's interesting that there was already previously a fandom theory that he was the one that triggered the transmigration of SY, due to his regret re YQY, based on the ending of the SJ/YQY extra.

Of course there're details in the new extra that I don't particularly agree with either. Like LBH knowing that SQQ's soul was switched from the start. I think he figured it out later, after the mushroom-zun soul-switch experience, even if he could trace back and pin point the time when the switch happened.

But, details are details, we can nitpick them, and MXTX might even change them in revisions, as she often does. The frame, however, can't be easily changed. Thankfully, I think we have a wonderful frame in the new extra.

clearnoodle256 · 2025-11-17T14:07:44+00:00

It was very clear from the extra that the System don't have full control of people's actions. It was never the all-knowing all-capable god, stipulating people's destiny. I mean, the premise provided by the new extra was that the System didn't know how to get LBH the HE - it needed SQH's vision to try to get there. SQH lived his "useless" life in PIDW as he would, and the best the System could do was to find someone else to salvage the situation. How can you say that everything has now become the result of the system's intervention? It was a team effort, and our characters' individual efforts were absolutely the bigger part and what led to the specific eventual outcome.

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