Translator's note: A lovely friend helped me figure out how to properly link footnotes, so I'll be slowly going back through previous chapters and linking them properly. My apologies for the period that I wasn't able to figure out how to do that - When A Yin pushed the door open and entered, there was only a little bit of chaotically scattered light, which floated from the bed and flew out through the wide open glass window. A Luo laid on her side on the large, Western-style mahogany bed, fingers strewn at random n the air, the stream of light from the jade butterfly of just previously remaining. She had never seen the spirited A Yin cut such a sorry figure before; her hands were wrapped around her night gown-covered waist, and the colouration on her face had collapsed into confusion, the grandness of days past gone, withered as if it were trampled-on bok choy. The bok choy lifted her gaze to her, her eyes still restraining the lustrousness of cabbage, and impolitely sat do...

Song Shijiu was a bit dizzy; before her were Li Shiyi’s lips, like silk paintings, and in her breaths, it seemed like there was still the tenderness of lips and teeth; as she remembered the aftertaste of Li Shiyi’s kiss, she placed her bracelet against her slim neck. Just then, when she’d risen, she’d just had a bit of dizziness, yet Li Shiyi, without allowing explanation, had knocked her horizontal and embraced her, still carrying her as they left the temple; her hands were probably very sore, yet she still wasn’t willing to let her go, only crouching down and making her lay against her back, keeping silent the entire way as she carried her on her back down the mountain. She felt that Li Shiyi had a degree of hard to part with tenderness towards her; in the past, this tenderness had been sealed by dignified excuses; just now, Li Shiyi was in a helpless state of agitation, and it had gradually wrapped around her. Song Shijiu tilted her head, leaning it contentedly against her shoulder,...

Li Shiyi uncrossed her long legs, and hurriedly followed after.  The street was incredibly chilly, the small shops’ doors closed tightly; the road ahead was dim and misty, the depths of night revealing heavy flagstones, and intermittently, there was the sound of bicycle bells. Yun Niang, lifting up her skirt, got into a rickshaw, which drove joltingly towards the outside of the city. Li Shiyi, without the slightest hesitation, called a rickshaw along with Song Shijiu, and, gazing forwards, said quietly, “Follow at a distance.” Her hand rested casually on the hand-rest at the side, which was ice-cold and gave off the scent of rust, and she paused, then grasped it a bit more firmly. The darkness was always able to magnify one’s true, inferior nature, and in the past, it was the rickshaw drivers, most in touch with the common people, who were exhausted by periods of misery and oppression, the strength of their legs weakening and their motions growing tired, terrifying people as if the...

Yun Niang? Song Shijiu chewed the noodles and looked at Li Shiyi. “My husband, called Shen Sanbai, born in the twenty-eighth year of Qianlong, [1] was from Changzhou.” Yun Niang added a phrase, “It’s the Suzhou of today.” Shen Fu, “Six Records of a Floating Life”. Li Shiyi’s eyes filled with an expression of clear understanding, and she raised her forearm to support her chin, calmly listening to her engaging speech. “Along with my husband, we were the qin and the se, [2] our affections deep and inseparable, the highest grade of conjugal love. My husband’s temperament was gentle and sweet, and his character was also friendly; if there was a single defect in the perfection, it was that my father- and mother-in-law didn’t like me much, because I was envious. Among the women of the common world, if there was one’s true love, naturally she would want to take the entirety of the singular love and favour from the world; how would she not be envious?” Envious? Song Shijiu paused her chops...

After another tea’s time, they arrived at the military gentleman’s residence. The military gentleman’s surname was Lu; people called him Master Lu, though it wasn’t known, in the end, which group he was from; it was said that a commanding officer surnamed Sun was at the head. He was a mid-level official, and didn’t much dare to engage in tyrannical abuse; taking people to go disrupt a public venue, in the end, was merely out of desire to seem impressive in tabloid newspapers, and not because he cared that much about Yunyun. The residence bordered the French Concession, and it had been gifted on newly arriving to Shanghai by the Green Gang, [1] an exceedingly old party, which, in the dead of night, caused people terror; the military gentleman ordered for all the lamps to be lit, and invited Li Shiyi in; after imbibing half a pot of tea, he once more led her on a tour of the courtyard. Li Shiyi made up wild nonsense full of fengshui jargon, neither her face reddening nor her heart jumpi...

The scene of drawn swords and bent bows was like firewood that had been pulled from the furnace, the hissing sound causing the joyous racket from just then to be suppressed. Li Shiyi raised her gaze to look at this military gentleman, with a beard in the shape of the character eight and squinting eyes, slender and lean; when he spoke, he couldn’t cover the mouthful of large, slightly yellowed, incisors, and the neat, military overcoat that he wore in the great heat was faintly distended by a beer belly, the brim of his military hat orderly and facing forward. Although his voice was loud, in stature, he was a bit shorter than Li Shiyi, and at that moment, raising her head to size him up, she let her eyelids fall once more, making an effort to express a disdain beneath contempt with posture and a look askance. When the gun barrel pressed against Li Shiyi, Wu Qian took a few steps forward, and reached into the inside of his suit, drawing out a short pistol; separated by two or three metre...