Hi everyone, as promised, please find the first chapter of the new translation project, Finding Glowing Beauty in Books (书中自有颜如玉). Although this novel is short and not too heavy, but I personally find translating it a little harder because the writing style is very different from what I am used to do. So bear with me while I try my level best. In the meantime, please enjoy Chapter 1.1.
Have a wonderful weekend ahead!
Chapter 1.1 : Losing My Way (迷路)
If time is able to turn back to two hours ago, Lan Ning would not follow the group of high school students climbing up the mountain.
Her hands are on her knees, with heavy gasp for breaths. On the white capped snow mountain, the heat exhaled from the mouth soon dissipated into the cold.
She could not help but swore in her heart. "特么的一** children. Fools on the mountain. In a blink of an eye, they were no-where in sight."
特么的一** is Chinese curse word. Unfortunately, I am not able to translate the meaning as there are literally no meaning behind these words. Or maybe someone could help me to explain / translate these words?
She looked up at the top of the mountain in frustration. The sun is not that bright, one could faintly see some distant clouds.
Lan Ning's heart quiver uneasily. She finally able to do a tour to Hokkaido. But does that mean that she will lose her life here?
She thought carefully back, she don't know when did she got separated from the group of high school students. She had been with the team from the start of the day, while listening to them chatting away in Japanese. When she suddenly turned, she discovered that she had been left alone.
Those bunch of **…. There were not even any traces of footprints for her to follow.
From when she was walking the wrong way? In her heart, she reflected that she was glad that this is just a hill. To find the way back to the hotel alone is still relatively large.
She hope……
Not giving up, she took out her mobile phone and checked. Still no signal. She leaned against the tree trunk and pulled out from her backpack a thermos. She took a sip of the hot drink.
After her strength had resumed, she did not dared to stay on the mountain. After warming up her body, she stuff the thermos back into the bag. She heard a slight sound of footsteps coming.
Lan Ning moved her gaze immediately following the sound of the footsteps.
A man wearing climbing gears appeared out from the bushes next to the small trees. The leaves rustled with the snow falling down.
The man is tall, visual height in more than five meters with inky black hair with scraps of snow, not sure where the snow came from. He seems to see her, so he stopped in front of the trees.
The moment her eyes laid on the man, her heart skip a beat.
Well, this man is handsome.
But she remained in the animal nature for only a second. She seize the opportunity and quickly walked over asking in Japanese: "Hello. Are you also climbing up?"
The man did not immediately answer. He glanced at her and then he nodded and replied: "Ah. I am heading down the mountain."
In his low and bass voice, his Japanese pronunciation is also very elegant. Lan Ning is embarrassed to continue conversing in Japanese in front of him.
But most importantly, he said that he is heading down the mountain!
Lan Ning cried impulsively. She exposed her expression of being most happy in front of the man: "What a coincidence. I am also getting ready to head down the mountain. We can go together."
"Ah" The other party responded. He started heading down. Lan Ning took the opportunity to quickly follow him.
Along the way, both of them did not speak. The man's had a very bored expression. Lan Ning is not good at initiating any small talk. With him by her side as a companion, her heart is now more at ease.
At least not she is not alone in the strange area.
After walking down about thirty minutes later, the heart that was at ease began to sink. Lan Ning gasped softly and looked around the surrounding. Frowning, she asked the man: "Are you sure we are not going the wrong direction?"
According to her heart, after more than thirty minutes of journey heading down the mountain, they should be at least closer to the foot of the mountain, right? But after going for a while, she felt that they were going round the hillside.
The man stopped, and looked into her eyes while saying: "I thought you were the one leading the way?"
The cold wind blow through between both of them. Lan Ning's mouth twitched.
Wait, what does that mean? He is not leading the way? For how long they had been doing this? At the moment, the world does not seem to be looking good.
The blowing wind calmed down. Lan Ning suck her red nose and said: "I have been following you."
"But you were walking in front of me." The man said while deliberately swept the two steps distance between them.
Lan Ning: "This is because you stopped earlier so I just walked in front of you, okay?"
She took a deep breath, looked across the man and smiled: "So you also do not know the way."
"I had never said, I know the way."