I never shy away from admitting that I use AI tools. I always have a disclaimer ready after the description + TOC of the story. There’s even a disclaimer accessible on my website. Since there will always be peeps who are against AI, regardless of how one uses it, I just want to let you know that I understand your decision.
I don’t claim any story I have worked on as something I translated from scratch. However, I want to let you know that I don’t just copy and paste, post it, then pat myself on the back. Proofreading and editing each chapter is a bare minimum for me, along with actually buying the works. Of course I might still miss some awkward sentences and/or punctuations, but I try my best because I always see myself as someone who uses AI as a tool, not something I blindly trust 100%.
As I work on more projects, I have slowly established rules and routines to improve the translation, even just a little bit. One example is noticing very common AI words that don’t seem to fit the storytelling. Below are several examples of what I edit each chapter. I hope my little blabbers make your day a bit better. Thank you to those who read the translation with me. I truly appreciate you guys. 💛
P.S. Original means the actual generated version.
🠊 AI summarizing the sentence or excluding some parts of it.
Original: Su Jingyang turned back in shock, “You know him?”
Edited: When Su Jingyang heard him say this, he turned back to him in surprise and asked, “Do you know him?”
(There are so many instances of this, especially AI not including everything. You have to really check the original and compare or maybe it is just me. lol I just decided not to include each of em coz this list will be a lotttttt longer, em telling ya!)
🠊 AI confusing the character names.
Original: After hearing all this, Su Jingyang sincerely commented, “This city lord really does seem quite humane.” No wonder Liang Lu had said Ling Li had run out from Rong City. He had assumed Ling Li left to pursue an outsider romance.
Edited: After hearing all this, Su Jingyang sincerely commented, “This city lord really does seem quite humane.” No wonder Liang Lu had said he had run out from Rongcheng. He had assumed Su Jingyang left to pursue an outsider romance.
(Liang Lu actually asked Su Jingyang or told him about this, not Ling Li. This was a translation mistake.)
*
Original: Ling Li recognized Su Jingyang as the man who’d lent him a bowl that day.
(What? What? Are we reading the same story? lmao.)
Edited: Ling Li recognized Su Jingyang as the man he had lent a bowl to that day.
(I’m pretty sure it’s the other way around, or did I misunderstand it?)
🠊 Converting narration or inner thoughts into spoken dialogue when it should remain as inner thoughts.
Original: “…Heh. Having money sure is impressive.”
Edited: “…” Heh. Having money sure is impressive.
🠊 Some sentences don’t make sense right away and just catch you off guard, like what?
Original: The little fellow was kept very busy.
Edited: The little fellow busied himself thoroughly.
🠊 Instances where commas are overused. It’s likely common or normal in Chinese writing, but I find it awkward a lot of times in English. Of course the Chinese rhythm isn’t wrong and is even faithful, but I don’t know...... I like to keep it more natural sounding in English since Chinese commas often signal sequence, not pause after all. In English, sequence is better handled by clause structure, not punctuation:
Original: That night, after bathing, Su Jingyang collapsed straight into bed and fell asleep.
Edited: After bathing that night, Su Jingyang collapsed straight into bed and fell asleep.
(First two examples are the mild version.)
Original: Rong Hua asked, confused, “Weren’t we leaving? Why did you stop?”
Edited: Rong Hua asked in confusion, “Weren’t we leaving? Why did you stop?”
*
Original: That evening, Rong Ci and Rong Hua came to Lin’s Small Eatery to eat. When Su Jingyang served the dishes, Rong Ci lifted his teacup, took a sip, and as Su Jingyang turned away, casually asked, “You gave me a gift? How come I didn’t receive it? Is your memory that bad, or did I forget?”
Edited: That evening, Rong Ci and Rong Hua came to Lin’s Small Eatery to eat. When Su Jingyang was serving dishes, Rong Ci picked up his teacup for a sip. As Su Jingyang turned away, he lifted his eyelids as if casually asking, “You gave me a gift? How come I didn’t receive it? Is your memory too poor, or did I forget?”
(I swear the one below is the last one for the comma portion lol)
Original: Xiang Cao’s place was far out of the way. From a distance, Su Jingyang and Ling Li saw a run-down house, and in front of it sat a slightly plump old woman with her legs crossed, picking at her teeth with her fingers. Xiang Cao, who should’ve been resting in bed, was off to the side in silence, washing clothes. A little girl in filthy, thin clothing, sallow-faced and skinny, only four or five years old, limped around next to Xiang Cao, seeming to want to help carry water. She accidentally tipped the basin over, splashing all the water onto herself.
Edited: Xiang Cao’s home lay far out of the way. From a distance, Su Jingyang and Ling Li saw a run-down house. In front of it sat a slightly plump old woman with her legs crossed, picking at her teeth with her fingers. Off to the side, Xiang Cao, who should have been resting in bed, was silently washing clothes.
Nearby, a little girl only four or five years old hovered beside him, clearly wanting to help carry water. She wore filthy, thin clothing, her face sallow and her body thin, and she limped as she moved. In her clumsiness, she tipped the basin over and splashed all the water onto herself.
(I split it into two paragraphs yay!)
🠊 Simple tweaks that I believe make the sentence hit harder:
Original: All these years, seeing how she treats your younger brother, haven’t you felt hurt?
Edited: All these years, seeing how she treats your younger brother, doesn’t your heart ache?
🠊 AI speech-act mismatch. Basically pragmatically mistranslated sentences.
This was around the time MC asked ML to guess who booked the room for him. ML thought it was MC, but found out it wasn’t MC’s action, so ML had a sour reaction.
Original: With a sullen face and extremely poor tone, he snapped at him, “Don’t guess. Get lost.”
Edited: With a sullen face and extremely poor tone, he snapped at him, “Not guessing. Get lost.”
(“Don’t want to guess” would’ve been fine too, but srsly now, wadayamean don’t guess 🤦🏻♀️)
🠊 Words or sentences changed (imo) for better clarity:
Original: Rong Hua found his instant face change amusing and laughed softly. She reached out with her gloved hand and pinched his cheek, tilting her mouth as she leaned in, her smile carrying a naive wickedness.
Edited: Rong Hua found his instant face change amusing and laughed softly. She reached out with her gloved hand and pinched his cheek, tilting her mouth as she leaned in, her smile carrying an innocent wickedness.
*
Original: Shivering, he instinctively looked outside and saw Rong Ci standing by the carriage, expressionless. Dressed in black amid the wind and snow, he looked especially cold and severe. (brotha wadayamean severe???)
Edited: Shivering, he instinctively looked outside and saw Rong Ci standing by the carriage, expressionless. Dressed in black amid the wind and snow, he looked especially cold and stern.
*
Original: I felt it wouldn’t be right not to give a gift on his birthday, so I thought of using your jade pendant as a substitute. Later, I realized that you’re Ah Xuan’s uncle. If you gave it, it would be the same.
Edited: I felt it wouldn’t be right not to give a gift on his birthday, so I thought of using your jade pendant as a substitute. Later, I realized that you’re Ah Xuan’s uncle. So it’s the same if it came from you.
*
Original: Ah Xuan pointed to his own chest, blinking those clear black-and-white eyes as he said softly, “Here.” (oh dear, the horror of black and white eyes!!!!)
Edited: Ah Xuan pointed to his own chest, blinking his bright eyes and saying softly, “Here.”
*
Edited: The old beggar laughed until his whole body trembled. He wiped the bun crumbs from his beard and said in a deep, all-seeing tone, “Humane? I say that young city lord must have set his eyes on some foreign beauty and wanted to properly marry them as his city lord’s spouse. That’s why he rushed to change the rules.”
(Originally it was “marry her as his city lord’s wife.” However, it made more sense for me to make it gender neutral for this part.)
🠊 This might be a nitpick from me, but I really don’t like starting a sentence with “but” or a little bit “and.” Even more so “especially.” Sometimes I let it go, but this paragraph just......
Original: Ling Li gripped the front of Su Jingyang’s clothes tightly, finally unable to suppress his pain as he cried softly. “But I caused his death! I noticed something was wrong back then. I could have avoided it myself and stopped provoking him. But because of unwillingness, because of youthful impulsiveness, I caused a death and killed my only family member! But I still shamelessly live on. So Jingyang, I truly am not as good as you think. What happened back then… I was not innocent.”
Edited: Ling Li gripped the front of Su Jingyang’s clothes tightly, finally unable to suppress his pain as he cried softly. “I caused his death. I noticed something was wrong back then. I could have avoided it myself and stopped provoking him. Out of unwillingness, out of youthful impulsiveness, I caused a death and killed my only family member. And yet I still shamelessly live on. So, Jingyang, I truly am not as good as you think. What happened back then… I was not innocent.”
I actually really liked this novel and stuck with it all the way to the end, which I don’t do often, so that already says something. By that, I mean I didn’t skip a chapter or scroll past parts just because they felt cringe or iffy. Maybe that’s why I can still remember certain points here and there. The “building a family” aspect is definitely the strongest point, or should I say the child-rearing. I even almost forgot to mention Su Jingyang’s pregnancy arc. I really thought the author would just skim through it, but knowing people who have personally experienced what Su Jingyang went through, I thought that part was really nice.
So I am glad that the mpreg handling is surprisingly non-fetishistic! This could have easily turned into just smut with a pregnancy kink. Instead, pregnancy is treated as physically difficult, with things like back pain, swelling, exhaustion, and vomiting. The birth scene focuses on pain and fear but also support and care. Not to mention the aftermath, postpartum is actually shown too, like physical recovery and the adjustment period, not just “baby appears, all is well.”
This is actually GOOD representation of pregnancy as a serious medical/life event, not just a plot device.
That said..... yeshhhh, I have issues.
The biggest one is Rong Ci’s illusion array near the end. I get that Rong Ci is obsessive, manipulative, and deeply in love, and this kind of move is very on-brand for him. Howeva, Su Jingyang’s reaction felt way too light for what actually happened. Being sent into an illusion instead of truly returning to the modern world is a huge deal, and it really messes with his mental health.
I understand that Su Jingyang was emotionally exhausted and already leaning toward staying, especially after the whole elderly Rong Ci illusion, but I still felt like he kind of just..... let it go too easily. So I had to chalk it up to Su Jingyang being in a very vulnerable headspace and already knowing deep down where his heart was, because otherwise it just doesn’t fully sit right.
The Illusion Realm is a cool concept but it’s basically Rong Ci SPEEDRUNNING Su Jingyang’s character development. ML was also definitely manipulative and not romantic in that Illusion part since it’s another choice made FOR Su Jingyang, not BY him instead of idk, allow SJ to DECIDE? Bratha.
I do get that it’s a desperate act by someone who knows he can’t keep someone through force but also can’t let them go without knowing if the choice is real. It’s messy and imperfect and very human. Some parts that I do like about ML was never guilt-tripping about SJ wanting to leave and shares childcare equally.
Another thing that bothered me was the pacing near the end. A lot of the final chapters focus on Rong Hua’s storyline. This should have been a side novel or earlier flashback arc, NOT the climax. I did like his arc, and I get why the author wanted to wrap everything up neatly, especially since they’re technically the true protagonists of this world, but it felt like Su Jingyang’s own resolution got shortchanged. For a story that’s ultimately about him choosing between worlds, his modern-world breakdown and final decision to stay were resolved really fast.
Of course Chapter 76 was long and emotional, but it was also basically the finale, and that’s where everything about the modern world, the illusion, and his choice to stay all got wrapped up. After 70+ chapters of buildup, I really wish this part had been spread out more, maybe over a couple of chapters, so it didn’t feel so rushed compared to everything else. I could also kind of sense that the author was probably getting negative feedback about why the bulk of the near-end chapters focused on other characters when it could’ve been more about the MC’s story.
This makes Su Jingyang’s suffering feel rushed and shallow, the modern world return feel like it barely mattered, and the “choice” feel less weighty. Not to mention the System’s defeat feels anticlimactic, like it literally just.... dies off-screen?! The emotional payoff feels unearned :/
Then about Ling Li. Oh my Ling Li, the best friend who deserves everything!!!! He made the conscious choice to sacrifice his freedom after that one drunken night when SJ spilled everything. He entered the palace believing it would give Su Jingyang enough energy to escape and married the Emperor FOR SU JINGYANG’S SAKE. Ling Li even stopped asking SJ to take him along too. :(
He never asked for anything in return and only revealed the truth subtly: “Whatever you choose, do it for YOUR heart, not for me.”
Ling Li gave up EVERYTHING: his freedom, his chance at chosen love, his simple life, his autonomy. All because he thought it would save his friend. </3
Thankfully, the Emperor was genuinely devoted to Ling Li. He was also protective and gave Ling Li the family and stability he never had.
IN SHORT: LING LI IS TOO PURE FOR THIS WORLD. Deserved his own novel. 12/10 best boy.
Overall though, I still think this is a good read. The friendship between Ling Li and Su Jingyang was strong, it’s genuinely touching, and despite my complaints, the ending does make emotional sense. Just be prepared for some morally gray behavior and an ending that works more on feelings than logic.
ML is an annoying lil shit, but he was a good husband to SJ and a good father to their kids. Ermm the “good husband” part though… uhhh, it’s kinda shallow. lol I just don’t find his traits attractive, especially in the early chapters where he “teased” MC. He really was an asshole. I wouldn’t fall in love with him at all lmao. I guess that’s why I’m not SJ, em i right?
This story starts with one of the most uncomfortable premises in the genre and somehow transforms it into a meditation on choice, family, and home. It fumbles the ending structure spectacularly but still delivers emotional payoff. It can’t fully escape its problematic origins but tries harder than most to interrogate them.
Is it perfect? Hell no.
Is it effective? Surprisingly yes.
Is it worth reading? If you can engage with it critically while appreciating its emotional core, I think it is.
It’s a 3.5-star story with 5-star moments and 2-star structural decisions.
The kind of story you finish and immediately want to discuss with someone because it’s sooooo messy and compelling and you need to process WTF you just experienced. Thank you again for reading and see you whenever!
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