Chapter 57 (1/2)

Note for all :

I came across this word – 勾欄院 (gou lan yuan) yesterday and I translated it as brothel.

A fellow translator said it’s an old word for brothel.

The current word for brothel is 妓院 (jiyuan).

勾欄院 can be used to describe theater or entertainment place too but not sure when, people started to use it to describe only brothel.

I’m guessing it’s how gay (happy) was gradually turned into gay (h.o.m.os.e.xual) by the majority of people.

Now why am I explaining this?

It was because I encountered this sentence while translating – 寧可死在妓院，也堅決不去勾欄院！

The translation will be “Rather die in brothel (jiyuan) than to go to brothel (gou lan yuan).”

That doesn’t sound right, right?

I asked fellow translators, fellow Chinese-speaking friend, online search, dictionary, my sis but none of us can decipher what the author meant.

Then I realized previous chapter 56, WuXin said “If the brothel owner found out that she don't have a 'bird', won't the owner hack the 'birds' off of these kidnappers instead?”.

As if being a male is important. (Raise your hand if you don’t know what bird means in this sentence ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) )

So the conclusion is this keyword was being used by the author to describe male brothel.

That would make sense, though it’s entirely guessworks.

Fellow translator suggested brothel theater/strip club but I still think male brothel make more sense.

That’s all (0w0)/

Thanks for reading.

“Stop howling, we are not here to kill you!”

One of the men who can’t stand Zhu WuXin’s noisiness, finally said on behalf of the rest.

The instant he finished his words, the men behind him nodded together at the same time, to express confirmation on what was said.

Zhu WuXin can at least feel a.s.sured when she heard they don’t want to kill her.

As long as they don’t want her life, anything else can be discussed.

“Then you want to blackmail?”

“Not interested.”

“Then you want to sell humans? I need to tell you first ah, I am a woman, not a man. You must not sell me to male brothel ah.”