#NatlanChineseStudy

合成台 héchéng tái: crafting bench

I never really paid attention to it before, but this is the crafting bench line:

地火水风，领我敕命。再造四大，重塑五行
dìhuǒshuǐfēng, lǐng wǒ chìmìng. zàizào sìdà, chóngsù wǔxíng

Earth, fire, water, wind.
Take my command (?) I’m not sure about this one.
Rebuild the four elements (earth, water, fire and wind in Buddhism).
Reconstruct the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire and earth in Chinese philosophy).

Paimon said that the crafting bench sneezed: 打喷嚏 dǎ pēntì.

苏玛克 Sūmǎkè: the woman who wants to use the crafting bench.

Sumake wants to 切磋 qiēcuō: learn from each other by exchanging views. The potion she crafted can help people 调整状态 tiáozhěng zhuàngtài: adjust their condition?

—

What follows was really hard! One character is talking endlessly to explain some lore I’ve never heard about before. A lot of unknown words too. Let’s break it down.

Names:

桑科约克 Sāngkēyuēkè: merchant who sold the potion recipe to Sumake
汉佩克 Hànpèikè: doctor who took care of Sumake
蚱蜢派 zhàměng pài: The Grasshopper Faction
鹰羽派 yīngyǔ pài: The Eagle Feather Faction
话事处 huàshìchù: What is this?? Some kind of council of the factions?

Some vocab:

后勤 hòuqín: logistics
设施 shèshī: facilities, installation
派系 pàixì: faction
循规蹈矩 xúnguīdǎojǔ: to follow the rules inflexibly
分身无术 fēnshēn wúshù: cannot attend to many things at once, impossible to be in two places at the same time.
疏漏 shūlòu: careless omission, oversight
截然不同 jiérán bù tóng: entirely different
尽心尽力 jìnxīnjìnlì: making an all-out effort, to do one’s utmost
心服口服 xīnfúkǒufú: to accept wholeheartedly
唯利是图 wéilìshìtú: to be bent solely on profit
钻营 zuānyíng: toadying for personal gain
不佳 bùjiā: not good
配方 pèifāng: prescription
手脚 shǒujiǎo: trick, action
针对 zhēnduì: to target, to be aimed at
波及 bōjí: to spread to, to involve
抵赖 dǐlài: denial

With so many unknown words, it’s no wonder I didn’t follow this whole explanation. It’s clearer now. What I understand is that Hanpeike belongs to the Faction of the Eagle Feathers. They were responsible for taking care of all the logistics and facilities of the Stadium of the Sacred Flame, which is a great honor. However, fewer and fewer people entered the faction, and the lack of manpower led to inevitable mistakes. So the council (?) decided to hold a competition to decide which faction would take care of the Stadium. The Eagles lost, and the Grasshopers won. While the Eagles were strictly following the rules, the Grasshopers are only interested in profit and personal gain, and they don’t work properly.

Hanpeike says that during the competition, a lot of their members had problems after crafting potions, just like Sumake.

Hanpeike thinks that the Grasshoppers did something to the crafting bench. At first it was to target the Eagles, but it’s now affecting other people.

The end was a bit easier: Hanpeike regrets not having grasped evidence when it was still possible, but with Sumake’s accident, there’s still a chance. And we’re going to help.

The following scenes were easier. In order to collect testimony (证言 zhèngyán) from Eagles member, we had to go through several tests (测试 cèshì). We also meet Tuozan (托赞 tuōzàn), a Grasshopper who helps Hanpeike. Paimon straight tells him he’s a traitor (叛徒 pàntú) lol.

Hanpeike feels responsible for the current state of the Eagle Feathers and uses the expressions 无地自容 wúdì zìróng: nowhere to hide one’s shame.

He also quotes a saying according to which “the truth belongs to the minority”, and he won’t give up on carrying out his beliefs just because he fight the majority. Haha, this passage was quite funny.

And now I have to wait two days…