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Yun Zhong Ge Chapter 5: Stars On The Ground — 39 Comments

  1. Oh JY is mentioned! I’m so happy 🙂 Does that mean that JY is still alive and well? Most likely not married right?

  2. Thanks for the update Koala!

    The scene where the five of them had dinner and made their wishes was really touching. If only time will stop right there and let them continue to live their happy lives.

    Oh Ling Gege…where to begin? The scene with him looking up at the sky within the walls of the palace was very ominous and sad. Kinda remind of 4th prince in BBJX at the end when he watched Ruoxi leave. It’s very touching that he’s still waiting for Yun Ge after all this time. Hopefully they will meet up soon.

  3. Meng Jue is so mysterious with his intentions. What does he want with Huo Guang’s daughter? and when is Yun Ge going to recognize who Meng Jue is? lol.

    • I don’t think is a big spoilet since ms.koala has refer to this in his introduction of Yun Zhong Ge. Meng Jue is aiming for political alliances (?) so he want to seduce Huo Guang’s daughter. Since Huo Guang is one of the regent. For exactly what purpose, we still need to read how the story pan out. But my guess is that this has something to do with his parent death and the subsequent suffering he endured.

  4. thanks for the wonderful translation koala! does anyone know where I can buy the complete simplified chinese version of yun zhong ge? (I’m currently in New York) I’ve tried amazon.cn but i’m confused because they only have yun zhong ge 2! Is yun zhong ge 2 the 2nd edition/2nd volume/2nd version?

  5. many xoxo to you! another great chapter and am quite nervous to what comes.

    It must just be me but I am having a bit of hard time to connect the Emperor and the hidden royal grandson. How are they related again? Sorry if it was asked and answered.

    So Ling gege is Liu Che’s youngest son who was the emperor during DMY right? with a younger consort?

    So is Liu Bing Yi also a great grandson of Liu Che’s too? but his great grandmother must have been the Empress Wei?

    Therefore, Liu Bing Yi is Ling Gege’s grand nephew?

    I was just as shock with realization as sir playboy.

    • You just answered your own question. 🙂

      Liu Che (daddy generation)

      Liu Fu Ling (son generation)

      Liu He/Da Gong Zhi (grandson generation)

      Liu Bing Yi/Liu Xun (great-grandson generation)

      Four generations of Lius populate DMY and YZG.

      • I did ?! Ahaha my brain was hurt trying to analizing the relationship. Must be all the names and nicknames.

        Full of intertwined fate just like the lovers vine in DMY.

        Until next chappy. ;D

        Thanks.

      • Koala, I’m confused about their age. How old are they at this point? And is Ling Gege and Liu Bing Yi close in age for Yun Ge to think that they are the same person?

        Thanks! 😀

      • Liu He is the oldest, about 23-24, Ling gege is about 20-21, Meng Jue and Liu Bing Yi are about 18-19. Yun Ge is about 16.

        Liu Che started having kids when he was a teenager, and Liu Fu Ling is his youngest son which he had when he was in his sixties. This accounts for the huge generational gap (but no age) gap between the second cousins.

      • @Koala, thanksies! That explains a lot. Also, I am in love with all the boys at this point. I want Mr. Pretend Playboy’s soulmate to show up so he can have his OTP, too. I really love that scene of all 5 of them with the fireflies and I’m curious to know if those wishes will be brought up again in the future.

      • @yeisha: I think the girl in the red robe is the soulmate you’re waiting for. She’s mute hence she “writes something on his hand”.

      • @Peppapig, you are so right! Great catch! I was wondering when she was going to show up. And awww…how sweet is it that she was writing on his palm and that when he laid down she immediately covered him with a blanket.

        Please tell me that these two will have a happy ending. At least one pair should end up happy, right? I hope they will be like BBJX 10th Price and his fujin so its not so heartbreaking all around.

    • And is it just me or does Liu Bing Yi remind anyone of 13th Prince? They have that same aura and his relationship with Ping Jun also reminds me a lot of 13th and Lu Wu, that feeling of best friends or like an old couple almost.

      Ah, I’m obviously not over BBJX and I have a feeling that YZG will become yet another obsession. 🙂

      • LiuBingYi only resembles 13th on the surface… acting like he hasn’t a care in the world… yet in reality, he’s like that because he is avoiding certain issues.. and also because of his birth secret… 13th on the other hand.. is really a bird with his wings clipped and in a gilded cage..

        as to their relationships with their women, 13th and LuWu are really soulmates… but XPJ and LBY… well they may have been friends for a really long time.. but how well does XPJ really know LBY? a little further into the story she’s going to be acutely aware of her differences with LBY, her being unable to read and write, unable to understand the intricacies of chess etc… well.. just wait and see… some things aren’t as they seem on the surface ><

  6. Hi, Ms. Koala!
    Happened to see your bolg.^_^
    I have read all the Chinese novels you translated here. I love Yun Zhong Ge the most, which made me quite desperate for a few months after finishing it.
    Many Chinese novels are amazing, they are worth to be appreciated by more readers.
    Thanks to your hard work, now more readers can enjoy them.
    I am learning Japanese now, I hope one day I can translate them into Japanese!

  7. Reading your translation, I was suddenly thrown back to 10th Prince’s birthday celebration in BBJX. As it was then, how I wish everything had stopped at this carefree stage. Absolutely love the goof that is Da Gong Zi – beauty on each arm? Ha they are more likely make him mop the floor than take heed of his sweet nothings.

    I understand what you mean by getting more out from the second/third read of the book. I had missed so many naunces the first time, thinking them to be lengthly descriptions when they are in fact preludes to the future! Liu Bingyi’s expressions, his niceties to PingJun in contrast to Menjue’s coldness to Pingjun when they were searching for Yunge at end of book 1… This is really a good literature peice.

    • All the clues are there. Meng Jue is a 真小人, Liu Bing Yi is a 为君子. But I also missed quite a lot in the first read, mostly because I was speed reading like a freak to get to volume 2. Ha, the power of Ling gege.

      • Trivia – I think the dagger that Meng Jue oh-so-casually gave Yun Ge used to belong to his mother.
        When he was retelling his life story, he said that his mother passed him “..a dagger and biscults…”. Da Gong Zi must have known about the dagger somehow which was why he was so incredulous here.
        See, no descriptions are superfluous. At my first read, I merely thought that Da Gong Zi was incredulous that Meng Jue has gotten Yun Ge a gift (because MJ is not one who carries a girl’s dagger on him for no reason)

  8. i love the farewell picnic scene… everything and everyone seems so carefree and young…. yet there are alot of subtle glances and things playing just below the surface.. they may be best of friends now, but you just know that nothing is ever so simple with all the little undercurrents TH writes in.
    and that farewell scene with MengJue and YunGe, that stolen kiss. hahH. even though MengJue probably was doing it for the benefit of LiuBingYi, one cannot deny that it was cute… >< he pretends to be a gentleman, all princely like his god-father, but i love it that he has this dastardly side to him when it comes to affections for his girl
    after reading the end of vol1, where MengJue's motivations for initially meeting up with YunGe are made clear, i still can't help but smile gently whenever i re-read these little scenes with their interactions..

  9. Oh I love this chapter too…except maybe pitied Ling Gege. While the 5 of them picnic together, Ling gege can only watch the stars alone. While he waits patiently for YunGe, she has already started to fall for MengJue.

    And that they are still carefree and happy at the moment, it’s really quite touching, especially since I’ve also finally finished the books….and know everyone’s fate. Sigh.

    spoiler: I’m rather disappointed we never get to know what was written (YG and PJ). Although it’s not difficult to guess…

  10. Dear Ms Koala,

    Thanks for translating one of my favourite chapters in YZG. One of TH’s strengths in her writing is not only the fact that she writes about earth-shattering and mindblowing love between her characters, she also writes about touching and loyal friendships that her characters share amongst themselves. The premise of 地上星 begins simply with the idea of 5 friends sharing a beautiful dinner under the stars. The stars that shine upon them may be bright but the brightness of their hopes and dreams for the future (made through wishing with the fireflies) outshines even the twinkling stars. Sigh the beautiful narrative of this chapter held so much promise that contrasted greatly with the upcoming chapters though she does leaves many clues around the book. The scene in 掌中雪 was also very beautiful but alas it was not meant to be.

    Friendships always play a vital role in TH’s novels and YZG was no different. Yun Ge’s loyalty to her friends to the end may be her only saving grace. (I’m still not a fan of adult YG & much prefer Xu Ping Jun & Hong Yi) Liu Fu Ling had Yu An & Liu He while even Meng Jue has his Lost Lonely Boys (Da Gong Zi Liu He & Yue Sheng) and his “calender girls”. The novel’s main antagonist Liu Xun sacrificed his relationships with all his friends in order to obtained power and ended up being all alone in the end.

    The other 2 chapters that I love in YZG are 绿罗裙 and 一年之约. The opening chapter showed the budding young love between Yun Ge and Ling Gege. Their interactions were cute yet sweet and remains one of my favourite in all of TH’s novels! How I wish they could time travel back to the past and remain like their childhood selves living in desert for all eternity. In your character descriptions for YZG, I smiled when you mention Yu An. He is the highlight for me in 一年之约. The scene where he utters “里面的是我侄子” made me LOL & it showed one of the few lighthearted (why TH why) moments in YZG.

    You mentioned earlier in DMY that Yu Er loved with both HQB & Jiu Ye equally. I couldn’t agree more with you. Yu Er understood both men so well in her bones that she could read their minds and feel what they felt. In YZG however, eventhough both Liu Fu Ling and Meng Jue loved Yun Ge very much, the OTP was always Ling & Yun from the get go. As mentioned in the blog, while Ling and Yun were soulmates whose hearts and minds were interwined, Yun Ge never really knew what was in the depths of Xiao Jue mind and neither did he really understood her as well as he thought he did. In the end, Yun Ge’s heart had only her LGG while her mother had both HQB & MXM.

    • “. As mentioned in the blog, while Ling and Yun were soulmates whose hearts and minds were interwined, Yun Ge never really knew what was in the depths of Xiao Jue mind and neither did he really understood her as well as he thought he did.”

      You took the words right from my mouth. Ling and Yun understood each other so well, even without words. The perfect “soulmates”. They trust and love each other explicitly and unreservedly. It’s no wonder he stays in her heart long after he’s gone.

      However, I do think that MengJue’s love for YunGe is as much if not more than Ling Gege. His problem, unlike his adopted father, was not timing. Initially, it was his preoccupation with revenge that blinded him from what he really wants and needs, and when he finally realizes it, it’s too late. He kept too much of himself, and revealed too little to YunGe. His problem, for me anyway, was he thinks too much from HIS point of view and too little from HER point of view. The end might not always justify the means, as he finds out rather belatedly. I don’t doubt his intention, just his methods, which is sadly what ultimately drew them apart.

    • I found DMY lacking in the friendships thread that BBJX had and which YZG took to a new new level. In some ways, the friendship element inherent in the idea that people change was even more heartbreaking than the love story(ies).

      I think there is no “antagonist” in YZG, because the antagonist is politics, its fate, its everyone always wanting to satisfy their own pursuits of power and validation. Ling gege’s fate was not decided by Huo Guang, by Liu Xun, or by any one in particular. It was decided when he ascended the throne. I almost can’t hate anyone, because I see everything from Ling gege’s point of view. He was willing to give everything up for Yun Ge, but he couldn’t give up his love for his people. So instead of picking a safer choice, he picked the better for the country choice.

      While YZG is Meng Jue’s story, and Liu Fu Ling and Yun Ge’s love story was just one aspect of it, ultimately it’s the moments between them that I read and re-read. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a soulmates love story presented exactly as I envisioned it in my head. No words are necessary, because they understand each other implicitly. This is why Xiao Jue is always going to be #2, because he and Yun Ge is attraction, is even love, but it’s not like they are two halves of one whole.

      I honestly can say that I cried for every single character. I cried for Huo Guang’s desperate anger over losing his idol of a brother, I cried for Huo Cheng Jun’s discovering too late that nothing was ever hers, I cried for Da Gong Zhi wanting nothing but longing for so much, I cried for Xu Ping Jun steadfast devotion and lifelong fear that she just wasn’t good enough, I cried for Hong Yi having no voice but her Da Gong Zhi always knew her thoughts, I cried for Liu Bing Yi and his final walk down to the tree where they left their wishes, I cried for Xiao Jue and his “did she really forget all this and found the happiness she is looking for?”, I cried for Yun Ge and her final realization that the past could be a part of her future, I cried for Shang Guan Xiao Mei and her decision to NEVER use the final imperial decree that Ling gege left for her, I cried for Ling gege out of happiness because he met Yun Ge and his life was worth enduring it all for her.

      • *sigh* sooo nice. if there is an english translation …i will definitely read and re-read it till i get old and not be alone.

        thank U msK *xoxo*

  11. Btw, Mrs koala, I think I remembered you saying that Tong Hua wrote a letter to one of her characters after finishing YZG….who was the letter directed to and where can I find it? Is it only included in the book?

  12. I couldn’t wait for the end so I wiki the emperor’s history. Now I know why it’s going to be so sad but i’m even more interested in how everything play out. Thanks Koala.

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