It's a really stupid question so feel free to ignore it, but I do need to try: there's that point at the end of light novel 4 where Jinshi notices a mark on Maomao's neck, right? Now, he asks if it will leave a scar, and I was like: "What the hell?"
Because it is, you know, a bruise. Not a cut. So where the hell is the scar coming from.
So I kinda need to know if it's a case of Kevin TomfooleryTM, or if Jinshi just thinks that bruises scar (which in retrospect would be hilarious because his future girlfriend is Ancient China Doctor House) ?
Sorry for bothering and good night!
Nothing stupid about it. I have found this to be the truest thing when it comes to the English translation; Every time you feel like a line or a word is off, it's because something was lost in translation and it meant a LOT MORE in Japanese.
This is a USDA Grade A opportunity for me to demonstrate the EXACT thing I talked about with Sore Silver. In a nutshell, the word Jinshi is using in Japanese is closer to how we use "damage" in English. It's 傷, kizu.
(I'm gonna put it in big text too so you can see the details of the kanji better)
傷 is a stain, a chip, a deformity, a scar, etc, that's been acquired through action. It refers to hurt feelings and emotional damage too. In English, we wouldn't call a chipped cup a "scarred cup," nor would you call the permanent bend in some chump's schnoz from a long-healed punch a "scarred nose," but both noses and cups (can) 傷付ける, kizutsukeru, "can get a kizu." (It's literally like "Kizu-can-get.")
(And then, one of the things that makes Japanese difficult to learn for English speakers is how many ways there are to modify a verb. There's like 12, and also a polite and plain version for most of those, AND a positive or negative form for both of those. Kizu"tsukeru" is potential, plain, positive.)
What Jinshi is saying in Japanese (Chapter 22, LN4) is,
「傷は残らないんだろうな」 / “Kizu wa nokoranai ndarou na”
"A kizu remain'nt I very hope."
(road work ahead voice: kizu remain? I sure hope it don't)
The sentiment here that Jinshi is trying to express is that he hopes the damage doesn't linger, that she isn't permanently harmed by the way she was attacked. Both physically and emotionally.
However, true to their ongoing problems with miscommunication, she interprets these words in the more physical sense and responds with;
「これくらいすぐ引きます」 / “Kore kurai sugu hikimasu’
"This (should be/about/relatively) soon recede"
(kurai is a word I find hard to directly translate to one equivalent word. It's an adverb here on suru, making the pace of the receding more of a rough estimate. It's like, "This thing should be gone soon" or "It won't last long.")
What I read from these two particular lines of dialogue is basically this,
"I hope this doesn't leave a mark..."
(I hope this wound doesn't linger. As in, emotionally too.)
"It should be gone soon."
(I'll get over it before long because i dont let myself be bothered by anything. Stop being worried about me, emotional vulnerability is CRINGE)
This conversation in the cart, with the Shi Clan kids still knocked out in the background, is multi-layered. Jinshi is expressing concern and probing into Maomao emotionally, while Maomao is interpreting most of his words literally and deflecting what she doesn't.
All the extra context also makes the sudden "frog's return" actually hilarious to me tbh, because when she says, "You could use a few more scars," what the masochist is hearing is "A pretty boy like you could use a few more beatings" lmaoooo
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