Rewatched this episode with my wife this evening, and ooooooh boy. (ㆁωㆁ*)

That frown.

Those eyes, as he stares at Xia Chun and his look basically says, “Don’t you dare fucking cross me, you motherf*cker” and he knows he’s gonna come back later and tear the place apart for taking xiao-Shu away.

Chapters: 3/5 Fandom: 琅琊榜 | Nirvana in Fire (TV) I couldn’t help myself and I finished the third chapter of my series. orz 

I’ve written Chapter 2 of my set of small scenes from Meng Manor. Many, many thanks again to @for-the-flail for the editing and beta. 

HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS

I wroted you a Nirvana in Fire thing. I decided there wasn’t enough of Meng Zhi in my life, so I made this. It’s literally just about Meng-dage.

HAAAAY TUMBLR

So I decided that I wanted to try my hand at translating some of the book passages relevant to everybody’s favorite COMMANDER GENERAL MENG. YEEEEESSSS. 

Many thanks to @chaikat​, without whom I wouldn’t even know where to find the second edition of the novel or where some juicy bits of Commander Moe information are. 

I’m an ABC (American-born Chinese), so my Chinese isn’t quite fluent. I know enough to be able to watch most wuxia series, but advanced vocabulary is beyond my means, which is why I need a text glossing extension. Okay, here are the first 4 paragraphs of Chapter 70 (after he gets flogged for the Eunuch Murder Case), which tell you a little bit about Meng’s background and his family: 

Chapter 70: Night Visitation at the Meng Residence

身为禁军大统领，蒙挚日常值宿宫掖，不当班的时候，大部分时间也都会留在统领司处理公务，只有在休两天以上的假期时，才会回到他自己的私宅中

As the Commander General of the Imperial Guard, Meng Zhi spent most of his nights on shift at the palace. Most of his off-duty hours he was in the barracks taking care of official business, only returning home when he had more than two days of leave.

虽然主人是声名赫赫，跺一跺脚京城震动的人物，但蒙府看起来却甚是朴素，丫环仆役不过一二十人，府禁也并不森严。不过蒙挚本身就是大梁国中第一高手，又不是江湖人，会想要到他家里去找麻烦的人基本没有，故而府中一向太平，从未曾闹出过什么大的动静来。

Despite being the house of a man with an impressive reputation, one who could shake the entire city at his will, the Meng Residence was actually quite plain. There were only a dozen or two servants, and the grounds weren’t tightly secured. As Meng Zhi was the most powerful fighter in all of Da Liang, and wasn’t involved with the Martial World either, there was hardly anyone who would come calling with trouble. As a result, his residence had always been peaceful, untroubled by any incidents.

蒙挚的元配妻子是自幼由父母择定的，出身虽然贫寒，却极是贤良，当年蒙挚从军离乡，全靠她在家奉养公婆双亲，因为曾小产过一次，之后就再也没有怀上孩子，不过蒙挚却并未因此纳妾，只是收养了隔房的一个侄子承祧，夫妇二人互敬互爱，感情一直很好。

Meng’s wife was from a marriage arranged during their childhood. Though she was from a poor family, she was both capable and virtuous, and looked after both their parents long ago when Meng first left their hometown to enlist in the army. She had a miscarriage once, and thereafter was unable to bear children. Instead of taking a concubine, Meng adopted a nephew to carry on the family line. As a couple, their relationship had always been strong, based on mutual love and respect.

这次蒙挚受罚回府，全家上下慌作一团，只有蒙夫人依然镇定自若，在内请医敷药，羹汤养息，对外管束仆从，闭门谢客，把场面稳了下来。而对于这场祸事的原因，蒙挚没有说，她也就不多问，只是嘘寒问暖，殷勤侍侯，入晚等丈夫睡去之后，她才和衣侧卧一旁。

This time, when Meng returned home after his punishment, the entire household erupted in chaos, with the sole of exception of Mrs. Meng, who remained as calm and unperturbed as ever. She steadied the household by organizing the doctors and medicine, taking charge of the kitchen, the servants, and turning all visitors away. As for the entire ordeal, Meng declined to speak to her of its reasons, and so  she never asked. She simply looked after him as best she could, resting only late into the night after her husband had fallen asleep.

Wow, that look me an hour to translate, including some awesome editing courtesy of @for-the-flail (thank you! :D) 

It seems, glancing at the rest of the chapter, that Mei Changsu has one of his chats with Meng here, in the middle of the night, waking up his wife and stuff, I think? XD LOL. 

Let me just note again how unusual it is for Meng not to take a concubine; it was absolutely common back in the day if a wife wasn’t able to bear you children, to take a concubine who continue the family line. For someone of Meng’s rank to just adopt is highly unusual. DUDE, HE LOVED THAT WOMAN. Also, he probably didn’t want to deal with the politicking of having two wives. Have you seen the shit that goes on in the Inner Palace? 

You guys, my new phone is full of pictures of 蒙大哥 Meng-dage. I should be so ashamed of myself but I’m just not.

The wife and I are on episode 5 of our rewatch and I just can’t get over how cute Meng’s little brow frown is.

LOOK AT IT.

JUST LOOK.

…

I CAAAAAAN’T

Meng is weirdly my type (like how I have it really bad for Xiahou Dun 夏侯惇 in Dynasty Warriors/Three Kingdoms for all of the same reasons) and I CAAAAAAN’T

I have SO MANY FEELS about the story and the plotting and the women with agency in Nirvana in Fire, but every time I try to go on the internet I just end up looking for more Meng.

…and that little bit of white in his beard. Gah.

I have SO many questions. How did he end up so close with xiao-Shu the year he was in the Chiyan Army? How is he so goddamn strong? I think the Chinese Wikipedia page (I’m the worst at reading Chinese my ancestors must be so ashamed) is trying to tell me his martial arts is learned from the Turkic people? WHAT? Who is his Master and how did he make it to number 2 on the Langya ranking without having traveled Jianghu/Pugilist world, or did he? How noble is his family, because it does seem at first that Mei Changsu is unwilling to involve him because of the reputation of his family or is he just looking out for Meng’s wife and kids? (Does he have a wife and kids?)

Are all the answers to my questions in the book/novel or am I doomed to create my own fanon about this?

Also, did anybody notice that they name-dropped Li Xiaoyao 李逍遥 in the series? I swear to god they did. As in, the main character from Chinese Paladin 仙剑奇侠传 that was Hu Ge’s breakout role?

GAAAAIZ