Review for both the original Mandarin version and the English translation! Since I'm pretty new to being able to read in Chinese, with this being the second actual book that I've read in Chinese ever, I of course had many moments where I ran into a lot of idioms that were new to me or just some colloquial ways to say things in general. But overall I do think the language is pretty simple and good for somebody around a hsk4 level so long as you have a pop-up dictionary handy. But with this being said, there are some things about this short story where I'm not sure if it's an issue of me not understanding something properly, the way it was written, or that maybe even that the English translation just chose to reword things. Cause I had already been warned beforehand by other people who read this in Mandarin that there are a lot of typos and that they're pretty easy to spot, and sure enough, yeah, there's quite a few typos. But there's one major thing for me where I thought I was just misrembering at first, then maybe if it was an issue with my character converter (since this was written in simp chars and I'm learning trad) but then I went back to check without the converter and nope!! It's real!! And it's something that people of the English translation would never know about either: a little less than halfway thru the book, one of the characters names changes! Originally, Xing Lie's name was spelled using the characters 刑冽, which I originally thought was interesting because 刑 means punishment/torture and 冽 is like. Well the dictionary definition is "cold and raw" but that sounds a little strange on it's own - think of it as the kind of 'cold and rawness' of a dry wind when it's below freezing outside. But yeah, based off of that name it also led me to believe he was gonna maybe have a sad or angsty personality. But then in chapter 9 I believe it was, he was having a convo with Xiao Tong about him also choosing to have the last name Xing, and there was a sentence that was like... "because your surname is 刑 and my surname is 邢" AND THEN FOR THE REST OF THE BOOK HE WAS SUDDENLY 邢冽 like????? Hello??? The first time I saw this I thought it was just a typo since both characters are pronounced as Xing but then it just. Was consistent. Did I miss something??? It was especially annoying for me because as soon as that change happened I started automatically reading his name as 'Na Lie' because I kept thinking the 邢 was a 那 but that's totally just a me thing LOL. Besides that, when comparing the English translation and original side-by-side, I kept wondering if some of the language was being softened or if I had just read the original text wrong to begin with, although one time in the translation notes they did mention something they left out (such as one scene where Xing Lie flicked Xiao Tong's forehead and they left out the part that mentioned "flicked hard enough to crack my skull") though I suspect they did that more than once, but I'm not pulling out the receipts cause I'm typing this on a phone. MY POINT BEING I know that there's a lot of exaggeration going on here just for emphasis, but I felt like the scene where Xiao Tong is asking Xing Lie if it's possible for men to like other men, there's a bit of a tone shift in English. In the original it was a bit upsetting to read that scene cause it seemed like Xing Lie was getting irritated and overly frustrated by his questioning, especially in the way he went "men like women and that's the way it is, men must like women" but in English the translation it ended up being "naturally, men like women and that's just how it is". It's just little things like that. In the English version he definitely comes off as being more embarrassed and flustered during this scene compared to the irritation of the original. Or it's just entirely possible I misread the tone of the original, who knows! It also took me a really long time to realize Xing Lie's personality is kinda gruff and boisterous, it wasn't until chapter 10 where I was like "ohh he's kind of a goofy guy", I guess I just didn't catch onto the way his language comes off because he's got a bit of a dialect - I think this book is likely set in Beijing just from the use of Erhua throughout, but the translator definitely made it obvious from the get-go. BUT ANYWAY yeah, ponderings aside, I thought this was a cute little quick read, I wish there was more substance but I guess the only way I was even able to read it in Mandarin to begin with is because it stayed so simple so I guess I don't really have room to complain lol