Yun Chang’s arc has reached its end. A little bitter, a little sweet. All in all, a growing experience for Shao Zi, Tong Fu Tavern’s sweet little summer child. We also get to meet another important character in this chapter.

Happy Lunar New Year! It’s the year of the ox and oxen are known for being dependable, diligent, and strong. Hopefully that’s a good omen for this year. For those who enjoy astrology, have you heard about primal signs? Primal astrology takes into account…

Last week, we learned how Yun Chang and the Daoist priest met. This time, we continue with their backstory…

Happy Friday! I changed banner art for some the prior chapters because I wasn’t loving the ones I originally used. Hope you guys like the new images. Today, we learn more about Tong Fu Tavern’s strange guest. 🙂

This chapter sets up more information that will lead directly into the main conflict coming up in this arc. However, the silliness pervading the lives of our tavern’s resident flora and their new innkeeper remains all the same.

To help with visualization: A tavern in the olden days usually consisted of a dining area and counter downstairs along with a center courtyard and back kitchen. The guest rooms were upstairs, bordering the perimeter with an open-air hallway that overlooked the courtyard. I’ve…

The flower and plant spirits are literally called demons (妖 // yāo) but not in the sense that they’re all evil or demonic creatures (惡魔 // è mó). While the word yao in Chinese can have negative implications depending on context, it’d be more…

Finally, something new to breathe some life into this blog. The original plan was to translate a gongting (palace) novel, but my progress has been rather slow. There’s lots of historical terminology and details that I want to take some time combing through, which…