I'm just copy + pasting something I PM'ed to someone else. This is about the smut content in Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang. Though it's virtually not there. =_=

The smut:

Quote :

Note, the "smut" was in brackets, therefore it is very slight. It was mainly there because I put absolutely every category relevant to the novel. There are no obscene illustrations in the original text...not that I put any of the illustrations in these translations to begin with. =_=

I was fourteen/fifteen when I started translating this, so I wouldn't've translated it if the smut was that explicit. Let me just get this straight, it's really metaphorical and the description is the sketchiest thing I've ever read. It's even less than a shoujo manga...say, "Monkey High!" or "Aishiteruze Baby" in which smut is not a genre (because, it's even less frequent and there are absolutely no illustrations...)

That aside, these are the chapters that have them. Use ctrl/cmd + f to find the problematic bit's starting phrase and ending phrase. These were the only ones I could find or remember, pretty sure there isn't anything else.

Chapter 8:
Skip from: Her thumping heart began to calm down
Start from: Chu Moran was waiting for him in the office.

Chapter 9:
Start from: It was already the season of floating snowflakes

Chapter 28:
Start from: Eight months have passed. Now is the season of snow. Spring was still in a distant place.

The marriage:

Quote :

Why it's not there...

It's a culture thing. Many modern Chinese think that marriage is not something romantic, but something that's overused and cheesy and actually makes a relationship rather lame. Its connotations in Chinese are pretty different to the Western world (and although not Western, Japan is like that too), where it's a lot more romanticised.

So while marriages are often implied in Chinese fiction, they are not usually fully written out or in detail. However, if Pingting were to be recognised as the official Duchess (and later Empress), she would have had to "marry" him, but like previously mentioned, it hasn't been said. Otherwise, the story would be really lame to be read about (that's what the Chinese think...)

What's really popular with the Chinese romance readers...are called "拉锯战". A literal translation would be "tug of war", but it basically means about relationships where "the two sides refuse to yield to the other as it'd give up their freedom/personality/other so they try to run away from each other. However, the attraction is strongly there, just like the rope they tug (which has a 'normal reaction force/tension force'). This results in quite literally, a dragged out relationship.

Usually these "tug of war" stories are about abstinence, but I think the female lead has a child first primarily because...she wouldn't've survived the long separation with the male lead. So basically, the author used the child as a bit of a plot device... or she would've gone crazy.

Another reason why the marriage wasn't really needed to be shown before they had children, was because similar vows were already exchanged in front of the moon, and these vows play quite an important part on the novel itself.

Historical Chinese marriages were usually done in front of some parent(s). There were no documentation whatsoever. There were no priests either (most Chinese are atheist. Some are Buddhist, but very few. Virtually no Christians). Neither Pingting nor Chu Beijie actually had any living parents, and even if they had any other living relatives, they were at odds with each other. Having friends or random passerbys as witnesses wouldn't've made a marriage "official" either.

So, the witness to their vows, was the moon. (They actually swore to be forever with each other, to the moon.) In that way, they were actually already "married" before they did anything and Pingting had a child.

Finally, if you can't stand this sort of thing, don't read it. It is josei (aimed at women 18-24 yrs, even though there's nothing r18 in it), with a massive dash of tragedic drama (not to the main characters, but to the supporting characters).