Novel Description

Love is Sweet 半是蜜糖半是伤 by Qi Zi 棋子

You have to believe that there is always a love in this world that will make you unforgettable,1 even if you must go through the experience of eight-one difficulties2 for your secret crush. She is the queen of the workplace, the tsundere3 girl in life, the imperious lady in appearance, and a Transformer4 in psychology. He is the overlord in the workplace, the poisonous-tongued man in life, the uninhibited man in appearance, and an unrivaled superman in psychology. They are “two innocent childhood friends,”5 yet she fell in love with someone else.  Secretly in love with her, his heart was full of pain, but he could neither express it, nor dare to show her his feelings.  He strategized, trying to separate them so he could take back the only one in his heart. Will his little scheme succeed?  When she finds out what he did in the past, can she forgive him? She deliberately stayed away, but he came closer step by step. She is his rib;6 after all these experiences and struggles, can love come as expected? This thing called love, it’s one half sweetness and one half hurt.

Translator’s Notes:

  1. this is an idiom, lit. carved in bones and engraved in the heart; fig. etched in one’s memory.
  2. refers to the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Eighty-one Difficulties, medical text, c. 1st century AD.
  3. loanword from Japanese, meaning someone who acts unfriendly and blunt, but is warm and tender inside
  4. The author actually refers to the Transformers, like the movie franchise…yeah, I had to look that up and I don’t know what the description is supposed to mean.
  5. Refers yet again to the famous Li Bai poem which contains the famous Chinese phrase that describes childhood friends who play innocently with each other but fall in love when they grow up; more on this can be found in the Chapter 1 translation.
  6. Reference to Adam and Eve, i.e. the woman was made from the man’s rib