After scanning through this review by @bigbadredpanda, I got inspired to do a translation of the scum villain / tian guan ci fu parts of this interview. Bear in mind that I have yet to read other interviews and stalk MXTX’s weibo, so I may be unaware of other perks.
The first part of the interview is here. I had accidentally posted it to my main blog.
Those that @sakhyu and bcnovels have yet to translate would be spoiler tagged. 4 are spoiler-tagged, don’t bother unless you’ve read beyond the HOB Wind Master Arc.
Q21. [SPOILER] 花城小时候为什么绑着绷带？为何掉下城楼？他为何总是被人欺负又体质非常好？(Why did Hua Cheng have bandages when he was younger? Why did he fall off the city wall? Why was he healthy even though he was beaten up by other people?)
[SPOILER]被打的，他右眼是红瞳，别人觉得很恐怖，脸上很多伤也要遮一下；
有一天他被打得受不了了想自杀，而且他是个戾气很重的凶小孩，听说马上要到祭天游，如果出了事整个国家都要遭殃，特地挑了这一天准备毁掉祭天游，总之就是“老子不幸，老子要你整个国家都陪葬”，这样。结果爬上去第一眼看见未来老婆看傻了，忘了自杀。但是因为太想看清楚一点了，太想靠近了，所以不小心掉了下来。
他就是生命力很顽强啊！跟谢怜一样顽强，百打不死，永远能留着最后一口气，爬起来逆天逆袭。
It was because he was beaten up. His right eye had a red pupil, others thought it was scary, and even though he was beaten up, he still had to hide it.
There was one day, he could not take the beatings any longer and wanted to commit suicide, and despair drooped around him. One day, he heard that there was about to be a festival. If there was an incident, the kingdom would fall into ruin, so he chose this day to wreck the festival. It was a feeling of “Since I’m so unlucky, I want everyone to die along with me”/”I’m taking down everyone with me”. Thus, when he went up to take a look at his future wife, he was stunned and forgot about his suicide attempt. But because he wanted to look a bit closer, he toppled over the city wall.
He’s a tough person to kill! Like Xie Lian, he’s stubborn, and can’t be killed so easily. When he crawls up from despair, it’s akin to having one last breath to wreck everything else behind him!
T/N: Everything is angst about this. Everything!
Q22. 花城为什么对自己颜值没有信心？(Why wasn’t Hua Cheng confident about his own looks?)
因为小时候总被人说丑、怪物，形成了根深蒂固的“我很丑”的印象。后来才慢慢开始怀疑自己“可能长得不错”。但是在最喜欢的人面前，还是会下意识自卑，偶尔又会悄悄怀疑自己是不是丑八怪。
Because he was often criticized as being ugly, or a monster, it deeply implanted a ‘I’m very ugly’ outlook in his mind. He only started to question his looks, but when in front of the person he likes the most, he would still doubt himself, and start to question if he really is as ugly as he thought.
T/N: Your prince doesn’t think so.
Q23. [SPOILER]慕情把花城赶出军营时到底说了什么？(Why did Mu Qing chase him out of the military?)
慕情讲话不就那个样子嘛（。你这种小鬼对太子殿下根本没用，只会拖他的后腿，军队里不需要你这种废物，你不要以为你真的有天赋！之类的。而且因为在军队里这样的少年死亡率的确很高，所以慕情觉得自己赶他出去也有一点没错。
[SPOILER]Mu Qing’s manner of speech is always like this: You’re of no use to his Imperial Highness, you’ll only be a burden on him! The army doesn’t need trash like you, don’t think you have that much talent!
Because young people like the mortal Hua Cheng had a high mortality rate, Mu Qing thought that he did nothing wrong in chasing him out.
T/N: Faced with that, I think I can understand Mu Qing a little more…
Q24. 谢怜为何给自己取“花”姓？(Why did Xie Lian give himself the surname Hua in Halfmoon Kingdom?)
因为他喜欢花，还曾被称为“花冠武神”。以及，在最初的设定中，谢怜被贬时去做过花神，掌花开花谢。
It’s because he likes flowers, and he was often titled the Martial God Crowned with Flowers. Also, in the initial plan, when he was banished, he became a flower god, determining the flowering and wilting of flowers.
Q25. [SPOILER]师青玄是凡人了吗？手脚能恢复吗？如果死后轮回还会是烂命吗？师无渡是不是真的凉了？黑水拿走水师的头做什么？黑水岛上他最后和师青玄说了什么？(Is Shi Qingxuan a mortal? Can his limbs recover? When he reincarnates, will his luck change? Did Shi Wudu freeze? What did Hei Shui do with his head? What were Hei Shui’s final words to Shi Qingxuan?)
[SPOILER] 是凡人。不能恢复，他也不想恢复。天官没有轮回设定。15°凉了。头拿去当祭品。一个字都没说，因为师青玄当时呆滞了，说了也听不懂。
He’s a mortal. He can’t recover, and he doesn’t want to recover. There are no reincarnations for Heavenly Officials. 15 degrees frozen. [This is a pun Shi Wu being a direct homophone for fifteen] Water Master’s head was taken for offerings to the dead. Because Shi Qingxuan was paralysed, even if something was said to him, he wouldn’t understand.
T/N: Press F to pay respects.
Q26. 对于《天官赐福》创作期间剧情结构的争议有什么想法？(What were the thoughts you had about the plot and resulting debates of HOB?)
T/N: This is really long. Hold your horses!
这个其实我很早写过相关的，有的放在JJ的作者有话说里了，有的本来想放在后记，但想了想还是没有放，正好趁这个机会整理一下，一起发出来。
Actually, I had written something similar to my thoughts on this. Some have been placed in the author’s notes (on JJWXC, the original website HOB was posted to), some I wanted to record down but didn’t after thinking, so I’ll take this opportunity to tidy up a bit and air my thoughts.)
讲实话，还是有点无语的，我感觉没有哪个别的作者会有我这种争议。一个作者几本你爱看几本你不爱看，这不是很正常的事么，我喜欢的作者（非耽美）我也不是本本都喜欢的。世界级的大师也不可能保证本本都是世界级名著吧（当然我这不是在脸大自比世界级大师，预警一下不要断章取义）。所以不太理解为啥有人会一本不喜欢就翻脸转黑，或者居然说怀疑我有团队代笔之类的。
To say the truth, I’m still a bit speechless about this. I feel that other authors wouldn’t have as much difficulty about the debates as I did. There are some books that you like and some you don’t from the same author, this is pretty normal. There’s this author I like ( 非耽美 ), and I don’t like every single book she has written. There is no author in the world that can be assured that every book they have written will become a bestseller (I’m not comparing myself with these authors, please don’t quote me to your liking!) So I can’t understand why some people object once they read a book that they don’t like, or even say that I have a team of ghostwriters.
但我发现争议永远都会有。在JJ，只要不是软萌甜文，评论区多半都有点乌云。至今记得我收到第一个负分，就是渣反刚入V时，有个妹子骂冰妹渣攻去死吧（。当时为攻渣不渣吵了几个话题楼，放到今天来看这种规模简直是小猫挠爪子，但当时比较没见识，真的被吓住了。魔道连载初期，我收到的第一个扎心的评论大概是这样的：“你已经耗尽了我的耐心，我不想再容忍你的回忆杀了”，那个时候我才在写第一段云深不知处求学，我心想妹子你这就容忍不了了，那后面你怎么办啊！也有人坦言“感觉大大你这本没什么意思哦，我还是比较喜欢渣反”，这种评论我看了不舒服，但我也不会说什么。到后期评论区人多了，乌云也多了，兵荒马乱，前面那点都觉得没啥了。也是从这里，开始养成了我说不看评论区就不看评论区的好习惯。
But I discovered that there would always be debates. On JJWXC, as long as it’s not a sweet fluffy story, there will always be some clouds hanging over. At least when I remember the first criticism, that is when Scum Villain was first published, there was a fan who told Luo Binghe to go die.
At that time, I wasn’t as mature, so I was really shocked. When GDC/MoDaoZuShi was being published, I received a heart wrenching criticism that went like this: “You’ve already exhausted my patience, I can’t stand all of these flashbacks!” This was when I had just written the first part of the time at Cloud Recesses, when they were all studying together. I was thinking: if you can’t stand this, then how are you going to stand it later?
There was also someone who wrote: “Big sis, this book doesn’t have much meaning, I still prefer Scum Villain!” These reviews are discomforting to me, but I won’t say anything. At the end, there were more people in the debate, more clouds over this novel, it was chaos, I was eventually numb to this. So at this point, I started having the habit of not reading the debates in the reviews corner.
所以你看，其实争议从来没有停止。永远有人不满。以前的争议现在淡去了，就给人一种“从来没有过争议”的错觉。就像总有人喜欢缅怀过去的时光如何美好，时间会加一层滤镜。
So you see, debates have never stopped. There will always be people who are unsatisfied. Previous debates that have become less intense, it gives the feeling that “there has never been a debate”. Like some who think that the past is better, time would give a nostalgic feeling.
写作中出现的困难有什么大不了的，没作者敢说自己写作过程中不会出现困难吧。但是有的作者很聪明，会扬长避短，就写自己最拿手的。这当然很厉害，不过我觉得，还是要不时走出舒适区试探一下的。
No author has dared to say that they have never come across trouble in writing, but there’s nothing wrong in troubles. But there are some authors who are smart, who would write what they are good at. This is very powerful, but I feel that there has to be some attempts at going out of your comfort zone.
既然是探索，就不能保证每一步都走得稳。如果我摔倒了，我自己会爬起来。不能说因为我会摔倒，就不让我走这一步，非逼我另一条路，或者要夺走我自己走路的权力。
Since it’s an investigation, so you can’t be sure that every step you take would be safe. If I fall, I would climb up myself. I can’t say that because I’ll fall, I won’t take this step, I need to take another route, or make this cautious step prevent me from walking on my own.
如果实在不喜欢，其实放手就好，我一贯是希望好聚好散。但有的读者比较奇怪，一定要一边不喜欢，一边逼迫自己读，一边发泄负能量，这何必呢。毕竟，你不喜欢，有别的读者是会真心喜欢的。这样你自己也不舒服，其他读者也不舒服，还会引发掐架，这个时候我就很尴尬。因为人捍卫自己喜欢的东西是人之常情，我不能说拦着读者们不让他们保护自己喜欢的。我很明白自己喜欢的东西被人攻击会有多难过气愤，我心疼这些读者。
If I really don’t like this, letting go is always good. I hope that everyone will break up peacefully. But some readers are a bit strange, they don’t like what they read, they will force themselves to read while complaining about it and wasting their effort. Why do this? You may not like it, but there are other readers who love it. So you will not feel comfortable, so will others, and you get into a fight and I feel embarrassed about it!
People feel protective about what they love, this is perfectly normal and I can’t prevent readers from being protective. I perfectly understand the rage some feel when what they like is being attacked, and thus I worry about it.
可我也尊重读者发表评论的权利，所以对于很多不怎么友好的评论，我从来不会去反驳争辩（除非恶意造谣），有读者反应过激，我还会去劝阻。
However, I respect other readers with their right to disagree, so in debates that turn sour, I will not intervene (unless it’s to stamp a rumor) and I will try to allay those whose reactions are too energetic.
不过这里我还想说说，我可以无视负面评价，但我并不太喜欢所谓的“建议”。
为什么呢，因为写文这事，没写过的人真的就只是纸上谈兵。就像教人写作文，建议人家“用词生动，结构精美”，教人做数学题，建议人家要“举一反三，细心计算”。听上去都没错对吧？但这些都是太笼统抽象的东西，所有人都知道，太空泛了。真的要做到，只有一个办法：自己写。
I would like to speak up about “suggestions”. Why? Because those who have not written before are only good at talking. Like teaching someone how to write a composition, you say to use phrases to invoke feeling and paragraphing to structure your essay. When you answer mathematical questions, the suggestion is to think of alternative methods and be methodical in your working. It sounds good, right? But these are too vague, the space for error is still too wide. If you really want to do it, I have only one suggestion: write it yourself.
而如果“建议”太具体了，比如“这个地方他说话用词应该文雅一点”“这个地方他应该同情而不是漠视”“全部用排比句看起来比较有文采”，这就越界了。
写文是很私人的事，一篇文有无数个读者，但只能有一个作者。大家是看来看作者写文的，不是来看一个傀儡写文的。每个读者心里或多或少都有自己想要看到的东西，如果每个人都对作者提出要求，作者到底该听谁的？为什么只听这个不听其他的？也许你会说要听正确的，但是谁的意见才是正确的？怎么证明他是正确的？阅网文无数的人可太多了。最关键的问题是，到底是谁在写文？表达者是谁？
And if the suggestion is too general, like this: “This paragraph, the character speaking should be talking with more of a cultural flair”, or “This paragraph, he should be sympathetic rather than apathetic”, “You should use comparisons, this writing technique is better”, this is beyond the scope.
Writing is personal, a story has many readers, but there could only be one writer. Everyone is here to see the author’s story, not something that they suggest. Every reader has his own opinion and what he wants to see, so if everyone suggests what they want to read, who would the author listen to? Why him in particular and not others? Maybe you’ll get something good, but whose opinion is the best? What can determine that he is correct? There are too many people on this website. The most important question is: who is writing this? Who is the one expressing his thoughts?
作者谦虚是好事。但作者的谦虚，意思是作者要多读，多看，多写，自己把握，自己心里有杆秤，再自己去调整和练习就行了。而不是整天根据别人的建议改来改去。这种事别人插不上手。
以及，我不建议随便揣测作者心理。因为大多数都是错的，可揣测者却对自己的想象深信不疑，最后都会偏向恶意。
The author being humble is a good thing. But the author’s humbleness reflects that he needs to read, to examine and to write even more. He needs to practice and edit his own words. It’s not up to everyone else’s suggestions to improve his own writing. Others cannot intervene. I do not suggest trying to guess what the author is thinking at the time. Because the majority of what you think would be wrong, so the guesser would be confident in what he thinks is the right answer, and it would turn out sour.
无论我写什么，都会有人有意见。有人说我太任性了，故意折磨读者，整天写苦大仇深的东西，商业作者就该有商业作者的样子，不许这么任性，要懂得小心翼翼讨好粉丝。同时也有人说我变了，我无脑发糖，就知道讨好粉丝。真的很无奈。要不然，先统一一下意见吧。
No matter what I write, there will be opinions about it. Some have felt that I’m too flighty, I torture the readers, I write things about bitterness and revenge and published authors should have the behavior of published authors, I can’t be this choosy and picky, and I need to pacify the readers. Some have also said that I have changed, and I only know how to appease the fans. I cannot help but think: why don’t you unify your own thoughts on this.
但我也不喜欢评论区吵架。如果双方吵起来，又要被说这个作者粉丝好可怕啊见不得人家说不好，进而发散成粉丝脑残、作者好自大狂妄膨胀了——反正怎么说作者这边都有错，我很吃亏，很被动，所以我衷心请求大家，在评论区看到这样的评论，不要理睬，让它自然沉没就OK，不然越吵越久，打扰的还是大家看文的心情。
But I don’t like arguments in the review corner either. If two parties argue, there will be talk about how the fandom is quite scary, people here can’t agree, fans in this fandom will be braindead, the author is too proud. Whatever happens, the author is always wrong. I will always lose out, so I wish that everyone will not bother with this debate, let it sink and it’ll be ok, don’t argue more and more. All it will do is ruin everyone’s mood upon reading this.
T/N: This is the author’s thoughts about this. There are some parts I have trouble trying to translate because it is so hard for some vocab in Chinese to be directly interpreted. I did my best in this.
Okay. Back to other questions!
Q27. 《天官赐福》计划什么时候修文？(When are you editing HOB?)
其实现在已经开始修了，修好后会统一贴上去并发通知的。但因为这文修起来工程太大，JJ对修文也有很麻烦的限制，不知道会多久，在老四前还是老四后无法保证。还要看三次元和老四的破壳欲了。
Actually, it’s already in the process of editing. Once it has been fully edited, I will publish it as one post and inform everyone. However, as this job is too big, JJWXC has some issues and constraints as well about editing, so I have no idea how long it will take be it before or after the fourth novel is published.
Q28. 《天官赐福》还有哪些番外？(What other HOB extras are there?)
很早就想写个民间故事集，一个一个短小的童话故事，不长。
I want to write something about the mortal realm. A short fable maybe?
T/N: The remaining questions are about the fourth novel and MXTX’s thoughts on CP and such. I will translate them when I have the energy; I think MXTX’s answer to question 26 has killed my mood to translate further.
vaporwave
pixelskylines
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
turnnoffyourmind
