停云霭霭（Hovering Clouds）

A fanblog for the Huaishang novel/audio drama 破云 | Breaking Through the Clouds

[tingyunaiai]

Extra Notes Chapter 4 - Extra: Chain of Evidence

In this chapter, Yan Xie finds the slider of a zipper at the crime scene. And because he’s rich, he immediately narrows down the zipper as a Fendi bag, exclusive to the current season, which leads the investigation to Chu Ci. Because this chapter lacks anything noteworthy to comment about, I’ll mainly be discussing the usual mistakes most authors make in a police drama.

Firstly, Yan Xie finding the slider has completely left the chain of custody (CoC) which refers to “the chronological documentation or paper trail that records the sequence of custody, control, transfer, analysis, and disposition of physical or electronic evidence” (Wikipedia). Even if the crime scene was sealed off, the fact is the zipper itself would have been carted as possible evidence on the scene. Here is a weak link in the logic behind the investigation, and it’s not helped by the fact that the zipper wasn’t put in a proper evidence bag - the type made of paper which you inscribe the name, time and type of evidence.

One theme emphasised by Jiang Ting throughout the novel would be ‘every crime leaves a trace; there is no untraceable crime, only an investigator who doesn’t work hard enough’.  In forensic science, this is Locard's exchange principle. The principle, expressed by forensic pioneer Dr Edmond Locard,  holds that the perpetrator of a crime will bring something into the crime scene and leave with something from it, and that both can be used as forensic evidence.

[tingyunaiai]

Extra Notes Chapter 3 - The People’s Police: Organisation and Ranks

Overview

To clarify, BttC involves a police drama centred around the People’s Police (人民警察) of mainland China. This is a different organisation from the Hong Kong Police Force or the National Police Agency of Taiwan, and I will give an overview here.

Technically speaking, every police officer in the novel is part of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), which is the principal police and security authority of the People's Republic of China, and the government ministry that exercises oversight over and is ultimately responsible for day-to-day law enforcement.  The Ministry operates the system of Public Security Bureaus (PSBs) 公安局, which are broadly the equivalent of police forces or police stations in other countries.

Organisation

In the novel, Yan Xie is therefore part of the Jianning PSB, which operates sub-bureaus (分局) throughout the Jianning municipality. Further downwards from the sub-bureaus are police stations (派出所).

Also from Wikipedia:  Most major Chinese cities will have a PSB assigned to deal with local security needs. Going up, each province, municipality and autonomous region (excluding Macau and Hong Kong) has a provincial-level Public Security Department (公安厅) or municipal PSB to deal with provincial security issues. This includes higher coordination or when the PSBs of multiple cities have to work together on a major operation.

Therefore, the top-down order goes from:

Department  → Provincial PSB →  Municipal PSB → Sub-Bureau → Police Station

Ranks

Picture: BttC MaoErFM Audio Drama, Jiang Ting (Left) and Yan Xie (Right)

What struck me about this picture on reflection is how much trouble the artist went to capture the differences in ranks between characters.

This Wikipedia article goes into some detail about police ranks in China. To clarify, both main characters are significant because at their age bracket (30+), most police officers are still Sergeants. Jiang Ting alone was remarked as “the star of civil arts descended with his own halo” (自带光环的天降文曲星) because he made Inspector 1st-class (shoulder insignia three pips, two silver bars) before his thirties.

The author even made a note on this, with my translation:

其实按严峫这个年纪，提副省级建制城市的刑侦正支真的是火箭式了，刑侦高配半级不是光说说的（江停是直辖市禁毒口且具备专业学术背景所以另当别论）。现实中要达到严峫这个职权可能要再加五到十岁左右，不过小说中权当艺术处理了，鞠躬~

Actually at Yan Xie’s age, captaining the Criminal Investigation Detachment of a sub-provincial city is already rocketing, Criminal Investigation being a half-rank higher isn’t just speaking (Jiang Ting was in the Narcotics department of a municipality directly controlled by the central government and had professional background so he’s discussed separately). In reality reaching Yan Xie’s rank would need to add five or ten years to his age, but in a novel just treat it as artistic liberty, bow~

[tingyunaiai]

Extra Notes Chapter 2 - ‘Hovering Clouds’ as a Metaphor for Jiang Ting, Part 1

“As the lingering clouds shroud all in gloom, as the seasonal rain pours; darkness encroaches from the eight cardinal directions, reshaping the land into a river.”muttered Yan Xie. He brushed his chin with the palm of his hand before blurting out, “What an excellent name.”

Yang Mei’s footsteps came to an sudden stop.

Jiang Ting calmly replied, “Thank you, Officer.”

-- BttC Chapter 2, translated by cloud.

In their first meeting as the novel is arranged (their actual first meeting was in their shared past which was not exactly plot-significant), Yan Xie manages to accurately pin down Jiang Ting’s alias Lu Chengjiang (陆成江) and its source, showing both a significant depth of language and somehow coming in tune with his police hottie XD. The poem itself though, has far-reaching implications as the metaphor for the entire story’s plot.

Tao Yuanming’s “Hovering Clouds” speaks of absent friends and family, and equates those clouds as a barrier. The exact line that Yan Xie quotes is:

停云霭霭，时雨蒙蒙。 八表同昏，平陆成江。

The speaker is surrounded by bad weather (monsoons) and the dusk is coming (dusk from the eight directions i.e. all around), but the roads are overflown (land shaped into a river). This is the line which summarises Jiang Ting’s exact situation at the moment: hiding under a false name, surrounded by enemies, no way of recourse, under the shadow of trauma and lost comrades with a drug kingpin coming after him.

If we follow the theory that Huaishang is equating Jiang Ting as the speaker, more evidence suggests itself in the blue drug ‘Blue Gold’, former alias ‘Hovering Clouds’, the Fentanyl derivative which becomes the key to the case between Jiang Ting and King of Spades. ‘Hovering Clouds’ was both named as missing an absent friend, and for Jiang Ting. We can therefore rest with this assumption that a deliberate parallel was drawn with the poem and Jiang Ting as the speaker of the poem.

[tingyunaiai]

Extra Notes Chapter 1 - Geography in BttC

I did a straw poll on Lofter once about the geography in BttC. The general consensus is thus:

The story takes place in the fictional city of Jianning (建宁), which was the historical name of a number of places. The general consensus though, is that Jianning is based on modern Chengdu (成都).

Jiang Ting was formerly working in Gongzhou (恭州), which is understood as modern Chongqing (重庆).

This of course places BttC within the province of Sichuan (四川), which is significant due to its proximity towards the Golden Triangle - one of the world’s largest opium poppy areas, and the site of a transnational drug-production block. This bit would later become significant as the plot develops, but let’s just know that the story is placed in fictional Chengdu for now.

[tingyunaiai]

Opening

Hi guys!

This is a fanblog for the Chinese online novel 破云, translated as Breaking Through the Clouds.

At 155 chapters and 2 extras the original novel can be found on JJWXC here.

Currently the audio drama’s 1st season is broadcasted at MaoErFM here.

Currently the novel is being translated at Cloud Translates here.

[tingyunaiai]

Audio Drama ED - Against the Wind, performed by Mario