[14] In Taoist lore, this also means their jizz. Basically, she likes marathon sex until the other person dies.

[15] Original quote: 梅花香自苦寒来, "the scent of plum comes from the bitter cold", as plum blossoms survive the winter to bloom.

[16] In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong has to borrow the Demonic Lady's iconic iron fan to put out the hellfire so their retinue can proceed. On a related note, Red Child, aka the main character in the tales Wen Kexing tells Zhang Chengling, is the Demonic Lady's son.

[17] 滚: lit. to roll away

[18] 隔空: In wuxia, martial arts practitioners can expel qi to hit things. Kind of like the Force, but only to cause impact, unable to pull/choke/create lightning.

[19] 死马当成活马医: Healing a dead horse as you would a live one – desperate, you resort to any methods that might have the slightest chance of working

[20] 老温: Old Wen, but it's more of an intimate address between friends who've known each other for a very long time if neither party is past middle age/old.

[21] More accurately, the title translates to “killing by ko”. Ko describes a situation in Go where both the black stones and white stones are surrounding each other and a stone has to be removed from each side turn after turn, slowly depleting both parties. This impasse has to be resolved by an external rule.

[22] 心眼 actually refers to the ability to intuit and understand implicit insinuations, but the whole sentence plays on the word “heart”. Missing a few holes refers to the concept of 心窍, where an open hole means being enlightened about something—if Wen Kexing is missing a couple holes, it means that he’s too mentally underdeveloped to know what he’s doing.

[23] 乾坤大挪移: A martial art technique from wuxia novel The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Sabre by Jin Yong, where the user can activate latent potential residing in them in a moment of crisis. Operating on the basis of “even the meekest and weakest can become the most ferocious beast”, it’s also used to describe a complete shift in traits/manner.

[24] 桃花眼: “peach blossom eyes”

[25] Gu Xiang actually says ‘Porridge’ (粥/zhou) and ‘Soup’ (汤/tang)

[26] ♪ ♫ Where did you come from, where did you go, Cotton-Eye Zhou ♪ ♫

Chapter 41: Despair

Previously, when Zhou Zishu arrived at the Pingan Bank, he could always enter straight away. Today, however, after the shopkeeper had let him into the main hall, the shopkeeper first poured him and Wen Kexing, who was peering at his surroundings like a villager from the rural areas in the city, a cup of tea each. Next, he stood to the side, all smiles as he said, “Please wait for a little while more, Master Zhou. Lord Seventh is here today, and the boss has gone in to pass on news of your arrival.”

Zhou Zishu’s heart leapt, his emotions suddenly in a tentative jumble at being so close to meeting an old friend once more.