The music in the bar was so loud that it shook the sky.

　　Liang Hui offered him a cigarette and asked, “Want one?”

　　“I don’t smoke,” Chu Yi declined with a wave of his hand.

　“Damn! You quit smoking?” Liang Hui tutted. “Damn, you used to smoke so violently.”

　“Really?” Chu Yi took a sip from his glass and said, “I don’t remember.”

　　He had gotten into an almost fatal car accident three years ago and had been lying unconscious in a hospital. Even the doctor expected him to be in a vegetative state forever. Surprisingly, he miraculously regained consciousness recently. Through rehabilitation, his body recovered just fine. But there was a sequela – he had lost all his memories.

　　All the memories of the previous thirty years had disappeared. He could not even remember his own name.

　　All his friends and relatives had become strangers. He could only reacquaint with each one of them. Mercifully, he was favored by fortune. His father was Chu Tiancheng. He was well-known in the city. In addition, he has a beautiful and elegant mother and an excellent brother.

　　In short, he was born lucky.

　　Most of his friends were just like him, ignorant and incompetent second-generation rich, who could not do anything serious, and who were only proficient in eating, drinking, and having fun. As for romantic entanglements, he was still single. But he heard that he used to be quiet the playboy; flings came and went but he never wanted to settle down. Right before the car accident, he had been to Africa, pursuing a photographer.

　　Chu Yi found all that unbelievable. Although he had lost his memories, he had often had dreams when he fell asleep. In those dreams, he seemed to… have someone whom he loved wholeheartedly.

　　It was a pity that those were just dreams. Once he woke up, he couldn’t recall his beloved’s face.

　　At this time, there was another singer on the stage. Liang Hui, who sat next to Chu Yi, wolf-whistled and said, “This one looks pretty good.”

　　Chu Yi cast a glance at the stage and saw the singer. He was very young, his voice cracked at high notes; not too pleasant to hear. The face looked good but was caked with makeup. If one were to kiss him, one would be able to smell those cheap cosmetics.

　　“Not that good.” He shook his head in disagreement.

　　“Huh? This is the type you liked before,” Liang Hui explained.

　　“Maybe, but not anymore. My type has changed,” Chu Yi said.

　　Now, how to explain it, he likes the type that was upright and serious, who would wear a shirt buttoned all the way to the top, who from first glance looks hard to get. For example…

　　Hey, like the one sitting at the table next to theirs right now.

 　　That table seems to be a gathering of company colleagues. A group of young men and women were going crazy as they played what looked like ‘truth or dare’.

　　In the commotion, a girl in a short skirt stood up, blushed and walked to Chu Yi’s table, and asked “Hey handsome, can I add you to my WeChat?”

　　That was probably her punishment for losing a game.

　　Chu Yi generously took out her phone and said, “Sure.”

　　The girl thanked him repeatedly.

　　Chu Yi took the opportunity to ask, “Is that your colleague over there?”

　“Who?”

　　Chu Yi gestured with his eyes, at the most eye-catching one in their group. Handsome and indifferent, like the unattainable snow atop a mountain.

　“Ah, you mean our CEO Mr. Xu…”

　“Oh, that’s your CEO? Is he married?”

　“Mr. Xu formerly worked in one of our branch offices elsewhere. He transferred here not long ago. So, I do not know much about him.”

　　Chu Yi did not dig too deep and left it at that. He shook his phone and said, “It’s done.”

　　The girl thanked him again and then ran back to her table, where she met with a burst of laughter.

　　Chu Yi saw that even Mr. Xu had pursed his lips.

　　He looked better with a smile.

　　The air in the bar was warm and dry. Chu Yi pulled at his neckline and drank the remaining wine in his glass.

　　“Why do you drink so fast?” asked Liang Hui.

　　“It’s a bit hot,” replied Chu Yi.

　　“Are you okay?”

　　Chu Yi ignored him and ordered another drink. While they were drinking, something went wrong at the table next to theirs. One of the young men drank too much and clashed with a guest in the restroom. Now aggrieved guest’s friends came demanding compensation for medical expenses. There were not many people on their side, but some of them had tattoos on their arms, obviously not to be provoked[1].

　　There were many girls at that table. They were huddled together in fright. Chu Yi saw Mr. Xu come out to negotiate with the other party. He was obviously used to people making a scene and was not surprised at all. Clearly, he could handle such things with ease.

　　As soon as Chu Yi sighed in relief, he saw that young man say something, and suddenly the scene was out of control.

　　The group of people pushed and shoved. It seemed as though a fight would erupt at any time. Chu Yi’s sharp eyes caught a tattooed man quietly lifting a chair, planning to carry out a sneak attack.

　　And the target of his sneak attack … was Mr. Xu!

　　“Watch out,” Chu Yi yelled out and rushed over quickly. He was trained in self-defense and was fairly good at it. He arrived in time to block the chair with his arm. Mr. Xu was not bad himself. He immediately knocked down the tattooed man with just one kick.

　　The tattooed man howled in pain.

　　As soon as his scream was heard, pandemonium ensued. In the chaos, they couldn’t distinguish friend from foe. Chu Yi and Mr. Xu fought back to back. Together they manage to beat up several people.

　　The fracas did not end until bouncers appeared. The bar manager followed. He had an ugly expression on his face, but when he recognized Chu Yi, he immediately sported a smile.

　　Chu Yi was too lazy to socialize and left the matter to Liang Hui to solve. He turned around and heard Mr. Xu say, “Thank you very much.”

　“It is such a small matter. Don’t mention it,” Chu Yi raised the corners of his mouth. He knew that he was the most attractive when he smiled. “Anyway, it is out of blows that friendship grows.[2] My name is Chu Yi. What’s yours?”

　　The other party was stunned. He stared at him deeply, and then gave his name, “Xu Yue.”

　　Chu Yi thought that the name was pleasant, inspiring a cozy feeling in his heart, like a gently blowing spring breeze. Making friends should be done one step at a time, but when he spoke, what came out was something unexpected. He asked, “Mr. Xu, do you believe in love at first sight?”

[1] Tattoos are associated with gangsters and wannabes; often associated with an organized crime syndicate known as Triad (similar to Yakuza’s Irezumi). Involves culturally significant motifs such as dragon, phoenix, tiger, carp, etc. Tattoo aesthetics found elsewhere are slowly gaining traction in China now along with a slow decline in its exclusive association with gangsters, often because of how expensive they are.  

[2] 不打不相识 (Bù dǎ bù xiāngshí) – no discord no concord

There are two audio drama adaptations of Ex-boyfriend. You can listen to both with machine-translated subtitles on missevans.com for free. Unfortunately, both are incomplete as of 2 June 2022. Audio Drama 1 has only 2 episodes and only covers chapters up to 12. Audio Drama 2 has 4 episodes.

This novel is meant only for mature readers.
Please keep in mind that the PDF version contains the uncensored versions of chapter 2 and 12. You can find the STI and content warnings on the last page of the PDF. This book contains content that some readers may find disturbing.

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Translator’s Concluding Note

Novel

I came across Ex-boyfriend through its audio drama adaptation. Even though I was no stranger to audio dramas at that point, it caught me by surprise. Unlike the abridged version available on missevans.com (Mo Er FM), that version closely followed the uncensored version of the novel. But there were only 2 episodes of audio drama and to know the rest of the story I had to read the novel.

Sub-genres and Tropes

Within danmei[1] genre, Ex-boyfriend falls under the broad categories: modern[2] and drama[3]. Kun Yi Wei Luo uses some well-established tropes in the genre which may be foreign to newer fans.
1. Husband-chasing

追妻火葬场

zhuī qī huǒzàng chǎng

chasing his wife’s crematorium

This phrase is used to refer to a popular trope in mainstream romance genre,[4] derived from:

傲娇一时爽，追妻火葬场

àojiāo yīshí shuǎng, zhuī qī huǒzàng chǎng

“Tsundere was on his high horse for a while, now chasing his wife’s crematorium.”[5]

 The trope involves the love interest being initially cold (referred to as being tsundere[6]) or even cruel to the female protagonist who loves him. This continues until all of that love disperses. By then, the love interest would have come to his senses, eager to please and pursue the protagonist[7].

            Some stories are written from the point of view of the tsundere. Less frequently, the tsundere is a female or the love interest is a male (as is the case in Ex-boyfriend). Then, a variation of the phrase is used:

追夫火葬场

zhuī fū huǒzàng chǎng

chasing husband’s crematorium

            Ex-boyfriend follows that trope for most parts. Chu Yi failed to value and preserve his relationship with Xu Yue who loved him whole-heartedly. The novel is all about him chasing Xu Yue’s crematorium[8]. All his actions in the novel are attempts to get back the love which he discarded once.

2. Bingjiao

In the first trope the tsundere usually turns into a dedicated lover. Chu Yi is not exactly cold to Xu Yue. He just fails to reciprocate with the same intensity and remain loyal. So, he ends up being cruel. Husband chasing trope gets subverted by an added dimension to Chu Yi’s character: his obsession. He is a yandere or bingjiao[9] – Chinese equivalent of the archetype. Chu Yi’s obsession manifests in several ways throughout the novel, especially in his actions involving himself, his beloved and ex-lover.

3. Po Fu Chen Zhou

破釜沉舟

pò fǔ chén zhōu

break the pots and sink the boat

This idiom refers to actions that takes one to a point of no return[10].

The idiom is derived from Sima Qian’s account of Battle of Julu. According to it, Hegemon of Western Chu, Xiang Yu, broke pots and sank the boats after his entire army had crossed Yellow River, leaving them no way out. This is the same Hegemon with whom Chu Yi shares the Chǔ (楚) character in his name. Kun Yi Wei Luo introduced the similarity in name with the intention to highlight similarity in their characters.

Just like the Hegemon, Chu Yi goes all out in his attempt to save Xu Yue’s life. He takes decisions knowing well that there’s no turning back. His attempts to recapture affection is similar to Hegemon’s territorial conquests in terms of zest.

Translation

Growth of Boys’ Love genre, like several other modern cultural goods, is inextricably linked with the efforts of fan-translators. Over the years I have benefited immensely from their hard work. I translated this work as a tribute to all of them. This fan-translation is not done in any professional capacity. Just a fan translating for fans.

My one regret is the failure to translate the humor & the rhythm from original text. Even though the novel was not comedic, it had quite a bit of humor. Some of it was intrinsic to Chinese language: word choice and sentence structure, wielded well by Kun Yi Wei Luo’s genius. The same was the case with rhythm. Several parts which are delightful when read in the original text ended up sounding formal in translation as English offered too few equivalent idioms and far less maneuvering due to cultural difference.

            One such case was that of the following phrase:

醉生梦死

zuì shēng mèng sǐ

‘drunk life and dream death’

Kun Yi Wei Luo used the same phrase twice, both in relation to state of Chu Yi’s life. First was when Xu Yue imagines Chu Yi’s life in Chapter 18. Second was in Chapter 21 when Chu Yi is recollecting his life after Xu Yue died in the original timeline. It is later revealed that he had been lying. In fact, he was neither living nor dead as he had chosen to be frozen alive till he can return to seek reconciliation with his ex-boyfriend. That paired with the ambiguous ending, his truly was a kind of drunk life and dream death.

I am happy that you chose to read it despite all the shortcomings in this fan-translation.

[1] 纯爱 chún ài – literally ‘Pure love’ – anything erotic can only be an allusion due to censorship.

[2] as opposed to ancient, etc.

[3] as opposed to romance, etc.

[4] hetrosexual pairing, sometimes referred to as BG (boy-girl) as opposed to Boys’ Love (BL) & Girls’ Love (GL)

[5]Less literal translation: “All the indifference to your future girlfriend will turn into your sweat and tears in running after her.” (Source: shorturl.at/hEN56)

[6] Chinese equivalent – 傲娇 àojiāo refers to a person who is initially cold and even hostile towards another person before gradually showing their warm side over time.

[7] in some cases, the love is already lost (and the couple doesn’t reconcile) even irrevocably when the female protagonist is dead – hence, literal crematorium.

[8] [spoiler] since in the original timeline Xu Yue died

[9] a person with an unhealthy romantic obsession; the archetype of being genuinely kind, loving, or gentle, but suddenly switching to being aggressive or deranged, ready to use violent and murderous means to maintain an exclusive bond. (Source: Wikipedia, Jisho)

[10] To burn one’s boats