Any spoilers, for the current chapters must be behind spoilers or detail curtains. When we get further in you don’t need to hide details that were revealed in previous chapters.
Always mention where you are in the book when discussing, ideally by chapter so people reading different versions have a clear point of reference.
Feel free to read ahead if it’s exciting! But please refrain from spoiling ahead of the appropriate week
If you have a question about grammar, vocab, cultural things, etc - ask! That can be part of the discussion too and I’m sure some folks would be happy to help.
Even if you don’t read the chapter(s) in time, you are still encouraged to post in the thread for that reading once you have finished it. I advise not reading ahead in the threads as you may see spoilers.
I have finally got back on track!
I’m not sure if the difficult language is obscuring parts of the story or if the plot really is a bit random
Did anyone understand why the souls were all sealed in the pot to start with? Or how 寿雪 knew that 欧玄有 would return in spring?
There are books where I feel like it’s worth ploughing through the language to get the most out of the story, but I’m not sure if it really is at this point although I have been experiencing some burnout with Japanese reading so maybe that’s it
The souls are in the pot because 氷月 collected them up and sealed them in, back when he was still possessing 月下翁. At the time he was planning to use them as some kind of sorcerous familiar (p177: 使部にしょうと思ってのことだった), and this business with arranging for the pot to be delivered to the palace is not something he had in mind at that point.
欧玄有 will return in spring because that’s the way 花笛 are supposed to work (p140: 花笛は、本来、冬が終わるころ …). The tradition is that you hang them up in the eaves of your house at the end of winter, and the souls that died that year return with the first winds of spring, sounding the 花笛. 花娘 has been carrying this one around on her belt the whole time because it didn’t sound, indicating that her lover’s soul was stuck somewhere. Now he’s free, things go back to how they should be, and he’ll make that last return visit in spring.
“Koushun likes how Kajou has grown up into a graceful lady and is no more tomboyish” or sth like that and I was like but there’s nothing wrong with being a not so graceful woman
Well everyone thinks different I guess.
Anyway, this week’s reading really made me wish there was more focus on the fantasy side of the story. Like if we had more lore on how souls can reach paradise and how they fail to. Or how the magic system works. This chapter was more challenging thanks to the possession incident but still I couldn’t care a lot, because I didn’t know what to expect or what are the possible risks.
It not explaining the magic/lore up-front is one of the things I liked most about the book, personally. I’m so sick of fantasy books that feel like they need to dump the last thousand years of history and the exact parameters of how magic works - stitching together how it works from just what’s shown was refreshing.
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although I have been experiencing some burnout with Japanese reading so maybe that’s it 
I completely forgot that 
and that makes more sense with the souls!
