@Kokuto


Haha, I think most people in Gaoxin don't know their princess at all, and have no chance to really know her. After all, Ah Nian will definitely not contact ordinary people. What they know about her must be limited to: she is very beautiful, the only daughter of the beloved king's only Feizi, and his majesty loves her very much, etc. If I am a citizen of a kingdom, and my country has only one princess, her father is a good king, her beauty is famous far and wide, and I don't know anything else about her, I would at least not dislike her :-)

 ZYHLJ:
That's okay, if possible, let’s meet next year, looking forward!>_< 

Yes, fingers crossed we will meet one day!


 ZYHLJ:
I am very picky about dramas. Not only does the quality of the drama itself have to be good, but it also has to be in line with my interests at the time. I waited for many dramas for a long time and gave up after watching the first episode.

Likewise. I remembered being very excited about a kdrama several years back, but when it finally aired, I could not get past the first few episodes, which was such a disappointment.


 ZYHLJ:
I agree with you, 琅琊榜 is really good, but I haven’t watched 琅琊榜 2. After watching this video, I decided to try it :-).

Yay! Do let me know how you find it!


 ZYHLJ:
I don’t know much about Du Chun, but I have watched the variety shows he participated in. He is a man with a high IQ. He kept winning with his brain when playing games, haha!

Do you mean 孙淳 Sun Chun, who played 长林王 in NiF2, or 杜淳 Du Chun?In the case of Du Chun, I properly watched him in a few dramas only - 时空来电 (C-remake of Signal), 云中歌 (unfortunately he wasn't my ideal Meng Jue). Don't think I watched him in variety shows before. Sounds like a formidable competitor there! He is with TJC in 四方馆 so that's my chance to see his next drama.


 ZYHLJ:
Do you watch variety shows? I am following "The Chinese Restaurant" and "Divas Hit the Road", they are good! 

I watched some episodes of 中餐厅 before, but haven't followed it recently. Never watched Divas Hit the Road. The one I do regularly follow is Hi!6 你好星期六 , which gives me so much joy and laughter. In the past, I mostly watched singing competitions -  声入人心, 我们的歌 (love 勤深深 - have been a huge fan of Zhou Shen for years, and the combination of his and Hacken Lee's voice is a match made in heaven), 我是歌手 etc.


 ZYHLJ:
I also want to watch Winner is King, but to be honest, I feel that it is better to wish that it is spread privately than to wish that it is broadcast. Because according to current censorship standards, if it is broadcast publicly, it is likely to be cut to the point where even the original author cannot recognize it... But if it is spread privately, maybe we can see the entire content. But of course, the management will most likely try their best to get it to be broadcast publicly so that they can at least recoup their costs, and for that they will be willing to wait longer, so I don't hold out much hope right now. I would be impressed if they are willing to actually "give" this show directly to us

That is also a good point. I hope to watch it, but I am also afraid that whatever we do get to see, if it is ever available, is either disappointing, or butchered beyond recognition. Sometimes, it is better never to have seen it at all, so that the beautiful impression we had is not destroyed. 


 ZYHLJ:
Regarding A Life Time Love, I didn't even watch the drama, just the stills are enough to scare me away. All the costumes are so strange, Chi You is dressed like Tarzan... But, let's wait, in our lifetime, this story will definitely be remade :-)

I know right? The costumes, and Chi Chen's entrance left me jaw-slacked. I'm glad you are so confident about a remake - will borrow your confidence to bolster mine and give me hope!


 ZYHLJ:
Regarding the word "ancient" in Kissing Xiang Liu, the original text is "古朴". Google translated it as "simple", to which I can only wrinkle my nose. So I changed it into "ancient". Although I'm still not totally satisfied with it, it's much better than "simple". Do you have any adjectives come to your mind? One possibility why the author uses this word is that, as you said, the heroine comes from the future world. I have not found conclusive evidence for this. Another possibility is that the font used in the book title is not a modern font, such as official script(隶书), small seal script(小篆),  or bronze inscriptions(金文), they all give people an ancient feel. Or is it possible that the cover design itself (vertical format old stationery) makes the title look ancient?

That is a good point. It could be the font, or perhaps it used 繁体 traditional Chinese similar to the posters of the drama - 長相思, or it could be the formatting of the words. 

古朴 - hm... that is tricky. I might translate it as "simple, old-worldly charm" or "old-worldly simplicity", which would then imply the appearance of the book title was not fancifully decorated, but had an air of old-worldly simplicity. Do you think that is closer to what the words mean?

 

 ZYHLJ:
I'm also very curious about grandpa's true identity! It would be so fun if he is actually Maoqiu, and, at least we know he lived a happy life in our world :-D

YES! I don't think that it is Xiang Liu... unless! Xiang Liu travelled to her world, to provide her the conduit (via the books) that would transport her to his universe so that they would finally meet, in the form of a causal loop? 

 Kokuto:
THIS would totally be my monkey's paw.  Wish to enter the world of LYF to save XL ... and end up in the body of A Nian.  The only thing worse would be to end up in the body of Jing.

LOL. Perhaps as the latter, you would actually redeem the character, and enable YaoLiu to actually have a happy ending? 

A Nian does redeem herself in future, even more so in the drama, since she would take on Sir Bi's role, and is very much involved when Xiang Liu saved Xiao Yao the last time, and later help him deliver his wedding gift to her.

 plor20:
Ah yes! You pretty much summed up what I've been trying to explain in one sentence. lmao! Yes to this. The blood oath needs to be fulfilled, no ifs and no buts.

I'm waiting to see how this will play out. 


 plor20:
Old habits are hard to change. XY left without any healing, so she will be continue to avoid and live in peace through her coping mechanism. Like they say, "ignorance is bliss."

Avoidance, willful ignorance and denial have been XY's coping mechanisms for a long time. Her refusal to think about things that she finds too difficult or painful is some strong cognitive avoidance. Until she learns to accept/to sit with difficult emotions, learn that avoidance does you more harm than good in the long run, and learn that facing situations truthfully and honestly gives you power and more choices, she will never grow or truly heal. Cancerous cells don't disappear just because you refuse to acknowledge them. They will simply multiply and cause you more problems down the road.


 plor20:
I wanted to rewrite the scene where she sat for 7 days and never jumped into the sea. This where she breaks through her stubbornness, but unfortunately, she was able to do it in her dreams only.

The character's passivity after she reclaimed her female form and identity will never not be a shame to me. She appeared to devolve and didn't really evolve into someone better after that.

 liddi:
I was smitten by his Yang Kang in 射雕英雄传 Legend of the Condor Heroes even though he was pretty much an anti-hero, and he was my favourite among TVB's 五虎将 Five Tigers (Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Felix Wong, Kent Tong, Michael Miu). He has aged beautifully and delivered a great portrayal of Huang Yaoshi in the 2007 Legend of the Condor Heroes.

He is still my favourite Yang Kang and Chor Lau Heung after all these years. He and Tony are my two favourite Tigers. Tony's Wai Siu-Bo in The Duke of Mount Deer is a family favourite - we watch that series often. I haven't seen Michael Miu in The Legend of the Condor Heroes 2007, but I can see him making a very dashing Haung Yaoshi. The man is looking amazing - he has always had that dashing charm about him and it's still quite apparent. 


 liddi:
In the novel, 夏雪宜 Xia Xueyi was only mentioned in flashbacks - by Qing Qing's mother Wen Yi, the Wen elders, and later He Hongyao, and of course Yuan Chengzhi who found his remains and paid his respects to him, so everything was always from a 3rd person POV. Nonetheless, he made such an impression that I found myself actually eagerly waiting for the next time he was mentioned in the novel!

That was what I thought as well. It goes to show, that you don't need to be the main character or how often you appear in the story; the audience will respond to characters that are intriguing or compelling in some way. Much like with XL. I actually remembered reading that Jing Yong wrote in an intro to one of the editions of the book that the main character in the story was Yuan Chong-huan (Yuan Cheng-Zhi's father) and the second main character was Ha Suet-Yee. Yuan Cheng-Zhi's role didn't even get a mention. I thought that was rather fascinating since the story follows Yuan Cheng-Zhi's quest. 

 

 liddi:
It's still early days - Tian Er had just made her appearance, so the heartache hasn't started yet. But seriously, listening to it gives me a whole new appreciation for the novel and this medium, finding myself flinching or grinning as I listen, so all's good. It would be perfect if TJC was the one narrating Xiang Liu's lines!

The narrator makes or breaks an audiobook, IMO. A beautiful, soothing expressive voice can add so much to the story - could paint a beautiful tapestry and transport you into the story. TJC should look into doing some audiobooks. I don't understand a word he's saying, but when I watched him in Love My Voice, I found his voice to be very pleasant. I'll just put it on and fall asleep to it :-)

 Kokuto:
THIS would totally be my monkey's paw. Wish to enter the world of LYF to save XL ... and end up in the body of A Nian. The only thing worse would be to end up in the body of Jing.

Just think of the good that you could do, Kokuto. You can change Jing into a better character. No more spinelessness, cowardliness and zero-character growth. He'll get character growth and become someone who is genuinely kind but also has convictions and the ability to take action. He will be dignified and know that he's worth more and deserves more than being a second choice.  

 ZYHLJ:
Regarding the word "ancient" in Kissing Xiang Liu, the original text is "古朴". Google translated it as "simple", to which I can only wrinkle my nose. So I changed it into "ancient". Although I'm still not totally satisfied with it, it's much better than "simple". Do you have any adjectives come to your mind? One possibility why the author uses this word is that, as you said, the heroine comes from the future world. I have not found conclusive evidence for this. Another possibility is that the font used in the book title is not a modern font, such as official script(隶书), small seal script(小篆), or bronze inscriptions(金文), they all give people an ancient feel. Or is it possible that the cover design itself (vertical format old stationery) makes the title look ancient?

Hmmm.  When I used Google Translate, it said "quaint" not simple.  Quaint would fall into the definition of not a modern font or idiom, or old fashioned, but charming.  Like if a book were titled, Thou Art Love, and written in medieval script.


 liddi:
That is a good point. It could be the font, or perhaps it used 繁体 traditional Chinese similar to the posters of the drama - 長相思, or it could be the formatting of the words.

古朴 - hm... that is tricky. I might translate it as "simple, old-worldly charm" or "old-worldly simplicity", which would then imply the appearance of the book title was not fancifully decorated, but had an air of old-worldly simplicity. Do you think that is closer to what the words mean?

Yes, it sounds like the words of the title were written in an older style of calligraphy, and quaint and old world charm are similar.

 HeadInTheClouds:

Just think of the good that you could do, Kokuto. You can change Jing into a better character. No more spinelessness, cowardliness and zero-character growth. He'll get character growth and become someone who is genuinely kind but also has convictions and the ability to take action. He will be dignified and know that he's worth more and deserves more than being a second choice.  

Humpf.  Both of those character first need to think of someone other than themselves and gain some self esteem.   Maybe A Nian did so in the novel, but she hasn't in the drama.  Jing ... I don't know if it is possible.  smh


 liddi:

LOL. Perhaps as the latter, you would actually redeem the character, and enable YaoLiu to actually have a happy ending? 

A Nian does redeem herself in future, even more so in the drama, since she would take on Sir Bi's role, and is very much involved when Xiang Liu saved Xiao Yao the last time, and later help him deliver his wedding gift to her.

I totally could allow YaoLiu to have a happy ending.  I'd throw Jing off a cliff into a group of chum maddened sharks.  There would be NO way to fix that XL!  You'd have to cough up a life for XY.

Hmmmm.  Well, I'd have to see that, but from what I remember, A Nian was mostly paying a debt to XL.

 ZYHLJ:
Guys, the first chapter of my translation was born! :-)

Summary: A modern reader of novel Lost You Forever who loves Xiang Liu very much accidentally time-traveled to the Dahuang world, and became princess Ah Nian on her way to Qingshui Town. She changed Xiang Liu's fate and eventually became his love. A long novel with a happy ending, one chapter updated (translated) each week.

Thank you. Looking forward to reading this story.

I think translating the story will have an amazing, positive impact on your language ability ZYHLJ. I know that my Vietnamese has improved thanks to the times I've spent interacting in Vietnamese on Vietnamese LYF groups. I'll credit XL for the improvement. 


 ZYHLJ:
That's fine, let's just wait, maybe you can come with @liddi next year :-)

A trip to China is definitely on my bucket list, so if you're around when I'm coming, I'll definitely be hitting you up for where to eat and places to see :-)


 ZYHLJ:
You reminded me that I should find out about this in advance. Is it really that difficult? !

The Viet's fans are already saying that they will be difficult to get a hold of. It is best to be prepared if you really want to go. 


 ZYHLJ:
"The series will follow XL rescuing and adopting Chubby and their adventure across Da Huang with XL as an assassin. "—Give you pen, please write it as soon as possible, I can't wait for a minute!!

As much as I would love to write some XL's fanfiction (I think it would be very cathartic), I don't have any skills in this area and don't even know how to start constructing characters or world-building. Creative writing was always my worst unit in English class. I would absolutely read a story following this premise. Anything with XL, really; I would read. 


 ZYHLJ:
I think the most unreasonable thing is to use the duration of scenes to determine the importance of a character. If so, then the person sitting across from you in your office is definitely the most important person in your life

Hah! This is a humourous way to illustrate your point :-). But, I agreed. The importance of the character also lies in the impact that they made on the story and on the readers/viewers. I've read books and watched shows/movies where the main characters are as interesting as watching paint dry, and the secondary characters are the one who add colours to the story and captured my imagination. In LYF, XL is the character that left an impression and stayed with me long after everything else had faded. And I think, this is the same for the majority of readers out there. Poor CX, he's the male lead, but hardly anyone talks about him.


 ZYHLJ:
In fact, after LYF aired and Xiang Liu became very popular, Zhang Wanyi and Deng Wei did fall into some kind of embarrassing situation. However, Deng Wei has a large number of fans to help him pile up numbers. As for Zhang Wanyi...I once saw someone saying viciously, "Who is he as the first male lead? The first male lead who is totally crushed by the second and the third male lead?"

It's a shame that the actors get shamed liked that. You can't always played the most popular, breakout character, and as  long as you did your part in acting out that character, you should not be mocked for being overshadowed.

XL was already the most popular character from the novel, coupled that with TJC's wonderful performance and it's no wonder that drama's XL captured audience attention. Even with the purist XL's fans from the novel who disliked the changes to his character in the drama, you barely find any of them criticizing TJC's acting as the character. Either that, or they dropped the drama eons ago :-)

Unlike with XL, I felt like DW's fans and the backing behind him helped Jing's popularity rather than people liking Jing (although, there are definately Jing fans out there). CX was already a ghost the novel, and ZWY doesn't have the kind of looks or previous idol romance dramas background, or backing that would help to boost the character popularity.


 ZYHLJ:
But at least, just like Cang Xuan, he endured injustice but maintained his dignity, and has always been cooperating with the promotion and defending the drama, unlike someone else.

He didn't gained as much "heat" as TJC or DW from LYF (from my observation). I don't know how much the drama boosted his career, but hopefully, his acting got noticed and will bring him more opportunities in the future. I did noticed in interviews and promotions, that he doesn't seems to like Jing. It makes me laugh some of the shots that he took at the character and DW's good natured ribbing back at him for CX. It's a shame the whole thing with DW, hopefully it had really ended and no more issues cropped up like that again.

 Kokuto:
Humpf. Both of those character first need to think of someone other than themselves and gain some self esteem. Maybe A Nian did so in the novel, but she hasn't in the drama. Jing ... I don't know if it is possible. smh

To be fair to Jing and Ah Nian, XY is plenty self-absorbed and selfish as well. She also needs to gain some self-esteem and learn to deal with her issues instead of playing ostrich. 


 Kokuto:
I totally could allow YaoLiu to have a happy ending. I'd throw Jing off a cliff into a group of chum maddened sharks. There would be NO way to fix that XL! You'd have to cough up a life for XY.

Darn, Kokuto! I think plor, nathsketch's and I have to resign our president, treasury and secretary titles in the Jing's Club, cause you have all bases covered. LOL. I just want Jing to achieve character development, you want to feed him to the sharks...just replaced Carol with Kokuto ;-)

 Kokuto:
Hmmm.  When I used Google Translate, it said "quaint" not simple.  Quaint would fall into the definition of not a modern font or idiom, or old fashioned, but charming.  Like if a book were titled, Thou Art Love, and written in medieval script.

 Kokuto:
Yes, it sounds like the words of the title were written in an older style of calligraphy, and quaint and old world charm are similar.

Hmm... when I think of "quaint", it is always picturesque in addition to being old fashioned. Do you have the same impression? I am not as certain that this is the impression I get from 古朴. Reading up the Chinese dictionary, it describes it as follows:

朴素而有古代的风格  Simple / unadorned, with an ancient style

As such, I tend to veer more towards "old-world simplicity"


 Kokuto:
I totally could allow YaoLiu to have a happy ending.  I'd throw Jing off a cliff into a group of chum maddened sharks.  There would be NO way to fix that XL!  You'd have to cough up a life for XY.

You are just determined to make sure the fellow stays deader than dead, aren't you? With him out of the way, Cang Xuan out of the running due to his many consorts,  and Feng Long deceased, who else is there? If Xiang Liu is still determined to be stubborn in spite of everything, who knows, he might haul up your beloved, very unmarried Ru Shou as Xiao Yao's forever companion next? But, he is the one responsible for Xiang Liu's death in the end. Argh.


 Kokuto:
Hmmmm.  Well, I'd have to see that, but from what I remember, A Nian was mostly paying a debt to XL.

It started off as a debt, but ended as much more than that. A Nian had also gone into battle against Cang Xuan's forces when Xuan Yuan attacked Gao Xin, so she definitely grew up since S1. 

I just remembered that when asked which LYF female character he would like to be, TJC said he wanted to be A Nian because she was often cheerful while the other three (Xiao Yao, Xin Yue, Yi Ying) were usually unhappy. See! Even he endorses A Nian. So whatcha say? Thawed to her much?

 HeadInTheClouds:
I haven't seen Michael Miu in The Legend of the Condor Heroes 2007, but I can see him making a very dashing Haung Yaoshi. The man is looking amazing - he has always had that dashing charm about him and it's still quite apparent. 

You mean like this?

cr. Sohu

Now I'm tempted to rewatch the 2017 version just to skip to his scenes!


 HeadInTheClouds:
It goes to show, that you don't need to be the main character or how often you appear in the story; the audience will respond to characters that are intriguing or compelling in some way. Much like with XL. I actually remembered reading that Jing Yong wrote in an intro to one of the editions of the book that the main character in the story was Yuan Chong-huan (Yuan Cheng-Zhi's father) and the second main character was Ha Suet-Yee. Yuan Cheng-Zhi's role didn't even get a mention.

Agreed. It's not the amount of scenes they show up in, but the quality of the scenes they are in, imbued because they are in it. Xia Xueyi is one such character, Xiang Liu is another - staying with the audience long after that. And when we're lucky, we actually see these well-loved characters brought to life on screen by actors who have immersed themselves in their characters.

I didn't realise Jing Yong wrote such a preface! Would definitely be interested to see what Jing Yong had to say. Yuan Zhonghuan was an upright, honourable man, but Xia Xueyi is a lot more grey in comparison. Do you remember where you read it? Interestingly enough, while the 1985 drama was not as well-known, Michael Miu apparently said in a 1986 interview that among all the TVB roles he played, Xia Xueyi, not Yang Kang, was the character he was most satisfied with in terms of his own portrayal.

cr. zhihu


 HeadInTheClouds:
The narrator makes or breaks an audiobook, IMO. A beautiful, soothing expressive voice can add so much to the story - could paint a beautiful tapestry and transport you into the story.

Agreed. And I second TJC narrating audiobooks. LMLMV was a vehicle for him to showcase his talents, and he has proven that voice-acting / narration is one of them. Even his singing voice has a quality that captures so much emotion in it - I loved his and Yang Zi's duet of Favouring Mortal Fireworks far more than the official version exactly because I feel the emotions behind the lyrics in their version.

 plor20:
Thank you for your fanfic. It was very happy and quite satisfying, and a very fitting ending. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Thank you @plor20! That made my day. ^^


 ZYHLJ:
The set of books was at the highest place. The orange light shone on the book cover, and the three words "长相思" were particularly mysterious and ancient.

 liddi:
长相思, the 2013 novel is ancient?? Is Nian Liu from sometime far in the distant future? 

 ZYHLJ:
Regarding the word "ancient" in Kissing Xiang Liu, the original text is "古朴". Google translated it as "simple", to which I can only wrinkle my nose. So I changed it into "ancient". Although I'm still not totally satisfied with it, it's much better than "simple". Do you have any adjectives come to your mind? One possibility why the author uses this word is that, as you said, the heroine comes from the future world. I have not found conclusive evidence for this. Another possibility is that the font used in the book title is not a modern font, such as official script(隶书), small seal script(小篆),  or bronze inscriptions(金文), they all give people an ancient feel. Or is it possible that the cover design itself (vertical format old stationery) makes the title look ancient?

 liddi:
That is a good point. It could be the font, or perhaps it used 繁体 traditional Chinese similar to the posters of the drama - 長相思, or it could be the formatting of the words.



古朴 - hm... that is tricky. I might translate it as "simple, old-worldly charm" or "old-worldly simplicity", which would then imply the appearance of the book title was not fancifully decorated, but had an air of old-worldly simplicity. Do you think that is closer to what the words mean?

 Kokuto:
Hmmm.  When I used Google Translate, it said "quaint" not simple.  Quaint would fall into the definition of not a modern font or idiom, or old fashioned, but charming.  Like if a book were titled, Thou Art Love, and written in medieval script.

 Kokuto:
Yes, it sounds like the words of the title were written in an older style of calligraphy, and quaint and old world charm are similar.

 liddi:
Hmm... when I think of "quaint", it is always picturesque in addition to being old fashioned. Do you have the same impression? I am not as certain that this is the impression I get from 古朴. Reading up the Chinese dictionary, it describes it as follows:

朴素而有古代的风格  Simple / unadorned, with an ancient style

As such, I tend to veer more towards "old-world simplicity"

"Ancient" seems like a good choice that isn't too clunky for this context ZYHLJ

To make the word work a bit better in context, it might help to say that these three words "felt" like the two adjectives that are used (e.g., ancient and mysterious), rather than to say that they "were" these adjectives. If the words "长相思" inherently were ancient and mysterious, the author wouldn't have any need or reason to tell the reader that that those words had those characteristics (especially in the original fic where everything would all be in one language). But if the person observing those words in the story felt that those words had certain characteristics when observing them, then it would make sense for the author to convey that information to the reader.

The set of books was at the highest place. The orange light shone on the book cover, and the three words "长相思" felt particularly ancient and mysterious.

As a side note, I don't know if there is an actual grammar rule that can explain this, but as a native English speaker I would put "mysterious" as the second word (i.e., after "ancient"). It feels slightly off the other way around. 

One possible alternative to "ancient" that might also work would be "primitive". 

The set of books was at the highest place. The orange light shone on the book cover, and the three words "长相思" felt particularly primitive and mysterious.

"Primitive" has many meanings, including: "being the first or earliest of the kind or in existence, especially in an early age of the world", "characteristic of early ages or of an early state of human development", "old-fashioned", "simple", "unsophisticated", "crude", "unrefined", or "rudimentary".

The benefit of that word is that it can simultaneously convey the characterisitic of simplicity and being very old. 

However, it might not be a perfect choice because it might seem to suggest that the three words being described belonged (or felt like they belonged) to a period that is too far back in history (e.g., a period before the development of more sophisticated civilizations with complex written languages). 

OMG I feel like I must post my thanks right now, Ladies, you are really helping me with the translation super super seriously, love you guys! =3= Reply to you tomorrow & modify the translation! >_<

 liddi:
Hmm... when I think of "quaint", it is always picturesque in addition to being old fashioned. Do you have the same impression? I am not as certain that this is the impression I get from 古朴. Reading up the Chinese dictionary, it describes it as follows:

朴素而有古代的风格 Simple / unadorned, with an ancient style

As such, I tend to veer more towards "old-world simplicity"

Okay, running the whole phrase through, I realize that the word / part that I was getting 'quaint' for was translated as 'ancient' -- and that works fine.  It's 'mysterious' that google translates as 'simple.'

So, I'm thinking the idea is that the three words were written in an ancient, but clear, calligraphy.  So perhaps one of these or a variation?

the three words "长相思" were bold and written in an ancient style

the three words "长相思" were elegant in ancient calligraphy

the three words "长相思" were distinct, even if they were written in ancient calligraphy

the three words "长相思" were poignantly simple, even written in an ancient script


Wait.  Maybe I'm confused.  Was this phrase from the fan fiction or was it the definition of quaint, liddi?

朴素而有古代的风格

 

 AH :
To make the word work a bit better in context, it might help to say that these three words "felt" like the two adjectives that are used (e.g., ancient and mysterious), rather than to say that they "were" these adjectives. If the words "长相思" inherently were ancient and mysterious, the author wouldn't have any need or reason to tell the reader that that those words had those characteristics (especially in the original fic where everything would all be in one language). But if the person observing those words in the story felt that those words had certain characteristics when observing them, then it would make sense for the author to convey that information to the reader.

The set of books was at the highest place. The orange light shone on the book cover, and the three words "长相思" felt particularly ancient and mysterious.

That's a good point.  Perhaps the ancient calligraphy gave it a mysterious air.  There's definitely something about those 3 words that caught the protagonist's attention.


 AH :
One possible alternative to "ancient" that might also work would be "primitive".

Hmmm.  I'm really not feeling this word for the latter reason.  It gives the impression of lacking in sophistication and pre-civilization.