Patriarch Deathblade's Dao of Translation

Translating a Chinese fantasy novel chapter

He tries to unlock the door, holding the grocery bags in one hand and the keys in the other, but forget this man, not even the most tenacious person would be able to endure. He snorts coldly as he leaves the bags on the floor, preparing to use both of his hands to unlock the door, sure that it will never be able to resist him if his hands are free. After the door has been opened he picks up the bags once again and walks in. Indeed this is everyone's favorite translator - Jeremy Bai, or as most people know him - Deathblade. The first thing DB hears after he enters his apartment is a question: "Jeremy did you remember to buy milk?". Immediately he answers "Of course I bought milk, and coffee too!". He took off his shoes, put the jacket on the hanger and walked into the living room. Sighing, he sat down in front of the computer, preparing mentally for the trial of fire that lied in front of him. After preparing for about the time it takes for about half a stick of incense to burn Deathblade felt ready.
He opens the raw chapter and reads through it once. His brows furrowed when he had read about two thirds of the chapter, as so far nothing of much difficulty had appeared. After finishing the chapter he starts working his way through the characters sometimes checking possible different translations of a word. He breezes through the first half, thinking to himself how he'd been worried for nothing but just at the moment this thought appeared it was gone. Pupils constricting, he coughs out a mouthful of blood, having been caught by surprise. During the initial reading he never realised that there was some wordplay, a Chinese saying of sort, and that due to the cultural differences could never be understood by the westerners. To translate it into English while keeping the meaning would require him to give it his all. He drew upon 120% of his knowledge and pulled out multiple dictionaries from his shelf of holding. Deathblade snorted coldly, a hint of mockery could be seen in his eyes. "To think a mere saying would dare to attempt a sneak attack after hiding in an otherwise simple chapter, humph! Maybe if it was my first encounter with something like this you could hope to achieve something, but now you simply stood no chance. But still to make me draw upon so much knowledge I have to admit, it was decent."
The rest of the chapter was a breeze, no challenge for Deathblade at all. After finishing the chapter, he sent it over to his editor and stood up. After stretching, he checked his watch realising that time about that needed for two incense sticks to burn had already passed. Although that surprised him a little it didn't shock him too much as it had happened before.
As Deathblade's walking towards the kid room he hears baby Deathblade playing happily with a toy. Letting out a sigh of relief he goes in the living room to sit on the couch. After relaxing for a bit, Db realises he hasn't checked the comments on the most recent public chapter. After deleting a spoiler comment from his phone and answering a few comments he notices  a notification appeared on top of the screen about him being mentioned in a tweet by someone he doesn't remember seeing before. With a bit of interest he opens it just to realise it is only another foolish question "Is the Qi in Bai Qi's name the same one as in qi in traditional Chinese culture?". "Of course not just because it sounds the same doesn't make it the same character you fool." was what he thought, but not what he was going to write in his own tweet. Instead he opted in for a nice explanation that the two characters have no relation besides the fact that they're read the same way. Dissapointed in being tweeted at for something this simple, Deathblade decides that's enough precious time wasted on social media...