DEAL HUNTER — SIMPLIFIED CHINESE TRANSLATION
QUESTIONS FOR THE AUTHOR / OPERATOR
Updated: 2026-10-19 13:44 UTC

Answer by number. A recommended default is given for each; "use all defaults"
is a valid answer and lets the work continue without waiting.

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A. SOURCE AND EDITION
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Q1. Is the original manuscript DOCX available anywhere?
    The controller bundle (manifest.jsonl) has the full English text, but it
    stores sentence-level utterances, not the DOCX paragraph boundaries. We
    reconstructed 3,047 paragraphs with a documented heuristic. The exact
    paragraphing can be recovered only from the DOCX (or the live project on
    the audio node).
    Recommended default: proceed with the reconstruction, flag paragraphing
    for author review, and switch to the DOCX if it is supplied.
    Why it matters: paragraph breaks are visible to the reader; they are not
    recoverable from the bundle.

Q2. Is this a reading edition or a translated audiobook script?
    The source contains audio-specific front matter ("Welcome to the audio
    book...", "Sample Track", "Opening Track") and a closing "thank you for
    listening" track.
    Recommended default: reading edition (ebook/print). Keep the audio
    front matter as a short "音频版序言" section, and adapt the closing track
    into a 后记.
    Why it matters: it decides whether we translate the audio framing
    literally or rewrite it for readers.

Q3. Title treatment?
    "Deal Hunter" is both the book title and the ship AI's name.
    Recommended default: keep the English title on the cover and in the
    text: 《Deal Hunter》, with the Chinese subtitle 交易猎人. Never translate
    the AI's name.
    Why it matters: translating the title breaks the in-story referent.

Q4. Approve the name and title table?
    Current renderings: Kainda = 凯因达; Duchess Victoria = 维多利亚公爵夫人;
    Aunt Vicky = 维姬姑妈; Nanny = 南妮; Romano = 罗曼诺; Adric = 阿德里克;
    Kabir = 卡比尔; Adonai Maul = 阿多奈·莫尔; Willamina Wake = 威拉米娜·韦克;
    Xu Ming = 徐明; B. D. Murphy = B·D·墨菲; Umbra Audio = Umbra Audio.
    "Duchess" is currently 公爵夫人. The earlier sample used 女爵, which is a
    different rank; 公爵夫人 is the accurate form.
    Recommended default: use the current table, with 公爵夫人.
    Why it matters: names and ranks are identity; a wrong rank is a social
    error, not a stylistic choice.

Q5. Simplified or Traditional Chinese, and which market?
    Recommended default: Simplified Chinese, Mainland vocabulary and
    punctuation (zh-CN).
    Why it matters: vocabulary, measure words and punctuation differ.

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B. VOICE, REGISTER AND CONTENT
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Q6. Register and style?
    Recommended default: contemporary literary Chinese; narration in clear
    written Chinese with restraint; dialogue colloquial and characterful;
    no translationese, no pile-up of 成语, no explanatory additions.
    Character voices: Kainda direct/curious/impatient; Hunter dry and
    businesslike; Nanny gentle and literal; Victoria composed and warm;
    Romano hearty and commercial; narrator restrained.
    Why it matters: the book's voice is the product.

Q7. How should profanity, violence and sexual references be handled?
    The source includes pirates, captivity, rape/adultery in the author's
    note, and combat.
    Recommended default: preserve the source's level; do not soften or
    amplify; flag anything that would read as gratuitous in Chinese.
    Why it matters: this is an editorial/legal decision, not a translation
    preference.

Q8. Units, currency, measurements and cultural references?
    Recommended default: keep credits and invented units; keep the source's
    measurements (no conversion); use 郑一嫂 for Zheng Yi Sao; no footnotes
    unless a reference is unintelligible to a Chinese reader.
    Why it matters: conversion can introduce false precision.

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C. FRONT / BODY / BACK MATTER
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Q9. Which front and back matter should the Chinese edition include?
    Source pieces: Sample Track (voice introductions), Opening Track,
    Copyright, Author's Note, Closing Track.
    Recommended default: include Copyright, Author's Note, a short audio
    preface (Sample Track/Opening Track combined), and a 后记 adapted from
    the Closing Track. Drop duplicate lines.
    Why it matters: the audio tracks do not map 1:1 onto a reading edition.

Q10. Copyright page and translation rights?
     The English page carries ISBN 979-8-9998438-8-3, text copyright © 2023
     B. D. Murphy, audio production copyright ℗ 2026 WorstAuthor LLC.
     Recommended default: keep the English notices, add a Chinese line only
     if the author confirms the translation copyright holder and year.
     Why it matters: a translation is a separate copyright interest.

Q11. Chapter numbering?
     The database has 27 body chapters (indices 0–26) and a Closing Track.
     The metadata says 28 novel chapters; the difference is stale metadata.
     Recommended default: number the 27 body chapters 第一章 … 第二十七章,
     and render Closing Track as 后记 (unnumbered).
     Why it matters: a wrong count is visible in the TOC.

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D. OUTPUT AND REVIEW
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Q12. Output shape?
     Recommended default: one combined AsciiDoc file and one combined ODT
     (plus PDF for quick review), with a title page, copyright page, TOC,
     running header and page numbers. Per-chapter files can be generated
     later from the same model.
     Why it matters: it decides the renderer's page/style model.

Q13. Typography?
     Recommended default: A4; Noto Serif CJK SC 11 pt; 1.5 line spacing;
     2-em first-line indent; justified body; chapter headings 20 pt bold;
     running header "Deal Hunter · 交易猎人"; footer page number.
     Why it matters: Chinese text at 11 pt with 1.5 spacing is comfortable
     for review; the reviewer may prefer 12 pt / 1.75.

Q14. Review artefacts?
     Recommended default: ODT + PDF reading copy, a flagged-issues JSON,
     and a bilingual side-by-side HTML review page (review.html). A CSV
     export can be added if the reviewer prefers spreadsheets.
     Why it matters: the critic should produce a workable queue, not a wall
     of text.

Q15. Model and machine budget?
     Current setup: qwen3.5-9b drafts; lfm2.5-2.6b analyses;
     deepseek-r1-8b (fallback qwen3.5-9b) critiques. The 27B model is
     available but not loaded.
     Recommended default: finish the sample on the current models, then
     decide whether to load the 27B for the final full-book pass.
     Why it matters: the 9B runs at roughly 6–10 tokens/s; the full book is
     a multi-hour job. The 27B would be slower but more literary.

Q16. Run the full book now, or approve the sample first?
     Recommended default: approve the sample (front matter + Chapter 1 +
     back matter), then launch the full run in the background.
     Why it matters: a full run is an estimated 8–9 hours of machine time at
     the measured rate, and is much cheaper to correct after the voice is
     agreed.

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E. OPERATIONS
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Q17. Where may the production data live?
     The UmbraTrans repository is public. The English source and the Chinese
     translation are copyrighted text and must not be committed there.
     Recommended default: keep `productions/` git-ignored; keep only the
     tooling and these three documents in Git.
     Why it matters: committing the book to a public repo would publish it.

Q18. May the pipeline add new glossary entries automatically?
     The analyst proposes names it does not know; the drafter currently
     leaves unknown names in English rather than inventing transliterations.
     Recommended default: collect proposals in a review file; add them to
     the glossary only after approval.
     Why it matters: unapproved transliterations fork the naming scheme.
