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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- A. SOURCE AND EDITION --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- B. VOICE, REGISTER AND CONTENT --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- C. FRONT / BODY / BACK MATTER --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- D. OUTPUT AND REVIEW --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- E. OPERATIONS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.