Many of the jokes in this drama are play on words or idioms and cannot be translated in the subtitles. Here are some of those I've come across and I will add a simple explanation for them. Those from earlier episodes I will add after a rewatch.
Let me know if there are any I left out or anything u want to clarify. : )
From my comments last week:
There's also epi 7 or 8 when YM calls the group of them 白吃 (eat for free but bai2chi1,白痴=idiot) after AS brought them bowls of desert but made YM pay for his. ? They all turned to scold him.
Another one was during the bird cage shooting competition, AS says the bad guy is 身怀六甲(shenhuailiujia= pregnant) because he has 6 甲(jia3= grade A/first).
Epi 15: YM is locked up with WKW. He exclaims that if he dies, AS will 黑发人送黑发人. Black haired person sends off black haired (in a funeral).
The usual phrase is 白发人送黑发人. White haired person sends off black haired. Meaning the elders(usually parents) mourn the death of the young.
Epi 19: When AS wanted to leave YM. She tells him 你走你的阳关道,我过我的奈何桥, (you walk your path, i cross my bridge). But she says the wrong bridge NaiHe Qiao which is a bridge in Hades where souls cross to reincarnate. There, an old woman MengPo will give them a bowl of soup to erase their past lives' memories.
YM tells her it should be 独木桥DuMuQiao.
Epi28/29:
YM and AS are in the clothing store. AS chooses clothes for Uncle Kang who has been coughing. YM grumbles that after wearing them, Kang Fu Shi will definitely Kang Fu (recover).
YM laments DuoMi's letters to AS are kept in a green box. "Wearing green hat" means the wife is having an afffair and so the husband is being "greened".
Epi34:
-At the start of the episode, the 4 main characters are celebrating in a hall with the plaque 自得其乐 zideqile which means to find amusement in one's own way.
-Drunk YM suggests that he and WKW become sworn brothers but mistakenly says 拜天地 pray to heaven and earth which is used in wedding rituals instead.
-YM and AS are greeted by DuoMi. DM and AS exchanges praises while ignoring YM. YM says that Dayong has a saying to describe DM, "什么改不了什么’’( something can never change something). In fact he is hiding a crude phrase which has the same meaning as a leopard can never change its spots, 狗改不了吃屎 (dog cannot change habit of eating poop). Luckily DM replies with a much elegant saying with the same meaning. Lol..