那是颇费了些心思 张公子
“to win the ink selection. Mr. Zhang.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
听闻钱塘林家 为了在选墨中胜出
“I heard the Lin family of Qiantang is going to great lengths”
那是 颇费了些心思 张公子
“to win the ink selection. Mr. Zhang.”
“The Lin family merely played some petty tricks.”
“They definitely worked hard on it, but don't mistake their scheming for genuine skill.”
Educated speakers often use neutral or seemingly polite phrasing to acknowledge an opponent's craftiness before devaluing it.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
spent quite a bit of thought/effort
A refined, literary expression that can praise ingenuity or subtly insinuate manipulative scheming depending on context.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“All your scheming,”
“so much effort”
“It really took me quite a lot of effort.”
“go to such great lengths to hide a travel permit?”
“It took me quite a lot of trouble to take him.”
“I went to great lengths”