Lucky in Love

In a previous episode, Simon chatted with Da Wei who was heartbroken after breaking up with Xiao Lin. They are now talking again, but Da Wei starts to look on the brighter side of life.

             hǎo jiǔ méi jiàn le ，nǐ jīn tiān qì sè bú cuò ā
Simon：好久没见了，你今天气色不错啊。
             Long time no see. You look good today.

                hā hā ，suàn mìng de shuō wǒ jīn tiān yào zǒu táo huā yùn
Da Wei：哈哈，算命的说我今天要走桃花运。
                Haha, a fortune-teller said today I will be lucky in love.

              gōng xǐ ā 。kàn ，xiǎo lín guò lái le
Simon：恭喜啊。看，小林过来了。
             Congratulations. Look, here comes Xiao Lin.

                 dàn yuàn bié pèng yī bí zǐ huī jiù hǎo
Da Wei：但愿别碰一鼻子灰就好。
                If only I could avoid being rebuffed.

After greeting Simon, Da Wei can't help disclosing that he will "走桃花运zǒu táo huā yùn;" which literally means “to have peach blossom luck". This phrase refers to "being lucky in love”. In most cases, we only say that men will have "桃花运". To get a better understanding of the phrase, we can read this story first:

In ancient China there was a poet and scholar named Cui Hu. One spring, after studying very hard, Cui decided to take a rest and go outside. After a long walk, he became very tired and thirsty, so he looked for a place to rest and have a drink of water. Upon noticing a house with 桃花 (táohuā, peach blossoms), Cui knocked on the door and was greeted by a beautiful girl. As he quenched his thirst, the two didn't talk much, but the attraction between them was obvious. Without mentioning his feelings, Cui left the house and returned home.

The next spring, the familiar sight of peach blossoms reminded Cui of the beautiful girl and he decided to search for her. He went back to the same house, but the girl wasn't home. He wrote a poem on the door, which is still popular among many people. Days later, he continued his search and once again returned to the girl's house. On his trip Cui discovered that the girl was home but had been refusing to eat and was slowly dying. The girl wasn't ill. Instead, after seeing the poem written on the door, the girl thought she had missed her chance to meet Cui Hu and stopped eating as a result of her sorrow. Upon seeing Cui Hu, she quickly recovered. The two married and led a very happy life together.

The story spread, and because of the 桃花táohuā (peach blossoms) in the love story, people began to refer to this kind of love affair as "走桃花运 (zǒu táohuāyùn)" or "交桃花运 (jiāo táohuāyùn)." For example, "很多大龄单身青年希望走桃花运" means "Many single young people who are starting to advance in age hope to get lucky and find their special someone."

In the last sentence,"碰一鼻子灰" means “to be rebuffed after trying to please someone." One more example, "她向经理提出这个问题，却碰了一鼻子灰" means "She was rebuffed by her manager after raising the matter."