Illustration: Xia Qing

Chinese idioms

 蝎了虎子
(xiē le hǔ zǐ )
Gecko

A: You don't look good. Didn't have a good sleep last night?
怎么这么没精神？昨儿没睡好？
(zěn me zhè me méi jīng shén ？zuó ér méi shuì hǎo ？)

B: Too many mosquitoes at home. I barely got any sleep yesterday.

家里蚊子太多了。一宿没睡。
(jiā lǐ wén zǐ tài duō le 。yī xiǔ méi shuì 。)

A: Geckos can deal with the mosquitoes.

有壁虎可以吃蚊子啊。
(yǒu bì hǔ kě yǐ chī wén zǐ ā 。)

B: My daughter is scared of them. So I drove them away with insecticide.

别提了。我闺女怕蝎了虎子,让我前些天给打药熏跑了。
(bié tí le 。wǒ guī nǚ pà xiē le hǔ zǐ ,ràng wǒ qián xiē tiān gěi dǎ yào xūn pǎo le 。)