While discussing the difference between airships and zeppelins with some King’s Empire colleagues this morning, a new phrase that I hadn’t seen before emerged: ??.

The two characters are ? (t?ng, to recline) and ? (qi?ng, gun). In combination, this phrase means to be shot and killed while in a reclined position – which means to be innocently struck by surprise.

This came about when some colleagues noticed that a new unit in King’s Empire, the ?? (f?i t?ng, flying boat) was named Zeppelin rather than Airship. Unusually, it wasn’t me who translated the name of this unit, so the question publicly posed to me was: “Why would you name the ?? a Zeppelin? Is that the best word?”

The answer is, I did not, and Airship is more appropriate. To which another colleague replied: “Brother Charlie was ??’d (??????, chá g? chéng g?ng t?ng qi?ng), or innocently targeted.

When I asked what the phrase meant, this is how it was explained to me: ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????“???????????”??? ??????!”