Tā shàyǒu-jièshì de qīng le qīng sǎngzi, qíshí shénme yě méi shuō.
He theatrically cleared his throat and then said nothing at all.
Tips
culture
Originally a Jiangsu-Zhejiang dialect expression (吴语 area) meaning ‘as if it were really something’. Written 煞 (shà, ‘very/really’) + 介 here is a dialect filler = ‘this’.
mistakes
煞 is read shà (4th tone) here, not shā (‘to kill’). The alternate writing 像煞有介事 is also seen, but 煞有介事 is the standard four-character form.
