Metaphors are ubiquitous as they are a way for people to understand the world, and are usually translated by the strategy of either domestication or foreignization. The translators conducted a translation practice of “Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life” by applying a cognitive integration system to analyze the metaphorical devices of SKIN, GAME, SKIN IN THE GAME, and how their integration processes affected the translators’ decisions on the target versions in different contexts with various linguistic choices. The translating practice proves that, in different contexts, with different life experience and existed knowledge, the translators might present different degrees of autonomy and ways-of-seeing the world in the source text and linguistic preferences in the translation. Many selected linguistic choices applied in translation practice are intentional in nature and are a part of translators’ cognitive world, which are compositionally active with their knowledge background and extensional, referential and personal experiences. This finding provides an empirically-grounded analysis of cognitive integration in translation practice, attempting at bridging the gap between research in discouses analysis, conceptual structure, and language production in translation.