Big thanks and a shout-out to biki for sending me a laptop so that I can translate LWSL more conveniently!
The next morning, after Wu Ruo, Hei Xuanyi and the others finished breakfast, they brought some gifts with them and boarded their carriage, leaving Hei Manor. This time, because Wu Xi had to go and learn magic from Wu Chenliu, so, she didn’t go along with them.
When they arrived at the Wu estate, Wu Qianqing gazed at the crimson red main gates, frowning: “I hope there won’t be any more unpleasant incidences happening again.”
Every time he came here, he always felt a sense of oppressiveness; he disliked this place extremely.
Wu Ruo and Hei Xuanyi met each other’s eyes, unspeaking.
When the steward found out that Wu Ruo and the rest had been invited by the Lord State Tutor, the steward hurriedly invited them inside with a smile. Because Wu Chenzi had invited Wu Ruo and the others to have dinner, so, they went to visit his 3rd-great-grandfather first.
Although Wu Ruo’s 3rd-great-grandfather was a son by a legitimate wife, but his magic skills were not out of the ordinary, so because of that he had been assigned to a courtyard that was more remote. In comparison to other courtyards, the number of guests and servants going in and out were much less, the atmosphere was cold and deserted. But for his 3rd-great-grandfather and 3rd-great-grandmother, who were at the advanced age of more than two hundred years old, this was a place that was very suitable for living out their retirement, since nobody would come and disturb them.
Their spiritual level wasn’t very high, so it was already quite a feat for them to live until two hundred years of age. And also because of this, their appearance was already extremely aged, their hair had gone almost translucently white unlike any other that Wu Ruo had seen before, and their faces were also full of wrinkles and dark spots. On top of that, their eyes and ears were both going, so they often couldn’t recognize people properly or couldn’t hear what everyone was saying. When they tried to walk on their legs, they would start trembling. They were obviously people with one foot already in their graves.
This was Wu Ruo’s first time1In text, it actually doesn’t say it’s his first time. It says ‘this was Wu Ruo meeting his 3rd-great-grandparents’, but the sentence doesn’t make sense along with the rest of the prose and so, I’m assuming the author forgot to type in ‘first time’ into the sentence. With JYB’s track record of typos and missing words, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was another of them. meeting his 3rd-great-grandfather and 3rd-great-grandmother. In his memories from his previous lifetime, the two elderlies wouldn’t live past the spring of the following year.
Because the two elderlies had problems with their hearing, and couldn’t hear them talking, after Wu Ruo, Wu Qianqing and the others had accompanied the old folk for lunch, they left that courtyard and headed to the courtyard where the Gaoling City Wu family were recuperating at, to see Wu Xuanran and the others.
Before the four of them had even entered the courtyard, they could already hear someone shouting arrogantly: “A quack doctor! A quack doctor! All of you quack doctors, administering these ordinary medicinal ingredients to us, how could you possibly cure us?”
The physician who was treating them had had enough of these people, they were so infuriated that they kicked the chair next to them: “Is it this old man who is a physician, or are all of you the physicians? Whatever medicine I want to prescribe is up to me. If all of you don’t want me to help cure you, then you can hire another talent, for all you know, maybe some other physician may be able to cure all of you!”
“We have an imperial edict! If you don’t treat us, then you can wait to be beheaded!”
“On the imperial edict, it dictates that Lord State Tutor must cure all of you, providing all of you with the best medicinal ingredients, that has nothing to do with me! All of you can get Lord State Tutor to hire another physician, I won’t entertain any of you any longer.”
Following that, an old man who had a white beard left the courtyard in a fit of exasperation, carrying a medical kit.
“Physician Yang, Physician Yang, they’re only too worried that their injuries can’t be cured, that’s why they spoke so terribly. Please don’t hold it against these younger generations.” Wu Bofang anxiously chased after him.
Physician Yang ignored Wu Bofang, flinging his sleeves aside and leaving.
When Wu Bofang saw Wu Ruo and the others, he smiled awkwardly.
Wu Ruo and Wu Qianqing met each other’s eyes, then entered the courtyard together.
The Gaoling City Wu family members were all sitting inside the courtyard, waiting for the physician to treat their injuries. When they saw Wu Ruo and the others entering in bright and new clothes, the clamorous courtyard turned extremely gloomy in an instance.
Wu Qiantong couldn’t hold his tongue2In Chinese, it’s technically ‘mouth’ instead of ‘tongue’ but I’ve chosen to use the common English phrase to prevent any confusion.: “Come to have a laugh at us, haven’t you?”
Wu Ruo replied immediately: “That’s right.”
“You…!”
Wu Qianbin quickly held back Wu Qiantong’s arm, indicating to him not to argue with Wu Ruo. Right now, whether or not they could cure their injuries all relied on the imperial edict in Wu Ruo’s hands. Without the imperial edict, Wu Chenzi wouldn’t bother with them at all, nor would he allow them to make such an unreasonable fuss over here.
Wu Ruo watched everyone, being angered but not daring to speak up, and felt incomparably delighted in his heart: “Dad, since we’ve already come here and taken a look, then let’s go.”
Wu Qianqing took one look at his own dad and mum, then nodded and turned around to leave.
Wu Xuanran and Mu Xiuwan wanted to call Wu Qianqing back, but then they thought about how nothing could be done even if they did hold him back; they couldn’t leave the Wu estate after all, otherwise, who would provide the money for them to recover from their wounds?
After Wu Ruo left, Wu Qiantong spat in annoyance. He’d originally wanted to say some unpleasant things, but just thinking about it was annoying, so he directed all his anger towards Wu Xuanran: “Hey, your darling son is about to leave. Why don’t you go and chase after him quickly, and ask him to find the best physician to cure your ailments?”
These words angered Wu Xuanran to his feet: “You unfilial thing!”
“I have no way to be filial to the person who chopped off my leg.”
Wu Xuanran looked at Wu Qiantong’s leg, felt guilty internally, and didn’t continue arguing with him3Quick reminder: there’s a brief mention of Wu Xuanran accidentally chopping off Wu Qiantong’s left leg during a dispute in Chapter 100..
Someone said: “Now that the physician’s gone, what should we do?”
“Get Lord State Tutor to find another physician for us.”
The courtyard became clamorous again.
Wu Qianqing, who hadn’t gone far off yet, sighed: “Xiao-Ruo, the two of you will be meeting Lord State Tutor in a bit, your mum and I won’t be going along. I’ll go and bid farewell to 2nd-great-grandfather and the others4A.K.A Wu Ruo’s 3rd-great-grandfather, the old man that they just had lunch with, then we’ll go straight back to Hei Manor.”
“Alright.”
After Wu Ruo and Wu Qianqing separated, they got the servants in the manor to bring them to meet Wu Chenzi.
They had just arrived at the main courtyard, when Wu Yuxue’s personal maid, Zhi Tao came forth to welcome them, bowing to them in greeting: “Lord State Tutor will only return after shenshi53pm to 4:59pm., so my mistress instructed me to escort the two young masters to the main courtyard’s pavilion for some tea first.”
Wu Ruo’s lips curled up into a smile: “Then we’ll have to trouble you.”
Zhi Tao lowered her head with a bashful expression and thought in her heart: this man’s smile was even more beautiful than her mistress’s!
At the pavilion, Wu Yuxue had already been waiting for a long time. From far away, when she caught sight of Hei Xuanyi walking over, she hurriedly tidied up her flashy robes. When Wu Ruo and Hei Xuanyi walked closer, she personally went forth to invite them to take a seat. She suppressed her infatuation towards Hei Xuanyi, and maintained her usual loftiness and said: “Today, inviting the two of you here, firstly, it’s to make a formal apology, and secondly, I’d like to explain that trespassing into Hei Manor was not something that I did willingly.”
Honestly speaking, those few days that she’d been enspelled by the gu parasite, she couldn’t remember what had happened at all.
Wu Ruo feigned confusion and looked at her: “I wonder what Miss Wu means by your latter statement? Oh, that’s right, if we consider things by generation, it’s only respectful for me to address you as gunainai6姑奶奶 (gu nai nai): by title, this is a respectful way to refer to the sister of your paternal grandfather. However, the nai nai part of the title makes Wu Yuxue sound incredibly old. It’s basically the same way you would address your paternal grandmother. Fun fact, this is the same title a woman would use to refer to herself arrogantly/vulgarly in modern times!
As an aside, by connecting the dots, Wu Chenzi should be from Wu Ruo’s 2nd-great-grandparents’ generation. I can’t remember if this was previously established in the narrative before, but just including this footnote in case it hasn’t come up before..”
When Wu Yuxue heard the words ‘nai nai‘, her face briefly distorted into an unpleasant expression: “The difference in our age isn’t that much, so let’s not consider it by generation. You can just call me Miss Wu, or Yuxue.”
Of course, she hoped that Hei Xuanyi would call her Yuxue the most. But it was a pity, ever since arriving at the pavilion, Hei Xuanyi hadn’t spoken a single word, and simply sat there with his eyes closed, drinking tea.
“Alright, then it’ll still be best for me to call you Miss Wu. You mentioned that trespassing into Hei Manor wasn’t something that you did willingly, what did you mean by that?”
Wu Yuxue explained: “Those few days, I’d been enspelled with a gu parasite, and only behaved so rudely because I was being controlled by someone else. I hope that you can forgive me. To be honest, those days that I was enspelled by the gu parasite, I had no idea what happened at all.”
Wu Ruo knew that these words weren’t a lie, and smiled: “So that’s what happened. Our people didn’t recognize Miss Wu, and mistook Miss Wu for an assassin, that’s why they would injure you, I hope you can forgive us. I wonder if Miss Wu has been able to capture the person who enspelled you with a gu parasite?”
“Not yet.” Wu Yuxue was also extremely offended by the person who had enspelled her with the gu parasite, causing her to embarrass herself so badly in front of the person she liked. According to what she had heard about that day, she had been thrown outside of the manor by the Hei Manor bodyguards.
At this moment, Hei Xuanyi stood up and walked over to the side of the flower nursery next to the pavilion, quietly admiring the flowers at the front.
Wu Yuxue said hesitantly: “This, he’s…”
Wu Ruo smiled: “Although Xuanyi doesn’t like to talk much, but he likes admiring flowers. The flowers in your garden have bloomed so beautifully, how could he pass up the opportunity to look at them?”
When Wu Yuxue heard this, she hurriedly looked for an excuse and said: “There are many different species of flowers in the garden, he definitely won’t be able to recognize all of the flowers here. I’ll go and introduce them to him. Zhi Tao, serve Young Master Ruo properly.”
“Yes, miss.”
Wu Ruo lifted up his tea cup, hiding the curve of his smile.
Wu Yuxue walked over to Hei Xuanyi’s side: “Xuanyi, I can call you Xuanyi, right?”
Hei Xuanyi ignored her.
Wu Yuxue continued speaking: “The flower in front of you is called hong men xue, don’t mistake it for a peony just because of its appearances, it’s actually a kind of medicinal ingredient. All the flowers in this garden can be refined into medicinal pills. If you’re interested, I can explain all of them for you.”
Hei Xuanyi lifted his hand and brushed against the center of the flower, and suddenly said: “The person is more beautiful than the flower.”
Wu Yuxue was stunned, her snow white cheeks were immediately stained with a smear of ruddiness. This man was praising her? Did that mean that he liked her as well?
She was extremely happy, but she very quickly noticed that something wasn’t quite right.
Hei Xuanyi wasn’t looking at her, and he wasn’t looking at the flowers either, but instead…
Wu Yuxue followed the direction of his gaze and saw a beautiful woman wearing magnificent robes, with the support of several servant girls, that woman was walking past them gradually.
That beautiful woman naturally noticed that someone kept staring at her. At first, she felt especially angry, but when she noticed that the person staring at her was a man whose appearances were incomparably handsome, her face warmed up in that moment. She could no longer hold herself back and kept glancing towards Hei Xuanyi.
Wu Yuxue’s expression immediately darkened.
The beautiful woman had also seen Wu Yuxue, after a moment’s hesitation, she walked over toward Wu Yuxue: “Li-er7Similar to the 小 xiao prefix, the 儿 er suffix turns a name into its diminutive form. This person is referring to themself in a cutesy manner. greets xiaogugu.”
“Yanli, how come you have the time to take a stroll around the main courtyard today?” these words were practically forced through the gaps of Wu Yuxue’s teeth. This beautiful woman wasn’t anyone else but Wu Yanli, the most beloved daughter of her oldest brother8Editing this chapter after translating a later chapter and I realized JYB refers to Wu Yanli’s father as both Wu Yuxue’s dage and her erge. I’m not sure if JYB is tripping, or if I missed something, but I don’t think it’s a big deal since he’s just a minor side character. If the identity crisis resolves, I’ll be sure to edit this. and also Wu Yanlan’s younger sister.
Wu Yanli realized that there was something strange about the way Wu Yuxue looked at her, so she hurriedly lowered her head and said: “Today, I had some leisurely time, so I thought I would come out and take a stroll around. Li-er wonders if I have bothered xiaogugu?”
Not only was Wu Yanli bothering her, she was practically trying to steal Wu Yuxue’s man, this wretched bitch! Wu Yuxue clenched her fists tightly within the sleeves of her robes, but her expression was still full of smiles: “Grandfather is entertaining some important guests in the garden today, it would still be best if you head back first.”
Wu Yanli looked at Hei Xuanyi, a little reluctant, and nodded her head: “Then Li-er will take my leave first.”
Hei Xuanyi’s gaze followed after her as she turned around and left.
Before Wu Yanli left the main courtyard, she couldn’t help but turn back to take another look.
Hei Xuanyi didn’t look away until her silhouette couldn’t be seen anymore, then he returned to the pavilion to take a seat.
Wu Yuxue glared viciously in the direction that Wu Yanli had left. Taking a deep breath, she turned around and returned to the pavilion, asking with a smile: “I heard that Xuanyi has a son, is that true?”
If this matter was true, then it showed that Hei Xuanyi didn’t actually like men from the beginning, and she also had a higher chance of getting Hei Xuanyi to like her.
Wu Ruo smiled and replied: “Miss Wu certainly is well-informed.”
“So you mean Xuanyi really does have a son? Then why wasn’t he brought along to the Wu estate?”
If you enjoy my translations, please consider dropping me a one-time tip or joining my monthly recurring membership tier on Ko-fi. Reading the novel chapters without an ad-blocker will also help to support my translations. Thank you!
