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Racism (against fantasy minority race), mentions of disfigurement
Huangdu City had ten major family clans, which were the Wu, Yao, Shang, Song, Ling, Wen, Yan, Lu, Zhang, and Yun families. Of the ten, the Wu family was the most powerful, and the other nine were all similar to each other in standing. The Yao, Shang, Song, and Zhang families belonged to one faction with the Wu family. So, the ones sitting in Wu Yuxue’s carriage were the young mistresses from the Yao, Shang, Song and Zhang families.
The other five families were led by the Ling family, and the Ling family was the Crown Prince’s maternal clan1Important note here: the Crown Prince’s maternal clan refers to the family clan that the Empress came from. Her family is the 凌 Ling family whereas the Crown Prince’s surname is 灵 Ling, which is probably the imperial surname of Tianxing. Only male and unmarried female members of the royal family can have the imperial Ling surname, so no one else in the entire Tianxing is allowed to have this surname. If other characters come up in the future, I will specify if they have the imperial Ling surname or the Empress’s family surname.. They were always at odds with the Wu family and the other four families who supported the second imperial prince. No one would give in to the other; if they ran into each other, they would expose each other’s faults and jab snidely at the other party. The person who had just jabbed at Wu Yuxue was someone from the Ling family2The Empress’s family clan., the Crown Prince’s biaodi3表弟 (biao di): one’s younger male cousin from their mother’s family. Ling Zisheng.
Even if Wu Yuxue had the Lord State Tutor backing her, she couldn’t beat Ling Zisheng who had the Empress as his backing. Because of that, even though she was clearly angry enough that her eyes were aflame, she still had to behave as though she couldn’t be bothered to get into a petty argument with the other party and returned to her own seat.
Zhi Tao hurriedly said to Wu Ruo and the others: “Young Master Wu Ruo, don’t listen to him! Our young mistress would absolutely never do such a thing.”
She hurriedly let down the curtain and sat back down.
Wu Yuxue looked at the other four precious young mistresses coldly: “If you don’t believe my words, then it’s still not too late for you to get off the carriage now.”
The four precious young mistresses met each other’s eyes; when they thought of the admonishments of their family members, as well as the invitation from the Lord State Tutor4By inviting their families along as someone with more powerful and influence, Wu Chenzi is showing his favour towards these four other families. If their daughters wilfully rejected the invitation, it could be taken as a snub towards Wu Chenzi and his prestige. Most who are in the weaker position in an exchange cannot afford to offend the more powerful person/party. Unlike in some Western cultures where families are considered a group of individuals, who can have independent opinions and preferences, in Chinese culture, and even moreso in these guzhuang setting novels, families are considered a singular unit made up of many individuals. However, everybody usually acts for the sake of the entire family unit., they could only harden their resolves5硬着头皮 (ying zhe tou pi): literally translates as ‘harden the skin on [one]’s scalp’. and continue accompanying Wu Yuxue to the Yao clan. In any case, it was only for one day. As long as they were more careful, it was probably unlikely for any accidents to occur.
Outside of the carriage, Wu Ruo turned around to glance at Ling Zisheng.
Ling Zisheng smiled at Wu Ruo, then squeezed himself back into his own carriage.
It was at this moment, someone shouted from the direction of the western main entrance: “The entrance is opening!”
Everyone was delighted, calling out one after the other: “The entrance is opening, they’re finally opening the entrance!”
Following that, with a ‘ga zhi‘ noise, the main entrance opened. If it was on a regular day, after the entrance opened up, it would be a path that led to other places in Tianxing. Now, after the western main entrance opened up, one could only see a layer of something that flickered like a screen of water. It wasn’t possible to clearly see what was outside.
Wu Ruo worried that along the ride, Dandan would get knocked into by other carriages, so he tugged the child back into the carriage to take a seat properly6Just to clarify, Dandan wasn’t outside of the carriage with his whole body. It was just the top half of his body hanging out of the window.. After that, he saw that everyone was staring at Hei Xuanyi with very stern expressions.
“What happened?” Wu Ruo’s expression was confused.
“…” Hei Xuanyi was also baffled by everyone’s looks.
Nu Mu rolled his eyes. Even someone like him who had only just arrived in Huangdu City for a few days knew what had happened, how was it that Little Hei was so obtuse regarding these matters?
Hei Xuantang hurriedly spoke up: “Father-in-law, Mother-in-law7亲家公，亲家母 (qin jia gong, qin jia mu): these are the terms to address the father and mother of the spouse of your relative. So for example, Hei Xuantang or any of Hei Xuanyi’s other family members can address Wu Qianqing and Guan Tong in this manner. Likewise, if Wu Ruo’s family members ever meet Hei Xuanyi’s parents, they can refer to them in the same way. This is a somewhat formal form of address. This is different from the terms for ‘father-in-law’ and ‘mother-in-law’ which are used by the husband and wife themselves. There are plenty of variant titles that can be used, so I’ll only point them out when they show up. If you’re curious, feel free to ask about it in the comments and I can elaborate there., I can guarantee to you on behalf of my dage. In this lifetime, my dage will only have dasao and he will definitely never marry a first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, or tenth concubine. Even if he wanted to, my dad and mum wouldn’t agree to it either. Our clanspeople only marry one person in their lifetime. Unless our other half dies, we would absolutely never consider the matter of another marriage!”
Hei Xuanyi, Wu Ruo: “…”
Which song-and-dance was Hei Xuantang performing? Why were they suddenly talking about taking in concubines?
Wu Qianqing and Guan Tong’s gazes turned to land on the child in Wu Ruo’s arms8Although we and the Hei family’s people are aware that Dandan was hatched from an egg, Wu Qianqing and the rest of Wu Ruo’s family are under the impression that Dandan is Hei Xuanyi’s child by some mysterious woman who he didn’t marry A.K.A he didn’t give her a proper status in his family. Footnote of this footnote: It was an absolute taboo to be a single mother without being a widow, and many families would consider a woman unpure and shameful if she had a child out of wedlock..
“My little nephew was absolutely an accident. But isn’t it better this way? In any case, dage and dasao won’t have any children in this lifetime. Now, with a child by their side, in the future when they grow old, they will also have someone by their side to take care of them.” Hei Xuantang looked at Wu Qianqing and the others pitifully: “Father-in-law, Mother-in-law, it can’t be that you can’t even tolerate a child, can it?”
“We didn’t mean that.” Guan Tong said, embarrassed: “Xuanyi is very outstanding in all aspects, it’s very normal that he attracts other maidens. We just don’t want to see Wu Ruo in a coma again because he was agitated.”
Previously, when Wu Ruo fainted into a coma, it really scared them half to death. Since even the physician couldn’t detect any reason for it, Wu Ruo had just laid on the bed unconscious for two days and two nights. If it wasn’t because Wu Ruo was still breathing, they were almost about to think that the person had already died. So they definitely didn’t want such a thing to happen again. What would they do if he was agitated into another coma and never woke up again?
Nu Mu raised an eyebrow: “Is Xiao-Ruo’s body condition that poor? He faints just from a little agitation?”
Wu Xi said: “Just a while back, my erge fainted because he was agitated by that young mistress from the Wu family.”
Wu Ruo held a palm to his forehead; he felt that this matter of fainting because he had been agitated would become a dark stain in this lifetime that would never be washed away.
“Dage, say something!” Hei Xuantang slapped Hei Xuanyi9It doesn’t specify in the text where he slaps Hei Xuanyi, but generally 拍 (pai) in this context refers to slapping someone on the arm, back, or shoulder..
Hei Xuanyi saw that everyone was looking at him, so he promised, very solemnly and earnestly: “I won’t have concubines.”
The corners of Wu Ruo’s mouth immediately rippled into a big smile. He wanted very badly to throw himself at Hei Xuanyi and give him a few firm kisses, but everyone was watching them so he was really too embarrassed to do such intimate things in front of them. As such, he planted a few big kisses on Dandan who looked very much like Hei Xuanyi.
Hei Xuanyi’s expression darkened and he picked the child up, dropping him into Hei Xuantang’s arms.
“Little Nephew, your father is jealous of you, but that’s okay, sishu will still dote on you.” Hei Xuantang leaned over to kiss Dandan as he said so.
Dandan hurriedly covered his little face: “I don’t want your kisses.”
Everyone was amused by his little actions.
At this moment, the interior of the carriage went black.
Before Wu Ruo could even react, he was pulled into an embrace by the person beside him and kissed on his lips. When he breathed in the familiar scent, he couldn’t hold back from returning the other’s embrace. He sucked hard on the other’s lips; in the midst of an anxious atmosphere, there was brief excitement, even the other person’s lips tasted more delicious than they usually did and he didn’t want to let go.
Guan Tong and Wu Xi hastily asked: “What’s happening?”
Wu Qianqing, who had participated in the Four Clans Festival once before, hurriedly reassured everyone: “Don’t worry, on the path from the human clan to the Gui clan, it turns dark. It’ll go back to normal after roughly half a joss stick’s time10It’s been a while since we’ve used a joss stick as a measure for time. As mentioned before, this refers to how long it takes for a joss stick to burn down once lit. The general consensus for that duration now is about 30 minutes, but historically, it has varied..”
“It’s quite frightening.” Wu Xi clung onto Guan Tong, who was next to her.
“Hn…” A low moaning noise could be heard in the darkness.
When everyone heard it, they felt an inexplicable sense of strangeness. However, because they couldn’t see each other, so they didn’t think too much about this noise.
Not long after, the interior of the carriage brightened up again.
Wu Xi let out a sigh of relief. When she saw that across from her, Wu Ruo’s face and lips were both red, she asked curiously: “Erge, what happened to you? Are you feeling unwell?”
Everyone looked at Wu Ruo.
Wu Ruo said steadily: “It just feels a little warm.”
Nu Mu and Hei Xuantang aimed meaningful looks at him; don’t think that no one knew just because the carriage had gone dark and they couldn’t see, but they had clearly sensed that Wu Ruo and Hei Xuanyi were kissing.
Wu Ruo was so abashed that he discreetly pinched Hei Xuanyi’s arm. It was all because this man had caused him to make a noise when they were kissing. It was a relief that his dad and mum didn’t know what had happened, otherwise, he would’ve been embarrassed to death.
Hei Xuanyi tugged on Wu Ruo’s hand and intertwined it together with his.
After the carriage travelled for roughly a joss stick’s time, it finally came to a stop. The guard outside the carriage said: “Master, carriages are not allowed any further ahead. Visitors are only allowed into the city on foot.”
Wu Qianqing said: “Let’s alight the carriage.”
“Hn.” Nu Mu, who was sitting by the entrance of the carriage, took the lead and got off of the carriage. Following after, Hei Xuantang carried Dandan and came out of the carriage. When Dandan saw that there were Gui clanspeople flying here and there in the air, he called out in awe and excitedly said: “Sishu, I want to fly too!”
“Tell Hei Yin to carry you and fly.” Hei Xuantang had just said the words, when Hei Yin materialized by their side.
Hei Xuantang handed the child over to Hei Yin: “Take good care of him.”
Hei Yin carried the child and asked: “Little Master, how do you wish to fly?”
Dandan pointed at the Gui clansperson who flew over above his head with a ‘shua‘ noise: “Just like that!”
“Alright.”
When Wu Ruo came out of the carriage, he saw Hei Yin carrying Dandan and flying into the air so he asked curiously: “Does everyone in the Gui clan fly around in the air?”
Hei Xuantang looked back and asked: “Dasao, have you never come to the Gui clan before?”
“No, I haven’t.”
Hei Xuantang explained: “If they’re not landing on the streets to purchase items, typically, Gui clanspeople will travel around by flying in the air.”
Wu Xi, who came out from the carriage, said: “Then it’s really convenient for them to make outings. They don’t need to ride a horse nor do they need to ride a horse carriage.”
“It is quite convenient.”
Wu Xi curiously looked to her left and her right: “Other than the Gui clanspeople flying in the air, all the sights11一景一物 (yi jing yi wu): literally ‘every scene, every item’. Yi usually means ‘one’ or refers to things singularly when counting items, but in a phrase like this, it conversely means ‘every (single one)’. are pretty much the same as Huangdu City.”
In their surroundings, there were mountains and bodies of water and trees all the same. The sky was blue and the ground was also made of soil, the people of the Gui clan were also dressed similarly to them. However, all the clothing materials on the Gui clanspeople were mostly mainly made up of black and white. Their appearances were also relatively uglier. It was very easy to differentiate who was a Gui clansperson and who was a human.
“In the scenery aspect, the Gui clan is the most similar to humans. But it might not be the same in other aspects.” Hei Xuantang pointed at the main entrance: “Let’s talk more after we get into the city.”
When they arrived at city entrance, they had to collect their registration token12Kind of like an guest entry pass, these registration tokens most likely have simple tracking magic on them so that the Gui can tell if an outsider is within the city and so that the outsider can be tracked to their location if necessary like a GPS tracker. before the Gui soldiers let them into the city.
The structure of the city and its buildings were about the same, however, the people of the Gui clan liked to paint their pillars, doors, windows, signboards and other such places into a gleaming, shiny black. The other parts used white as their main colour. The decor inside of the houses used various types of human bones. In that instance, it made the humans feel as though they had come to attend a funeral instead of coming to tour around for leisure.
Hei Yin, who was in the air, noticed that Hei Xuanyi and the rest had entered the city, so he carried Dandan to collect a city entrance token13Referring to the registration token that the others had collected two paragraphs ago. and followed Hei Xuanyi and the others’ tracks.
“Uncle14叔叔 (shu shu): this is the same shu that Dandan uses to address Hei Xuantang. This term refers to your father’s younger brother, or a male family friend who is generally younger than your father. In this case, since it’s a generic form of address rather than actually indicating the familial relationship between Dandan and Hei Yin, I have opted for using the closest English equivalent instead of leaving it in pinyin. Hei Yin, what’s that?” Dandan curiously pointed at a type of food that looked like the human clan’s tanghulu15糖葫芦 (tang hu lu): traditionally candied hawthorns on a stick. Nowadays, any type of fruit can be made into tanghulu..
“That’s called a gui skewer.”
Hearing this, Wu Ruo and the others also curiously looked over: “What type of food is a gui skewer?”
Hei Yin explained: “The outer layer is formed using gui energy, the insides are made of the meat from the corpses’ of various animals.”
When Wu Xi and Guan Tong heard this, they almost vomitted their breakfasts.
“To us Gui clanspeople, the gui skewer is a type of supplement but humans can’t eat it, it will damage the body.”
When Dandan heard that it couldn’t be eaten, his little mouth immediately pulled downward. He pointed at the fragrant, huge baozi16包子 (bao zi): white fluffy buns, typically with some kind of filling inside but you can get them plain as well. beside the gui skewers and asked with bright, shining eyes: “Uncle Hei Yin, can this be eaten?”
Hei Yin said: “The filling inside is human blood’s soup…”
Everyone: “…”
Dandan didn’t understand what human blood’s soup was: “I want to eat it!”
“You can’t.” Wu Ruo said with a dark expression: “Over here, we can’t buy any type of food.”
He looked at Dandan’s aggrieved little face, then also felt a little bad for him: “You can’t buy things to eat but you can buy toys.”
Dandan’s little face brightened up again.
Hei Yin said again: “All the little trinkets sold in the Gui clan are made with human bones.”
Wu Ruo: “…”
Would they still be able to have fun here?
Hei Xuanyi pulled Wu Ruo over to look at the huge inn in front of their eyes, and said to everyone: “Xiao-Ruo and I will be going somewhere else. Let’s meet at that huge inn ahead of us for a meal at wushi1711am to 12:59pm..”
Hei Xuantang smiled slyly: “Dage thinks we’re nuisances18嫌我们碍眼 (xian wo men ai yan): this one needs a little bit of breaking down. To xian something is to find it disdainful, and to think something is ai yan is to find it offensive to look at or to find it an unpleasant sight. In essence, Hei Xuantang is saying that Hei Xuanyi sees them as a whole bunch of third-wheels LMAO and wants to be together alone with dasao.”
Nu Mu smiled and said: “I’ll also go and walk around by myself, and buy the things that I need.”
Wu Qianqing nodded: “Then we’ll wait around that huge inn at wushi.”
Hei Xuanyi tugged on Wu Ruo and walked towards a side road.
When Wu Yuxue, who was following behind them, saw the two of them leaving hand in hand, she was so jealous that her eyes were red. She quickly lowered her head and instructed Zhi Tao in a quiet voice: “Find an opportunity to separate them.”
“Miss Wu, are you instructing your servant girl to do something horrible again?” A male voice came from behind them.
Wu Yuxue turned around and saw Ling Zisheng again, and her expression immediately darkened: “Ling Zisheng, I don’t have to report anything that I do to you. Also, please don’t follow us, otherwise it’ll make me think that you want to do something unlawful to us. When the time comes and I accidentally injure you, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“How ridiculous, I’m just walking behind you and you call it following you. There are so many people behind you, then doesn’t that mean everyone is tailing you? Besides, this is the only main road. If I don’t walk this way, where else would I go? You can’t possibly expect me to fly in the air like the Gui clanspeople?” Ling Zisheng laughed coldly, leading his own servants to walk past them. Then, he turned back: “You had better not follow me and use this road, otherwise, I’ll think that you’ve fallen for me.”
Wu Yuxue looked at him coldly but internally she had been infuriated half to death a long while ago. After Ling Zisheng had walked far off, then she said to the four precious young mistresses who had come along with her: “Let’s walk around separately.”
Wu Yuxue hastily left with her own people.
In that instance, the four precious young mistresses felt as if they had been relieved of a heavy burden. As if they were afraid that Wu Yuxue would take her words back, they hurriedly hid into one of the jewelry stores.
The precious young mistress of the Yao family patted her chest and said: “Just now when we were sitting aboard the horse carriage with her, I was really extremely scared! I was really worried that she would use the huarong liquid to disfigure us.”
The Zhang family’s young mistress said: “I was also extremely afraid at that moment. Before, when she let us alight the carriage, I really wanted to immediately alight the carriage. But when I thought about how her grandfather is the Lord State Tutor, and my grandfather is an official who is his subordinate, I held back the impulse to get off of the carriage.”
The Shang family’s precious young mistress frowned: “Do all of you think she really used huarong liquid to disfigure other women?”
“It’s true.” The Song family’s precious young mistress said with certainty.
The other three precious young mistresses looked at her: “Quick, tell us what exactly happened.”
“I’m not too sure about the specifics of what happened either. All of you know my gugu is Song Yan, who is also Wu Yuxue’s ersao. My gugu said that my cousin19Referring to Wu Yanlan. had previously seen with his own eyes that Wu Yuxue used huarong liquid to destroy some beautiful woman’s appearances. Until now, that woman still hasn’t had any improvements. On top of that, my other cousin20Referring to Wu Yanli. was also the same! A few days ago, when I went to visit her, I was simply frightened silly by that face. That beautiful face was corroded beyond imagination, and was only left with a little bit of skin and flesh. Moreover, there was also a thick, awful stench coming from her face. I just didn’t dare to linger in her room for long…”
As she was saying this, the Zhang family’s precious young mistress tugged on her sleeve, gesturing to her to turn around and look.
When the Song family’s precious young mistress turned back, she was met with the sight of Wu Yuxue standing at the entrance and staring coldly at them.
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