Big thanks and a shout-out to biki for sending me a laptop so that I can translate LWSL more conveniently!
Click here for content warnings
Extreme and explicit mistreatment of minor character, disabled minor character, graphic abusive treatment of disabled minor character, ableist language, descriptions of influenza-like illness
Song Yan’s bodyguards let the Spittle Snake out, and the Spittle Snake slid straight towards Wu Yuxue.
Ever since the Spittle Snake had been captured by Wu Yuxue, it1Right now, the Spittle Snake has no human form and the text refers to it with the 它 (ta) pronoun so I have chosen to use it/its for this particular Spittle Snake. had suffered all kinds of torture. It was forced to spit out large amounts of its saliva, and Wu Yuxue even frequently injured it so that she could use its blood to develop different kinds of poison. As a result, it hated Wu Yuxue to death and had once sworn a blood oath: if it was able to escape from Wu Yuxue’s control one day, it would bite this woman to death.
Wu Yuxue’s face was pale and she hastily took out a magical equipment, yelling at Shang Zhirong: “Mum, Mum! Come save me quick!”
She had only been able to capture the Spittle Snake because of the efforts of many people. At that time, other than her, everyone who had been involved in capturing the Spittle Snake had all died.
The Spittle Snake saw that she wanted to recruit reinforcements, and viciously put all its force into a leap, rushing towards Wu Yuxue.
Wu Yuxue was so terrified that she shrieked, quickly throwing out the magical equipment.
The Spittle Snake agilely avoided her attack and opened its mouth wide, about to bite Wu Yuxue’s face.
Wu Yuxue tried to run away as she hurriedly took out a defensive magical weapon. Suddenly, someone grabbed her shoulder and shoved her forward, directly welcoming the Spittle Snake.
The Spittle Snake ruthlessly bit onto her face, ripping forcefully. A whole piece of live skin and flesh was abruptly ripped off by the Spittle Snake, and it swallowed the flesh into its belly.
Wu Yuxue let out a shrill, bone-chilling shriek and turned around to look at the person who had grabbed her by the shoulder. Her eyes widened in disbelief; the person turned out to be the grandfather who had doted her since she was a child.
Wu Chenzi let go of her shoulder expressionlessly.
Wu Yuxue was in so much pain that she didn’t want to continue living, and collapsed onto the ground. Following closely, the saliva corroded every inch of her face. She yelled in despair: “Ah! My face! My face! Mum, my face is in so much pain!”
She was in so much pain that she flailed around on the floor. In just a brief moment, her pretty face has been corroded until there was only rotten flesh left.
“Xue-er, Xue-er!” Shang Zhirong hastily crawled over to Wu Yuxue’s side: “Xue-er, are you alright?”
She flipped Wu Yuxue around to take a look; when she saw the rotten face, she was so frightened that she let go of both hands.
When Song Yan saw Wu Yuxue in this state, she was incomparably satisfied in her heart.
The people of the Yao family all discreetly swallowed their saliva. In their hearts, they were both thundershook and also a little afraid because Wu Chenzi had simply changed his attitude too quickly. Just a while ago, he was still insistently protecting his own granddaughter but in the next moment, he mercilessly held his own granddaughter down for the Spittle Snake to rip apart, uncaring of her survival.
In their hearts, they subconsciously gained a sense of wariness toward Wu Chenzi. It was better to guard oneself securely against such a person.
Wu Chenzi looked at the Yao family members with a chilling expression: “Are all of you satisfied with this settlement?”
The Yao family members: “…”
“If you don’t speak up, then I’ll take it that you are satisfied. In the future, don’t bring this matter back up again.” Wu Chenzi’s tone of voice was absolutely severe.
Yao Jinghui nodded his head stiffly, hastily bidding a farewell and leaving with all his descendants.
Wu Chenzi’s forbidding gaze turned toward the little snake that wanted to escape and he said angrily: “Bastard! Don’t you dare think of escaping!”
He flung out a daoling2道灵 (dao ling): the dao character here is the same one as in Taoism/Daoism, and the ling character is the same one as in spiritual energy. It’s a talisman full of Daoist spirit. talisman and with a ‘ping’ noise, the green Spittle Snake exploded into a pile of minced meat.
Wu Chenzi looked down at the sobbing mother-daughter pair: “I will find a physician to cure Xue-er‘s face for her.”
After he said this, he swept his sleeves aside and walked towards the entrance. Before he left, he swept a cold look at Song Yan. After that, he stepped out of the main hall.
Song Yan was so frightened that she collapsed onto the ground on her butt. Wu Chenzi probably already bore a grudge against her.
That night, Wu Yuxue disappeared from the Wu family’s massive residence.
Three days later, in the morning, after Wu Ruo and Hei Xuanyi had had their breakfast, they once again received a message that Ling Mohan3JYB makes the hilarious typo of ‘Ling Xuanyi’ here. Is the proofreading here in the room with us in LWSL? had sent over. It instructed them to head to the biggest restaurant in Huangdu City, Yi Pin Xiang4一品香 (yi pin xiang): literally ‘first-grade fragrance’. The fragrance here doesn’t just refer to perfumes, but it’s also a word that can be used to refer to delicious-smelling food.; as for the specifics, it wasn’t mentioned.
Wu Ruo was extremely curious about the reason why Ling Mohan had invited him over, so he followed Hei Xuanyi in a carriage to Yi Pin Xiang. At this timing, there were many esteemed customers going in and coming out of the restaurant so there were particularly more beggars begging here too. When the servers chased one beggar off, another would come to take their place. However, there was one beggar that was extremely special. They had been tied to a pillar by the main entrance5Structurally speaking, if you’ve watched a guzhuang series before, you’ll notice that many stores would have two to three steps leading up to a little veranda of sorts before the actual entrance of a building. Normally, there are pillars to each side of the steps. That is probably where this beggar has been tied to. by someone else, and the restaurant manager and servers actually didn’t chase that beggar to leave either.
When Wu Ruo and Hei Xuanyi alighted from the carriage, the first thing they saw was this beggar wearing dirty black robes. The beggar’s hair was so messy that it looked like weeds and their face was so rotten that it was impossible to recognize their original appearance. All the jingmai6经脉 (jing mai): the vessels in your body through which the qi in your body flow through. If I’m not mistaken, while this is still used in modern TCM, it doesn’t align with the blood vessels in your body as understood by Western medicine (also I understand that medical knowledge doesn’t come from Western/colonial countries only, but this is literally how Chinese refers to non-TCM medicine). in their four limbs had been snapped, such that they laid paralyzed and prone on the ground. The beggar stared at the people coming and going on the main street with empty eyes. In the moment that they7In the original text, JYB uses the 他 (ta) pronoun that is typically used for males, and is also applied to people of ambiguous gender identity. saw Wu Ruo and Hei Xuanyi, they suddenly let out howling noises. Following that, it was hard to know what they suddenly thought of but they hastily turned away to hide their face, not allowing Wu Ruo and Hei Xuanyi to look at their face.
Hei Xuanyi frowned and escorted Wu Ruo into the restaurant. When they arrived at the private room that Ling Mohan had designated for them, however, there was not a single person inside. There was only a note in the room. The first sentence told Wu Ruo to order whatever dimsum that he liked as ‘he’ had already paid for the meal.
After that, the note asked Wu Ruo if he had seen the beggar at the main entrance, and whether or not the beggar had looked familiar.
Wu Ruo raised an eyebrow. When they had entered just now, although he had felt that it was strange for the restaurant to have a beggar tied to its entrance but he hadn’t taken a good look at the other’s appearance.
The note was signed off with a ‘Xue8Yes, it’s the same Xue as in Wu Yuxue.‘ character.
Wu Ruo narrowed his eyes. Could that beggar be…?
Hei Xuanyi took the note from him and read it: “That beggar downstairs, could it be Wu Yuxue?”
Hei Xuanyi’s subordinates had already reported the matter of Wu Yuxue going missing. In the beginning, they had thought that Wu Chenzi had sent the person away to be treated but they had also felt that it wasn’t quite possible.
Everyone in the city already knew about Wu Yuxue being bitten by the Spittle Snake because of the Yao family going to the Wu family for compensation. There was no need for Wu Chenzi to discreetly send the person away to receive medical treatment. So, it was obvious that Wu Yuxue had been kidnapped by someone else. Otherwise, Shang Zhirong wouldn’t have dispatched people all over to search for her so urgently.
Wu Ruo raised an eyebrow: “So does this mean Ling Mohan sent someone to kidnap her away?”
He laughed lightly: “What does he mean by asking me to come here to take a look? Is he helping me to blow off some steam?”
In that instance, Hei Xuanyi narrowed his eyes by half; he used his spiritual energy to burn the note away.
“Let’s go, let’s go take a proper look downstairs.” Wu Ruo tugged Hei Xuanyi down the stairs and walked to the beggar. On closer inspection, the wide and baggy dirty clothes were wrapped around a female body.
He took out a silver ingot and placed it into the beggar’s bowl. When the silver ingot came into contact with the bowl, it made a tinkling noise which attracted the attention of the beggar.
When she9Over here, JYB switches to the 她 (ta) pronoun, which is only used for females and never generally. noticed that the other parties were Wu Ruo and Hei Xuanyi, she hurriedly turned her head away to avoid them.
Wu Ruo smiled playfully: “What a strange beggar indeed. When I10爷 (ye): We’ve seen this term in other use cases like the more intimate term for your paternal grandfather, or more commonly back in the Gaoling City arc when they referred to the ‘masters’ of the Wu family. In this case, it’s being used to refer to a masculine self. It isn’t used as often in modern Chinese, but you still hear people refer to a bunch of masculine men as 爷们 (ye men). I did a quick Baidu search about why the modern ‘I’ A.K.A 我 (wo) wasn’t used historically and it seems the original usage of the word was in the plural sense. It was also seen as impolite to refer to one’s self in first person, so people refer to themselves in third person most of the time. A footnote to this footnote is that a lot of the times when you see pronouns in this translation, they are implied and not explicitly written in Chinese, whereas it’s quite impossible to do so in English. give you money, I’ll let it slide if you don’t even say a word of thanks, but you even turn your head away and ignore us.”
When a man, who was sitting and leaning against the restaurant entrance, heard Wu Ruo’s words, he stood up and walked over. He viciously kicked the beggar’s body; the beggar was in so much pain that she curled up her body.
“When this generous master rewards you with money, why don’t you make some noise?” The man said to Wu Ruo submissively and apologetically: “My lord, I’m really sorry. She’s dumb11哑巴 (ya ba): this term is very commonly just translated as ‘mute’ but in Chinese, outside of a medical usage context, it’s actually a pretty derogatory term, so I tried to use a similarly derogative term in English. and doesn’t know how to speak.”
Wu Ruo’s lips curled up: “Oh, dumb?”
“Yes, sir. She has no tongue and can’t speak.”
At this moment, the beggar raised her head and glared at the man hatefully.
The man made a spitting noise: “What are you looking at? Watch out, otherwise I’ll gouge your eyes out!”
These words scared the beggar into curling up her body.
Wu Ruo turned and said to Hei Xuanyi: “Xuanyi, don’t you think that this beggar’s eyes looks a little like Lord State Tutor’s granddaughter, Wu Yuxue’s?”
When the beggar heard the three syllables ‘Wu Yuxue’, her whole body started trembling. Her body curled up even more tightly, and it wasn’t clear what she was thinking of, but she suddenly raised her head and agitatedly started howling at Wu Ruo and Hei Xuanyi.
Hei Xuanyi played along with Wu Ruo’s words: “Hn, they’re quite similar.”
The beggar wanted to get up, yet she had not an ounce of strength so she could only keep howling.
Wu Ruo had naturally understood that the beggar was trying to say that she was Wu Yuxue, so the amusement in his smile deepened: “Why is she so agitated? Could it be that she knows Miss Wu? Miss Wu is so pretty, could it be that she idolizes Miss Wu? It’s pity, Miss Wu is of noble status, so she can only be admired from afar.”
The beggar’s eyes had turned red from anxiety, she kept making howling noises with her mouth and looked extremely pitiful.
Wu Ruo took out another silver ingot and placed it into her bowl: “Even if your status could match up to Miss Wu, Miss Wu might not like you either. In her heart, she already has someone that she likes and it’s even a man who already has a husband.”
The beggar was stunned, staring at Wu Ruo in a daze. His eyes were full of ridicule, telling her that Wu Ruo had already recognized who she was.
“Hou, hou, hou, hou—!” She howled furiously. It must’ve been Wu Ruo! It must’ve been Wu Ruo who had sent people to kidnap her away from the Wu estate in the middle of the night, cutting off her tongue, destroying her spiritual field, snapping the jingmai in her four limbs12To clarify, it’s basically as though Wu Yuxue has had her ligaments snapped. She still has her arms and legs on her body, but she can no longer move them on her own., turning her into a wastrel of a person. It must’ve been him! It was he who caused her to turn from a precious young mistress into a beggar, until no one could recognize her anymore.
The more the beggar thought, the more agitated she became and she kept moving her body towards Wu Ruo incessantly.
Wu Ruo, I want to kill you, kill you!
Her eyes were bloodshot and full of immense hatred.
When the man saw that she was howling and moving about, he kicked her leg: “What are you howling for? You’re going to give this gentleman a fright! It’s getting dark, we should be getting out of the city as well.”
Wu Ruo asked: “You’re leaving the city?”
“Hn. In the future, I’ll bring her around to all kinds of places to beg.” The man undid the rope, then, as if he was walking a dog, he dragged her towards the city gates: “Fucking dumb bitch, move quick!”
The beggar still kept howling toward Wu Ruo.
Wu Ruo smiled as he held onto the hand of the man next to him: “Xuanyi, let’s go.”
The sight of the two of them who were extremely elegant and well-matched pierced the beggar’s eyes directly. Tears of furious hatred couldn’t help falling from the corners of her eyes.
Hei Xuanyi held Wu Ruo’s hand until they came to their carriage, and under the beggar’s sad and resentful gaze, he helped Wu Ruo up into the carriage.
“Hou, hou—!” The beggar howled in despair. That man had been hers, hers—!
“Still howling? Do you really think you’re a dog?” The man yanked at the rope around the beggar’s neck in anger, not caring if she could move or not, he simply dragged her as he walked. Quite a few passersby who saw it couldn’t bear the sight.
Inside the carriage, when Wu Ruo heard the howling noises from outside, he leaned into Hei Xuanyi’s arms: “Xuanyi, do you think that I’m very mean?”
In his previous lifetime, if it wasn’t because Wu Yuxue had fallen for Hei Xuanyi, then Wu Chenzi wouldn’t have borrowed a Buddhist magical weapon to attack him, and he also wouldn’t have been separated from Hei Xuanyi. And the current him also wouldn’t be so heartbroken every time he thought of the Hei Xuanyi from his previous lifetime.
“Not mean.” Hei Xuanyi held onto him: “In fact, I wish you would be even worse.”
If it wasn’t because Ling Mohan had been a step faster at taking action, perhaps she would have been killed by Hei Xuanyi.
Wu Ruo lifted his head and looked at Hei Xuanyi curiously: “Why?”
Hei Xuanyi kissed his forehead: “If you were worse, then you would be better at protecting yourself.”
Wu Ruo: “…”
Was Hei Xuanyi being serious or was he just trying to placate Wu Ruo?
“Do you want to go home now or continue shopping around?”
Wu Ruo thought about how there was still a massive pile of Beast-rearing Grass in the residential quarters, and couldn’t help but let out a sigh: “Let’s go back, I still have a whole pile of herbs to refine.”
Hei Xuanyi: “What are you refining the Beast-rearing Grass for?”
Wu Ruo’s lips curled up: “You’ll find out soon enough.”
After they returned to Hei Manor, Wu Ruo went straight to the herb refining room.
When Nu Mu saw him, he lamented: “My disciple, there are more and more herbs, how long will we have to refine them for? Shall we hire a few physicians back to the manor to help to refine it? This way, we can get it done faster.”
Wu Ruo shook his head no and was just about to open his mouth to speak, when he heard someone yelling from outside: “My lord, my lord! Bad news, a few of our people suddenly fainted!”
Nu Mu’s expression froze, he quickly put down the herbs and walked out to ask: “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know what happened either. They inexplicably passed out, and what’s more, their bodies are very hot. It’s even hotter than boiling water! My lord, go take a look at them quick!”
When Wu Ruo, who was inside the building, heard this, he also put down the herbs in his hands and followed Nu Mu to the courtyard that the Miaojiang Wu were staying in.
Once they entered the building, the other people created a path for Nu Mu and Wu Ruo to pass through.
Nu Mu went forth to take the pulse of the person who had fainted but the moment that he touched the other person’s skin, he was scalded and retracted his hand away.
He said, shocked and angry: “How is it this hot! Have any of you eaten anything unclean recently and been poisoned?”
“No, we haven’t.” Everyone looked at each other: “We all haven’t dared to carelessly eat anything outside. Even when we went to the Yao clan13兽族 (shou zu): can be translated as the ‘Beast clan’. JYB uses the terms shou and yao interchangeably quite often, but they’re usually not used in this manner. Shou refer to animals, whereas yao are usually creatures that have cultivated sentience and aren’t necessarily animals only. Non-animal living things such as flowers and trees may cultivate into yao, and depending on the worldbuilding of the novel, non-living things may also cultivate sentience (for example, in the priest novel Guardian, a deity’s medicine bowl cultivated sentience). As for the LWSL worldbuilding, as far as I recall, JYB doesn’t quite specify much about the yao race so I’m not sure if the yao here are only animals or include the broader definition. Will update in footnotes if it ever gets clarified., we also brought our own dry rations along with us.”
When Wu Ruo heard this, his eyebrows twitched: “All of you went to the Yao clan during the Four Clans Festival?”
“That’s right. We heard that the Yao clan has the most ingredients and raw materials, so we went to take a look at the Yao clan.”
Wu Ruo didn’t say anything else.
Nu Mu endured the burning pain of the hot heat and continued to take the pulse of the person who had fainted. Following that, he frowned and said: “That’s strange, other than the fever, I can’t sense anything else that might be wrong. Their body is the same as it usually is and there are no signs that they’ve been poisoned14Nu Mu is saying here that they have the pulse of a healthy person. To put it simply, in TCM, if you have any illnesses, the irregularities in your body will also show up in your pulse. Whatever is causing their fever and the fainting would usually be detectable through taking their pulse, but this is not the case here.. This is really too strange.”
He turned his head to look at Wu Ruo: “Xiao-Ruo, come and help me take a look. I actually can’t figure anything out at all.”
Wu Ruo touched the body of the person on the bed. It was so hot that it was shocking, it was practically as though the person had been roasted alive.
Nu Mu anxiously asked: “Xiao-Ruo, how is it? Have you detected any problems?”
Wu Ruo shook his head no: “I couldn’t detect anything at all.”
He looked at Nu Mu’s companions and asked: “When all of you went to the Yao clan, did you run into anything strange?”
“Something strange?” Nu Mu’s companion thought about it seriously: “We didn’t run into anything strange.”
The others also shook their heads no.
Wu Ruo asked again: “Think about it properly again. For example, was anything strange happening in the Yao clan?”
That person made an effort to think harder again: “Eh, well, there was one thing but I don’t know if it counts as being strange.”
“Quick, tell us about it.”
“After we entered the Yao clan, we noticed that the Yao clanspeople looked very weak as if they were ill. Their entire bodies were listless, on top of that, they kept sneezing nonstop. Later on, we asked a Yao clansperson and that person said that the people from their clan would often get fevers but recover after a few days of rest. It’s a very normal occurrence for their Yao clanspeople.”
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!
![He Lived Like You [End of the World]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/HLLY.jpg "He Lived Like You [End of the World]")
