In the following days, Wu Ruo was either soaking in the herbal bath, or he was learning medicine and the Gu parasite1蛊 (gu): a kind of parasite ‘created’ by shamans. According to Baidu, a gu is a specific kind of insect/parasite that is created by pitting a whole bunch of insects/parasites against each other. The last insect/parasite left alive is the gu parasite. It is said to be extremely potent, and was used to poison people when snuck into their food. There’s literally no translation for it except “legendary venomous insect” when I checked my Chinese/English dictionary.
Previously, when it was mentioned as 虫蛊 (chong gu) I’ve translated it as simply parasite. The kind of cultivation/magic style Nu Mu practices is called 蛊术 (gu shu), which I guess would literally be ‘parasite arts’. Since I translated the Wu family’s magic style as the Yinyang style, I’m choosing to translate Nu Mu’s magic style as the Gu parasite style. It is one of the magic styles practiced by the Shaman clan that Nu Mu is from. style from Nu Mu that he hadn’t learnt in his previous lifetime. On the other hand, Hei Xuanyi was either sitting beside them watching them discuss medical theory as he read his books and meditated, or he was playing chess with Hei Gan. Their days went by very peacefully.
Sometimes, Wu Ruo would think to himself, it would be good if time could freeze at this moment. However, in reality, time passed by especially fast. In the blink of an eye, Wu Da and Wu Xiao’s wedding day had gone by very quickly, and it had been more than ten days since his dad had started soaking in the herbal bath. It was time to go to the Wu estate to visit his family.
When Wu Ruo arrived at the Wu estate and saw the two words “Wu Manor” after alighting from his horse carriage, he felt that it was particularly ironic. In his previous lifetime, he’d thought of the Wu estate as his shelter away from harsh winds2避风巷 (bi feng xiang): literally “alley to hide from the wind”. It refers to a place where you can hide away from your troubles., it was the place where he belonged. Yet conversely now, he liked the days he spent in Hei Manor; only when he was there did he feel safe.
When Wu Ruo came back to his senses, he was about to enter Wu Manor and saw another horse carriage stopping behind his horse carriage. Following that, his erbo‘s oldest son Wu Anyi and youngest son Wu Yu alighted from the horse.
Wu Yu’s face was pale, looking as if he was about to faint, and the attendants by his side were hastily supporting him.
“Xiao-Yu, are you alright?” Wu Anyi asked, concerned.
Wu Yu shook his head weakly: “I’m fine.”
“I think you better not go to Lord3大人 (da ren) can be used to refer to just about anyone with a respected position. This person could be a town magistrate or a minister. Without any context, it’s hard to know how to refer to this person. Was previously translated as ‘His Excellency’, but swapped to ‘Lord’ now. Li’s place. Just rest well for a period of time, and focus on waiting for your internship after the New Year. So, nothing untoward can happen to you at this time, lest you fail your assessment and can’t go for your internship.”
Wu Yu knitted his eyebrows together: “But, I don’t feel at ease letting dage go on your own.”
Wu Anyi murmured: “This issue is rather troublesome. When the time comes, I’ll find someone else to go with me. At the most, I’ll just split the money with that person.”
Wu Ruo heard this, and he could already somewhat guess what matter they had gone to settle.
In his previous life, he’d often heard people saying that Wu Anyi and Wu Yu frequently helped rich merchants and noble families to do some things that were against Heaven and reason4伤天害理 (shang tian hai li): an idiom that translates as “offending Heaven and reason”. It refers to something that is atrocious or outrageous.. They either helped those rich merchants and noble families to capture the souls and malicious spirits of those they’d killed, or they helped those rich merchants and noble families to raise ghosts and ghouls to harm people. That was how they earned a large sum of silver taels.
At the time when he’d heard these rumours, he’d thought that they were simply complete nonsense and he didn’t believe that the two of them would do such immoral things. However, in this lifetime, he wouldn’t be so naive to think that they were really just helping people to capture ghosts and exterminate ghouls for charity.
Wu Ruo smiled as he greeted Wu Anyi and Wu Yu: “Erge, wuge5Reminder, Wu Ruo is sixth in absolute birth order among the male cousins. Wu Anyi is second, Wu Yu is fifth., did you just come back from somewhere?”
Wu Anyi saw that it was Wu Ruo, and blandly replied: “We didn’t go anywhere.”
Wu Yu smiled gently: “Xiao-Ruo, you’re back today to visit shushu and shenshen again.”
“Hn, that’s right.”
Wu Anyi didn’t want to speak much to Wu Ruo, so he lowered his voice and said: “Xiao-Yu, your body isn’t feeling well, so you should speak less.”
Wu Yu smiled apologetically at Wu Ruo: “Xiao-Ruo, pardon me, I’m not feeling so good, so I’ll go back and rest first.”
“Alright, wuge, you have to rest well.”
After they left, the smile fell right off of Wu Ruo’s face.
He didn’t believe that the people in the Wu family didn’t know that they were doing such things. Maybe other people in the Wu family were also their partners-in-crime, it was only the people in his Shuqing Garden who didn’t know about it.
Wu Ruo entered Wu Manor, arriving at Shuqing Garden, yet he saw Wu Qianqing coming out while draping his cloak on himself.
“Dad, you’re going out?”
“Hn, your great-grandfather told me to make a trip over.” Wu Qianqing thought about it for a moment: “You haven’t gone to greet your great-grandfather and the rest since you got married. It’s too unreasonable. Prepare some gifts and come with me, lest other people start gossiping.”
Wu Ruo was doubtful: “But, I don’t have anything that could be a gift on me. How can I prepare gifts?”
Wu Qianqing narrowed his eyes: “Just choose a few from the gifts that Xuanyi sent over.”
When Wu Ruo heard that his dad wanted to prepare some gifts from the things that Hei Xuanyi sent to give to Wu Bofang and the rest, he felt that his dad must’ve guessed why Wu Bofang was looking for him.
And if he hadn’t guessed wrongly, those people were thinking about the precious gifts that Hei Xuanyi had sent over.
Hmph!
They were really shameless. It was enough that they had taken his betrothal gifts, they even wanted the gifts Hei Xuanyi had sent.
Notes: After some fluff, we’re back to the schemes and rats at Wu Manor again! Time to see vengeful Wu Ruo in action.
