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Fatphobia (again, our old ‘friend’)Hei Xuanyi, Wu Ruo, Nu Mu, and Hei Xin and Hei Gan who had heard that the great white egg was about to hatch, went to the room next to the study room in the living quarters together.
The moment they entered, they saw the huge Yao anxiously staring at the huge white egg that was in the nest. And there was already a crack on the egg shell that was as thick as a fingernail.
Hei Xin excitedly called out: “The little young master is about to come out, he’s about to come out.”
Hei Gan’s gaze also seemed to fill with some anxiety.
Wu Ruo’s emotions were also spurred on by them, anticipating that the child would hurry and come out.
The huge Yao aimed a “jiu1Hust a reminder that this particular Yao is bird-like creature, and jiu is the onomatopoeia for the sound birds make in Chinese.” sound towards Hei Xin, indicating that he shouldn’t make any noise, otherwise it would frighten the child inside the egg.
Hei Xin hurriedly covered his mouth with his hand, walked out of the room, and instructed the corpse servant standing guard outside the room in a quiet voice: “Prepare hot water, later when the little young master hatches from his shell, he will need hot water to bathe.”
“Understood.” The corpse servant left, dragging along slow footsteps.
Inside the house, Nu Mu curiously reached out to poke the large white egg with his finger.
When the huge Yao saw this, he immediately spread his wings and flapped them at Nu Mu.
Nu Mu was startled, immediately taking many steps back to avoid the huge Yao’s attacks. He lowered his voice and asked: “What kind of egg is this? Is it this bird’s egg?”
“My son.” Hei Xuanyi said plainly.
Wu Ruo: “…”
This person really took this egg as his own son?
“Your son?” Nu Mu’s voice increased slightly, with an expression of surprise as he looked at Hei Xuanyi. After that, Nu Mu laughed, slapping him on the shoulder as he said: “Little Hei, who would’ve known that you also know how to joke around. People who’ve gotten married are just not the same anymore, even their personalities change.”
Hei Xuanyi looked at him expressionlessly.
Nu Mu saw his serious expression, the space between his eyebrows creased with hesitation: “This… this is really your son?”
Suddenly, with a ‘kacha’ sound, the crack on the eggshell became even bigger.
Everyone immediately turned alert, gathering all their attention to stare at the big white egg. But after half a joss stick’s time, there wasn’t any more movement from the big white egg.
“How come he’s still not out?” Hei Xin was a little anxious.
Nu Mu retorted: “Have you ever seen a pregnant woman give birth to a child in just a little while?”
Hei Xin was at a loss for words.
Nu Mu reassured him: “Don’t rush, you have to let it2Over here, the author uses 它 (ta) which is the pronoun for referring to something else. It’s more often used for animals or non-living things, which I assume is because something is hatching out of an egg and I think Nu Mu doesn’t think it’s going to be a human baby. slowly break out of the shell by itself, only then will it prove that it’s healthy.”
Hei Xin nodded his head.
About another half joss stick later, the eggshell made another ‘kacha’ sound again, the crack grew bigger by a bit again. After that, at every interval of a joss stick, the crack on the eggshell would grow bigger by a bit, until half a shichen later, with a ‘pa’ sound, the eggshell finally split into two halves, revealing an adorable baby who was damp3The author used the phrase 湿露露 (shi lu lu) here but Baidu tells me it should be 湿漉漉 (shi lu lu). The character is different, but I assume they meant that the baby was wet with probably amniotic fluid. and delicate. However, the infant was bigger than other normal infants by onefold, like a small baby boy who was about 5 months old.
Wu Ruo marveled at this, what a beautiful little baby.
“The little young master has come out, the little young master has come out.” Hei Xin excitedly carried the baby and placed him in the hot water, that had already been prepared, to wash him clean.
Hei Gan also rolled up his sleeves, especially happy, as he squatted down to help support the child.
The little baby was very docile, and neither cried nor made a fuss, using large, bright black eyes to look curiously at everyone. When his gaze fell onto Hei Xuanyi and Wu Ruo, he suddenly opened his mouth and smiled happily.
“The little young master smiled.” Hei Xin beamed as he carried the child, using spiritual energy to dry the water off of the child’s body, then he used a small blanket that had already been prepared early on to wrap around the child. After that, he brought the child before Wu Ruo and Hei Xuanyi.
The hard and cold corners of Hei Xuanyi’s mouth raised slightly, bearing an extremely rare hint of a smile. He raised a slender finger and touched the little baby’s cheek.
Wu Ruo turned to look at Hei Xuanyi, the faint smile that was like gentle clouds caused him to helplessly lose focus.
This man liked children so much?
Nu Mu laughed in a loud and clear voice, saying: “This child really resembles his father.”
Wu Ruo wondered: “Master, you’ve met this child’s father before?”
Even he didn’t know who this little baby’s father was, how did Nu Mu know?
Nu Mu rolled his eyes at Wu Ruo, pointed at Hei Xuanyi, and said: “Just now, didn’t Little Hei say that the little baby was his son? Then, who else could the little baby’s father be but him.”
Wu Ruo: “…”
Hei Xin beamed as he said: “That’s right, the little young master’s appearances are exactly the same as when Master was young.”
Wu Ruo felt that Hei Xin had gone mad from thinking about the little young master.
A child that popped out from an egg, how could he be the same as Hei Xuanyi?
Wu Ruo stared straight at the little baby. Although he’d obviously just been born, his dark black hair was already past his shoulders. He had a round little face, delicate facial features, and his skin was white and tender. His clear and innocent round eyes were like the bright stars and constellations in the sky, twinkling like dazzling rays of light.
His little lips were even more brilliant red than cherries. He was simply so beautiful, just like a porcelain doll. It made people itch to just scoop him up and pepper kisses all over his face4The last sentence is originally 让人恨不得把他抱过来狠狠亲一口 which translates more directly to “makes one want very badly to carry him and viciously kiss him in one mouth”. I didn’t literally translate it because it just comes off in English more like the person wants to eat Dandan, than just being seized with the wave of affection whenever one sees something really cute..
The more he looked, the more he felt that this child’s face was very familiar, he looked just like…
Wu Ruo couldn’t help glancing at Hei Xuanyi’s face. Then, he turned back to the child. After that, he looked at Hei Xuanyi again, his gaze flipping back and forth without stopping between the pair of ‘father and son’.
The more he looked, the more apprehensive he was because he realized the little baby really appeared as Hei Xin had said. He looked very similar to Hei Xuanyi without the fake skin.
How could this be?
This egg had undoubtedly been given to Hei Xuanyi by him, how could he look so much like Hei Xuanyi? If it weren’t for the fact that he had seen the little baby pop out from the egg with his own eyes, he was about to suspect that this little baby might be born of Hei Xuanyi and some other woman.
Hei Xuanyi noticed the gaze of the person beside him. When he turned around, he was met with Wu Ruo’s shocked gaze, as if Wu Ruo was suspecting that the little baby was the product of Hei Xuanyi and some other woman.
Hei Xuanyi’s eyebrows creased slightly, and he said plainly: “He was born by you.”
Actually, Hei Xuanyi also wondered how the child could resemble him.
“…” Wu Ruo simply had no choice but to suffer in silence, he couldn’t speak up even though he was suffering5In Chinese, it goes: 哑巴吃黄连, 有苦说不出来. The literal translation is “the mute man eats huang lian (a bitter Chinese medicine herb), he’s suffering but he can’t say it”. It’s a very long, prose-y way to say, one has a difficulty that they cannot speak of. In Wu Ruo’s case, the huang lian that he has ‘eaten’ is Hei Xuanyi misunderstanding that he produced the egg from somewhere, somehow. He can’t speak up because even he doesn’t know where the egg came from, so he doesn’t really have a way to explain and clarify the situation, so he just has to shut up cause he was the one who told Hei Xuanyi that he gave birth to the egg. He really shot himself in the foot here..
At the time, he had been joking with Hei Xuanyi, how would he know that it would become reality?
Could it really be an egg that he’d given birth to?
But that didn’t make sense. Even if he had given birth to the egg, he still should’ve given birth to a child that looked like himself. He and Hei Xuanyi had never slept together either, how could the child resemble Hei Xuanyi?
Or could it be that the huge white egg was actually the child born from Hei Xuanyi and some random female Yao6妖精 (yao jing): commonly gets translated as demoness/seductress. The implication here is that Hei Xuanyi got the egg from sleeping with some other sexy female Yao., and then, they’d secretly placed it on his bed.
Wu Ruo thought about it, but it also didn’t seem likely.
In his previous lifetime, he had never seen this egg before and he also hadn’t heard about Hei Xuanyi having kids. And furthermore, he’d never heard of Hei Xuanyi having an adulterous affair with any woman. As well, when he was tricking Hei Xuanyi that the egg belonged to him, Hei Xuanyi had been completely stupefied for a moment. It was obvious that he didn’t know where the big white egg came from.
But why were Hei Xin and Hei Gan not surprised in the slightest when they saw that the little baby resembled Hei Xuanyi?
It looked like he would still have to look for Ji Xi to clarify matters. However, this fellow had just arrived in the human realm, Ji Xi would definitely only come back to look for him after getting tired of messing around outside. He wanted to summon Ji Xi back, but with his current spiritual energy, there was just no way to summon Ji Xi. It was really frustrating.
Hei Xin, who was currently playing with the child, suddenly thought of the fact that Wu Ruo still hadn’t seen Hei Xuanyi’s actual appearance before, so he changed the topic: “Madam, would you like to carry the little young master?”
Wu Ruo’s expression revealed hesitation.
The little baby was extremely adorable, making it hard for people to reject. He stretched both his hands out towards the child, but because there was too much flesh on his arms, when he pulled back, he could only just barely carry the little baby steadily and his little butt still had to be supported by both of Hei Xin’s hands.
When Nu Mu saw him, he laughed heartily: “Xiao-Ruo, I think you should try carrying him again after you lose some weight.”
Wu Ruo glared at him angrily.
The little baby happily waved his arms at Wu Ruo, laughing cheerfully.
Hei Xin said with a smile: “Everyone, look, the little young master likes Madam a lot.”
Wu Ruo’s gaze gentled. He inexplicably felt a sense of closeness towards this child. To the extent that he even felt that, between him and the child, there was a kind of tangled connection that couldn’t be explained. It was indistinct and not very obvious. If he didn’t focus all of his attention on it, he couldn’t even sense that it existed.
How could this be?
Wu Ruo returned the child back to Hei Xin, feeling like it was all a bit hard to believe. After that, he got Shi Yuan and the rest to help him outside.
Nu Mu asked: “Xiao-Ruo, where are you going?”
Wu Ruo answered without even turning back: “I need to go soak in the medicated bath and calm down a bit.”
Nu Mu: “…”
The more you soaked in a medicated bath, the hotter it got, how could you calm down?
Nobody noticed Wu Ruo’s unusual behaviour.
After he left, Hei Xin beamed as he said to Hei Xuanyi: “The little young master was just born, he must be hungry, this old one will take the little young master to get something to eat first.”
Hei Xuanyi hummed nonchalantly.
After Hei Xin and Hei Gan carried the child away, Nu Mu stretched out a hand and slapped Hei Xuanyi on the shoulder, and said seriously and sternly: “Little Hei, you’re such an asshole7太不厚道 (tai bu hou dao): where hou dao is a way to describe people who are kind, earnest and treat others with sincerity. Over here, Nu Mu is accusing Hei Xuanyi of being the exact opposite of that towards Wu Ruo. I couldn’t think of a word to encompass all of that, so I opted to translate it in a way that hopefully captures the nuance of what was intended instead.. You just got married and you brought the child that someone else gave birth to back home, what do you want Xiao-Ruo to think of you? Do you know you’re making it hard for him by doing this?”
Hei Xuanyi: “…”
This egg had been given to him by Wu Ruo.
“Luckily Xiao-Ruo didn’t get angry, otherwise as his master, I definitely wouldn’t let you off easily. Later when you go back to your room, you have to appease Xiao-Ruo properly, do you understand? And for the little baby’s name, you also have to ask for his opinion. After all, he’s your wife now. As a man who married8Again, the author’s word choice here (嫁/jia) specifically indicates that Wu Ruo is in the traditionally feminine role. another man, he has to face a lot of ridicule from others. It’s quite difficult, so you have to treat him well.”
Hei Xuanyi heard Nu Mu mention choosing a name, and his gaze flashed a little.
Nu Mu chatted with him a little more, then returned to his rooms to rest.
Hei Xuanyi went to the study next door to settle some things and precisely calculated the time taken for Wu Ruo’s medicated bath before he went back to their room.
When Wu Ruo, who was lying on the bed, saw Hei Xuanyi coming in, he asked feebly: “Hei Xuanyi, how come you aren’t asking me about where the egg came from?”
Hei Xuanyi took one look at him and took off his outer robes without speaking.
Wu Ruo hugged the blankets gloomily: “Actually, I don’t know where he popped up from either. Just now, I was even wondering if it was you who snuck it onto my bed. Other…”
At this point, he abruptly paused. Originally, he’d wanted to say: “Otherwise, how come the child looks like you”, but the him at this point didn’t know Hei Xuanyi’s actual appearance.
Hei Xuanyi saw Wu Ruo’s vexed expression as if he really didn’t know how the big white egg came about. He raised his eyebrows with a little amazement: “How did the egg end up in your hands?”
“I don’t know either. That day, when I woke up, I saw a Mo clansperson holding onto the big white egg. He gave the egg to me, saying that he’d picked it up from between my legs, then he just left. Not long after, you came in.” Wu Ruo’s eyebrows knitted together tightly: “This child is a little strange. Do you think this could be the child of some Yao? Otherwise, how can the child maintain its original form after coming out of the egg?”
“Not possible.” Hei Xuanyi said very certainly: “There’s no Yao energy on the child’s body, and no Mo energy either.”
Wu Ruo thought about it and agreed that if there was any Yao or Mo energy, Hei Xuanyi definitely wouldn’t have kept the egg by his side: “Never mind, let’s not dwell on it. Let’s take things as they come, there will always come a day when we find out about this child’s origins.”
Hei Xuanyi saw that he looked like he wanted to fall asleep, so he took out a piece of paper and handed it over.
Notes: Sorry for the late update! Hopefully, the cuteness of this chapter makes up for it a little.
Also, since I’ve already read the whole novel once before I started translating, I know where Dandan is from and re-reading this is giving me so many feels TwT
