Special thanks to Lin for the tip on ko-fi!
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Bodyshaming, racism, discussions of parasitic infection
Everyone bore with the aches all over their body and looked at Wu Qianqing and his family members, and their gazes carried a sliver of vigilance.
Wu Qianqing: “…”
These people simply could not be reasoned with.
Guan Tong’s gentle countenance immediately darkened: “Just because nothing happened to us, so that means we were the ones who harmed you? Will you only be at ease when you see something horrible happening to us? If you have this way of thinking, aren’t your hearts the ones that are vicious and sinister?”
Wu Xi was especially angry: “Xiaoshenshen1小婶婶 (xiao shen shen): youngest shenshen, your paternal uncle’s wife., you said that my erge harmed all of you because you took his betrothal gifts but everyone knows that it wasn’t just those from the Southern main estate who took his betrothal gifts. Yet why is it only the Southern main estate that has problems? And the other main estates are all safe and sound? On top of that, what would my erge have to gain out of harming all of you? Before things have been investigated clearly, please don’t malign2血口喷人 (xue kou pen ren): this idiom is back! Literally ‘to spray others with the blood from your mouth’. others.”
“That’s because he can enter and leave the Southern main estate freely! That’s why he started taking action from here.” Dong Mingji threw herself towards Wu Bofang: “Grandfather, you must judge this for us. I’m absolutely sure that Wu Ruo was the one who harmed us. Otherwise, other than him, who else would there be?”
“Dong Mingji!” Wu Qianqing glared at her with fiercely stern eyes: “Right now, the situation has barely been investigated and you’re already spouting nonsense. Do you want to cause internal strife within the Southern main estate? Will you only be happy when the actual perpetrator who harmed us succeeds in his cunning plans? One day, if the Southern main estate suddenly falls to pieces, then you would’ve been an accomplice.”
Dong Mingji was so terrified of his fierce and terrifying gaze that she shrunk and hid behind Wu Bofang.
Wu Bofang wanted to see the Wu family becoming stronger, bigger, and more prosperous the most, and not for the Wu family to fall apart. Therefore, after hearing Wu Qianqing’s words, he immediately glared at Dong Mingji sharply: “Before the situation has been thoroughly investigated, it’s true that we should not recklessly suspect anyone.”
Liao Liuyan said weakly: “Grandfather, right now, shouldn’t we find someone to cure us of the gu parasites first?”
They had spiritual energy, so they could still endure for a while more. However, if things continued this way, they would have to prepare their coffins.
Mu Xiuwan endured the severe pain and said: “Just now, didn’t someone say that there’s a shaman staying at Xiao-Ruo’s residence? Then let’s hire him to come and take a look at us.”
Dong Mingji said: “That’s right! Wu Ruo’s residence has a shaman. Grandfather, you should quickly get the shaman from Wu Ruo’s residence to take a look at us. As long as he can cure us, we’ll believe that he wasn’t the one who infected us with the gu parasites.”
Wu Xi pressed her lips into a sneer. Throwing suspicions at someone and still expecting them to cure her? How shameless.
Since human lives were at stake, no matter how dissatisfied Wu Qianqing was, it wasn’t good for him to refuse to bring Wu Ruo over. Therefore, he sent someone over to Hei Manor to inform Wu Ruo.
Once Hei Xuanyi learned of the matter, he went along to the Wu family’s Southern main estate together with Wu Ruo.
Many of the people present had never seen Hei Xuanyi before. Everyone’s gaze fell onto his face. When they saw his face full of black scales, their eyes flashed with contempt: this person was so ugly!
Wu Bofang saw that there were only the two of them and he hurriedly asked: “How come it’s just you two? Where’s the shaman? How come the shaman didn’t come along with you?”
Wu Ruo frowned: “Since before the new year, the shaman had already returned to his own clan.”
Everyone’s expressions changed.
Without the shaman, who could they look for to cure them of the gu parasite?
“You’re lying!” Dong Mingji said agitatedly: “I think you just don’t want the shaman to come and cure us, that’s why you would say that. Didn’t I say? Didn’t I already say that you were the one who hired a shaman to infect us with the gu parasite? Otherwise, why wouldn’t you let the shaman come and cure us?”
Wu Shi, who had just about lost the majority of his life already, said weakly: “I agree with what xiaoshenshen says.”
He looked toward Mu Xiuwan: “Grandmother, say something.”
Mu Xiuwan, who was in so much pain that she was hovering between life and death3JYB uses the idiom 死去活业 (si qu huo ye) which I’ve never heard of/am not familiar with, but there is a similar phrase 死去活来 (si qu huo lai) that is pretty close. I am assuming that JYB meant to use this idiom instead and translated it according to that. If anyone knows better, please let me know in the comments!, glanced at Wu Shi and spoke up: “Xiao-Ruo, if you let the shaman come and cure us, then we won’t pursue this matter of you infecting us with the gu parasites.”
Wu Qianqing’s eyes widened so much that all the whites had gone red4When you widen your eyes, they get dry and it causes redness in the whites of yours eyes.. He stared at Mu Xiuwan without blinking: “Mother, how come even you think that Xiao-Ruo was the one who did this?”
If the others suspected his son, at most, he would just be angry. However, if even his mother thought that his son had been the one to do this, then this really hurt his heart.
Guan Tong and Wu Xi looked at her with expressions of anger.
Mu Xiuwan was enraged: “You think I want to suspect him? But it’s not like Mingji’s words don’t make any sense! No matter who it is, they would feel some sort of suspicion towards him, wouldn’t they?”
“Mother, you call this suspicion? Your manner of speech has already decided that this matter was done by Xiao-Ruo.” Wu Qianqing was completely disappointed in her.
As a senior, yet being reprimanded by her son in front of everyone, Mu Xiuwan had been thoroughly embarrassed. She was even angrier: “I’ve determined that he was the one who did it, so what?”
“You…” the whites of Wu Qianqing’s eyes that had turned red flashed with a hint of wetness. He said, exhausted: “You have truly disappointed me too much, my mother5It’s not very common formatting in English, but in Chinese, there are punctuations to indicate that Wu Qianqing is heavily emphasizing the ‘my mother’ portion of his sentence..”
The last two words made Mu Xiuwan feel flustered, and she speedily turned her head away so that she wasn’t looking at him.
Wu Ruo looked at them, finding everything ridiculous: “You claim that I’m the one who infected all of you with gu parasites simply because a shaman stays at my estate? This is how all of you judge a situation? Then, I think all of your brains have been damaged by the infection already.”
Hei Xuanyi took Wu Ruo into his arms and swept a cold look at everyone who was present. His stern and sharp gaze made everyone unconsciously shrink back a little. Even Wu Bofang didn’t dare to make direct eye contact with him.
“Wu Ruo…”
The words Dong Mingji was about to say were suddenly cut off with a loud ‘pa!’ sound. Wu Bofang slammed the table angrily and sternly chided: “Enough! Just now I already said that before this matter has been thoroughly investigated, we are not to suspect anyone. Did all of you take my words from before for wind blowing past your ears6耳边风 (er bian feng): literally ‘wind by the ears’, it refers to ‘unheeded advice’.?”
Dong Mingji couldn’t take things lying down: “Grandfather, before things have been thoroughly investigated, Wu Ruo and his husband are not allowed to leave. Doesn’t everyone agree?”
Liao Liuyan hesitated for a moment, then nodded along with Ruan Lanru and that lot.
At this moment, a bodyguard of the Wu estate ran in with an agitated expression: “Clan Leader, daye, erye, and the others have returned.”
Other than Wu Qianqing, Wu Ruo, and their group, everyone else’s gazes lit up brightly. Their backers had returned.
Not long after, Wu Qianjing, Wu Qianli, and the rest of them hurriedly ran into the building: “Is everyone alright?”
When Dong Mingji saw her own husband, she immediately cried to him: “Qiantong, quick, save me and your son.”
Wu Qiantong saw that Dong Minji’s face was so pale that it looked wretched and couldn’t help but be frightened. He quickly went forth to help her up: “We’ve heard about everything. How are you right now? Is there anything wrong?”
“My whole body hurts, I’m about to die.” Dong Minji leaned against his body weakly: “Qiantong, last night, a huge number of servants died yet we don’t have any solutions at all. I’m so scared, Qiantong. Quick, ask Wu Ruo to hand over the antidote. Otherwise, your son and I will both die here.”
Wu Ruo laughed coldly.
Wu Qiantong glanced at Wu Ruo, yet he didn’t immediately burst out thunderously as he would have before and force Wu Ruo to hand over the antidote. However, his expression wasn’t that good either.
He lowered his voice and said: “It wasn’t Xiao-Ruo’s handiwork.”
Dong Minji was stunned.
Everyone else was also stunned.
Wu Qianjing asked: “Didn’t the Northern main estate recently receive a guest?”
Dong Mingji and the others had blank expressions. Recently, they had all been recuperating within their estates and hadn’t paid attention to this matter.
Wu Xi immediately thought of Ba Se.
Wu Bo, who was lying on the chair, took a deep breath because of the pain and said: “The Northern main estate received a guest indeed. His style of dress is extremely strange. The robes on his body are all made of feathers. He even has tattoos beneath the corners of his eyes. He has a few feathers stuck on top of his head. His whole body emanates an air of darkness and evilness.”
Wu Qianjing replied: “That sounds about right. When we returned back to Gaoling City, we immediately heard someone mentioning that the Northern main estate had invited a strange person. According to the guest’s style of dress, someone recognized him as a jiangtou practitioner from the Southeastern parts. They know how to use gu parasite magic to harm others.
“After we heard about this matter, we all worried that something would happen to our Southern main estate so we hurriedly raced back on our horses. Who knew that the moment that we came through the doors, we heard that all of you had been infected. According to my guess, this situation must’ve been orchestrated by that guest from the Northern main estate.”
The Northern main estate had just invited this person and something happened to the Southern main estate. If it wasn’t done by this jiangtou practitioner, then who else could’ve done it? Of course, if it wasn’t for the Northern main estate inviting such a person over, he might also have suspected Wu Ruo of it.
Astonishment flashed across Wu Bofang’s eyes. He hadn’t expected that the spearhead7矛头 (mao tou): Literally ‘spearhead’, it refers to ‘the target of attack or criticism’. of this situation would suddenly turn towards the Northern main estate. However, hearing Wu Bo’s description, this person did sound like a jiangtou practitioner from the Southeastern parts.
Wu Qianli walked forth to Wu Bofang and beseeched: “I beg Grandfather to officially summon this person here for questioning.”
Wu Ruo closed his eyes, hiding the brilliance shining forth from its depths.
Wu Bofang frowned. Right now, before the situation had been fully investigated, it really wasn’t appropriate to arrest someone right away. However, now that the Southern main estate had ended up in these harsh times, if he didn’t lend them a hand, a lot of people from the Southern main estate would die.
He sighed and felt very weary. That the two main estates would fight to this state of ‘if you’re not dead, then I will die’ truly wasn’t something that he wished to see.
“I’ll send for someone to bring that person here now.”
Wu Bofang got his trusted aide to make a trip to the Northern main estate with some backup.
Unexpectedly, Ba Se had already left the Nothern main estate. As such, everyone immediately felt sure that these things had been done by this person. The people of the Southern main estate were endlessly angry and frustrated. The people of the Northern main estate wanted to see them dead.
Dong Mingji cried as she said: “This person is already gone, then what will we do about the gu parasites infecting us? If we don’t find a cure soon, we will all die.”
Ruan Lanru looked at Wu Ruo: “Xiao-Ruo, aren’t you acquainted with a shaman? We can ask Xiao-Ruo to invite the shaman over to help us cure the gu parasites.”
Everyone’s gaze brightened as they looked toward Wu Ruo.
Wu Ruo said plainly: “Besides the fact that the shaman who was living at our estate has already left a long time ago, even if they hadn’t left yet, I also wouldn’t have any intention of letting the shaman cure all of you of the gu parasites. I’d worry that if the procedure was unsuccessful, all of you would find all sorts of things to make me responsible for and say things like I didn’t put in my best effort. Or if it was unintentionally painful, all of you would harbor thoughts that I might’ve infected you with some other kind of gu parasite.
“I’m very sorry but I cannot bear the responsibility for these consequences. You should hire some other professional instead. Xuanyi, let’s go.”
Hei Xuanyi held onto Wu Ruo in his arms and, under everyone’s incredulous stares, walked out of the main hall.
“Wu Ruo, Wu Ruo…” Dong Mingji was afraid that she would die just like that and anxiously called after them: “It was our mistake! It was us who wrongly accused you. Just now, we misunderstood you. Right here, we formally apologize to you. Just take it on account that we’re relatives and forgive us this time, alright?”
“Xiao-Ruo, just now, we really did wrongly accuse you. It was also because we were anxious, that’s why we would recklessly accuse others.” Ruan Lanru called out to the person walking out in a rare docile tone.
However, no one responded to her.
Dong Mingji looked at Wu Qiantong anxiously: “Qiantong, you are Xiao-Ruo’s shushu8叔叔 (shu shu): refresher, since I don’t remember using this recently but this refers to your father’s younger brother or a male figure younger than your father in his generation., quick, get him to invite the shaman over to take a look at us. You don’t want us to die here like this either, do you?”
