LWSL Chapter 100

Big thanks and a shout-out to biki for sending me a laptop so that I can translate LWSL more conveniently!

Wu Qianqing was unaware of the matter of Wu Xuanran coming to look for him. However, that night, he received the news that Wu Qiantong had had his left leg accidentally chopped off by Wu Xuanran in the middle of a dispute.

In that moment, he was stunned for a long while before he digested this piece of information, and he had no idea how his father and younger brother could’ve quarreled to such a point. He thought of making a trip down to ask about the situation, but he also worried about sticking a hot face onto a cold backside¹热脸贴到冷屁股上 (re lian tie dao leng pi gu shang): I left the literal translation in the text because it’s such a hilarious mental image and I love how it sounds. This phrase means “to behave enthusiastically but be met with a cold response”. Wu Qianqing is worried that if he shows up being concerned, his family will brush him off and ignore him.. Later on, he only sent someone to bring over a few bottles of medicine and didn’t probe any further into the matter.

The situation between the Northern and Eastern main estates wasn’t looking very positive either. In the process of the two main estates fighting, they had each respectively lost one member of the junior generation²To be very clear, when I phrase it as ‘lost’, the original Chinese says specifically that they died.. The fight between the two main estates finally reached a temporary standstill, however, the grudges between them had worsened even more.

Wu Bofang couldn’t be bothered with their matters. In order for things to be out of sight, out of mind³The original phrase is 眼不见心不烦 (yan bu jian xin bu fan) is more directly: “the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t worry/isn’t bothered”, so Wu Bofang won’t be worried or bothered by his descendants if he doesn’t see what they’re getting up to., after he used several magical treasures and arrays to seal the Wu estate so that no one could enter, he brought along a few elders and their families and left Gaoling City for the imperial capital for a temporary stay.

When Wu Ruo received this news, Hei Xuanyi was in the midst of personally training him in jian arts.

Hei Xin, who was watching them from where he was standing by the building entrance, said with gratification: “Madam and Master are truly a perfect match⁴郎才女貌 (lang cai nv mao): literally means ‘a brilliant young scholar and a beautiful woman’. It’s often used as a way to describe a well suited couple..”

If Master could remove the false skin on his face, then it would be even better. The scene before him would definitely be the most beautiful one he’d ever seen. The silhouette of the man teaching the jian arts was tall and broad, upright and firm, his demeanor was formidable. The youth tightly pressed in his embrace was shorter than him by more than half a head, their silhouette was also slimmer and weaker than his by a few degrees. Yet their appearance was exquisitely beautiful beyond comparison. When the two of them stood together, they were simply a match made in heaven.

“Xin-bo, who is the ‘beautiful woman’⁵Remember that in the original phrase, it refers to ‘a brilliant scholar and a beautiful woman’. you’re referring to?” Recently, Wu Ruo had been diligently training and soaking in medicated baths. Adding on his previous lifetime’s experience, within a short period of time, his spiritual energy had increased by a lot. He could already hear what people from afar were saying from a distance⁶Note that magic practitioners in the setting are able to enhance their hearing with spiritual energy to hear the conversations or sounds from a distance. It’s typically used as a way to measure how powerful you are in terms of spiritual energy. The more spiritual energy you have, the further you’ll be able to hear..

Hei Xin beamed and replied: “This old servant has misspoken, it should be ‘a beautiful man’ instead.”

Wu Ruo’s lips quirked up and he pointed the jian at Hei Xin: “If you misspoke, you must be punished. Hei Xuanyi, stab him.”

Hei Xuanyi raised an eyebrow, with one hand wrapped around Wu Ruo’s waist and the other guiding Wu Ruo’s hand, they lifted off into the air in one leap. The two of them were like dragonflies, lithely flying towards Hei Xin.

“Madam, spare me! How could this old servant be a match for Master?” Hei Xin turned tail and fled.

Wu Ruo and Hei Xuanyi landed before Hei Xin, laughing heartily: “Xin-bo, we aren’t really going to beat you, come quick and spar with us.”

“This old servant can’t beat Master,” Hei Xin saw Hei Xuantang walking over from a distance and immediately called out: “Fourth Young Master, save me!”

Hei Xuantang asked, laughing: “What’s the matter?”

Hei Xin said: “Madam and Master want to spar with this old servant, but how could this old servant be their opponent?”

Hei Xuantang’s interest was piqued and he immediately took out a fan from his waist pouch, giggling: “Hei Xin, let’s take them on together!”

“There could be nothing better. Both of you, attack together.” Wu Ruo smiled, pleased. Suddenly, his heart throbbed with fear, and his hand lost a thread of strength. In an instance, the silver jian fell from his grip to the ground.

“Kuang lang—” With a ringing noise, the fallen jian attracted the attention of the other three.

Hei Xuanyi immediately noticed that there was something wrong with Wu Ruo, and his expression fell. He hurriedly scooped Wu Ruo into his arms and returned into the building, placing him on a chair: “What happened?”

As he asked, he pushed a thread of spiritual energy into Wu Ruo’s body, but he couldn’t feel any irregularities.

Hei Xin and Hei Xuantang ran into the building in a rush.

“Madam, are you alright?”

“Dasao, is your body feeling unwell?”

Wu Ruo looked at the three faces that were concerned for him, and his heart felt extremely complicated.

Ever since the Wu family members had moved out of the Wu estate, his thoughts had gradually shifted toward training. At the same time, he was discreetly monitoring the attitude of the Hei family members⁷This refers to actual Hei family members like Hei Xuanyi, Hei Xuantang, as well as the servants serving within the family like Hei Xin and Hei Gan. towards him. After all, in his heart, he still had some doubts regarding the matter of Hei Xuanyi marrying⁸We haven’t seen this for a while but the author is using the word 娶 (qu), which is the word for when a female marries into her husband’s family. him. However, after observation, he could be sure that the Hei family members were sincerely and wholeheartedly treating him and his family members well, absolutely without any pretense or ulterior motives. That’s why he was feeling extremely conflicted in his heart. He wanted to trust in them with his heart and soul, but he was still worried that at the end of the day, the ending would be like it had been with Ruan Zhizheng. As a result, the feelings between he and Hei Xuanyi had come to a standstill with no progress forward.

Wu Ruo felt that the main reason for this was because Hei Xuanyi still hadn’t explained his identity to him, and his reason for being willing to marry a big fatty.

“I’m alright, I just suddenly had a ridiculous flash of panic a moment ago. It was as if something bad had happened.”

He wasn’t lying. Just now, for an instance, he’d felt an awful premonition.

Hei Xin’s expression was full of anxiety: “Recently, Madam has only been training in jian arts, cultivating, or soaking in medicated baths, and hasn’t had any proper rest. It’s said that haste makes waste, Madam, you should just rest well for the rest of today and properly nurse your body back to full health.”

Hei Xuanyi carried Wu Ruo onto the bed without another word, helping him to remove the outer robes on his body, and stuffed him into the blankets.

Wu Ruo saw Hei Xuanyi’s expression, as if he was about to break down, and he comforted: “I’m really alright.”

He was clear about his own body’s condition, he definitely wasn’t sick.

“Rest for a while.” Hei Xuanyi pushed Wu Ruo, who was trying to get up, back onto the bed with both hands, his demeanour was extremely strong and stern.

“I can’t fall asleep.” Wu Ruo came up with an idea⁹眼珠子一转 (yan zhu zi yi zhuan): I’m putting a note for this because it’s a hilarious turn of phrase that literally means ‘eyeballs made a turn’. I had to Baidu search this one because I’ve never heard of this expression before. It means to crack your head for ideas or to think of an idea.: “How about you tell me a story? Maybe then I’ll be able to fall asleep.”

“…” Hei Xuanyi met Wu Ruo’s bright and shining eyes, and he couldn’t bear to disappoint him, so he asked: “What kind of story?”

“How about something like the stories from the storyteller at the restaurant?”

“Never heard the storyteller’s stories.”

Wu Ruo: “…”

Hei Xuantang, who was standing at the panel that separated the inner room from the outer rooms, said: “Dage, you can talk about yourself, so that dasao can understand you better.”

Wu Ruo’s gaze brightened, this sidi¹⁰四弟 (si di): literally ‘fourth younger brother’.  Remember that Wu Ruo will follow the way Hei Xuanyi addresses his relatives because he’s in the traditional ‘wife’ position in their marriage dynamics. was really very considerate!

It was precisely because he wanted to hear about Hei Xuanyi, that’s why he asked Hei Xuanyi to tell him a story.

Hei Xuanyi shot a look at Hei Xuantang: “Every day, other than reading, jian training, and magic training, I only eat and sleep. What is there to say?”

Wu Ruo asked: “Have you really never run into any interesting situations before?”

“No.”

Hei Xuantang sighed emphatically and said: “Dasao, dage‘s past is indeed very dull and boring because the responsibilities that he has to bear are simply too heavy. Other than what dage has mentioned here, he must go take a look at the crystal ball whenever he gets any free time… Ah…”

Hei Xuantang realized that he had misspoken and hurriedly shouted, glossing over his mistake: “I still have something else to do, have a good talk!”

“…” Wu Ruo shifted his gaze from the separating screen to Hei Xuanyi: “What crystal ball?”

Hei Xuanyi: “…”

At this moment, Hei Xuantang ran back again: “Dasao, your father¹¹亲家公 (qin jia gong): this is the title that Hei Xuantang should refer to Wu Qianqing with. It’s basically something like ‘Mr. In-Law’, because they’re related by marriage so Hei Xuantang won’t be addressing Wu Qianqing simply as ‘your dad’, but for simplicity, I chose the most straightforward option. Please note that it is a separate, more specific title. has arrived, it seems like he has some urgent matters.”

Wu Ruo hurriedly got out of bed: “Why did my dad come over?”

Although they were only separated by a few walls, but his Dad, Mum and the others rarely came over to Hei Manor. It was mostly him going over. Now, they were coming over at this hour, there was definitely something going on.

“Xiao-Ruo, Xiao-Ruo…” Wu Qianqing had already opened his mouth to call out to Wu Ruo even before he had entered, and his voice sounded quite urgent.

Wu Ruo put on his shoes and immediately ran out of his inner rooms: “Dad, did something happen?”

Wu Qianqing saw that he was dressed in his inner robes and was stunned: “You haven’t gotten out of bed? Or are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

“I just laid down to rest for a while, I’m not unwell. Dad, tell me what happened, quick.”

Wu Qianqing held up two locks of hair: “This is the hair that your dage gave me when I was sending him out through the secret passage. He said, if the hair breaks into two parts, then something terrible must’ve happened to him…”

Wu Ruo looked at the broken hair in his hands and his expression changed: “Then this is…”

In his previous lifetime, his dage hadn’t given his dad any locks of hair. This time around, his dage might have kept his guard up, that’s why he gave the lock of hair to their dad.

That’s right, just now, he’d suddenly felt a flash of panic. Could it have originated from something happening to dage? His dage couldn’t have died like he had in Wu Ruo’s previous lifetime, could he?

“Just now when I discovered that it had broken, your dage could have run into a bad situation.” Wu Qianqing’s expression became solemn: “Before he left, he once told me that he wanted to go to Huangdu City for a stint. Therefore, I want to go to Huangdu City to look for him. However, we must not let your mum and the others know. I’m afraid that they will worry. Later, I’ll find an excuse to leave Gaoling City. The matter of taking care of your mum and Xiao-Xi, I’ll have to trouble you and Xuanyi.”

“Dad, I want to go to Huangdu City to look for dage…”

Wu Qianqing immediately cut him off: “Nonsense! You don’t have spiritual energy. Even if you go, you cannot help. We won’t discuss this further. I will leave immediately right now.”

Without giving Wu Ruo a chance to refute, he turned around and left the room.

“Dad—!”

Wu Ruo wanted to chase after him but he was held back by Hei Xuanyi.

He turned around and said anxiously: “Hei Xuanyi, quick, go and stop my dad!”

Hei Xuanyi said lightly: “No need to stop him. It’s a good opportunity for him and your family to leave Gaoling City together.”

Wu Ruo was a little dazed: “Leave Gaoling City together?”

Hei Xuantang explained: “Those who are coming after my dage to kill him might look for him here. Or, they might already be in Gaoling City. So, last night, we already wanted to find an excuse for you and your family¹²Again, over here, Hei Xuantang is referring to Wu Ruo’s family as 亲家 (qin jia), which means ‘the in-laws’. I have simplified it in the translation for ease of understanding. to leave this place together. We never thought that today… Of course, it’s not to say that we can’t handle the other party, and it’s not to say that we can’t protect all of you, it’s just that… ahem… Dasao, it would still be better for you and your family to leave this place first.”

Wu Ruo’s intuition told him that the two brothers were hiding something from him.

Hei Xuanyi pulled him back into the inner rooms to put his robes on properly: “Something did indeed happen to your dage, the gui that I sent to protect him just reported through a spirit message that he’s gone missing.”

Wu Ruo anxiously said: “Do they know the reason for his disappearance?”

“When your dage disappeared, someone deliberately barred the way of the gui I sent. And there’s a high chance that this person was the one who escaped from our clan.”

Wu Ruo: “…”

Hei Xuantang consoled him: “Dasao, don’t worry, we will definitely rescue your dage. Right now, you should immediately pack your bags and leave Gaoling City with your dad and mum.”

Wu Ruo asked: “What about all of you?”

“After we capture that person, we will immediately look for you in Huangdu City.”

Wu Ruo replied, worried: “Nothing will happen to all of you, right?”

Hei Xuantang guaranteed: “There will definitely be no problem! Those people aren’t a match for my dage!”

Hei Xuanyi said: “Xiao-Ruo, you have the shadow realm, you can carry everything from the storage and the valuables from the manor on your person.”

Wu Ruo was stunned: “How did you know I have a shadow realm?”

He had never spoken about this matter with Hei Xuanyi before.

“The night that your family moved out from the Wu estate, you got drunk. Afterwards, you produced weapons out of nowhere and started fighting with Hei Yin and the others…”

Hei Xuanyi didn’t need to elaborate further, and he also knew that other than people with a shadow realm, no one could do something like this.

In order not to drag them down, Wu Ruo could only do as they had instructed.

Translator’s notes: Happy 100th chapter to all readers of LWSL! I’m so happy we’re finally here after almost two years of translating this story. We are now slightly more than a quarter through the story, and hopefully I’ll be able to translate more often.

I appreciate everyone’s support of the story by reading, with or without ad-blockers, commenting, sharing or sending tips on ko-fi. I never thought that my translation would come this far and I am always very thankful. I hope you enjoy this surprise update, and have a wonderful week ahead.

• 1
  热脸贴到冷屁股上 (re lian tie dao leng pi gu shang): I left the literal translation in the text because it’s such a hilarious mental image and I love how it sounds. This phrase means “to behave enthusiastically but be met with a cold response”. Wu Qianqing is worried that if he shows up being concerned, his family will brush him off and ignore him.
• 2
  To be very clear, when I phrase it as ‘lost’, the original Chinese says specifically that they died.
• 3
  The original phrase is 眼不见心不烦 (yan bu jian xin bu fan) is more directly: “the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t worry/isn’t bothered”, so Wu Bofang won’t be worried or bothered by his descendants if he doesn’t see what they’re getting up to.
• 4
  郎才女貌 (lang cai nv mao): literally means ‘a brilliant young scholar and a beautiful woman’. It’s often used as a way to describe a well suited couple.
• 5
  Remember that in the original phrase, it refers to ‘a brilliant scholar and a beautiful woman’.
• 6
  Note that magic practitioners in the setting are able to enhance their hearing with spiritual energy to hear the conversations or sounds from a distance. It’s typically used as a way to measure how powerful you are in terms of spiritual energy. The more spiritual energy you have, the further you’ll be able to hear.
• 7
  This refers to actual Hei family members like Hei Xuanyi, Hei Xuantang, as well as the servants serving within the family like Hei Xin and Hei Gan.
• 8
  We haven’t seen this for a while but the author is using the word 娶 (qu), which is the word for when a female marries into her husband’s family.
• 9
  眼珠子一转 (yan zhu zi yi zhuan): I’m putting a note for this because it’s a hilarious turn of phrase that literally means ‘eyeballs made a turn’. I had to Baidu search this one because I’ve never heard of this expression before. It means to crack your head for ideas or to think of an idea.
• 10
  四弟 (si di): literally ‘fourth younger brother’.  Remember that Wu Ruo will follow the way Hei Xuanyi addresses his relatives because he’s in the traditional ‘wife’ position in their marriage dynamics.
• 11
  亲家公 (qin jia gong): this is the title that Hei Xuantang should refer to Wu Qianqing with. It’s basically something like ‘Mr. In-Law’, because they’re related by marriage so Hei Xuantang won’t be addressing Wu Qianqing simply as ‘your dad’, but for simplicity, I chose the most straightforward option. Please note that it is a separate, more specific title.
• 12
  Again, over here, Hei Xuantang is referring to Wu Ruo’s family as 亲家 (qin jia), which means ‘the in-laws’. I have simplified it in the translation for ease of understanding.