Big thanks and a shout-out to biki for sending me a laptop so that I can translate LWSL more conveniently!
After entering Huangdu City, it was currently wushi111am to 1pm.. It was also the period of time when most people in Huangdu City were out and about. On the major streets, there were throngs of people coming and going. There were affluent traveling merchants, and diplomats from various countries. The flow of carriages never came to a rest and it was incomparably lively.
Wu Xi and Dandan who had never come to Huangdu City immediately sprawled by the carriage windows to look at the scenery outside, after entering the city. On both sides of the major streets, there were rows of tall buildings lined up tightly like fish scales and comb teeth. Yet on the inside, the decorations were elegant, unassuming and neat. It gave people the desire to walk in to take a look. People who walked by the carriages were also dressed in more luxurious styles that Gaoling City couldn’t compare to.
“Wa—!” Wu Xi delightedly discussed about the young women’s make-up and fashion2In more detail, the Chinese specifies that they’re talking about rouges, powders, and skirts. I have simplified the translation for ease of reading. with Guan Tong. On the other side, Dandan also cooed and crowed happily: “Daddy, I want to eat that, and that and I also want that…”
Right now, he wanted everything that he saw.
Wu Ruo helplessly took out a handkerchief to help Dandan wipe away his saliva: “We’ll buy it next time when we come out shopping.”
“I want everything!” Dandan especially cherished the memory of the Lantern Festival, the scene of Father generously buying everything.
Ji Xi sneered: “I’m back here again.”
Wu Ruo glanced at him.
Yet Wu Qianqing, who was opposite them, was full of worries. Now, they had already arrived at Huangdu City, yet there wasn’t even the slightest lead. How was he going to find Wu Zhu? On top of that, there was no guarantee that Wu Zhu was even in Huangdu City.
After more than half a shichen, the carriage finally came to a stop.
“Old Master, Madam3The bodyguard is addressing Wu Qianqing and Wu Ruo, who are the ones with the most authority within the carriage right now. Wu Ruo, because he’s Hei Xuanyi’s official wife, and Wu Qianqing, because he’s a male elder., we’ve arrived.” The bodyguard outside the carriage announced.
Wu Ruo picked Dandan up and alighted the carriage first, then he was stunned to a halt by the vermilion red main gates before his eyes. Before, he’d heard Hei Xuanyi mention that he had purchased a large residence within Huangdu City, however, Wu Ruo never imagined that this residence would be so huge. He was afraid4He’s not literally afraid, he means it as the turn of phrase. that even the royal descendants’ manors within Huangdu City could not compare.
“This gate is really huge.” Wu Xi stared at the main gates with wide eyes. It was even bigger than the main entrance of the Southern main estate, she was sure that the residences inside would also be more spacious than the Southern main estate.
After Wu Qianqing and Guan Tong alighted from the carriage, they were also stunned when they saw the main entrance.
Dandan climbed down from Wu Ruo’s arms, with fervent excitement, he dragged Jiujiu and the giant yao that he had named Jiaojiao into the manor. Following after, a huge crowd of servants walked out. They separated into two rows at the entrance, welcoming them into the manor. After that, Hei Xuanyi and Hei Xuantang emerged from the main hall.
Hei Xuantang teased: “Dasao, you’ve finally arrived. If you took any longer, my dage would’ve died from anxiety.”
It was as if Wu Ruo couldn’t hear him talking. After he entered Hei Manor, he looked to the left and to the right. Everywhere he looked gave him a feeling of familiarity; it actually gave him the kind of feeling as though he’d been here before.
Hei Xuanyi asked: “Like it?”
Wu Ruo nodded affirmatively, and blurted: “Is there a little pond in front of the main hall of our quarters?”
Hei Xuanyi thought that Hei Xin had already explained the details of the manor to him, so he inclined his head slightly: “Hn. Want to go and look?”
“…” Wu Ruo was internally shocked by how he knew the layout of the manor: “Let’s settle my dad and mum and the others first. That’s right, you aren’t hurt, are you?”
Hei Xuantang who was next to them immediately called out, dissatisfied: “Dasao, you’re too biased, you only care about my dage, but you don’t care about me.”
Wu Ruo shot him a look: “If you had gotten hurt, you would definitely be sobbing to the heavens and moaning to the lands, making such a fuss that everyone knows. Even without asking, I would know you were hurt, but if your dage gets hurt, he would definitely keep it to himself without making a sound. He wouldn’t whimper even if he was in agonizing pain.”
“…” Hei Xuantang replied: “Dasao, you know dage really well.”
Wu Ruo was a little stunned, did he really know Hei Xuanyi well?
He averted his gaze and continued: “Your dage is my husband, if I don’t know him well, who would I know well? If I’m not biased toward him, should I be biased to you?”
Hei Xuanyi’s cold, dark gaze flashed with a rare hint of amusement.
“Oh, my heart aches! No one to dote on me, no one to love me.” Hei Xuantang pillowed his head on the shoulder of Hei Gan, who had walked over: “Hei Gan, I’m so pitiful.”
Hei Gan expressionlessly pushed his head away: “Fourth Young Master, I still have to make arrangements for qinjia Master’s family’s residences, I have no time to take pity on you.”
Hei Xuantang: “…”
Hei Xin, Hei Gan, and the other servants arranged for Wu Qianqing and his family to stay at the guest residences.
Wu Ruo asked after they left: “Who was the one who used the Night Flight of Infinite Gui secret technique?”
Hei Xuanyi raised his eyebrow slightly: “How do you know that the secret technique is called Night Flight of Infinite Gui?”
“Ji Xi told me.” Wu Ruo pushed the responsibility onto Ji Xi: “He also said that the Night Flight of Infinite Gui should actually be called the Grand Banquet of Infinite Gui.”
“It was used by the one trying to kill us. Their skill isn’t mature, they can’t control infinite vicious gui.” Hei Xuantang’s expression darkened and he mocked: “In the end, everyone in the entire city was killed by the vicious gui. That person is truly cruel and ruthless. I’m afraid he himself also suffered from the recoil.”
Wu Ruo thought of the hundreds of thousands of commoners who died just like that; that person was truly sinister.
He couldn’t help but crease his eyebrows together, asking: “Everyone in the Wu family also died?”
Hei Xuanyi nonchalantly replied: “I rescued them.”
He knew that Wu Ruo didn’t want to let them die so easily, otherwise, Wu Ruo wouldn’t have remained so passive without taking action when they were in Gaoling City.
Wu Ruo: “…”
Hei Xuantang added on: “The people that dage rescued, they were either half dead or half crippled. They definitely won’t be able to live well in the future. The only pity is that we weren’t able to capture the person who wanted to kill us in the end. However, dasao, you don’t have to worry about it! The gui that dage sent to protect your dage said that before your dage went missing, he had gotten into contact with the Huangdu Wu family. As long as we start investigating from the Wu family, there will definitely be leads.”
“Huangdu Wu family…” Wu Ruo knew his dage’s personality, even if he came to Huangdu, he wouldn’t go and look for the Huangdu Wu family, then why would he have gotten into contact with someone from the Huangdu Wu family?
With a face full of worry, he asked: “When they came into contact, did they do anything or say anything?”
The Huangdu Wu family would not be as easy to deal with as the Gaoling City Wu family, a lot of matters would require thorough planning.
“Your dage and other relatives are all magic practitioners, so the gui did not dare to get too close, they could only watch from afar, there was simply no way to hear what they said.”
Hei Xuanyi saw that Wu Ruo looked burnt out, so he deliberately changed the topic: “It was an arduous journey to get here, you need to rest and recuperate your energy before making any decisions.”
Wu Ruo really was quite tired, so he followed them to the central courtyard.
Before they entered the central courtyard, he thought to himself, the central courtyard was a large flower garden; there was a small bridge and flowing waters, artificial waters and a fish pond. After entering the central courtyard, it was indeed as he had imagined.
Wu Ruo suppressed the shock in his heart. He kept thinking back on his previous life, whether he’d been to this place before, but why didn’t he have any impression of it?
When they arrived at the residential courtyards, Hei Xuantang came up with an excuse and left, giving the two of them some private space.
Wu Ruo kept staring at the courtyard that they would be living in from now on. Ever since entering the courtyard, his hands couldn’t help but reach out to touch every flower and tree planted on both sides of the little path.
When Hei Xuanyi noticed Wu Ruo’s tender expression5To be accurate, 珍惜 (zhen xi) is most often translated as a verb meaning ‘to cherish/treasure’. However, in Chinese, there aren’t really verbs vs noun forms like in English. I have substituted it with ‘tender’ in this case, but I leave this footnote for supplemental purposes. and careful actions, he not only slowed down his footsteps, he also quietly followed along by Wu Ruo’s side.
When Wu Ruo saw the house built by the lakeside6Two things to clarify in this note: 1) the ‘house’ here refers to a single building within the entire estate that is the Huangdu City Hei Manor.
2) In the original Chinese, it does indeed refer to the body of water as a ‘lake’ and as I understand, in English, lakes tend to refer to a larger body of water that is land locked, and most smaller bodies of land locked water are called ‘ponds’. The ‘lake’ here is most likely a very large pond, just to emphasize how spacious Hei Manor is and not an actual full sized ‘lake’ in the traditional sense of the word., he sped up his footsteps, excited. He swept a close look across the entire room when he entered the main hall, then he walked into their bedroom. He immediately made a beeline for the bed and flopped onto it, patting the space beside him: “Quick, hurry and accompany me for a nap here.”
Hei Xuanyi raised an eyebrow. The moment he stepped forth and laid down, he was hugged around the waist by the other party.
Wu Ruo pillowed his head onto Hei Xuanyi’s shoulder, his gaze settled on the panel screen in front of them, murmuring softly: “This is it7More literally, he says ‘this is the exact sort of feeling’ or something along the lines of ‘this is the vibe’, but the English expression felt atypical for the setting, so I modified it. This is also the line that is the title for the chapter..”
He couldn’t explain what exactly this feeling was either, but he really wanted to have it because it made him feel very safe. He really couldn’t bear to leave.
“Hn?” a flicker of confusion8More precisely, ‘a lack of understanding’ but again, this is one of those expressions that I struggle to translate into English. flashed across Hei Xuanyi’s gaze, but the person in his arms was already in a deep sleep. On top of that, once Wu Ruo fell asleep, he remained asleep until the next morning. This was the best sleep that Wu Ruo had had ever since he had been reborn. He hadn’t dreamed, and hadn’t tossed around in his sleep either. As if he was deathly terrified of Hei Xuanyi leaving, he had held tightly onto Hei Xuanyi’s waist the whole night.
The moment he woke up, he very naturally kissed Hei Xuanyi on the lips and said, with puppy eyes: “Today, I want you to help me wash up, change and do my hair.”
Wu Ruo’s manner and attitude was very intimate, as if he had done this to Hei Xuanyi countless times.
Hei Xuanyi was briefly startled, but he didn’t refuse. Actually, he very much liked Wu Ruo relying on him.
As Hei Xuanyi was doing Wu Ruo’s hair, Wu Ruo finally properly woke up. With an expression like he had just seen a ghost, he looked at Hei Xuanyi through the copper mirror. After that, he thought of how he had acted coy with Hei Xuanyi just now. In an instant, all his goosebumps stood up.
Fuck!
Had he been possessed? He actually acted coy with Hei Xuanyi!!!
Wu Ruo saw Hei Xuanyi’s clumsy actions through the copper mirror and couldn’t help but snicker, after that, he snatched the comb away and started styling his own hair, then, he stood up and pulled Hei Xuanyi to sit: “My lord9大爷 (da ye): usually a sarcastic/joking manner of referring to someone as a lord/master. If I remember correctly, Wu Ruo has used this with Hei Xuanyi before when he was still fat., what kind of hairstyle would you like to have today?”
Hei Xuanyi replied plainly: “Up to you.”
“Then this servant10小的 (xiao de): literally ‘small one’. Common, deferential way for service staff or servants to refer to themselves when speaking to someone of higher social status. You may often hear this being said by ‘waiter’ characters in guzhuang dramas. will style it as I wish. If it’s well-styled, you must reward this servant.” With extremely practiced ease, Wu Ruo braided three small braids at either side of Hei Xuanyi’s temples, then he tied all of Hei Xuanyi’s hair together.
Hei Xuanyi watched his partner, who was standing behind him, earnestly styling his hair, through the copper mirror and his cold gaze gradually gentled. He was seized by a sudden impulse and raised his fingertips to the copper mirror, gently rubbing against the face of the matchless beauty reflected in the mirror.
While Wu Ruo was busy, he snuck a look at Hei Xuanyi. At first, he had no idea what Hei Xuanyi was doing, and he only realized Hei Xuanyi’s intentions later. His cheeks immediately warmed up, and he ducked his head, trying his best to avoid the copper mirror from reflecting himself.
Hei Xuanyi couldn’t see Wu Ruo and he frowned. The moment Wu Ruo was done styling his hair, he speedily pulled the other onto his lap, sucking onto cherry red lips.
Wu Ruo felt the hard thing pressing against the bottom of his body, and his fair, clear cheeks were dyed a rosy red; he pushed the other away with angry embarrassment: “Hei Xuanyi—!”
Hei Xuanyi watched Wu Ruo, who was escaping at the speed of light, and his eyes flashed with helplessness.
Wu Ruo arrived at the main hall and heard Wu Qianqing, Guan Tong and Wu Xi discussing about choosing an academy.
He immediately spoke up to object: “Every academy in Huangdu City only accepts the disciples from prestigious clans. People like us who only come from the side branch of the family clan, and whose family branch no longer exists11With the decimation of Gaoling City, the institution of the ‘Gaoling City Wu family’ no longer exists even if the people haven’t completely died. This is why Wu Ruo says that their family branch no longer exists, although Hei Xuanyi mentioned that he saved the people. No one is going to acknowledge their status., if we enter these academies, we’ll very easily be bullied. Even if we died in there, no one would care.”
In his previous lifetime, he had often heard about people without backgrounds or clans dying within Huangdu City academies.
Guan Tong was frightened by his words: “Things like that happen?”
Wu Qianqing was quite surprised that Wu Ruo knew about these academy matters: “Xiao-Ruo, in your opinion, where would it be best to send Xiao-Xi to study magic?”
Wu Ruo thought back on the situation from his previous lifetime, then suddenly, his gaze brightened: “Leave this matter to me.”
