Big thanks and a shout-out to biki for sending me a laptop so that I can translate LWSL more conveniently!
Special thanks to biki for the tips on ko-fi!
The following day, after having breakfast, Wu Ruo gave the blue coloured jade pendant that he’d purchased yesterday to Wu Xi, telling her to wear it on her waist: “In the next few days, go out and walk around more often. It would be best if you could familiarize yourself with this entire nearby area. Just take it as relieving some boredom, in a little while, take two bodyguards with you and stroll around outside, understand?”
Wu Xi thought about how they would be living in Huangdu City for a longer period of time, and felt that it was a given for her to familiarize herself with the neighbouring area anyway, so she brought the bodyguards along with her and left Hei Manor.
Wu Qianqing felt that Wu Ruo definitely had some kind of motive1內情 (nei qing): refers to some kind of insider information or story, but I can’t figure out how to let the phrase flow in English so I changed it up slightly. for doing so, and asked: “What are you trying to get Wu Xi to do?”
Wu Ruo smiled, full of meaning: “I’m helping Xiao-Xi to look for a shifu2师父 (shi fu): refresher for this term, it’s usually used by martial artists or cultivators to refer to their personal instructor/mentor/teacher. So, not everyone who teaches you is your shifu, but it specifically refers to the one who is sort of ‘in charge’ of your entire learning journey.
I feel like it’s been a hot minute since I’ve mentioned this, but Loser Wife takes place in a fantasy magic but Chinese setting, so we have the martial arts/cultivator-style institutions but they’re basically magic practitioners. I’m not so familiar with Western fantasy, so I can’t draw an accurate comparison, but I would hazard a guess and say it’s similar to wizards/warlocks. to learn her magic arts from.”
In his previous life time, it was because Wu Yu had spent 5000 liang to buy a piece of blue jadeite jade3This isn’t redundant information, because there’s different grades/types of jade, so JYB is just being very specific about the kind of jade., becoming acquainted with someone who used to be a Wu family disciple with a bright future, and thus, he ended up becoming that person’s disciple4拜他为师 (bai ta wei shi): we’ve seen this phrase before which means to go through a ceremony and formally recognize someone as your shifu but again, not quite something I can turn into a verb and fit into English sentence structure, so I swapped it around..
This disciple was in the same generation as Wu Chenzi, his name5This is referring to his ming. Another refresher on the different names in historical settings: a ming is something chosen by either your parents or someone in a senior generation for you, which usually has a meaning bearing well wishes from your elders. A zi is something chosen for you by your similar generation peers, whether it by family members like siblings or cousins, or close friends. It usually bears a similar meaning to one’s ming. There’s also the ruming which refers to your nickname as a baby, usually chosen when your mother is already pregnant with you, or in Wu Ruo’s case, when he received Dandan as an egg.
The whole generational names thing going on in Loser Wife doesn’t seem to be a generic concept in Chinese history, though it might be a genre-specific norm (but I’m not well read enough to make any claims, if anyone knows better, please hit me up in the comments). I am assuming that, for example in Wu Ruo’s case, the name ‘Wu Ruo’ and the hypothetical generational character name that he would’ve gained after completing his experience training would both be considered his ming. was Wu Chenliu, because he’d had a ruinous marriage taking a maiden not belonging to any particular clan6If she doesn’t come from a clan family, she’s most likely a ‘commoner’ or someone who doesn’t practice magic. As we can see from how the clan treats Guan Tong, who comes from some kind of clan but cannot wield magic herself, this is not a very acceptable move. as his wife, he had been expelled from the Wu clan. Otherwise, the Huangdu Wu family clan leader’s position would have belonged to none other than Wu Chenliu. The jade pendant was something7遗物 (yi wu): as explained in text, this is something that is left behind by a deceased person. It isn’t necessarily something deliberately left behind to someone, the way it happens in Western culture with wills assigning belongings to someone who inherits it. The term yi wu commonly refers simply to things that belonged to the deceased person when they were still alive, and have normally been kept/preserved by the living. It’s a very specific word for which I can’t think of an English translation for, but I’m constantly marvelling at words like that in Chinese that require whole sentences and footnotes like this to convey. that had been left behind by Wu Chenliu’s deceased wife, so it was extremely precious, but Wu Chenliu had accidentally lost this item one day. He’d bitterly searched for it for many years before he’d finally found it with Wu Yu.
However, in this lifetime, Wu Chenliu’s last disciple8关门弟子 (guan men di zi): literally ‘closed door disciple’. The term guan men can also mean ‘exclusive’, but not in the desirable luxury item kind of way. As in, exclusionist policies kind of way. would definitely not be Wu Yu.
Guan Tong was curious: “She’ll be able to find a shifu just by going out and taking a stroll?”
Wu Ruo replied: “When the predestined relationship between a master and disciple is set, you won’t be able to prevent it even if you want to.”
Guan Tong: “…”
Wu Qianqing asked: “Did you put some kind of curse spell onto the waist pendant?”
Otherwise, why would someone take Wu Xi as their disciple for no rhyme or reason9I find the usage of the phrase 无缘无故 (wu yuan wu gu) here hilarious because Wu Ruo literally just mentioned 缘分 (yuan fen), AKA ‘predestined relationship’, just two sentences ago. The yuan in both phrases are the same character, referring to the concept of ‘destiny’ or ‘fate’. Qing, your son just said that the yuan fen is already there. How can you say that there’s no yuan or gu? Which, by the way, gu refers to a reason or a cause.?
Wu Ruo rolled his eyes: “Dad, what are you thinking? If this shifu could be cursed so easily, then it’s fine even if she doesn’t have them.”
Wu Qianqing thought about it and agreed; as long as Wu Ruo wasn’t using some sort of twisted magic to hurt others, then it was fine.
Wu Ruo worried that his father would probe into the heart of the matter, so he found an excuse to leave and went to Dandan’s residences to look for the giant yao monster.
The moment he entered, he heard Ji Xi’s voice: “Today, I’ll teach you the Mo miasma arts10A.K.A the Mo way of creating a miasma.…”
Wu Ruo frowned and entered with hurried steps. When he saw Dandan actually seriously listening to Ji Xi’s lecture, he hurriedly cut them off: “Ji Xi, you just said you were going to teach Dandan the Mo’s miasma arts? You want to teach him the magic of the Mo?”
Ji Xi soared into the air until he was the same height as Wu Ruo, before stopping: “I’ve11It feels like an age since I’ve translated Ji Xi’s dialogue, so just a reminder that he’s using the phrase 本座 (ben zuo) to refer to himself, which is an arrogant form of self-address akin to like ‘this lord’ or something similar. Lots of ‘demonic’ or ‘devil’ characters use this form of address, the webnovel ‘Devil Venerable Also Wants To Know’ also features this form of address and was translated as ‘Devil Venerable’ or ‘This Venerable’. discovered that Dandan’s neijin12Refers to a circulatory system of magical energy within a person. Kind of like your veins, but for magical energy. are different from the average person; he can learn Mo magic, or he can also learn Yao and Gui magic. On top of that, he’s extremely naturally gifted, he learns things in one try. I’ve accepted him as my disciple, which is an honor for him.”
“…” Wu Ruo frowned: “Then did you know, even after he learns your Mo magic, he won’t be able to use it in the human realm? Otherwise, he’ll be discriminated against by other humans as a Mo or some kind of oddity? Or he might be expelled from the human realm.”
“Tch, you humans sure have plenty of rules.” Ji Xi turned his back on Wu Ruo, displeased.
Wu Ruo massaged his temples13脑穴 (nao xue): refers to the acupoint for your head in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine)., head aching: “If a Mo practises human magic, they’ll also be looked down upon, wouldn’t they?”
Ji Xi: “…”
Dandan hugged Wu Ruo’s thighs: “Daddy, if you’re unhappy about me learning Mo magic, then I won’t learn it anymore.”
Wu Ruo picked him up: “I’m not unhappy, I’m just worried that if you use Mo magic in front of other people, you’ll earn their hate.”
Dandan asked naively: “If I don’t use Mo magic in front of other people, does that mean I can learn it?”
Wu Ruo asked: “Do you want to learn it?”
Dandan excitedly nodded: “After I learn it, I can do naughty things!”
Wu Ruo: “…”
Ji Xi sneered: “He’s just like one of us Mo people.”
Wu Ruo put Dandan down and didn’t stop them anymore, because according to his understanding of Ji Xi, even if he stopped them, Ji Xi would still secretly teach Dandan: “I’ll go look for Jiaojiao, carry on then, you two.”
“Wu Ruo!” Ji Xi yelled at him.
Wu Ruo turned his head back: “Anything else?”
“For you.” Ji Xi threw a white medicine bottle to Wu Ruo.
Wu Ruo wondered: “What is this?”
“It’s a top grade spiritual energy pill, it can allow your spiritual energy to rapidly increase by one level.” Ji Xi huffed lightly: “No need to thank me, I’m only giving it to you seeing as you are Dandan’s father. After you return to your room, immediately consume it. Otherwise, just relying on your little bit of spiritual energy, any practitioner in Huangdu City can crush you to death at any time.”
Actually, it was because he was eating and living off of the Hei family every day, and he didn’t want to owe them too much, so he took this pill out and gave it to Wu Ruo. In any case, Wu Ruo treated him quite well; when Wu Ruo went out shopping, he would always remember to buy something to gift to Ji Xi as well.
Wu Ruo was stunned for a moment, but then he still smiled and thanked Ji Xi: “Thanks.”
In his previous lifetime, Ji Xi had also given him this top grade spiritual energy pill to consume, which would instantly allow one’s spiritual energy to raise by one level. In his previous lifetime, Wu Ruo, whose spiritual energy had already been at the 5th level, had immediately entered the 6th level. Spiritual energy had a total of nine level; in this world, the number of people who could enter the 9th level were rarer than rare, and for him to enter the 6th level was already considered not too bad. So, he was quite surprised that Ji Xi would give the spiritual pill to him this quickly. It had to be known that this sort of spiritual pill was extremely rare and precious; one could say that even if you had the money, you might not necessarily be able to buy it.
Wu Ruo arrived in the room that Jiujiu and Jiaojiao lived in. Upon entering the room, he saw that Jiujiu was flapping at Jiaojiao nonstop with their wings, as if scolding Jiaojiao.
When the two yao beasts saw him entering, they both stopped moving, staring at him dumbly.
Wu Ruo pointed at Jiaojiao: “I’m looking for them14它 (ta): Chinese has 3 pronouns for things, all pronounced ta. This one refers to non-living things and non-human living things. I’ve opted to use they/them pronouns for non-human living things..”
Jiaojiao had had a period of recuperation, and was already growing short fur on their body, so upon hearing that Wu Ruo was looking for them, their fur instantly stood up, looking at Wu Ruo guardedly.
“Don’t worry, I’m not here to take your life.” Wu Ruo maintained a distance away from them, so that they would feel that they were safe: “I came here just to discuss something with you.” Jiaojiao stared at Wu Ruo doubtfully.
Wu Ruo said straightforwardly: “I want to contract you. By becoming my contracted beast, you only have to be responsible for protecting my family. At other times, you can be very unrestrained and can go wherever you wish. What do you think?”
Wu Ruo had originally decided not to contract Jiaojiao again; even if they had been dragged in front of him again, Wu Ruo still hadn’t had those intentions, because he wanted to do his best to change his fate from his previous lifetime by not doing the same things that he’d done back then. However, after going through the incident with Wu Yuxue, he felt that he still needed more external assistance to protect his family. As such, he had no choice not to contract with Ti Bai again.
Ti Bai was Jiaojiao’s real name, however, the name Jiaojiao wasn’t too bad either. If it wasn’t because his current spiritual energy was too little, and was unable to forcefully contract such a large yao beast, he wouldn’t be discussing it with Jiaojiao either.
Once Jiaojiao heard that they would become a contracted beast, to be controlled by someone, they were immediately unwilling and turned around to face Wu Ruo with their butt. At this, they were given a slap by Jiujiu.
“Jiu jiu jiu jiu jiu jiu…” Jiujiu kept using a scolding tone to reprimand Jiaojiao. It was a pity that Wu Ruo couldn’t understand what they were saying.
Jiaojiao: “…”
Wu Ruo held back his laughter. He realized that the current Jiaojiao was quite pitiful, constantly being bullied and suppressed by Jiujiu.
He didn’t know what Jiujiu had said either, but Jiaojiao turned back and faced Wu Ruo, nodding their head, looking as though they had resigned to their fate.
“Alright, then I’ll begin the contract…” Wu Ruo broke the skin on his finger and pressed it to Jiaojiao’s forehead. A thread of bright, golden light appeared, burrowing into Jiaojiao’s body, it circled around inside of Jiaojiao’s body once before everything turned back to normal: “From today, as long as my family members want to go out, you just have to follow them.”
Jiaojiao nodded their head.
Wu Ruo stood up and his vision blackened for a moment. After that, he was scooped into someone’s arms.
He raised his head, seeing that it was Hei Xuanyi, he felt at ease to collapse into his embrace.
Hei Xuanyi said with a low tone: “With your current abilities, there’s simply no way to contract a high grade yao beast.”
Of course Wu Ruo was aware of this point: “What are you doing here?”
“I came to look for you.” Hei Xuanyi carried Wu Ruo back to their room and fed him a medicinal pill.
After Wu Ruo swallowed the pill, he felt much more refreshed: “Did something happen?”
“The Wu clan discovered that your dad, mum, you and Xiao-Xi didn’t die, so they issued an invitation to invite our entire family to the Wu estate to participate in Wu Chenzi’s birthday feast15寿宴 (shou yan): this phrase in particular refers to the birthday feast of someone elderly, typically from their 60th birthday onward. Reaching old age is a sign of prosperity and good fortune..”
Hei Xuanyi handed the gold colored invitation letter to Wu Ruo.
Wu Ruo skimmed through the contents of the invitation letter and saw that the birthday feast was in just five days: “Their intentions can’t be good. I just wonder what they mean to do by inviting us to participate in this birthday feast.”
With just their statuses, it wasn’t enough to warrant being invited to the Wu estate to participate in Wu Chenzi’s birthday feast.
Wu Ruo suddenly thought of what had happened yesterday and faintly felt that this matter had something to do with Wu Yuxue. Could it be that she had failed to disfigure him yesterday, so she still wanted to make a second attempt?
Hei Xuanyi narrowed his eyes, and couldn’t figure out what the Wu clan intended for now either: “There’s two possibilities, one has something to do with your ge and the other has something to do with what happened yesterday.”
“If it really has something to do with my ge, then we must go.” Wu Ruo felt that the birthday feast this time would definitely not be peaceful, so he took out the pill bottle that Ji Xi had given him and after opening the lid, spiritual energy immediately wafted out from inside the bottle: “No wonder it’s a top grade spiritual energy pill.”
If it had been before, he would definitely only have used this pill when his spiritual energy was at the 7th or 8th level, but his current spiritual energy was only at the 1st level. If he didn’t quickly increase it, he would really be crushed to death at any time.
Hei Xuanyi asked: “Who gave you this pill?”
“Ji Xi.” Wu Ruo saw him frowning16Just had to squeal about this: Wu Ruo thinks Hei Xuanyi is worried about his safety, which is probably like 30% of the reason for the frowning but I’m pretty sure 70% of this is jealousy. and added: “I understand the principles of medicine. This pill is definitely a top grade spiritual energy pill, and definitely isn’t contaminated with any kind of poison inside.”
Moreover, he had also consumed this pill in his previous lifetime.
Hei Xuanyi heard the certainty in his tone of voice, so he didn’t try to stop Wu Ruo from swallowing it again.
After Wu Ruo took it, in an instance, he could feel the spiritual energy in his body surge, so he hurried to sit cross-legged to meditate: “I’m about to increase levels.”
Hei Xuanyi quietly sat to one side to keep watch over Wu Ruo.
Increasing levels was simple. As long as one used the spiritual energy in their body to break through the barrier in their spiritual field, then they could increase in levels and store more spiritual energy. As long as they were undisturbed, there was no danger in breaking through levels, as long as their spiritual energy was sufficient, it could be done.
After roughly about half a shichen, Wu Ruo opened his eyes and said joyfully: “I’m at the 3rd level!”
He was truly too surprised. He never thought that a single pill could let him increase two spiritual energy levels; perhaps it was due to the fact that he was at a lower level, which allowed him to increase in two consecutive spiritual energy levels.
“Only 3rd level,” Hei Xuanyi frowned. At the 3rd level of spiritual energy, there was just no way Wu Ruo could protect himself. It would’ve been better if there were a few more of these top grade spiritual energy pills. Of course, he was also aware that such things were hard to come by. He would have to let his people pay more attention to medicinal pills in the future.
Wu Ruo’s smile fell off his face and he glared at Hei Xuanyi angrily: “What level are you?”
Hei Xuanyi said, neither salty or blandly17This phrase made me chuckle. It literally means as I’ve translated, but to explain further, it means neither flaunting or self-deprecating. In short, he’s just being matter of fact about it.: “9th level.”
“!!!” Wu Ruo received a very severe blow, and immediately drooped. On top of that, he was in possession of such an extraordinary backer, and he had actually not known about it.
