Big thanks and a shout-out to biki for sending me a laptop so that I can translate LWSL more conveniently!
Guan Tong saw that Wu Ruo still looked like he didn’t understand, so she could only open her mouth and say: “Perhaps this is some secret technique that Lord State Tutor cultivated by himself, such that only fated people can see it.”
Saying the words ‘secret technique’, she added a slight emphasis. Following that, she lifted her head to look at the skies, and changed the subject: “It’s almost wushi110am to 11:59am., I wonder where the Wu family will arrange for us to take our meal.”
“I’m already hungry right now, I hope we can eat lunch as soon as possible.” Wu Xi placed her hand on her abdomen: “If I’d known earlier, I would’ve eaten all the dimsum that was on the carriage.”
Guan Tong saw that Wu Ruo was deeply lost in his thoughts, so she dragged Wu Xi with her to admire the flowers in the gardens.
Wu Ruo stood dazedly at his spot. At this moment, his brain was thinking nonstop about the reason why his mother had brought up the words ‘secret technique’. Could it be that it had something to do with the secret techniques in his brain?
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that there was this possibility, otherwise, why was he the only person who could see it, yet others couldn’t?
This Shadow Stealing technique was a little bit like a chicken’s assistance2I have no idea if there is an equivalent English idiom. 鸡助 (ji zhu) refers to ‘something that doesn’t have much use, but it’s also a waste to get rid of it’, similar to chicken ribs. There isn’t much meat on chicken rib, but it’s also a waste to just toss it. According to Baidu, the word for assistance/help (助) looks very similar to ribs (肋), so somehow it became ‘chicken’s assistance’., what was the point in being able to see a gold light circulating inside someone’s body?
Suddenly, a crashing noise.
Wu Ruo came back to his senses and looked up, a servant girl quickly kneeled down in front of Wu Xi and Guan Tong. She kowtowed to them as she cried loudly: “Mistresses, this servant didn’t crash into you intentionally. It’s this servant who deserves to die, please forgive me!”
Her voice immediately attracted everyone in the vicinity to look over.
Wu Xi was frightened to death by her actions: “Get up quickly, I don’t blame you!”
The servant girl still continued kowtowing and crying: “Then please come with this servant to change a set of robes, otherwise, if the Head Steward finds out, this servant will be punished.”
“This…” Wu Xi looked at Guan Tong.
Guan Tong frowned.
“Please come with this servant to change a set of robes, otherwise, if the Head Steward finds out, this servant will be punished.” The servant girl kowtowed nonstop, very quickly, she had kowtowed until there was blood. This action made everyone else feel that Wu Xi and Guan Tong were very heartless people, not even agreeing to the servant girl’s well-intended requests.
Wu Ruo walked over and said nonchalantly: “If you were really worried about the Head Steward punishing you, why would start wailing from the beginning? As if you were afraid that others wouldn’t find out that you’d knocked into a guest?”
The servant girl’s kowtowing actions paused slightly.
Wu Ruo continued saying: “If my little sister already doesn’t blame you, and already asked you to get up, yet you still won’t let things go, causing my little sister to be criticized by other people, then are you sure you’re sincerely apologizing to her? And not harbouring some other motives?”
The gazes of everyone in the vicinity turned to the servant girl.
The servant girl hastily explained: “This servant… this servant just wants the mistress to go and change a set of robes…”
“Change a set of robes? Does changing a set of robes require you to keep kowtowing and wailing? What’s more, does a servant girl like you have any robes for my little sister to change into?”
The servant girl’s expression turned green, then blushed, then paled.
Wu Ruo shouted severely: “Aren’t you going to scram?”
The servant girl bit her lower lip, and kneeled unwillingly at that spot.
Wu Ruo no longer bothered about her, getting Wu Xi and Guan Tong to leave with him.
Wu Xi quietly said: “Erge, she’s still kneeling there.”
“Don’t bother with her. She’s only acting for us to watch, so let her continue kneeling by herself.”
Wu Qianqing and Hei Xuanyi walked over: “What happened just now?”
Guan Tong recounted everything that had just happened to Wu Qianqing.
Once Wu Qianqing heard it, he immediately knew that the servant girl harboured bad intentions. She definitely must’ve been commanded by someone to bring Wu Xi and Guan Tong away: “It’s a good thing that Wu Ruo was alert and didn’t let the two of you leave with her. Otherwise, something bad might happen.”
Wu Xi anxiously said: “It’s t-that bad?”
Guan Tong patted her shoulder, sighing.
Wu Ruo said: “Let’s first go back to the carriage to change your robes.”
Ever since receiving the invitation, he had thought of every kind of accident that could occur, so, he had prepared spare robes a long time ago.
Once they left, the head steward walked in front of the servant girl: “They’ve already left, who are you still acting for?”
The servant girl said worriedly: “But on Miss Xue’s side…”
The head steward swept her a cold glance: “What a useless piece of trash. Report to Miss Xue yourself.”
The servant girl trembled and didn’t dare to make a sound.
Wu Ruo waited for Wu Xi to finish changing her robes, then let everyone fill their tummies with dimsum that was from the Hei Manor. When the time for eating lunch came, they just pretended to eat a little with others before feeling full.
When it came to the afternoon, other guests came one after the other to the Wu estate to congratulate Wu Chenzi on his birthday. Wu Ruo and the others also gave their congratulatory gifts to the steward who was receiving the presents, then, they went to Wu Chenzi’s residences to congratulate Wu Chenzi on his birthday.
Wu Qianqing and the rest of them were only from a side branch, so they had no right to enter the main hall to congratulate Wu Chenzi, so he could only find somewhere to sit around with Wu Ruo and the others to chat idly.
Not longer after, a servant from the Wu estate came looking for them, saying that Wu Qianqing’s great-great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother wanted to see them.
Wu Qianqing was now stuck between a rock and a hard place3The original Chinese says: he couldn’t refuse, but he also couldn’t not refuse.. His great-great-grandparents were indeed alive, if they came to the Wu estate and didn’t go over to greet them, it really couldn’t be excused. However, he was also worried that this was yet another trap.
He asked the servant: “Are my grandparents there?”
The servant hurriedly nodded: “Clan Leader Wu and his wife are all there, they are just waiting for you to go over together.”
Wu Qianqing closed his eyes: “Is that so? However, half a joss stick’s time ago, my grandfather was still here chatting with us. How could he have gone over to Great-great-grandfather’s place so quickly?”
Actually, this was a lie to deceive the servant.
The servant laughed bitterly: “Master Qing, please don’t joke around. Clan Leader Wu has been sitting with the old master for half a shichen already, how could he have been sitting here chatting with you?”
Wu Qianqing frowned, was this person really here because his great-great-grandfather was looking for them?
Hei Xuanyi nonchalantly asked the servant: “You are a servant from Great-great-great-grandfather’s residences?”
The servant immediately nodded: “That’s right.”
Wu Ruo knew the reason why Hei Xuanyi had asked that question, so he said: “We’ve never met Great-great-great-grandfather and the others before. A servant of Great-great-great-grandfather’s shouldn’t be able to recognize us either. However, you could spot us with just one look, it must be said that the people trained by Great-great-great-grandfather are truly capable.”
The servant smiled and said, as if he hadn’t picked up on the deeper meaning behind Wu Ruo’s words: “Before I came, Clan Leader Wu told this servant, the pair who are most goodlooking will definitely be the young master and his husband. That’s how this servant was able to recognize you with just one look!”
Wu Ruo smiled meaningfully; this servant was much more capable than the previous servant girl.
“Seems like you really were sent over here by Great-great-great-grandfather. However, I’ll still have to trouble you to go back and let them know, today is Lord State Tutor’s birthday banquet, there’s truly no way for us to leave to greet Great-great-great-grandfather, so we hope he can forgive us. In some time, after we’ve settled down, our entire family will definitely visit and greet him.”
The servant’s smile hardened slightly, and it wasn’t appropriate for him to say anything else, so he could only retreat from the gardens and return to report back.
Wu Qianqing’s expression darkened, he lowered his voice and said: “He’s clearly not someone sent by Great-great-grandfather.”
If Wu Bofang was also at Great-great-grandfather’s, he would’ve sent his own servant to look for them. He wouldn’t have gotten someone who didn’t recognize them to come over.
Wu Qianqing looked at Wu Ruo and Hei Xuanyi: “What do you the two of you think? Who would repeatedly be looking for opportunities to harm us? Could it be…”
Seeing that Guan Tong and Wu Xi were both around, he hurriedly cut himself off from saying the rest of the things he wanted to say.
Wu Ruo had guessed who it was, but he didn’t want Wu Qianqing to worry, so he said: “As long as we don’t split up, and don’t leave from places crowded with people, then it’ll be difficult for them to harm us.”
Hei Xuanyi nodded his head in agreement to these words.
For the rest of the time, no one came to look for them again.
When it neared youshi45pm to 6:59pm., Wu Chenzi received the Emperor, the Empress, and the royal guifei5贵妃 (gui fei): this is a title within the imperial harem, which refers to the consort who is ranked only behind the empress. Throughout the different dynasties, the title referring to this particular consort has changed, and titles within the imperial harem may differ. However, this particular consort is mostly referred to by this title in modern day guzhuang/period dramas. led all the royal princes6皇子 (huang zi): written with these characters, this specifically refers to royal sons. As royal sons can be bestowed positions, titles, etc., all royal sons are referred to as huang zi but depending on their merits, they can earn the title of 王 (wang). This is the term that is being used when characters are referred to as ‘princes’, but because English doesn’t differentiate between a titled prince and one who is simply a royal son, I leave this note instead. and princesses forth to congratulate him on his birthday. He hurriedly brought everyone to the main gates to receive them7For everyone who isn’t the Emperor, regardless of whether they are favoured princes or subjects in the court, they have to come to the main gates/entrance of the home to receive imperial decrees or royal messages, so Wu Chenzi has to bring the whole fam to come and listen to the royals’ congratulatory wishes for his birthday., even Wu Ruo and the others were not left out.
They had just kneeled down when upwards of a thousand imperial palace guards dressed in light armour arrived at the main entrance of the Wu estate, vast and mighty, surrounding and protecting the royal family’s carriages. The carriages were mainly yellow in colour, with either dragons or phoenixes carved onto them, and were extremely noble. The Wu family members all lowered their heads, holding their breaths, not daring to disturb the Emperor within the horse carriage.
The eunuch outside of the carriage lifted up the curtains as he loudly announced: “The Emperor has arrived, the Empress has arrived.”
Everyone present kowtowed to receive the Emperor’s arrival.
The Emperor alighted from the carriage, smiling brightly, and didn’t put on the airs of an emperor at all. He immediately allowed everyone to rise from kneeling, and the Crown Prince, the other princes and princesses alighted from the carriages behind the Emperor’s carriage.
Wu Chenzi hurriedly walked forth to the Emperor, cordially welcoming the Emperor into the Wu estate.
It was Wu Ruo’s first time seeing the Emperor, so he couldn’t help but take a few more looks at him. However, he discovered that although the Emperor, who looked to only be in his early 30s, spoke with sufficient vital energy8中气 (zhong qi): Traditional Chinese Medicine term. According to Pleco, it is the ‘vital energy of the cavity between the diaphragm and the umbilicus, housing the spleen, stomach, etc., which facilitates digestion and absorption of nutrition’., but his eyes were full of clouded streaks of blood and emanated an air of elderliness. According to Wu Ruo’s many years of experience studying medicine, there was definitely a problem with the Emperor’s body. However, he would still have to take the Emperor’s pulse to be able to clearly assess the specific reason for the Emperor’s poor health.
He recalled that in his previous lifetime, the Emperor had passed away9驾崩 (jia beng): this is a very specific term that refers to royalty dying. The term can be interpreted as ‘the royal carriage collapsing’. the year that Wu Ruo was 28 years old. However, with the current situation, whether he could hold out for another five years could become a problem.
This change probably originated from him saving Ling Mohan, causing someone to be anxious, therefore, they sped up the death of the Emperor.
When Wu Ruo thought of Ling Mohan, his gaze turned to the Crown Prince standing behind the Emperor. Ling Mohan was dressed in apricot coloured extravagant robes with four-clawed dragons10The Emperor is typically represented by a dragon, and others aren’t allowed to use the dragon in their items, however, princes may have dragons embroidered in their robes as well. The differentiation is the number of claws the dragon has. Again, these things aren’t fixed throughout the whole of Chinese history. It varies from dynasty to dynasty, so you can just assume that these details are only true within this novel’s canon. Also, as a gentle reminder, since this is a fantasy historical novel, the world building in this novel isn’t accurate to true history.. His waist was adorned with the Nine Palace Dragon jade. Compared to when he was in Gaoling City, he had a more noble and majestic air, but there was less coldness as well. His handsome face was full of laughter; he faced everybody with a grinning expression, and he looked as though he was extremely easy to get close to, yet it was hard to guess what kind of thoughts he hid beneath his smiles.
Suddenly, Wu Ruo felt that someone was crowding against him.
When he came back to his senses and turned to look, there was already a large distance created between him and Hei Xuanyi. Following that, someone viciously shoved him, and he crashed towards Ling Mohan.
Special double release today to celebrate my birthday this month! I’m also doing my best to work on more frequent chapter releases.
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