Big thanks and a shout-out to biki for sending me a laptop so that I can translate LWSL more conveniently!
A faint tenderness flashed across Hei Xuanyi’s cold gaze. He looked at the spirit1Reminder: The author refers to the spirit Wu Ruo by name, but I’ve chosen to use ‘the spirit’ and it/its pronouns to differentiate spirit-Wu Ruo from current timeline-Wu Ruo. calmly, without speaking.
The spirit made eye contact with him for a split second, then lowered its gaze in embarrassment and continued to wipe down the urn to conceal its own shyness.
Hei Yin truly couldn’t stand to continue watching, and snorted: “Of course it’s because you are Master’s furen. In his heart, Master also likes you, so if he isn’t good to you, who else would he be good to? Did you know when Master ordered us to retrieve Miss Wu Xi’s remains, at the same time, he also ordered us to annihilate all of the people in Kambuja2It’s not explicitly stated in text, but I don’t think Hei Yin means they annihilated everyone in the country but rather the people of the clan Ba Se was from. as revenge for furen‘s younger sister.”
The spirit’s actions paused; Hei Xuanyi liked the spirit?
Then how come it couldn’t tell at all in the slightest? However, Hei Xuanyi had a serious expression3In the text, the author uses崩 (beng) but I think it’s a typo and I translated it according to 绷 (beng) instead. If anyone reading along with the original has input, feel free to leave a comment and let me know. every day; on top of that, he didn’t speak much, how could anyone tell what he was thinking?
But the relationship between the two of them was so terrible, did Hei Xuanyi really like the spirit?
The spirit secretly took a peek at Hei Xuanyi. Seeing that he was still watching it, and he didn’t deny Hei Yin’s words either, the spirit couldn’t help tighten its grip on the cloth in its hands.
In order not to disturb them, Hei Yin disappeared directly from the main hall.
After the spirit finished wiping the urn and placed it properly on the table, then it asked: “Is what Hei Yin said true?”
“Hn.” Hei Xuanyi tugged the spirit to sit on his own lap.
When the spirit heard him admitting to it, it actually felt especially happy. Its body unthinkingly felt weak, it wrapped its arms around Hei Xuanyi’s waist and leaned its head onto his shoulder.
Then what about itself?
Did it like Hei Xuanyi or not?
It couldn’t think of the answer. It only knew that after its dad and mum died, this man had become its everything.
It only clearly understood its own feelings after one month, when someone arrived at Hei Manor.
That day, the spirit came from the residential quarters and saw a gorgeous man sprawled all over Hei Xuanyi. In an instant, it went crazy with jealousy and wanted no more than to rush forward and tear that man into shreds.
Hei Xuanyi sensed the irregularity and turned around towards the spirit. Seeing that both its eyes had turned bloodshot, his expression changed and he immediately pushed away the gorgeous man in his arms. He quickly walked over to the spirit and held onto its hand, and restrained it with a heavy tone: “Xiao-Ruo.”
The spirit heard his voice and quickly recovered its senses and looked at Hei Xuanyi with a little confusion: “What happened to me?”
That gorgeous man walked over and said: “You almost became a vicious spirit.”
Wu Ruo glared at him; if it wasn’t for him, would it have lost its own senses?
“Dage, it seems like dasao doesn’t like me.” The gorgeous man threw himself into Hei Xuanyi’s arms: “I4Hei Xuantang doesn’t use the 我 (wo) pronoun here, he’s referring to himself in third person as 小弟 (xiao di), which means ‘small little brother’. It’s a slightly cutesy way of referring to yourself when speaking to an older sibling or someone who is an older sibling figure. feel so wronged.”
“Don’t mess around.” Hei Xuanyi pushed him away.
The spirit asked: “He’s your little brother?”
“Hn.”
The gorgeous man hurriedly introduced himself: “Dasao, I’m called Hei Xuantang, I’m fourth in birth order, you can call me sidi.”
The spirit immediately released the breath it had been holding. So this was Hei Xuanyi’s blood related younger brother. What a relief.
Hei Xuanyi’s expression darkened. He asked Wu Ruo in a severe tone: “What happened to you just now?”
“I…” The spirit lowered its head, feeling guilty.
Hei Xuantang giggled: “I’m guessing dasao definitely must’ve been jealous!”
Hei Xuanyi: “…”
“I’m going back to my room.” The spirit embarrassedly turned around and hurriedly flew back to the residential quarters.
It had been so humiliated just now! Even when it had killed people, it had never lost its senses, yet it had almost turned into a vicious spirit because it had gotten jealous…
C-could it have fallen for Hei Xuanyi?!
The spirit returned to its room and went straight to hide in its nest of blankets.
When Hei Xuanyi returned to the room, he was greeted by the sight of the spirit rolling around, wrapped in blankets, like a child.
The spirit heard footsteps and stopped its actions, peeking out of the blankets. When it saw that it was Hei Xuanyi, it shrank back into the blankets.
Hei Xuanyi raised an eyebrow: “I’m leaving.”
“Don’t go!” The spirit hurriedly lifted the blankets away and held onto Hei Xuanyi.
Hei Xuanyi sat down and hugged the spirit in his arms, saying in a heavy tone: “You can’t behave like you did today again in the future.”
The spirit obediently agreed: “Then in the future, whenever anything happens to you, you have to tell me. Don’t hide it from me. Otherwise, I’ll misunderstand very easily, just the way I always have these ten over years since we got married. If it wasn’t because you don’t like talking to me, Ruan Zhizheng wouldn’t have had the opportunity to sow discord between us. Also, when you’re angry, you can’t just turn around and leave. You have to let me know that you’re angry, you have to give me the chance to explain or make it up to you. If you just leave without saying a word, it’ll make me feel like you think I’m not worth caring about. You have to say it with your mouth. Although it’s also good that you take care of me without telling me about it, but in the circumstance when I’m not aware, I can only assume that you don’t care in the slightest about me.”
The things that the spirit was mentioning were the little details that had happened in their past ten over years together. It was also the conclusion that the spirit had come to after the past few months of spending time together. It was that because this man spoke far too little, it resulted in their relationship of over ten years always being so terrible: “Also, also, in the future, you have to chat with me more.”
Hei Xuanyi: “…”
After saying all that, it was all because the spirit thought he spoke too little.
“In the future, I will converse with you more.”
The spirit hugged him, satisfied, and leaned against his shoulder: “If we could have talked to each other like this in the past, calmly and peacefully, then we wouldn’t have wasted ten over years, letting each other slip by in vain.”
The most lamentable thing was that, when they had finally reconciled their feelings with each other, it was now only a spirit, a brand new spirit that couldn’t do anything.
Just thinking about it made the spirit feel aggrieved. Right now, even maintaining a corporeal form was already a difficult task, let alone making love with Hei Xuanyi in bed. Even if it was just in daily life, it was unable to accompany Hei Xuanyi to eat or fall asleep together.
However, it just wanted to accompany Hei Xuanyi more, just like a regular person. To say nothing of the fact that it currently couldn’t leave the manor, in case it got captured by a powerful magic practitioner or was scattered into nothingness by someone. Therefore, it could only leave the matters of killing the Wu family members and searching for Ruan Zhizheng to be done by Hei Xuanyi. As for itself, other than hanging around in the manor, it could only continue hanging around in the manor.
The spirit, which had nothing better to do, therefore looked for Hei Yang: “Do you Gui people need to eat anything?”
In the time that it had spent together with Hei Yang and the others, it had never seen them eating food, so it wanted to understand the situation better so that it could eat together with Hei Xuanyi.
Hei Yang grinned until his eyes turned into crescents: “If you steal a woman’s dudou5This is what a woman’s dudou looks like. In case the link breaks, it sort of looks like a short apron that ends above the hips with one string at the top like a halter and two strings at the sides that are pulled to the back and tied together. It’s basically an undergarment worn beneath your robes. To clarify, this isn’t only worn by women. If you’ve watched Chinese cartoons before, you may have seen depictions of Nezha wearing this. Adult men may also wear dudou. I’m not well-versed in historical garments, so I can’t say what’s the difference between men and women’s dudou. I think it kind of occupies the ‘sexy women’s lingerie’ niche in the modern perception though, but take that with a pinch of salt. back for me, then I’ll tell you.”
“…” The spirit asked curiously: “What do you want with a woman’s dudou?”
Hei Yang replied with a conceited expression: “I don’t have any other interests, but I just like stealing women’s dudou. Don’t you think that women’s dudou looks very good?”
The corners of the spirit’s eyes creased: “If you like dudou, then just go buy some for yourself. The shops have all kinds of colours and embroidery patterns, must it be stolen?”
Hei Yang looked at him with an idiotic expression6To clarify: spirit-Wu Ruo is describing Hei Yang as looking like an idiot. Not that Hei Yang is looking at Wu Ruo, thinking that Wu Ruo is idiotic.: “How could buying things be as interesting as stealing things?”
Suddenly, a black silhouette appeared beside them: “If the master knew that you were teaching furen to steal dudou, he will definitely peel the skin off of the other half of your face.”
When Hei Yang saw that the new arrival was Hei Yin, he immediately roared: “Hei Yin, you actually eavesdropped on our conversation!”
Hei Yin rolled his eyes at Hei Yang: “It was Master who told me to come look for you.”
“What does Master want with me?”
“I don’t know. Ask him yourself.”
Hei Yang disappeared from the room.
Hei Yin’s gaze seemed to dim.
The spirit noticed that Hei Yin’s mood seemed down, so it probed cautiously: “Do you like Hei Yang?”
Hei Yin looked at the spirit.
“If you really like him, then just tell him. Who knows, maybe he likes you as well. Even if he doesn’t like you, the two of you can still be friends. In any case, don’t be like Hei Xuanyi and I, slipping past each other in vain for so many years.”
Hei Yin: “…”
The spirit patted his shoulder and left the room.
Who would’ve thought that the spirit’s words would actually be effective. After two months, Hei Yin and Hei Yang ended up together. As long as they had free time, the two of them would be stuck together. On top of that, their manner was intimate. It made the spirit especially envious, it wanted its relationship with Hei Xuanyi to be a little more passionate like the other two.
In the days after, the spirit would hug Hei Xuanyi to sleep every night. In the moment that Hei Xuanyi woke up, it would kiss the corners of his lips. Sometimes, it would act coquettishly toward Hei Xuanyi and ask him to help it change and brush its hair. After leaving their room, the two of them would hold hands and walk to the main hall together to eat. After that, it was in charge of picking the dishes for Hei Xuanyi, and Hei Xuanyi was just in charge of eating. Anyone with eyes could see that they were very much in love.
One day, after eating breakfast, Hei Xuanyi took out a black dachang7This is just a kind of outer robe, functioning similarly to a cloak. Fun fact: some guzhuang costume design is actually fictional and is made to look good for drama series, but the dachang is an actual piece of historical hanfu that people genuinely wore in the past. that was a piece of magical equipment and put it on for the spirit: “I made this robe by myself. It can cover up the gui energy on your body, so that other practitioners won’t detect it.”
The spirit’s gaze brightened: “Does that mean I can leave the manor?”
Hei Xuanyi replied: “You can only leave the manor when I’m accompanying you.”
“That’s still better than not being able to go out.” The spirit happily lifted Hei Xuanyi’s hands: “Does this mean that I can go out of the manor today for some fun? I’ve arrived at Huangdu City for almost a year, but I’ve never gone out before.”
“Hn.” Hei Xuanyi took the false skin off of his face. He didn’t want to scare the people outside because of that face and ruin the mood for taking a stroll outside.
The spirit thought that it would be able to have fun for the entire day. Who would’ve known that the moment they arrived at the crowded main street, it would see Ruan Zhizheng coming out from a restaurant.
“Xuanyi, I saw Ruan Zhizheng, he’s right there!” The spirit pointed in the direction of the restaurant, both angry and anxious.
Hei Xuanyi patted it on the back comfortingly: “I’ll send someone to tail him.”
The spirit didn’t dare to get too agitated either, afraid that it would lose its senses and turn into a vicious spirit. It forcefully suppressed its fury and hatred, shopping at a clothes store and accessories store with Hei Xuanyi. It ate a meal at a restaurant before going back with Hei Xuanyi.
“This is a waist pendant that I bought for you.” The spirit took out the white jade pendant that it had secretly bought, and put it on for Hei Xuanyi: “Do you like it?”
“Hn.” Hei Xuanyi caressed the jade pendant in an extremely careful and tender way: “This is the first time you’re buying me something.”
The spirit was stunned for a moment. Since the day they were married till today, it was indeed the first time that it had bought something for Hei Xuanyi, and on top of that, it was bought with the money that Hei Xuanyi had given it. That wasn’t sincere enough.
It kissed the corner of his lips: “In the future, when I’ve earned money, whatever you want, I’ll buy it for you.”
“Alright.”
At this moment, the bodyguard outside the carriage said: “Master, someone is following us.”
Hei Xuanyi’s expression turned severe: “Who is it?”
“I don’t know, however, the carriage is extremely fancy, it looks like a carriage ridden by a woman. This subordinate will shake them off now and then investigate their identities.”
The bodyguard increased the speed of the horses. After half a shichen, they successfully shook off the carriage and returned to Hei Manor.
Not long after, the bodyguard that had gone to investigate the owner of the carriage and the Gui that was tailing Ruan Zhizheng both returned at the same time to report.
The bodyguard said: “Reporting to Master, the person following us was the youngest granddaughter of the Lord State Tutor.”
The Gui continued to say: “Reporting to Master, Ruan Zhizheng ended up entering the Wu estate and hasn’t emerged. This subordinate has already gotten people to stand watch by the main entrance of the Wu estate.”
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