Big thanks and a shout-out to biki for sending me a laptop so that I can translate LWSL more conveniently!
Half a month after Ye Ji moved into Hei Manor, Ling Mohan finally eradicated the thermotoxin pandemic. He waited until everyone’s condition had improved before he led his subordinates back to Huangdu City.
The Emperor was deeply pleased and immediately began to reward Ling Mohan and his entourage of subordinates. However, Ling Mohan rejected these rewards with the reasoning that ‘as Crown Prince, he ought to solve the troubles and worries of the people’. The Emperor was even more satisfied with him, and the smile on the Emperor’s face never faltered.
Following after, Ling Mohan handed up a report that criticized Wu Chenzi severely.
When the Emperor found out that the thermotoxin originated from the Four Clans Festival, he was extremely infuriated. However, he only punished Wu Chenzi with the deduction of one year’s salary and made Wu Chenzi reflect at home for two months1A.K.A Wu Chenzi is not allowed to perform any duties in a professional capacity and he cannot attend imperial court sessions.. The second imperial prince also had his privilege to attend the imperial court temporarily revoked due to his poor handling of the thermotoxin pandemic.
Ling Mohan had already predicted these results, so he was extremely calm after hearing the Emperor’s punishments for Wu Chenzi and the others. After that, his gaze landed on an official next to him.
That official understood his intentions and stepped forth to say: “Reporting to Your Majesty, during the period that Lord State Tutor is reflecting at home, shouldn’t there be someone assigned to temporarily take over Lord State Tutor’s responsibilities? Otherwise, the Imperial Astronomers Office2司天监 (si tian jian): this refers to the department in charge of observing meteorological phenomenon that may indicate positive signs or negative omens regarding an Emperor’s reign, as well as choosing auspicious dates for ceremonies and etc. It’s a mix of actual astronomy and Chinese astrology. will be in a mess.”
The Emperor pondered: “Tutor Yan3天师 (tian shi): this is a position within the Imperial Astronomers Office. According to Baidu, this can be translated as ‘Daoist master’. Since I have translated the 国师 (guo shi) position as State Tutor so far, I am following that pattern of naming for the other positions in tthe Imperial Astronomers Office. will temporarily take over Lord State Tutor’s responsibilities.”
Wu Chenzi’s expression turned harsh; he lowered his head and pursed his lips tightly, remaining silent.
Ling Mohan’s lips curled into a hint of a smile.
Within the Imperial Astronomers Office, other than Wu Chenzi, the next person with the most authority was Tutor Yan. However, it was a pity that he was always suppressed by Wu Chenzi in all matters. Now, he would finally have the opportunity to prove himself.
After the imperial court session was dismissed, Ling Mohan walked out of the palace hall4Just to clarify, the entire Imperial Palace as an institution is made up of several physical palaces and other offices. Typically, underaged offspring of the Emperor and the Crown Prince, as well as the ladies of the imperial harem, all have their own palaces within the institution of the Imperial Palace. Princes of age or with a title will be rewarded with a residence of their own outside of the palace. Unauthorized individuals are not allowed within the institution of the Imperial Palace, but since Ling Zisheng came with the Crown Prince, he’s allowed to be on the grounds. However, he doesn’t have the right to enter the palace hall where imperial court is being held even if he’s with the Crown Prince unless there’s a legitimate reason for Ling Mohan to bring him along. with a face full of smiles.
Ling Zisheng, who had been waiting outside the entire time, quickly went forward to greet him, beaming as he asked: “Did the Emperor reward you?”
Ling Mohan explained what had happened in court to him.
Ling Zisheng said excitedly: “We finally dragged that shitty old man off of the State Tutor’s position.”
Ling Mohan narrowed his eyes: “This is only temporary. If we want to tear him down from the State Tutor’s position completely, we still need to plan for this matter properly.”
He looked at Ling Zisheng: “You won’t blame me for not getting any rewards for you?”
Ling Zisheng rolled his eyes: “The Emperor’s rewards are only money or jewelry, and I’m not lacking any of these. In any case, I only sent people to look for herbs to cure a flu. I didn’t really help you to do anything. The person that you really should be thanking is that madam. If it weren’t for her5Ling Zisheng is mistaking ‘Madam’ Wu Ruo for a woman., how would we be able to face Wu Chenzi head-on?”
Ling Mohan nodded in agreement. When he returned to his own palace, he took out a waist pendant and called out toward it: “Hei Yang.”
Following that, Hei Yang appeared in front of them: “Does the Crown Prince have any instructions for me?”
“Being able to successfully resolve the thermotoxin this time was all thanks to your family’s madam. If it’s possible, I would like to invite them6Again, JYB is using the 他 (ta) pronoun which can be he/him or more ambiguously they/them. In this case, since Ling Zisheng is present for the conversation and because there’s some gender ambiguity going on, I’ve opted to use they/them pronouns. out for a meal.”
Hei Yang raised an eyebrow: “My master doesn’t like when they have too much contact with other men.”
This was something that Hei Xuanyi had instructed him from the beginning. If the Crown Prince invited Wu Ruo for a meal or to meet alone, or other such requests, Hei Yang was to reject these requests on the spot.
Ling Mohan was stumped. In his mind, Wu Ruo was just another man. So, for a brief moment, he didn’t understand what Hei Yang meant by those words.
Ling Zisheng burst out in laughter: “Is your master jealous?”
“Yes.” Hei Yang said extremely honestly.
Ling Mohan: “..”
“Biaoge, since that madam’s husband is jealous, then you should show your gratitude toward their madam with a different method, like rewarding her with some money and jewelry. Think about it, she must have expended a lot of energy to refine so much liquid medicine. If you only invite her out for a meal, isn’t that a bit stingy?”
Ling Mohan reluctantly nodded in agreement, then ordered his people to bring out a box of money and jewelry for Hei Yang to take back with him. Actually, he had wanted to meet with Wu Ruo quite a bit, so that the two of them could sit down and have a good chat, and he could share his happiness. Now that Ling Mohan was unable to meet that person, he inexplicably felt a little bit disappointed.
After Hei Yang left, Ling Zisheng watched as Ling Mohan remained seated without talking, so he asked curiously: “Biaoge, what’s wrong?”
Hadn’t his mood been just fine a while ago? Why did he suddenly become so dispirited?
Ling Mohan shook his head: “Nothing.”
Ling Zisheng’s eyes darted around, then he asked: “Biaoge, you can’t have fallen for that madam, have you?”
Ever since he had been rejected for that meal, his cousin had become unhappy.
Ling Mohan was stunned, then his expression immediately darkened: “What nonsense are you spouting?”
The other party was a man; how could he possibly like a man?
“It’s fine as long as you haven’t.” Ling Zisheng sighed in relief: “You have the status of the crown prince, and the other party is a woman with a husband. She’s just not worthy of you. Aunt Empress won’t let you be together with this sort of woman either.”
Ling Mohan glared at him: “Stop guessing blindly about these useless things. Hurry up and leave the palace. Uncle and the others haven’t seen you in a month, they must be waiting anxiously for your return.”
“I’ll leave right now. Biaoge, don’t forget that you owe me a meal!” Ling Zisheng turned around and left the Crown Prince’s palace with a smile.
Ling Mohan snorted coldly: “Saying that I like Wu Ruo? How laughable. How could I possibly like a man?”
As he said this, the image of Wu Ruo’s incomparably beautiful face appeared in his mind again. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t shake it off.
When Ling Zisheng came out of the Crown Prince’s palace, he was just in time to run into Wu Chenzi who had left the second imperial prince’s palace.
Wu Chenzi’s expression was both dark and ugly. He glanced at Ling Zisheng indifferently, then left the imperial palace with the eunuch who was escorting him. He took his carriage back to the Wu estate, then without eating any meals, he shut himself up in his own room. He meticulously reflected on everything that had happened recently.
He realized that, ever since his birthday banquet, no matter what he did, it all went extremely unsucessfully. Even if he tried to conduct a divination about the situation, he was also unable to get any results. It was really infuriating. Moreover, this time, regarding the matter of the thermotoxin pandemic, it was simply as though someone had been scheming against him. Otherwise, why couldn’t he gather even a single tuft of Beast-rearing Grass?
Exactly who was trying to destroy him?
Wu Chenzi ran over the entire matter from the beginning till the end once more. That day, if it wasn’t because he had known that Beast-rearing Grass could treat thermotoxins, then he wouldn’t have been anxious to bring the second imperial prince to the Emperor, and taken on the responsibillity of curing the thermotoxin. Even before this, if he hadn’t overheard the guard that Wu Ruo had sent over mentioning the thermotoxin, then he wouldn’t have gone out of curosity to see if the herbal soup that Wu Bofang and the others drank had any efficacy.
His expression turned cold. Everything that happened seemed to have begun from when Wu Ruo had sent someone over to deliver the Beast-rearing Grass.
Wu Chenzi seriously thought about the course of the entire incident. After that, he discovered one point of suspicion. He believed that he was already extremely well informed about matters regarding Huangdu City. As long as something happened within Huangdu City, it couldn’t be hidden from him. However, how had Wu Ruo already known about the thermotoxin even before Wu Chenzi? And he even clearly knew that Beast-rearing Grass could be used to cure the thermotoxin.
Later on, after the thermotoxin had spread, of the people who knew that the Beast-rearing Grass could cure the thermotoxin, they either viciously took the opportunity to earn a huge sum of money or compassionately shared that they had heard Beast-rearing Grass could be used to cure the thermotoxin. However, not a single person claimed that they were the one who knew that Beast-rearing Grass could cure thermotoxins7Frankly, this whole paragraph was confusing in the original Chinese. It says that of the people who knew about the Beast-rearing Grass being a cure, they either took advantage of the situation or kindly shared the knowledge with others. Then the next sentence says, but no one mentioned that Beast-rearing Grass could be used to cure thermotoxins. It’s not clearly written but I’m assuming that no one was the first person to claim that they were the ones who came up with the knowledge, only that everyone was sharing it as though they had heard it from someone else..
The more Wu Chenzi thought about it, the more he felt that Wu Ruo was suspicious. He even suspected that Wu Ruo had been the one to hoard all the Beast-rearing Grass. Although he didn’t know how Wu Ruo could’ve known about the matter of the thermotoxin beforehand, but it absolutely had something to do with him.
When he thought of Wu Ruo, he also thought of those greedy and selfish people from the Gaoling City Wu family. If it weren’t for Wu Ruo, Wu Chenzi wouldn’t have had such a large group of people piled onto him, causing him to lose huge amounts of money and medicinal ingredients.
Wu Chenzi frowned, realizing that many matters had something to do with Wu Ruo. Just like the matter with his granddaughter, Wu Yuxue, if it wasn’t because Wu Yuxue had fallen for Wu Ruo’s husband Hei Xuanyi, then his granddaughter wouldn’t have used huarong liquid to disfigure his great-granddaughter’s face. The matter of the huarong liquid also wouldn’t become common knowledge, and things wouldn’t have developed and escalated as they had.
The more he thought about it, the fishier it seemed. Because he believed that someone had been trying to harm Wu Yuxue, he hurriedly ordered someone to bring Zhi Tao, who took care of Wu Yuxue, to him.
When Zhi Tao was brought in front of him, he almost wasn’t able to recognize the maiden in front of him, laden with scars and wounds all over her body, as his granddaughter’s personal maid.
Wu Chenzi asked the steward: “Why has she been beaten into such a state?”
The steward explained: “Because she didn’t take good care of Miss Wu Yuxue, so the Second Young Madam8二少夫人 (er shao fu ren): They’re referring to Shang Zhirong here. She’s ‘second’ because her husband is second in birth order, and she’s considered a ‘young’ madam because she’s from a younger generation than Wu Chenzi/the current leader’s generation. locked her up in jail. Every morning, the Second Young Madam only releases her after she’s been beaten up by the guards.”
Wu Chenzi frowned: “Feed her a wound healing pill, I have something to ask her.”
“Yes, sir.”
After Zhi Tao ate the pill, in an instance, the pain all over her body lessened by a considerable degree, and she was also finally able to open her mouth and speak: “This servant greets the Lord State Tutor.”
Wu Chenzi asked: “I have matters to ask you, you must answer truthfully.”
Zhi Tao responded weakly: “Yes, sir.”
“According to my knowledge of Li-er, Li-er is more of a bashful little girl. She wouldn’t be able to do something like fighting with someone else over a man. Then what reason would Yuxue have to feel that Li-er was trying to fight with her over a man?”
Zhi Tao answered honestly: “It was because Young Master Hei praised Miss Yanli in front of the Young Mistress. He said that Miss Yanli was more beautiful than flowers. When Young Mistress heard it, she was extremely angry and felt that Miss Yanli was fighting with her over a man.”
Wu Chenzi narrowed his gaze in that instance: “You’re certain that Hei Xuanyi really said those words in front of Yuxue?”
Although he didn’t have a deep understanding of Hei Xuanyi as a person, but it was unlikely that someone who didn’t like speaking would praise a maiden in front of another maiden. Moreover, Wu Ruo had also been present.
“I’m absolutely certain.”
The moment that Wu Chenzi heard this, he felt that there were peculiarities. It was as if it had been purposefully said for Wu Yuxue’s sake, so that Wu Yuxue would feel jealous and later incite the string of events that had occurred afterward.
“Let me ask you something else, how many people knew about the huarong liquid incidences?”
“It was only Young Mistress, this servant and Young Master Yanlan.”
“There wasn’t anyone else who knew? For example, Yuxue liked Hei Xuanyi and then later, in a fit of passion, told Hei Xuanyi about the huarong liquid incidences?”
Zhi Tao shook her head: “There was no way. Young Mistress never got the chance to interact with Young Master Hei by herself, on top of that, Young Master Hei never expressed any sort of interest in Young Mistress. How could Young Mistress share such matters with Young Master Hei?”
Wu Chenzi frowned and persisted questioning: “Could Hei Xuanyi and Wu Ruo have accidentally found out about it? Or could they have accidentally seen the huarong liquid before?”
“They didn’t.” Following that, Zhi Tao seemed to recall something and corrected herself: “They might have seen it before.”
Wu Chenzi asked urgently: “Tell me what happened quickly.”
Zhi Tao recounted the incident where she had used huarong liquid on Wu Ruo, but accidentally hit Hei Xuanyi’s false skin instead: “This was how the false skin on Young Master Hei’s fell, and Young Mistress also started liking Young Master Hei from then on.”
Wu Chenzi’s expression darkened. Perhaps, it was then that Wu Ruo had discovered the existence of the huarong liquid. Then, they made use of Wu Yuxue liking Hei Xuanyi to cause her to be discredited and destroy her reputation. At the end of the day, they even caused the Wu family and the other four major family clans to bear feelings of animosity towards each other.
Well done, Wu Ruo. Well done, Hei Xuanyi.9This has a much more obvious and stronger sarcastic nuance in the original Chinese expression than it does in English.
Wu Chenzi slapped the table angrily, scaring Zhi Tao so badly that she curled up and didn’t dare to look at Wu Chenzi’s face.
It was no wonder that after Wu Ruo had damaged Ling Mohan’s Nine Palace Dragon Jade, Ling Mohan had let him off so lightly. So they had actually colluded together much earlier on to act against the Wu family.
Very good, very good10Again, this is meant to be sarcastic..
Wu Chenzi closed his eyes, full of raging fury, and breathed in deeply. When he opened his eyes again, his gaze had recovered their calm.
Wu Ruo, Hei Xuanyi, just you wait and see. I’ll definitely make you pay the price for all of this.
As Wu Chenzi was discovering that Wu Ruo had plotted everything, at the same time, Wu Ruo was in the main hall of Hei Manor splitting money with Nu Mu: “Master, it’s been tough on you11您老 (nin lao): the word nin is a polite way to say ‘you’, on its own, to someone who is older or is of higher status than you. Pairing it with the word lao makes it a polite way to say ‘you’ specifically to someone older than you are.. This is the money and jewelry that the Crown Prince rewarded me with, we can split it in half.”
Nu Mu didn’t stand on courtesy with Wu Ruo either, after receiving a pile of money and jewelry, he laughed heartily: “In the future, no matter how much money there is, I’ll never refine Beast-rearing Grass anymore! It really isn’t work that humans can do.”
Wu Ruo laughed: “In the future, if there’s another thermotoxin pandemic, we can just directly brew the herbs into a soup and drink it.”
He pushed his own half of money and jewelry in front of Hei Xuanyi: “All this money is for you to spend. You can buy whatever you want12I’m just following the formatting from the Chinese text, Wu Ruo also says it as a question there.?”
Nu Mu teased: “Are you handing over your private savings? Xiao-Ruo, I really couldn’t tell that you feared your husband13This is a common trope/stereotype that has been reversed. In guzhuang settings, the household expenditures are managed by the main wife or the steward of the house. In modern families, there are still men who practice handing their salaries over to be managed by their wives, but they tend to be perceived as ‘scared’ of their wives or henpecked..”
The corners of Hei Xuanyi’s lips curled up slightly. Previously, he had minded quite a bit that Wu Ruo had accepted the money and jewelry gifted by Ling Mohan. Now, seeing that Wu Ruo didn’t keep a single cent or piece of jewelry for himself, he felt much more at ease.
Wu Ruo wrapped his arms around Hei Xuanyi’s neck: “I’m not afraid of my husband, I’m doting on my husband. In the future, I’ll continue working hard to earn money for my husband spend, can’t I?”
“You can, you can.” Nu Mu looked at Hei Xuanyi enviously: “Look, your husband is bursting with joy.”
Actually, it wasn’t as exaggerated as he was saying. There was just a shallow hint of a smile on Hei Xuanyi’s coldly handsome face.
When Wu Ruo saw that he was happy, he himself felt especially delighted.
“Alright, I won’t disturb you two lovebirds anymore.” Nu Mu smiled and stood up, storing his money and jewelry in the sleeves of his robes, and left the main hall.
Wu Ruo asked: “Just now, did you not want me to accept the money and items from Ling Mohan?”
When he opened up the box that Hei Yang had brought back, he had already sensed that Hei Xuanyi wasn’t very happy.
“Hn.” Hei Xuanyi didn’t deny it.
The reason why he didn’t like it was because, since the matter of Wu Yuxue being turned into a beggar, Hei Xuanyi had sensed that Ling Mohan had possibly fallen for Wu Ruo. He felt that those actions had clearly been to gain Wu Ruo’s favour.
Wu Ruo explained: “My master and I slaved so hard over refining the Beast-rearing Grass, yet in the end, the honor and prestige all went to the Crown Prince, and my master and I didn’t get anything at all. Taking a little bit of his money isn’t too much, is it? But, I can promise you, in the future, I won’t take a single cent of his money anymore.”
Although Wu Ruo didn’t know the real reason why Hei Xuanyi was upset but coaxing his husband to be happy was his first priority.
Hei Xuanyi said lightly: “In the future, keep your distance from Ling Mohan.”
Wu Ruo beamed, was his husband jealous?
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