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Mentions of corporal punishment, mentions of minor character deathAfter Wu Ruo instructed Shi Yi to send people to keep a watch on Ruan Zhizheng, he went to the main hall to have breakfast. However, he saw Guan Tong sitting at the table with a long face, sighing.
“Mum, what’s wrong?” Wu Ruo sat by her side and asked concernedly.
Guan Tong came back to her senses, picking up her chopsticks: “I’m fine, let’s eat breakfast.”
Wu Ruo saw that she didn’t seem fine: “What about Dad and dage and the rest?”
“Xiao-Zhu and Xi-er1Both the 小 xiao prefix and 儿 er suffix changes the name to a diminutive form, indicates affection/endearment, and are used by someone older or of higher status on someone younger or of lower status. Most commonly used by family members, and sometimes very close friends. have gone to the academy, your dad, he…” Guan Tong heaved a sigh: “He had no appetite to eat breakfast, so he’s gone to his study to read.”
“Did Dad run into some kind of problem? Otherwise, why wouldn’t he have an appetite to eat?”
Guan Tong opened her mouth as if she was about to speak, but then stopped2欲言又止 (yu yan you zhi): a Chinese idiom, it means exactly as I translated it in text, but I just wanted to mention that it’s only a four-word idiom in the original. The immense brevity of Chinese always wows me. Why use many word when few word do job..
“Mum, don’t try to hide it from me anymore, you doing this will only make me even more anxious.”
Guan Tong said, sighing: “Actually, it isn’t a big deal either. It’s just that this morning, when your dad and your dabo3Refers to Wu Qianjing and the rest went over to your grandfather’s for a discussion, he brought up the issue about wanting back the magic weapons that we lent out to your dabo and the rest. But your dabo and the rest said that your dad doesn’t have any use for the magic weapons now anyway, so they still want to borrow it for a while longer…”
Originally, it was agreed upon that they would just be borrowing the weapons for a few days then returning them. Now, two to three months had already passed by, yet they didn’t seem to have any intentions of returning anything. It was obvious that his dabo and the rest just didn’t want to return anything to them.
Wu Ruo had already predicted things would be like this, and patted the back of Guan Tong’s hand: “Mum, don’t worry, dabo and the rest will return everything.”
“Let’s hope so.”
Wu Ruo picked up his chopsticks and picked a piece of yam dimsum for Guan Tong: “Mum, let’s eat breakfast.”
“Hn.”
Wu Ruo finished breakfast and brought a few plates of snacks to the study to look for Wu Qianqing. He only felt at ease when he saw that his dad wasn’t as downtrodden as he’d imagined: “Dad, have you gathered all the medicinal ingredients?”
Wu Qianqing put down his book: “I’ve already gathered everything. When are we preparing for the herbal bath?”
“It’ll be best if we do it at night after everyone’s gone to sleep.” Wu Ruo thought about it, and said again: “We also need to prepare a big iron pot that’s big enough to fit you, to put on the spiritual furnace4灵炉 (ling lu): literally ‘spiritual furnace’. It’s a magical fire/furnace imbued with spiritual energy that probably transfers into whatever is heated by it. Probably not used for regular cooking. so that it can heat the bath as you’re soaking inside.”
“Alright, I’ll get Wu Xu to prepare it later.” Wu Qianqing stood up to sit by Wu Ruo’s side: “Xiao-Ruo, you stayed at the Wu estate last night, does Xuanyi know about it? And how come Wu Da and Wu Xiao didn’t follow you back to the Wu estate?”
“Xuanyi had already left the city the night before, he’ll only be back in a few days, so I’ve decided to stay here for a few days before going back. As for Wu Da and Wu Xiao, they’ll be getting married in a few days, right now they’re rushing to prepare for the wedding.”
“Hn, it’s about time for them to get married. When the time comes, you must prepare two generous gifts for them. After all, they’ve been with you for so many years.” Since they were only servants, so Wu Qianqing didn’t probe any further about the matter: “Oh, that’s right, when I was coming back just now, I heard about Zhizheng’s matter. How is he now?”
Wu Ruo sighed and said: “Two of his attendants died, and he had to bear thirty lashes. Now he’s locked himself at home and isn’t willing to come out to see me.”
Wu Qianqing hummed softly for a moment, his eyebrows twisted as he said: “I feel like someone wants to hurt Zhizheng. Xiao-Ruo, you’re on such good terms with him, you should be careful recently too. I’m worried the person who wants to hurt him will also hurt you.”
Wu Ruo’s heart skipped a beat, and he asked: “Dad, why do you think that someone wants to hurt Zhizheng?”
“Last night, they’d gotten dead drunk, how could Zhizheng’s attendants still go to Shuli Garden? As well, being able to enter Shuli Garden when there are people guarding the door, it’s obvious to see someone had arranged for it.” Wu Qianqing narrowed his eyes: “I’m guessing that they were bewitched by someone on their way out of the side entrance, or someone might have put up some sort of magic skill like an array. That’s how they could hide from the guards’ eyes and enter Shuli Garden.”
Wu Ruo: “…”
His dad was quite astute.
Wu Qianqing suddenly smiled: “Oh, that’s right, your Northern main estate dabo‘s second son Anrun is about to get married5If you were like me and went “hold up? Anrun? I thought this generation only has 2 people with the An generational character and their names were Anqi and Anyi?” then this footnote is for you.
Okay, so what the heck does “Northern main estate dabo” mean? Get ready, it’s complicated. Dad is referring to his cousin, specifically his oldest male cousin by whichever uncle of his that resides in the Northern main estate.
It’s not specified which uncle of Dad’s stays in which main estate. So Dad’s cousins are also referred to the same way his siblings are, at least for Wu Ruo addressing them. Wu Ruo has 4 different dabos, technically speaking. Dad’s own older brother, and the oldest sons of Wu Ruo’s grand-uncles.
Now, Wu Ruo’s family are from the Southern main estate. When it was written that there are only 2 people who managed to obtain the An generational character, Anqi and Anyi, this was referring to the Southern main estate only.
So there are probably people of Wu Ruo’s generation with the An generational character in the Northern, Eastern, and Western main estates too. Anrun is one of those people.
Alternately, if that was way too complicated and didn’t make sense, all you have to know is Anrun is some kind of cousin to Wu Ruo..”
Wu Ruo stroked at the space between his eyebrows, his thoughts couldn’t help but drifted to the time Wu Anrun got married in his previous lifetime. Then, he smiled meaningfully: “Is that so? Then I must really properly congratulate tangge.”
Notes: I wonder if Wu Qianqing was subtly calling Wu Ruo out for being obvious af or if he was really just being a concerned dad.
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