LWSL Chapter 3

The heavens really opened their eyes, allowing him to reincarnate and giving him a chance to take revenge. All those people who wanted to harm him and his family would have to suffer hundredfold, thousandfold in return.

After the feelings of joy and excitement passed, Wu Ruo felt especially gloomy. Although the heavens gave him the chance to reincarnate, he wasn’t given the chance to choose the time period to be reborn into. One had to know that 13 years ago was the darkest, fattest, most abhorrent and most useless period of his life. Not only did he not have spiritual energy to cultivate, he couldn’t do anything independently either. In the morning when he woke up, he needed to rely on someone else to help him down from the bed. Then, every two steps that he took would make him breathless. The most miserable thing was that, as a man, he had married into another man’s family. This had caused him to be ridiculed for his whole life. Even if no one dared to bully him later on in life, they would still laugh at him in private for being someone’s male wife.

However, his family members were still safe in this time period, which was something to be grateful for. He would have to think about how to solve the other problems later. The biggest problem now was how to find his longevity plaque. In his previous lifetime, the longevity plaque had been given to him when he was 24 years old by his mother, but she’d said that it was given by someone else. As to who had given it, his mum had been unwilling to reveal their identity. The only thing he could be sure of was, before that, his mum hadn’t known about the longevity plaque either. And more than that, she hadn’t known that the longevity plaque had sealed away his spiritual energy, preventing him from cultivating.

“Xiao-Ruo¹小若 (Xiao-Ruo): literally means “little Ruo”. Wu Ruo’s given name is Ruo, with Wu being his family name. The xiao is a diminutive prefix that indicates affection, endearment. This is normally used by older people to younger people, whether family or close friends. It will pop up more often in later chapters.,” Wu Ruo’s mother, Guan Tong, came forth with red-rimmed eyes to hug Wu Ruo, but because Wu Ruo was too fat, she could only hug his stomach: “Did you have a hard time over there?”

When Wu Ruo saw her, it brought the last image of her from his previous lifetime to mind, and couldn’t help but start tearing up too.

“No,” Hei Xuanyi had left on the night of their wedding because he’d had matters to attend to. Hei Xuanyi’s family members did not live with him either, so in the two days after their wedding, he hadn’t suffered much. Just that the food that the servants of Hei Manor served wasn’t very good.

“That’s good,” Guan Tong felt relieved. Before that, she was still worried that the Hei family would begrudge Wu Ruo for being too fat.

Wu Ruo’s father, Wu Qianqing, also breathed a sigh of relief, and asked Wu Yu: “Xiao-Yu, how come you’re together with Xiao-Ruo?”

Wu Yu smiled faintly: “I saw Xiao-Ruo’s servants when I was on my way out and heard from them that Xiao-Ruo had been held up by Yu Tianbao and the others outside. So I hurried over to drive off Yu Tianbao and the others, then, I followed Xiao-Ruo over.”

“Those bastards,” Wu Qianqing could tell at once that Yu Tianbao and the others were bullying his son again.

“San-shu²三叔 (san shu): recalling that shu refers to your father’s younger brother, Wu Yu is referring to Wu Qianqing as his ‘third uncle (younger than his own father)’. Also, Wu Qianqing isn’t literally his third uncle, it just refers to Wu Qianqing as the third child among his own siblings. Wu Yu’s father is probably either the first or second child., I…”

Wu Ruo knew what Wu Yu wanted to say, but he didn’t want to let Wu Yu say it, so he quickly spoke and interrupted Wu Yu: “Dad.”

Wu Qianqing’s attention turned over to Wu Ruo: “Have you eaten breakfast yet? If you haven’t, I’ll get the servants to prepare some.”

“I’ve eaten already, Dad. I just want you to walk with me to the house.”

Wu Qianqing smiled: “You’re already all grown up, but you’re still so childish³撒娇 (sa jiao): doesn’t have a proper English equivalent. It’s when someone behaves cutely to someone else to try and get their way. You know, when girls pitch their voices higher and behave coquettishly to their boyfriends? It’s something similar, but there’s no flirtatious connotation when children do it to their parents, or when younger siblings do it to their older siblings. It’s a little hard to even explain because I’m not sure if non-East Asian families have this sort of culture..”

He supported Wu Ruo, and asked softly: “How come that person didn’t come back with you?”

Wu Ruo knew he was asking about Hei Xuanyi: “He’s got some things to attend to, he’ll come a little later.”

In his previous lifetime, Hei Xuanyi only came over in the afternoon.

Wu Qianqing nodded: “Then that’s good.”

As Wu Ruo walked towards the house, he looked at Wu Yu out of the corner of his eye and immediately caught the sneering glint in Wu Yu’s gaze. He couldn’t help but freeze a little, thinking of what Ruan Zhizheng said to him in his previous life right before he died and clenched his fist.

However, the genteel and scholarly Wu Yu had always treated others modestly and amiably and was even more caring towards Wu Ruo. Whenever there were any troubles, Wu Yu would definitely help without a second thought. How was it possible for such a kind person to look down upon him? Could it be that things were really as Ruan Zhizheng said? That the Wu family had been displeased with his family since such a long time ago?

Wu Qianqing felt the change in Wu Ruo and asked: “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” Wu Ruo loosened his fist and held onto Wu Qianqing’s wrist instead, taking the opportunity to take his pulse⁴把脉 (ba mai): it’s that thing they do in traditional Chinese medicine where they feel your pulse and can detect illnesses/irregularities in a person’s body purely from their pulse. Still currently practiced in TCM..

In his previous lifetime, healing was something he’d gotten interested in after getting married because his body kept getting fatter and fatter. Later on, he’d even apprenticed to a master. That was when he’d found out that his fatness wasn’t a problem with his body, but was because even before he was born, someone had infected him with a parasite. It was no wonder that his fatness was different from others. The excess flab on his body didn’t sink downwards. Instead, his entire body bulged as if someone had inflated his body with air, like a giant balloon.

At that time, although his mediocre healing skills had some use, Wu Qianqing’s cultivation had been destroyed for more than ten years and couldn’t be restored even if they wanted to.

Now, it had only been half a year since Wu Qianqing’s cultivation had been destroyed and there was a high chance that it could be restored to the way it was before.

Wu Yu saw that there was no suitable place for him to interrupt the conversation and thus left first.

Wu Ruo watched as Wu Yu left, his gaze flashing. He first let his own servants off to the kitchens for their breakfast, then said towards Wu Qianqing: “Dad, I have something to tell Wu-ge⁵五哥 (wu ge): literally ‘fifth older brother’. The number prefix here indicates Wu Yu’s birth order amongst all the male cousins in Wu Ruo’s family, not that he’s actually Wu Ruo’s fifth older brother or even his ‘older brother’ at all. Ge can be used for your actual older brother (both of you have the same parents) or for older males who are your less immediate family members, or for close older male friends.. I’ll just go and be back in a bit.”

Wu Qianqing replied: “I’ll get someone to call him back.”

“There’s no need,” Wu Ruo rejected him because he didn’t actually have anything to tell Wu Yu.

“Then I’ll go with you to look for him.”

“It’s okay, I’ll just go by myself.”

Wu Qianqing’s expression was filled with worry but this was the Wu estate, no one would bully his son here, so he let Wu Ruo go by himself.

As Wu Qianqing sent Wu Ruo off on his own, Wu Yu had reached the start of the small alley and was turning towards the direction that they had come from.

Wu Ruo leaned against the walls for support as he hurried after Wu Yu but he hadn’t even walked two steps before he got breathless and his sense of balance was especially bad that he could trip at any time.

If Wu Ruo fell, it would be hard to get up with just him alone.

“Ugh, damned body,” Wu Ruo wiped the sweat from his forehead, cursed softly under his breath. Starting from tomorrow, he would have to come up with a way to lose weight.

Wu Yu arrived at the side entrance that they had come in through. Wu Ruo, who had followed behind, could see the people who were waiting for Wu Yu even from afar with one glance. It was actually Yu Tianbao and the others.

• 1
  小若 (Xiao-Ruo): literally means “little Ruo”. Wu Ruo’s given name is Ruo, with Wu being his family name. The xiao is a diminutive prefix that indicates affection, endearment. This is normally used by older people to younger people, whether family or close friends. It will pop up more often in later chapters.
• 2
  三叔 (san shu): recalling that shu refers to your father’s younger brother, Wu Yu is referring to Wu Qianqing as his ‘third uncle (younger than his own father)’. Also, Wu Qianqing isn’t literally his third uncle, it just refers to Wu Qianqing as the third child among his own siblings. Wu Yu’s father is probably either the first or second child.
• 3
  撒娇 (sa jiao): doesn’t have a proper English equivalent. It’s when someone behaves cutely to someone else to try and get their way. You know, when girls pitch their voices higher and behave coquettishly to their boyfriends? It’s something similar, but there’s no flirtatious connotation when children do it to their parents, or when younger siblings do it to their older siblings. It’s a little hard to even explain because I’m not sure if non-East Asian families have this sort of culture.
• 4
  把脉 (ba mai): it’s that thing they do in traditional Chinese medicine where they feel your pulse and can detect illnesses/irregularities in a person’s body purely from their pulse. Still currently practiced in TCM.
• 5
  五哥 (wu ge): literally ‘fifth older brother’. The number prefix here indicates Wu Yu’s birth order amongst all the male cousins in Wu Ruo’s family, not that he’s actually Wu Ruo’s fifth older brother or even his ‘older brother’ at all. Ge can be used for your actual older brother (both of you have the same parents) or for older males who are your less immediate family members, or for close older male friends.