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FatphobiaOnce Wu Qianjing and the rest left Bojin Garden, they left with hurried footsteps and dark expressions, leaving Wu Qianqing and Wu Ruo behind. They only slowed down when there was about two alleyways’ length of distance between them.
Wu Qiantong angrily punched the surrounding wall: “Fuck, we clearly came up with this idea because we wanted to ‘borrow’ their materials, yet on the contrary, they snatched the opportunity to borrow our materials first. We just dropped a stone that we were lifting onto our own feet.”
Of course, they could also be like Wu Ruo and say that they needed materials for themselves. However, they didn’t have any other precious materials that could be melded with their valuable materials to make into weapons. So, if they couldn’t produce any weapons when the time came, Grandfather would definitely know that they had come up with such an excuse because they didn’t want to lend their materials. Like this, it would only make Grandfather even angrier.
Wu Qianbin’s expression darkened and he said coldly: “Dage, do you think sange is deliberately borrowing our materials to threaten us to return his weapons because we refuse to return them?”
Wu Qianjing narrowed his eyes: “It shouldn’t be the case. Before we went to see Grandfather, he didn’t know that we would come up with the idea to borrow materials. And don’t we know Qianqing well enough? If he wanted the weapons back, he would’ve said so in front of Grandfather just now. It was precisely because he was being considerate of our relationship that’s why he didn’t say anything.”
Wu Qianli suppressed his great fury: “Do all of you think we should return him his weapons? In this way, they won’t need our materials to make weapons and we’ll be able to borrow their materials.”
“Erge, are you stupid?” Wu Qianbin rolled his eyes at him: “With the situation now, even if we do return the weapons to sange, we will still have to give the materials to him later because we already promised in front of Grandfather that we would give them the materials. If we also return the weapons to him, wouldn’t it be equivalent to giving away a bride and still losing our troops1Literal translation of the Chinese idiom which means “to suffer a double loss after trying to trick the enemy”.?”
Wu Qiantong burned with fury: “Then do we really have to give the materials to them?”
Everyone looked back and forth at each other, all looking very unwilling to take out their materials.
Wu Qianbin pursed his lips: “Right now, we can only take the materials out first and then think of an idea afterward to get it back with interest2连本带利 (lian ben dai li): “the capital as well as profit”. They mean that they’ll lend some materials, only to take it back and also scam some good stuff off of Wu Qianqing and Wu Ruo again.. What do all of you say?”
Wu Qiantong and Wu Qianli both looked at Wu Qianjing: “Dage, what do you think?”
Wu Qianjing glanced sideways at Wu Xuanran, who hadn’t spoken up at all: “Dad, how come you’re not saying anything?”
Wu Xuanran narrowed his eyes: “I feel that the Wu Ruo of today is very different from how he usually is.”
The past Wu Ruo was especially timid. Every time he heard Wu Ruo speak, his speech was never well organized and his volume was also especially soft. When everybody gathered together, he would often hide in a corner self-deprecatingly without anyone else, doing his best not to attract anyone’s attention. Yet today, although Wu Ruo was as fat as he used to be, he no longer recoiled to hide behind others like he used to. Wu Ruo even dared to refute what his uncles had to say. It made Wu Xuanran unable to help but pay more attention to him.
Wu Qianbin tweaked his eyebrows: “Listening to you say this, Dad, I also feel like the Wu Ruo of today was very different.”
Wu Qiantong sneered: “What’s the difference? Isn’t he still the same unlikable fatty?”
Wu Qianbin said: “Didn’t you realise today that not only did he dare to say so much in front of so many people, he was also very eloquent and his logic was very sound. His personality is no longer as weak as before.”
Wu Qiantong didn’t agree: “I think it’s just because he’s been bullied silly, that’s why he was forced to stand up and fight for some weapons to protect himself. Otherwise, no one would know how he had died in Hei Manor.”
The others couldn’t think of any reason why the Wu Ruo of today was so different from the past, so they could only agree with what Wu Qiantong said.
Wu Xuanran said: “When all of you head back, send your materials to Shuqing Garden. I want to see what kind of weapons they can make using your materials.”
When making weapons, it wasn’t possible to make them with just one kind of material, and not all materials could be melded together either. So, he wanted to know whether Wu Ruo had the materials to go together with the materials that were to be borrowed.
Wu Qianjing very quickly understood what his words meant, his eyes flashing: “Dad means to say that if they don’t have the materials to meld together with our materials, we’ll have an excuse to stop them from making weapons. Then, we can ‘borrow’ whatever materials they have leftover?”
Wu Xuanran nodded his head.
When the other three brothers heard this, they smiled and took pleasure in Wu Qianqing and Wu Ruo’s imminent misfortune3幸灾乐祸的笑了: which more closely translates as “smiled while taking pleasure in someone else’s misfortune”. I’ve modified this a little to reflect the context rather than just slapping the idiom in wholesale..
