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Temporary kidnapping of a personWu Qianqing didn’t know that Wu Qianjing and the rest were scheming against them, however, the things that Wu Qianjing and the rest were scheming about was exactly what Wu Qianqing was currently worrying about: “Xiao-Ruo, you said you wanted to use materials from your dabo and the rest to make weapons, but we don’t have any other materials that can meld together with their materials. How will we make the weapons?”
Previously, seeing the sight of his dad and his brothers being humiliated, he really did feel a certain indescribable sense of freedom in his heart. However, afterward, he worried about the matter of cultivating and manufacturing. Weapons required a lot of types of materials to be combined together before they could be cultivated and manufactured into a weapon.
Moreover, the properties of every material had to be the same, or it had to be able to meld together, only then could the cultivation and manufacturing succeed. If he took the materials from his dage and the rest but didn’t have any other materials to meld with them to cultivate and manufacture a weapon, it was very likely that people would accuse him of lying for the materials. The consequences would be very severe.
Wu Ruo comforted him: “Dad, relax, since I’ve said all those things, then it means I’m confident.”
No matter what, he was still someone who had reincarnated. He only had to craft according to the directions that Wu Qianjing and the rest had crafted with in the previous lifetime, using the materials they’d saved up. Besides, the materials that Hei Xuanyi had sent over were not ordinary things, they were practically able to meld with almost every type of material, so, they didn’t need to worry about this problem at all.
Wu Qianqing saw that his son had a well thought-out plan1Note: the phrase in the original Chinese text is 胸有成足 (xiong you cheng zu), but I think it’s a typo. The phrase should probably be 胸有成竹 (xiong you cheng zhu) and I translated according to this. and couldn’t help looking at this youngest son of his in a new light.
Before, at the main hall of Bojin Garden, he had been watching closely to see how his youngest son found reasons to persuade Grandfather to get his dage and the rest to lend them materials. Naturally, he noticed that his youngest son was no longer like before. He felt that, ever since his youngest son got married, he had changed a lot. He wasn’t like before when he liked to act like a spoiled child with them. He wasn’t self-deprecating and avoidant anymore as well.
This kind of change was very good, it showed that his youngest son was maturing and had his own thoughts and opinions. In the future, as Wu Ruo’s dad, he wouldn’t have to worry every day that Wu Ruo would be bullied by others.
“Alright, then how about I leave the matter of the weapons to you?” Wu Qianqing did this because he also wanted to see his son’s capabilities. After all, his son was now Hei Manor’s mistress-in-charge2Wu Qianqing uses 当家主母 (dang jia zhumu) to describe Wu Ruo. It is specifically female gendered and refers to the female head of house. Traditionally, women were expected to run the internal household and men were in charge of the external household.
Stuff that falls under the management of women were house maintenance (delegating house chores to the servants), disciplining the servants, making sure that the house is functioning and prepared for holidays and events/serving guests, etc. Since Wu Ruo married into the Hei family, Wu Qianqing expects him to take on the conventional female roles.. It was about time for him to learn how to manage and handle matters.
Wu Ruo’s lips curled up and he smiled at Wu Qianqing: “No problem, I will definitely settle the matter well.”
Wu Qianqing’s face was full of gratitude. He swept a glance at Shi Yuan and the rest, asking in low tones: “Just now in the main hall when you said that people were bullying you, was it true?”
“It’s true.” Wu Ruo no longer hid the matter, and explained the incident about Wu Da and Wu Xiao secretly swapping their food once over.
When Wu Qianqing finished hearing about it, his gentle features betrayed anger: “These two ungrateful things. After you treated them so well, they repaid you in this manner? Xiao-Ruo, you cannot let them come back to serve you.”
Wu Ruo already had a method of dealing with them, so he naturally didn’t promise to do that. He changed the topic, saying: “Dad, what do you think of what happened today?”
Wu Qianqing’s expression dipped, and he turned his face to the road in front of them.
Ever since he’d tried asking his dage and the rest to return the weapons, their attitude towards him very obviously had a change. They no longer spoke to him with smiling faces like before, their tone was also not as amiable as it used to be. He could very obviously feel that Wu Qianjing and the rest were excluding him.
In these past few nights, he often thought: could it be because his cultivation had been maimed, so his dage and the rest despised him for being a burden, thus leading to the change in their attitudes? However, the change was also too quick, it was obvious that this was not the reason. So, he felt that they actually didn’t like him from way before. The friendliness in the past were all just pretenses.
Wu Qianqing suddenly felt very anguished. Ever since Grandfather3Wu Qianqing POV here, so he’s referring to Wu Bofang, by accident or design, revealed that he wanted to groom him to be the clan leader, his dad’s attitude became very indifferent as if Wu Qianqing had stolen his position, giving him the cold shoulder every day.
Seeing his dad behaving this way, he felt an indescribable anguish in his heart. He had never thought to snatch the position of family head from his father, and he didn’t want the position either. Yet, his dad treated his own child like an enemy because of that position. It was truly laughable. He’d originally thought that the four brothers he’d looked out for extremely well wouldn’t treat him like his dad had, yet he’d never thought that reality would be so cruel.
Wu Qianqing thought of the way they wanted to ‘borrow’ materials from him using any conceivable means, and the way they didn’t want to lend materials to a family member like him to make weapons, and he felt bitterly disappointed. He had treated them as his kin, yet they constantly guarded against him as if he were an enemy.
Although Wu Ruo couldn’t decipher how his dad felt from his expression but both father and son were connected in their hearts. Wu Ruo could feel that his dad was hurt because Wu Qianqing had seen through to the true faces of his uncles. He lifted his hand to pat Wu Qianqing’s shoulders to comfort him.
Wu Qianqing came back to his senses and looked at his son, whose eyes were full of concern, and immediately shook off his anguish, putting up a smile: “The events of this morning allowed me to get a clear understanding of some facts, that’s all. Let’s not talk about this anymore.”
In the future, he only had to take good care of his own wife and children. As for his dad and his brothers, if he could ignore it, he wouldn’t care about them anymore. He would consider the weapons that he’d lent to them as his final gift towards them.
Upon arriving back at Shuqing Garden, Wu Ruo saw the materials that Wu Qianjing and the rest had sent their people to bring over.
Wu Qianqing handed the materials straight over to Wu Ruo to handle and opened up the storeroom to let Wu Ruo look for the materials among the betrothal gifts and other gifts for constructing4炼制 (lian zhi): to “make/construct from cultivation”. the weapons.
“Madam, are these all of the betrothal gifts that were given to you?” Shi You, who was helping to look for the materials, suddenly asked.
Wu Ruo turned to look at him: “Yes, is there something wrong?”
His dad had originally wanted to let him bring all these betrothal gifts to the Hei estate, it was just that Wu Ruo had no use for them, so he’d left the betrothal gifts here with his dad.
Shi You presented one of the jade ornaments that was stored inside a box to Wu Ruo: “This jade ornament isn’t on the betrothal gift list that you gave to me.”
Wu Ruo’s brows twisted: “You’re sure?”
The betrothal gift list that he’d given to Shi You was the one that Hei Xin had provided.
“I’m absolutely sure. I’ve looked at the betrothal gift list many times over the past few days. I remember clearly what kind of betrothal gifts Master sent.”
Wu Ruo instantly narrowed his eyes. That meant not only did people take away a portion of his betrothal gifts, but there was also even a portion that had been swapped out. If he hadn’t guessed wrongly, the people who had taken his betrothal gifts probably wanted to swap out all of his betrothal gifts in one fell swoop. However, they weren’t able to find so many things to replace piece-for-piece in such a short period of time, which resulted in a smaller portion of betrothal gifts.
He lowered his voice and asked: “Shi You, how is it going on the matter of the betrothal gifts that I asked you to investigate?”
“I’ve currently only managed to investigate a portion of it.”
“Whose hands did it end up in?”
“In the hands of Madam’s grandfather and uncles, and…” Shi You paused: “And, they gave a small portion to your great-grandfather.”
Wu Ruo laughed coldly, he wasn’t surprised at all that Wu Bofang had also taken his betrothal gifts. If he hadn’t taken any, how would any of the others dare to act?
In his previous lifetime, he’d felt that Wu Bofang was a hypocrite. Like before, when he phrased it nicely that he was going back to his rooms to change his robes, actually, he was really going back to his rooms to open up the gifts. When he saw that the gifts were very well-suited to his preferences, and were also materials that he required, that’s why he helped them to speak up. Otherwise, how would he have let them use up the materials from the gifts so easily?
“And the reason why I haven’t been able to fully investigate for one portion of the gifts is that there’s a chance that these betrothal gifts have been sent over to the other main estates.”
Wu Ruo said, unbothered: “I only want you to investigate who in the Southern main estate took the betrothal gifts. Do you know which betrothal gifts my ershu and xiaoshu5His second shushu and youngest shushu are referring to Wu Qianbin and Wu Qiantong. Again, I’m confused why the author uses absolute birth order to refer to everyone except Wu Qianbin.
I checked their ‘character list’ and Wu Qianbin is listed as sishu (fourth shushu), and contextually, I’m 100% sure the uncle Wu Ruo is talking about here is Wu Qianbin, but the author uses ershu to refer to him here. I’m going to assume the author themselves had some kind of confusion/mix-up. took?”
Shi You rattled off a list of names of betrothal gifts.
The more Wu Ruo listened to it, the colder his expression became: “Do you know which of the things among the betrothal gifts are especially rare in Tianxing6So, in case anyone forgot, Tianxing is the country that the story is set in. In the original Chinese text, it’s called 天行国 (tian xing guo) which is literally “the country of Tianxing”.? Or are things that Tianxing doesn’t have?”
Shi You said without even thinking twice: “The Dragon Bone Nail and Imprisoned Ghost Flute are weapons that Master personally made, and the materials used to make them are all not found in Tianxing.”
Wu Ruo narrowed his eyes: “Whose hands are they in?”
“The Dragon Bone Nail is in Madam’s ershu‘s possession, and the Imprisoned Ghost Flute is in Madam’s xiaoshu‘s possession.”
“I got it.” Wu Ruo looked at Shi Jiu: “When will you be able to bring the manager of the gambling den to me?”
“I will be able to bring him to you tonight.”
Wu Ruo nodded his head, satisfied, turning the materials over in his hands. He was deep in thought about who best to approach to make the weapons.
After eating dinner, he left the Wu Manor in his horse carriage back to the Hei estate. After asking Hei Xin and learning that Hei Xuanyi was currently busy in his study, he went to the bathroom to bathe and change. When he emerged, it was just in time as Shi Jiu had dragged the gambling den manager to Hei Manor.
“Mmph, mmph7This is actually onomatopoeia in the original Chinese text 呜呜 (wu, wu) which is meant to be the muffled sounds made when your mouth is covered by something or when you’re gagged.!” the gambling den’s Manager Yu had been gagged by Shi Jiu with a piece of cloth.
Wu Ruo sat down in front of him: “Take away the cloth in his mouth.”
Shi Jiu pulled away the cloth that was inside of Manager Yu’s mouth.
“You…” Manager Yu’s gaze swept over Wu Ruo’s fat physique and immediately recognised that the person in front of him was the Wu family’s Southern main estate’s sixth young master. In the whole of Gaoling City, only Wu Ruo had such a fat body: “You’re the Wu family’s Southern main estate’s Sixth Young Master Wu.”
Wu Ruo didn’t deny it.
Manager Yu’s gaze betrayed vigilance, and he feigned calmness as he asked: “Sixth Young Master Wu, could I ask what matter have you brought me8Through this whole sentence, Manager Yu is speaking very politely and deferentially to Wu Ruo. He refers to himself as 于某 (yu mou), where the mou suffix can be tacked onto a person’s name to use to refer to themself. In Chinese, it’s always more respectful to refer to yourself in the third person or with the way you’re related to the person. So if I’m speaking to my parent, I’ll refer to myself as “your child”.
Since Manager Yu isn’t sure how their relationship is/they don’t have an established acquaintance with each other, he can refer to himself as Yu-mou and show that he’s being respectful to Wu Ruo.here for?”
Wu Ruo took a sip of tea that Shi Yuan had served him, and nonchalantly said: “I heard that my two tangdi, that is the Southern main estate’s ninth young master and tenth young master, will go and gamble at your gambling den every two weeks.”
Because Manager Yu wasn’t sure of the reason that Wu Ruo had captured him, he didn’t dare to casually answer Wu Ruo.
Shi Jiu said: “Madam, these past few days, Ninth Young Master and Tenth Young Master go to the gambling den every other day.”
“Is that so?” Wu Ruo laughed coldly: “Then that’s even better.”
He didn’t walk in a zigzag path9拐弯抹角 (guai wan mo jiao): an idiom meaning “to beat around the bush”. I’ve left it more directly translated for cultural sharing. either, and spoke straightforwardly to Manager Yu: “I got my people to drag you here because I want you to make them lose more money.”
Manager Yu looked at him in astonishment: “Why?”
Of course, Wu Ruo wouldn’t tell him the reason: “I want them to lose to the point that they have to borrow money from your gambling den, yet do not have the capability to return such a big sum of money.”
Manager Yu was an astute person, and very quickly understood what Wu Ruo wanted him to do: “Do you want to force them to use items as collateral? Or do you wish to force them to confess to something or force them to do something?”
“I just want you to force them to use the Dragon Bone Nail and Imprisoned Ghost Flute, and…” Wu Ruo’s gaze darkened: “The Dark Ivory Fan as collateral.”
The Dark Ivory Fan was a piece of equipment and was also part of his mum’s dowry. Some months ago, it had been borrowed by his xiaoshu Wu Qiantong, and still hadn’t been returned until now.
Manager Yu asked: “These are all…”
“They’re all high-grade weapons. Remember, you must make them sign and stamp on it. In short, there must be proof that these items were handed over as collateral by them. As for the rest, I don’t have to teach you what to do, right? After everything is done, bring those things over to me.”
Manager Yu was on someone else’s turf, so he naturally wouldn’t be stupid enough to resist the other party. However, if he agreed too readily, on the other hand, it might make Wu Ruo suspect him, so he asked: “After I complete this task, is there any benefit for me?”
“Benefit?” Wu Ruo looked at him and his lips curled up meaningfully: “Come over here.”
Notes: Chapter 42 will also be a long chapter, so that’ll take two days with a break after chapter 41.
