LWSL Chapter 44

Wu Ruo watched as the members of the Wu family left Xiangpu Temple. After they had walked off, he turned to Hei Xuanyi who was beside him, and asked: “Did you hear what my great-grandfather and the two elders were talking about just now?”

“Wu family. Great disaster.” Hei Xuanyi said simply.

Great disaster? Wu Ruo laughed coldly in his heart. Since he’d already been reincarnated to take revenge, how could the Wu family only suffer something as simple as a great disaster?

He tilted his head up towards the sky, narrowing his eyes: “It’s rare that we made a trip here to Xiangpu Temple, so let’s not rush to leave. I remember that the back garden of Xiangpu Temple has a plum blossom forest. Right now is just the right time for blooming season as well. Let’s go take a look, how about that?”

Wu Ruo didn’t give Hei Xuanyi a chance to open his mouth, and just dragged him by the wrist towards the back gardens.

The back gardens were full of glittering wintersweet flowers standing unyieldingly amidst the wind and snow. The beautiful scenery had attracted many guests to come and enjoy the sights.

Wu Ruo impatiently weaved in and out between the plum blossom trees, as if he was looking for something. So, he never lingered on any of the plum blossom trees at all.

He dragged Hei Xuanyi along with him as he strolled one round after another. He only stopped on the sixth round, looking up at the weather and murmuring to himself: “Could it be that it really wasn’t here?”

Hei Xuanyi looked at Wu Ruo, who seemed burdened with worry, and felt that he wasn’t here to see the plum blossoms but rather was here to look for someone.

At this moment, Hei Gan said: “Master, Madam, it is already past wushi¹午时 (wushi): from 11 am to 12:59 pm. now. Will we be staying at the temple for lunch?”

Wu Ruo frowned: “It’s already past wushi?”

“That’s right.”

“We’ll eat after we get back.”

Wu Ruo saw that the back gardens no longer had many people viewing the flowers, and so dragged Hei Xuanyi out of Xiangpu Temple to where they had stopped their carriage. Suddenly, a white figure rushed forward and knocked forcefully into them before ricocheting and collapsing onto the ground, unconscious.

Wu Ruo staggered back a few steps. If not for Shi Yuan and the rest supporting him from behind, he would’ve crashed to the ground.

Shi Yuan asked as he helped to tidy Wu Ruo’s clothes: “Madam, are you alright?”

Wu Ruo shook his head: “I’m fine.”

Hei Gan instantly went forth to check on the man on the floor. The other party was exceedingly handsome, yet his face was very pale. The blood from his arm had already dyed the snowy ground red; it appeared that he had encountered some pursuers²遭到他人追杀 means “ran into other people who were chasing to kill”. Specifically, the pursuers are trying to 追杀 (zhui sha) him, which means ‘chase to kill’ as opposed to just chasing after someone for capture or etc..

Wu Ruo stared at the man dressed in white for a while. The more he looked at him, the more familiar he was. After he recognised who the person was, he suppressed the happiness and excitement in his heart and swept his gaze around them. When he confirmed that there was no one nearby, he hurriedly said: “Hei Gan, carry him onto the horse carriage quickly. Don’t let anyone notice him.”

Hei Xuanyi narrowed his eyes: “Who is he?”

He felt that Wu Ruo had gone to the plum blossom forest just now because of this man.

Wu Ruo sensed his displeasure, and lowered his voice to explain without hiding from Hei Xuanyi: “He’s the crown prince.”

And also the reason for him coming to Xiangpu Temple.

He remembered from his previous lifetime that his dad had mentioned it before. On the winter solstice of the year that he’d gotten married to Hei Xuanyi, around wushi, the Crown Prince Ling Mohan had been pursued and died in the plum blossom forest of Xiangpu Temple whilst on a plainclothes inspection tour passing through Gaoling City. That was why, later on, the Second Prince had been chosen as the crown prince.

As his dad had also only heard of this from his grandfather, when Wu Xuanran was drunk, so Wu Ruo hadn’t been very sure about the truth of the matter. However, in his previous lifetime, Crown Prince Ling Mohan had indeed died around this period of time. It was just that, at the time, the Emperor³Okay, so. Normally in period pieces and historically, they refer to the emperor as the 皇上 (huang shang). In Loser Wife, the author uses the title 帝君 (di jun) to refer to the emperor/crown prince’s father. Dijun is more commonly used to describe gods, but I think in this case, it was chosen for the more fantasy-esque vibe to it. had announced that Ling Mohan had died while rescuing the emperor. Afterward, Ling Mohan had been sent to the royal tombs for a grand burial.

And the reason why Wu Ruo wanted to save Ling Mohan was that he didn’t want Wu Chenzi to have another chance to assist his great-grandson⁴The Second Prince is specifically Wu Chenzi’s 曾外孙 (zeng wai sun) where waisun refers to the children of your daughter. The prefix zeng just adds one more generation to it, making the Second Prince either the son of his granddaughter or a descendant from Wu Chenzi’s own daughter. Either way, the Second Prince is not considered as part of the direct lineage of the Wu family, but there is still blood relation somewhere., the Second Prince, onto the throne, and retain the title of guoshi; beneath one person, but above thousands⁵一人之下，万人之上 has been directly translated to retain the cultural nuance. Basically, the position of guoshi only reports directly to the emperor. This means the guoshi is second only to the emperor in terms of power. Normally, this phrase is used to refer to the crown prince..

As for who wanted to kill the crown prince, it already went without saying. With the crown prince’s intelligence and wisdom, he would definitely be able to think of who would want to harm him. When he returned, he wouldn’t let those people off easily.

Hei Xuanyi was pleased that Wu Ruo was honest with him about the other party’s identity, and so instructed Hei Gan to do as Wu Ruo had told him to.

Hei Gan immediately took off his outer cloak and tossed it over Ling Mohan’s body to cover him up, used the snow to cover up the traces of blood, and then carried him onto the carriage.

Once Hei Xuanyi and Wu Ruo had also gotten inside of the horse carriage, he speedily drove the car off.

Not long after, a group of people dressed in black arrived at the entrance of Xiangpu Temple. They searched Xiangpu Temple inside out for over a shichen⁶Reminder that one shichen is about two hours long. but couldn’t find the person they were looking for before they left.

Notes: Since this Friday is Chinese/Lunar New Year, I’ll be taking a break! Wishing everyone a Happy New Year in advance. I just realised we’ll sort of be celebrating CNY together with the Loser Wife characters!

• 1
  午时 (wushi): from 11 am to 12:59 pm.
• 2
  遭到他人追杀 means “ran into other people who were chasing to kill”. Specifically, the pursuers are trying to 追杀 (zhui sha) him, which means ‘chase to kill’ as opposed to just chasing after someone for capture or etc.
• 3
  Okay, so. Normally in period pieces and historically, they refer to the emperor as the 皇上 (huang shang). In Loser Wife, the author uses the title 帝君 (di jun) to refer to the emperor/crown prince’s father. Dijun is more commonly used to describe gods, but I think in this case, it was chosen for the more fantasy-esque vibe to it.
• 4
  The Second Prince is specifically Wu Chenzi’s 曾外孙 (zeng wai sun) where waisun refers to the children of your daughter. The prefix zeng just adds one more generation to it, making the Second Prince either the son of his granddaughter or a descendant from Wu Chenzi’s own daughter. Either way, the Second Prince is not considered as part of the direct lineage of the Wu family, but there is still blood relation somewhere.
• 5
  一人之下，万人之上 has been directly translated to retain the cultural nuance. Basically, the position of guoshi only reports directly to the emperor. This means the guoshi is second only to the emperor in terms of power. Normally, this phrase is used to refer to the crown prince.
• 6
  Reminder that one shichen is about two hours long.