The gift list that Hei Xin handed to Wu Qianqing was more than twice as long as the gift list that Wu Qianqing had placed in his sleeve.
Wu Xuanran, Wu Qianjing, and the others immediately felt as though there was nowhere to hide their faces. They wanted to speak up to refute and deny it, but after they saw Wu Qianqing’s bright red pair of eyes1This is a pretty literal translation because I can’t think of any way to phrase this in English. Basically, both his eyes are described as “bright red” because he’s so angry. There aren’t really any instances of anger being expressed as reddened eyes coming to mind for me. If anyone has any suggestions, please leave a comment!, all the words that they wanted to say were stuck in their throats with no way to say it out.
“No wonder I felt like the handwriting on the gift list was so familiar, so it was actually the written by the steward of dage‘s estate. All of you have gone too far, you dare to take even my son’s betrothal gifts.”
Wu Qianqing, with anger filling his chest, took out the gift list that was in his sleeve and slammed it on the table with a ‘pa’ sound. It was as if he had given Wu Qianjing and the rest a firm slap on their face. Their faces were burning2The author describes it as 感觉脸上火辣辣的 which is kind of like “it felt like their faces were spicy”. I’m assuming they were referring to the burning sensation of being slapped, which is not unlike the sensation you experience on your tongue when you eat something spicy.. They’d never had their despicable3In text, the author spelled it as 龌蹉 (wo cuo), which doesn’t mean anything. I have assumed here that they meant 龌龊 (wo chuo) instead. If anyone reads the raws and thinks this is wrong, please let me know! behavior exposed to their faces before. They felt ashamed and angry and awkward in their hearts.
Guan Tong always knew that dabo4Guan Tong refers to Wu Qianjing as 大伯 (da bo) here, which is just how one addresses their husband’s older brother. It is also the way Wu Ruo addresses Wu Qianjing as his uncle (father’s older brother). and the rest always liked to take advantage of her husband, but ordinarily, dabo and the rest still treated their family quite well. When they had good food or nice clothes, they would always think of Wu Ruo’s family. Yet, she never thought that they were actually secretly so shameless, that they dared to pocket even her son’s betrothal gifts.
If they took it, then that was that, but they even took such a huge portion of the gifts. Guan Tong could’ve let it go that they only left a small portion of the betrothal gifts to their family, but they even swapped superior goods for inferior goods in that small portion of betrothal gifts. They were really too much.
“…” Wu Bofang previously still held onto wishful thinking, thinking that Hei Xin might not have discovered that a large portion of the betrothal gifts had been taken away by someone. Now, however, it was just that he had indulged in wild fantasies. Hei Xin, as a steward who managed everyone within the manor, who attended to each and every aspect of any matter, how could he not have realized that something was wrong?
He was just about to open his mouth to say something, when Wu Qiantong couldn’t tolerate that his sange, who always treated people so gently, was looking at them in such a fierce manner, angrily said: “Isn’t it just taking some betrothal gifts? Sange, do you have to be so petty?”
Since it was already found out by Wu Qianqing, so he felt that there was no need to continue hiding.
Dong Mingji echoed: “That’s right.”
Wu Bofang angrily reprimanded them in a stern voice: “The two of you, shut up.”
Dong Mingji fearfully drew back.
Wu Qiantong humphed coldly, turning away, but his words had already stirred up the fury that Wu Qianqing had suppressed to the bottom of his heart: “I’m petty? You say that I’m petty? Wu Qiantong, if you married your daughter off, and I took away a large portion of your daughter’s betrothal gifts, would you be happy? Would you generously let me take it away? Let alone I married off a son, a son!”
“I married off a son, a son!” — He roared these words with all the strength in his body and a lifetime of anger, to express all the dissatisfaction and resentment he’d felt all this time.
In this whole world, who would marry off a son? It was because he was incompetent as a father, without any power to protect his son, that’s why he caused his son to suffer such an utmost grievance.
At once, the flames of his fury shocked everyone present into stillness.
Everyone was dazed and stupefied as they looked at Wu Qianqing, whose eyes were bloodshot. In so many years, they had really never seen him like this before.
Even Wu Ruo who had reincarnated back to this lifetime had also never seen such an enraged Wu Qianqing before. Even more so, he never thought that this matter would so thoroughly infuriate Wu Qianqing.
Wu Qianqing’s inconsolable expression grabbed onto everyone’s hearts. No one dared to make a noise.
Guan Tong stood at her husband’s side, she held tightly onto his hand to support him.
Wu Qianqing glared angrily at these so-called relatives before him: “You even want to take the betrothal gifts from me marrying off my son, are all of you still human?”
Wu Xuanran’s expression abruptly darkened: “Wu Qianqing, in front of your elders, how dare you be so impudent!”
Although he knew that Wu Qianqing was scolding Wu Qiantong and the rest, he was also a part of those who had taken the betrothal gifts. Scolding Wu Qiantong and the rest was equivalent to scolding him.
Notes: Oof, the author really thought to themself when deciding how shameless they want the Wu family to be: “Go big or go home!” I think the Wu family members are the most shameless people I’ve ever encountered in fictional stories. I empathize with Wu Qianqing so much.
If anyone is confused about why Wu Qianqing is so upset, it’s because in Chinese culture, there’s a very strong concept of family identity. Wu Ruo is a son, and by tradition, he should’ve remained with the Wu family and married a wife into the Wu family. His wife would usually be taken off of her own family’s register and entered into the Wu family register.
Gaining a family member is important, since the more people you have in your family, the more prosperous and well-off your family is (since it’s expensive to: 1) have so many family members, 2) maintain so many family members). Daughters are expected to be married off into other families, whereas sons would have no reason to be ‘lost’ unless they die or something.
Wu Ruo being married off is a huge blow, culturally. He is no longer part of the Wu family and is now considered a member of the Hei family. All his kids (if he has any) cannot be considered part of the Wu family and must take on the Hei surname. In terms of having heirs and carrying on the family name, it’s a huge loss for the Wu family and specifically Wu Qianqing.
We’ve seen how Wu Bofang and Wu Xuanran are super smug about having many sons so that they can create a huge family branch (power in numbers). If Wu Qianqing only has Wu Zhu and Wu Ruo, and Wu Ruo is also married out, then Wu Qianqing’s ‘official’ descendants can only come from Wu Zhu.
Also, all of this might never have happened if Wu Qianqing had enough status and power within his own family. Since he lost his cultivation, his status was significantly diminished. He didn’t have the influence to stop Wu Bofang from directing the marriage to the Hei family at Wu Ruo. He also never managed to cure whatever was ailing Wu Ruo and causing him to grow fat and not have spiritual energy to cultivate.
There’s a lot of cultural factors for this whole thing, not just the kind of social context this takes place in, but also how all that context affects how Wu Qianqing views his own responsibility in marrying off Wu Ruo. I think there’s a lot of ‘assumed’ knowledge and hopefully, I’ve managed to explain some of that in these notes, and that this portion of the story can be better understood and enjoyed through some of this cultural context.
Edit: The title was previously ‘Aren’t You Human?’ but as I was re-editing while porting over to KnoxT, I figured the author might have meant 你们还是人吗？(are you still/even human?) instead of 你们不是人吗？(aren’t you human?) as the title, since they use the former within the chapter text, and the Chinese character difference is quite minor. I changed the title to reflect that.
