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We back on that fatphobia bullshit
After Wu Ruo and the rest had walked off, Wu Yanlan curiously asked the servant of Bojin Garden who was guiding them: “Who was that big fatty just now?”
The servant respectfully replied: “That was the Southern main estate Third Master’s youngest son, Wu Ruo.”
Wu Yanlan snickered: “So that’s him.”
As someone of direct Wu family lineage, he originally never would’ve recognised a nobody like Wu Ruo. But recently, he had heard his father mention that someone with the surname Hei, who had saved his great-great-grandfather before, had come forth to ask for his youngest aunt’s1姑姑 (gugu): so specifically his father’s sister. hand in marriage.
However, because his great-grandfather felt that the man with the surname Hei had some dark energy, and in addition, his youngest aunt despised the man with the surname Hei for being too ugly, so the marriage had been pushed off to the branch clans.
Afterward, it was alleged that the man with the surname Hei liked men. So the head of a Wu family branch clan singled out someone, whose name was Wu Ruo, of the younger generation, who had no spiritual energy, to the man with the surname Hei. The matter was only resolved because of this yet he never thought that this person of the younger generation would actually be so fat.
“Have you heard? The Wu family Southern main estate’s First Master, Second Master, Third Master, and Fifth Master stole the betrothal gifts that the Hei family sent over.” Voices suddenly spread from the other side of the wall.
When Wu Yanlan heard the two words “Hei family”, he couldn’t help but slow down his footsteps, and also raised a hand to prevent the servants from shouting at the voices to stop.
“I’ve already heard of it. This matter has already spread and become the talk of the town. The family head couldn’t suppress it even if he wanted to. Aie, the Southern main estate’s Third Master is really pitiful. Half a year ago, his cultivation field was destroyed, then he was forced to marry his son off to a man. Now, more than half of the betrothal gifts that the Hei family had sent over were stolen by others. The people of the Southern main estate really bully others terribly.”
“I heard that the reason why the Southern main estate’s people stole these betrothal gifts was that it was instigated by Guoshi Wu.”
Wu Yanlan’s fury was ignited. These people were simply speaking nonsense, destroying the reputation of the Wu family in the capital city.
“That can’t be, right? Guoshi Wu is already so poor that he has to resort to stealing other people’s betrothal gifts?”
“Who knows? Let’s not talk anymore, hurry and clean up the gardens. Otherwise, if we’re caught by the stewards, it’ll be on us.”
When Wu Yanlan heard the sounds of footsteps leaving, he angrily said with a dark expression: “Take me to see your clan leader.”
The servant hastily nodded and led the way.
Actually, the people on the other side of the wall hadn’t really walked away. And instead, they were Shi Yuan and Shi You, whom Wu Ruo had instructed to come over to purposely speak and let Wu Yanlan overhear. When the two of them heard the tone of anger, they couldn’t help but meet eyes and grin.
When Wu Yanlan arrived at Bojin Garden and saw Wu Bofang, who had come out to welcome him, he humphed coldly: “Clan Leader Wu, I had always thought that you were an astute and capable person. Otherwise, how could you have been able to build the Wu family up to such a grand scale in a short few decades? But only after I came to Gaoling City today did I find out that your Wu family is already so poor that you need to steal a younger generation member’s betrothal gifts to get by. It’s absolutely humiliating, what’s most detestable is…”
The more he spoke, the angrier he got: “This matter actually even implicated my great-grandfather. They’re saying my great-grandfather told all of you to do this. When I go back, I will definitely tell my great-grandfather about this matter, and get him to expunge this branch clan from our family register, lest we get implicated by all of you and have our reputation destroyed.”
Wu Bofang’s smile stiffened at that moment, and he hastily explained: “Yanlan, this is a misunderstanding…”
If they were expunged from the family register, this Wu family would no longer be a top-ranked family in Gaoling City anymore.
“I don’t care if it’s a misunderstanding, as long as it harms our Wu family reputation, it cannot be tolerated.”
“I understand.” Wu Bofang felt that he was really quite unlucky. He’d originally intended to suppress this matter, yet Wu Yanlan happened to come to Gaoling City at this time.
“You understand? If you understand, then why don’t you hurry and make those people from the Southern main estate return Wu Ruo’s betrothal gifts to him? Then, make sure you suppress this matter.” Wu Yanlan only wanted to settle the matter quickly now. If the people from the other major clans in the capital city found out, they would definitely use this matter to ridicule their Wu family. By then, where would the people of the Wu family have the face to go out and meet others2The concept of ‘face’ again as in your reputation. This sentence kind of just means they’ll be too humiliated to go out and show their faces to other people, for fear of being mocked.?
“I’ve previously already told the people of the Southern main estate to return the betrothal gifts to Wu Ruo.”
“Then that’s good.” Wu Yanlan received the hot tea from the servants and took a brief sip, but he still didn’t feel reassured: “I think it’s still better if you make a trip over there yourself. I will wait here for your news. The betrothal gifts must be returned to Wu Ruo by today.”
Wu Bofang hesitated for a while, then nodded: “Alright, I’ll go and get it done now.”
He walked out of the main hall and immediately instructed the stewards to take out the gifts that Wu Qianjing and the rest had sent over. These were some of the betrothal gifts that the Hei family had given to Wu Ruo.
The Wu family clan leader had personally taken the matter into his hands, so Wu Qianjing and the rest could only obediently hand over the betrothal gifts and weapons. In half a shichen, one car after another of betrothal gifts were sent into Shuqing Garden.
“Madam, you wouldn’t know, but when First Master and the rest opened their storerooms to take out the betrothal gifts, their expressions were so ugly. Fifth Master was so angry that he immediately took out a rattan cane and chased after Ninth Young Master and Tenth Young Master. The scene of it was especially lively.” Shi You, who had returned from peeping at the other estates, vividly recounted how Wu Bofang had personally dropped by to make Wu Qianjing and the others open their stores to return the betrothal gifts.
Shi Yuan held back the smile sneaking up the corners of his lips and said: “Clan Leader Wu said, we don’t need to return the inferior goods that were swapped in, we can take it as compensatory gifts. Then, he brought your grandfather and the First Master and the others back to Bojin Garden to receive the family’s punishment. Now, First Master and the rest have not only not been able to take advantage of us, but they’ve also made double the losses.”
Wu Ruo smiled slightly, looking towards the 18 cars of betrothal gifts outside the estate, the smile in the corners of his lips grew wider and wider. However, a gloomy coldness still permeated his figure.
He had only taken back what rightfully belonged to him, yet Wu Qianjing and the rest were stamping their feet in fury. If someone died, what kind of expressions would they have?
Ah, he really looked forward to it!
Notes: Wow, Wu Ruo there at the end really is so sinister. I get that the extended Wu family in Gaoling City crippled his parents and killed his siblings in his first lifetime, but in this lifetime so far, they’re just greedy bastards. Hell hath no fury like a person scorned, indeed.
Also, if anyone is confused why Wu Yanlan seems like he has more authority than Wu Bofang, the short of it is: Wu Yanlan is a more ‘legitimate’ member of the Wu family and he has Wu Chenzi’s favour.
As a member of the main Wu family in the capital city, technically Wu Yanlan is more ‘legitimate’ than any of the branch family members. In terms of direct lineage, you can trace straight up to Wu Chenzi, whereas Wu Bofang is some uncle’s son’s son or something. I’m actually not sure if Wu Chenzi and Wu Bofang are in the same generation?
I think they aren’t considering how they don’t have the same generational character. But then again, it could be that different branches of the Wu family decide their own generational characters, since Wu Yanlan’s name doesn’t match up with any of the Gaoling Wu family’s generational characters.
EDIT: During my editing, I remembered that Wu Bofang’s father is Wu Chenzhan. So, he and Wu Chenzi are most likely from the same generation. If my counting of the generations wasn’t wrong, Wu Yanlan should be from the same generation as Wu Qianqing.
Also, since Wu Chenzi is guoshi, he has the status, so anyone who has his backing is naturally more powerful. Wu Yanlan has his great-grandfather’s favour, whereas Wu Bofang is just some random branch family’s leader. Wu Bofang is like a big fish in a small pond, and Wu Yanlan is a fish from the big pond, so he has more ‘authority’.
I don’t think Wu Yanlan is allowed to be outright rude to Wu Bofang, but there’s probably a lot more that Wu Bofang has to swallow and endure from Wu Yanlan than he would from someone who is younger than him within the Gaoling Wu family.
Family politics is a whole damn thing in Chinese culture. I think I’m genuinely glad I wasn’t a) born in that time period, and b) born in actual China where some of these family politics are still an active, ongoing thing. I don’t think I could handle any of this politicking.
While I was editing this chapter, I feel like there were a bunch of unwieldy sentences that might not make a lot of sense in English. If anyone comes across any bits that are hard to understand, please do point them out to me in the comments! I’ll do my best to revise them OTL
