Special thanks to Ki for the tip on ko-fi!
There’s a footnote for the meaning of the title1The word in the title is actually 侍寝 (shi qin), which is a term used back when monarchy was still a thing in China, where consorts/concubines/etc. waited on the emperor/king in their marital bedroom. Basically, there’s a schedule of when each consort/concubine/etc. gets to sleep with the emperor/king, and those that are more favoured get more nights. This could be a sexual thing or just the privilege of getting to serve the emperor/king during the night (giving him a massage, listening to him ramble, etc.)
I think it’s also used for nobles/other royals, but I’m not sure how often it gets used for simply the wealthy/upper class. From my brief Baidu research, only royalty/nobility gets mentioned..
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Dubiously consensual ass groping, dubiously consensual stripping, mentions of parasites and medical procedures, deliberate medical misinformation, parent disciplining a child, preparing someone for a sexual situation without their knowledgeWu Ruo lifted up the blankets: “Hurry.”
Hei Xuanyi hesitated for a moment, then he sat up: “Take off your pants.”
“…” A black line slid down from Wu Ruo’s forehead2There isn’t literally a black line, it’s that comedic effect in animations where someone makes the -_-” face.: “There’s a thread on the needle, you can pull it out even without me taking off my pants.”
Hei Xuanyi walked over to Wu Ruo’s other side. Even in the darkness, it was still possible to see a thread hanging from his white underpants3The underpants here aren’t boxers/briefs, it’s the white inner robe that you might’ve seen in Chinese dramas before. It should look something like this. If you’ve ever seen a Chinese drama and the character is just walking around in this, that’s the modern-day equivalent of walking around in their undies. Might change how you view certain scenes in dramas now, especially when they seem so scandalized to see what looks like fully dressed people. with one glance.
Wu Ruo anxiously asked: “Do you see it?”
Hei Xuanyi’s gaze flickered slightly: “No.”
“No?” Wu Ruo was gloomy: “Then go light a candle, with the candlelight it should be easier to see.”
“No need.”
“If you don’t light a candle, how are you going to find it?”
Hei Xuanyi didn’t say anything, but his hand ended up on Wu Ruo’s ass.
“!!!!!” Wu Ruo’s eyes widened with shock: “What are you doing?”
Hei Xuanyi smirked: “Finding the needle.”
Wu Ruo was just about to object to this method of finding the needle when the person behind him touched the spot that had been stabbed: “There, there, it’s right there.”
“Here?” Hei Xuanyi deliberately shifted away from it.
“No, further up a little.”
Hei Xuanyi’s hand moved a few cun towards his waist.
“You’re moving to the left that way, not moving up. I’m lying on my side right now, moving upwards means you should be moving here towards my upper thigh.” Wu Ruo said, flustered and exasperated: “Hei Xuanyi, if you can’t see, then hurry and light a candle.”
The amusement in Hei Xuanyi’s gaze thickened. He seized the chance while Wu Ruo hadn’t gotten angry yet, and plucked the needle and thread out. After that, he saw that there were black shadows attached to the thread: “What’s this?”
Wu Ruo hurriedly turned around and snatched the money pouch back, stuffing it under his pillow: “Nothing.”
Actually, this was the gift that he wanted to give to Hei Xuanyi. To make it special, as well as to express his own sincerity, he had decided to make it by hand himself.
Hei Xuanyi saw that he was unwilling to talk about it, so he didn’t probe any further. He simply undid Wu Ruo’s underpants.
Wu Ruo was startled, fumbling to hold onto the hem of his own underpants, and he said angrily: “What did you take my pants off for?”
Hei Xuanyi said plainly: “Apply medicine.”
Wu Ruo hurriedly refused: “There’s no need, the injury isn’t big at all. There’s no need to apply medicine.”
Anyway, the injury was so tiny, how would he even find where it was?
“You’re sure?”
Wu Ruo gritted his teeth and said: “I’m very sure.”
Hei Xuanyi didn’t insist any further.
Wu Ruo breathed a sigh of relief, adjusting the blankets around his body properly, and closed his eyes to sleep. Yet, he didn’t see that the corner of the man’s lips had curved into a perfect arc4In Chinese, the word used is 弧度 (hu du) which means refers to the mathematical ‘radian’. For prose purposes, I’ve chosen to use the word ‘arc’ here instead..
The next day, at maoshi55 am to 7 am., Hei Xuanyi woke up punctually and headed towards the main hall before Wu Ruo to wait for breakfast.
Not long after, Nu Mu also arrived at the main hall.
“Little Hei, New Year’s is almost here. I have to hurry back to the Shaman clan to spend the new year6The Lunar New Year that they’re mentioning here is specifically something that you celebrate with your family. There’s a lot of cultural significance to Lunar New Year, and different parts of China all celebrate with different local cuisine and varying traditions/practices. Essentially, for a country like China which places a lot of importance on family, it’s a huge holiday even till now.
It’s pretty well known, so I will just leave a link to the Wikipedia page about it here for those who don’t know much and would like an introduction to it..”
Hei Xuanyi frowned: “When will you leave?”
“Today, I want to go and buy some medicinal ingredients; I’ll leave tomorrow morning.”
“Need me to get people to escort you back?”
“There’s no need for such a fuss.” Nu Mu took out a piece of paper, and placed it in front of Hei Xuanyi: “From today, every night before you go to sleep, force out the gu parasites in Xiao-Ruo’s body according to the steps that I’ve written here.”
Hei Xuanyi picked up the piece of paper, and read it meticulously.
“After the gu parasite is out, you must burn it with fire, so that it doesn’t get the opportunity to make its way into someone else’s body.”
When Hei Xin, who had been standing quietly to one side, heard this, his gaze flickered, and he asked: “So you’re saying, when one is forcing the gu parasite out, the clothes on the body must all be taken off, otherwise, there’s no way to know where it’ll come out from.”
As he said this, he kept staring at Nu Mu and blinking his eyes.
Nu Mu’s expression froze for a second, then he very quickly understood what Hei Xin was trying to do. He said, smiling: “That’s right, the gu parasite might come out from a random part of the body. When the time comes, you must look carefully. If it finds its way back into Xiao-Ruo’s body, it would be a waste of our efforts, and a waste of Little Hei’s spiritual energy.”
Hei Xin beamed.
“Hn.” Hei Xuanyi, who was focused on reading the contents of the paper, hadn’t noticed the looks exchanged by the other two.
“What are all of you talking about?” Wu Ruo was helped into the main hall by Shi Yuan and Shi Yi.
Nu Mu was aware that Wu Ruo, who was well versed in the medical arts, would not be as easy to trick as Hei Xuanyi. So naturally, Nu Mu didn’t tell him about needing to get naked to force the gu parasite out: “I was telling Little Hei that I’ll be going back to the Shaman clan tomorrow to spend New Year’s.”
“Ah?” Wu Ruo hurried forth to ask: “Master, you’re going back? Can’t you spend New Year’s here?”
“It’s not convenient for me to spend New Year’s here. Anyway, there are still some matters back home that I have to settle when I get back.” Nu Mu took out a medical text: “I’ve written my many years of medical expertise into this book, take a look at it when you have the time.”
Wu Ruo’s expression was full of reluctance: “Then when will you be coming back?”
“That…” Nu Mu shook his head: “I might not be coming back to Gaoling City. Anyway, there’s nothing more that I can teach you.”
After this period of time that they’d spent together, he knew that Wu Ruo’s medical arts were very good, his experience was also very rich. It didn’t seem like he’d just started learning medical arts, so, other than teaching him the Shaman clan’s medical arts, there really wasn’t much to teach him.
Wu Ruo was a little angry: “Must you teach me medical arts to be able to come to Gaoling City?”
“That’s not what I meant.” Nu Mu could tell that Wu Ruo really couldn’t bear to part with him, and he ruffled Wu Ruo’s hair: “Xiao-Ruo, we will still have opportunities to meet again. Oh, that’s right, don’t you have my jade pendant? If you miss me, you can come to the Shaman clan to look for me.”
Wu Ruo knew that Nu Mu still had family back at the Shaman clan; it wouldn’t be good for him to force Nu Mu to stay and spend New Year’s here.
After breakfast, Wu Ruo instructed Shi You to prepare new year’s gifts for Nu Mu to bring back home.
Hei Xin took the opportunity to ask: “Madam, how will our manor be preparing to spend New Year’s?”
Wu Ruo was stunned.
In his previous lifetime, every New Year’s, Hei Xuanyi would basically bring his people back to his clan to spend New Year’s every time. So, every New Year’s at the Hei Manor had been cold and cheerless, there had been no atmosphere of celebrating the New Year at all.
In this lifetime, he wanted it to be a little livelier.
“Get 2 sets of new clothes for every low-grade corpse servant. For the middle-grade corpse servants and guards, every person should have 4 sets of robes. For everyone else, they should have 6 sets. The materials must be of bright colours, I don’t want them to look lifeless. It’s best if other people can tell at one glance that they’re from our Hei Manor.”
Hei Xin mentally memorized all of his instructions: “Then will we be renovating the residence7Normally the word for ‘manor’ is 府 (fu), but here the author uses 府邸 (fu di) which is a dated term for a mansion of nobles/high officials/basically anybody who is somebody.?”
“Before Hei Xuanyi and I got married, the manor has already been renovated once. There’s no need to waste silver8银子 (yin zi) is the currency of silver that was used back then, I’m preserving the translation for cultural context, rather than simply translating it as “money”. to renovate it again. When it’s closer to New Year’s, just hang up some festive ornaments and goods in the manor. Er, and prepare the New Year items as well as gifts9Long footnote: Wu Ruo mentions a whole bunch of Chinese New Year things here. 喜庆装饰物品 (xi qing zhuang shi wu pin) refers to ‘festive ornaments and goods’, but the occasion here is specifically CNY so that refers to stuff like cut-outs, couplets, lanterns, etc.
He also mentions 年货 (nian huo) which are specific items required for CNY, but aren’t for decorative purposes. Since this is set in a vague ancient Chinese time period and I’m not well-versed in history nor the culture enough to make any accurate deductions, the only thing I can say is that these CNY items are region and time period specific.
It probably refers to red packets (which were pouches back in the day), certain food that are homonyms to well wishes, particular house items used to display those foods, etc. From what I know, all these need to be purchased brand new every year and aren’t meant to be reused. However, modern families don’t always purchase everything brand new every year, it depends.
He also talks about 送人的礼品 (song ren de li pin) which is literally just ‘gifts for giving people’, but specifically, in this case, it’s a New Year’s gift that you send to friends, family, and acquaintances you wish to get along with. I think it functions as a “wishing you a good year ahead, and also wishing for a good relationship between us” sort of thing; where relationship refers to any kind of interpersonal relationship.
In China, your relations with other people are incredibly important. This aspect of the culture remains to this day and is referred to as your 关系 (guan xi) with others. By remaining in everybody’s good graces, it can help you in your everyday life and even boost your reputation/career. The thing Western culture may refer to as ‘sucking up to others’ is sometimes just ‘maintaining relations’ in Chinese culture.
Chinese people (as a generalization, doesn’t apply to every single person) believe that everyone helps each other, the people around you have the power to make or break you, and one person alone cannot do everything. As such, you wouldn’t burn bridges between you and others easily, and people often worry about offending/upsetting someone else, especially people with great influence.
Why is this footnote super long and detailed? This will set some cultural context for the choices that Wu Ruo makes in future chapters, and show you just how extreme that man can be.. For now, that’s all.”
“Alright, I will delegate some people later to get these things done.”
As he finished speaking, the ‘ka ka’ sounds of a child’s laughter traveled in from outside.
Hei Gan entered, carrying Dandan.
Hei Xin beamed: “Little Young Master has woken up.”
Dandan struggled free from Hei Gan, excitedly striding with his short little legs and unstable footsteps, running staggeringly towards Wu Ruo. Then, he hugged Wu Ruo’s calf, raising his head to giggle at Wu Ruo.
Wu Ruo raised a finger to touch his little face: “Dandan still doesn’t know how to speak?”
Hei Xin smiled as he said: “For now, he still doesn’t know how to speak, but this old one is already teaching him to say ‘daddy10The term Hei Xin uses here is 爹爹 (die die), but specifically for this term, because of the way the pinyin is spelled, I’ve opted to translate it as ‘daddy’.‘. I believe that Little Young Master will be able to address Madam soon.”
“Come on, say ‘daddy’.” Wu Ruo said as he played with Dandan.
It was as if Dandan couldn’t understand what Wu Ruo was saying. He blinked his beautiful, big eyes. His thick and long black eyelashes were like a fan made of feathers, fluttering.
“If you can call me ‘daddy’, then I won’t blame you for causing trouble yesterday, and I’ll even let Xin-bo11Here, Wu Ruo refers to Hei Xin as 信伯 (xin bo) which is the xin from his name and the bo that means ‘father’s older brother’. This is also a respectful term to refer to men who are older than your father. As Hei Xin is older than both Hei Xuanyi and Wu Ruo, as well as being a trusted servant of the family, Wu Ruo is teaching Dandan to refer to him as Xin-bo as both a sign of respect and affection. There’s less of a ‘distance’ between their statuses as master and servant when Dandan refers to Hei Xin as bobo. take you out to play.”
Dandan’s eyes brightened: “Daddy.”
Hei Gan: “…”
He felt that the Little Young Master was both mischievous and cunning.
Hei Xin happily said: “Little Young Master knows how to speak.”
“…” Wu Ruo was in a good mood and thought it was amusing; he used his index finger to poke Dandan’s little face12用手食戳戳蛋蛋的小脸 is what’s originally written in Chinese, but I’m assuming here that it was meant to be 用食指戳戳蛋蛋的小脸. If anyone who also understands Chinese would like to chime in, please correct me if I misunderstood.: “Were you purposely pretending to not know how to speak? Hn?”
Dandan laughed with a ‘ka ka’, turning around to hug Hei Xin’s calf.
Hei Xin picked him up, smiling: “After Little Young Master Dandan has eaten breakfast, we’ll go out to play.”
Dandan happily nodded his head.
Wu Ruo warned him in advance: “If you’re as mischievous as you were yesterday after you go out, I won’t allow you to leave the house in the future.”
Dandan happily nodded his head once more.
Wu Ruo’s expression turned serious: “Since you know how to speak, then don’t nod your head.”
Dandan pursed his little mouth13扁扁小嘴巴 (bian bian xiao zui ba) seems like a term from a dialect of Chinese, rather than being a standard Mandarin phrase.: “Okay.”
Wu Ruo’s lips raised into a smile.
After the child had finished eating, Wu Ruo returned to his room to continue doing what he had finished the night before. After that, it took him a whole morning and afternoon’s time before he finally finished sewing the money pouch. His only dissatisfaction was that his needlework was really too lousy. Luckily, the talismans and charms on the money pouch were still effective.
Wu Ruo stared at his own masterpiece for a long time, then decided to wait till New Year’s to gift the money pouch to Hei Xuanyi.
During dinner, Hei Xin instructed the servants in the kitchen to prepare a whole table full of dishes, so that Wu Ruo and Hei Xuanyi could give Nu Mu a farewell dinner14The original is written as 践行 (jian xing), which means ‘to carry out, implement’. With the context, I’ve assumed that the author had a typo and meant to write 饯行 (jian xing) instead, which means ‘to have a farewell dinner’. The difference is just the left side of the jian character; in the first jian, the left side of the character means ‘foot’, in the second jian, the left side of the character refers to ‘food’. Very easy to mix up if you’re typing real quick. and present the New Year’s gifts to Nu Mu in advance.
The three of them ate until xushi before they wrapped up15Xushi is about 7 pm to 9 pm, and the term used 散席 (san xi) refers to the end of a feast/banquet. It was probably a pretty elaborate meal, more than usual..
Hei Xuanyi went to the bathroom first to wash up.
After he came out, then it was Wu Ruo’s turn to go wash up.
Once Wu Ruo entered, he immediately felt that the bathroom tonight was a little different. Maybe it was because he no longer needed to soak in the medicated bath, but the entire room seemed to have a whiff of fragrance.
When he reached the bathtub, he saw that it was scattered full of petals.
Wu Ruo raised his eyebrows, asking: “How come there’s so many petals?”
Shi Yuan replied: “Head Steward Hei said that the medicated scent on Madam’s body is too heavy. The petals are meant to get rid of your body’s medicated scent.”
Wu Ruo didn’t suspect him of anything, and took off all the robes on his body, sitting in the bathtub.
Shi Yi, Shi You and Shi Jiu surrounded him. One person was in charge of massaging him, another person was washing his back, and the other two were in charge of washing his hands and legs. They were so extremely thorough, they almost washed a layer of skin off of his body.
Wu Ruo saw that they were working so hard, and was originally enjoying it quite a bit, but as they kept washing, he felt that something wasn’t quite right. Ever since they had started assisting him, he had never seen them being so meticulous before. They even wanted to help him clean up the crevices in his fingernails.
“Do all of you have something that you’re hiding from me?”
“No.” All four of them chorused together.
Wu Ruo felt that they were even more suspicious: “All of you must be hiding something from me.”
The four of them didn’t say anything anymore. After helping him to wash up thoroughly, they helped him out of the bathtub, then they applied scented oils for him.
“All of you are definitely hiding something from me, otherwise, why would there be a petal bath, and why would you apply scented oils on me? All of you better tell me the truth right now.” Wu Ruo sniffed his own hand, the fragrance on his body was about to suffocate someone to death.
The four corpse servants looked at each other. In the end, Shi Yuan cleared his throat, embarrassed, and quietly said: “Head Steward Hei said that Madam will be attending16This is the ‘waiting on’ from footnote 1. Originally translated as ‘waiting’, but I think ‘attending’ might be more appropriate. tonight.”
Attending?
Wu Ruo was stunned for a moment. Abruptly, his eyes widened, and he said disbelievingly: “What? Attending?”
