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Mentions of past character death (previous lifetime), mentions of social ostracization, physical violence, mentions of disabling injury (in context of the story)Wu Qianqing was more pleased with this son-in-law of his the more he looked at Hei Xuanyi. After they had lunch, he took the initiative to chat idly with Hei Xuanyi. Although this son-in-law didn’t speak much, Hei Xuanyi was very respectful towards him. Hei Xuanyi listened seriously to every word he said, and sometimes, Hei Xuanyi would even give his opinions; this made Wu Qianqing especially happy.
Wu Ruo sat to another side, chatting with Wu Zhu about his internship: “Dage, you’re about to leave the house for your internship. Are you thinking of training on your own, or are you thinking of going in a group with someone from our clan?”
During his previous lifetime, Wu Zhu had gone on his internship with their erbo‘s youngest son, Wu Yu, their sishu‘s youngest daughter, Wu Jing, as well as Eastern main estate’s Wu Liang, and Western main estate’s Wu Yan. Afterward, it wasn’t clear how they had provoked the people of the Mo clan, but this caused Wu Zhu to die a tragic death at the hands of the Mo clan.
Wu Zhu said, smiling: “Xiao-Yu says he wants to train together with me.”
Wu Ruo frowned: “Is it going to be just the two of you?”
Wu Zhu’s expression faltered slightly, and he nodded.
Wu Xi, who was currently playing with Dandan, heard them chatting and couldn’t help turning around to interrupt: “Erge, you don’t know but originally, Wu Jing-jiejie and two tangge from the Eastern and Western main estates said they wanted to go training together with dage. But later on, they suddenly changed their minds.”
Wu Ruo’s eyebrows twitched slightly: “Oh? Do you know what was that about?”
“Xiao-Xi.” Wu Zhu spoke up to stop Wu Xi from continuing.
“Dage, there’s no need to hide this matter from erge.” Wu Xi continued saying: “Erge, ever since that time after dabo and the rest were made to hand back your betrothal gifts, all the other people in the academy started to alienate us. At first, we still didn’t know what was the matter. We only found out later on that because our Southern main estate’s reputation is bad, so they weren’t willing to hang around with us.
“And the people here in the Southern main estate are also alienating us because we caused them to lose face, to lose their reputations. Actually, dage and I are very clear about it in our hearts; they’re alienating us because they’re bearing a grudge against us, because of the matter of returning the betrothal gifts. Now, it’s only Xiao-Yu-gege who is willing to play with us.”
Wu Zhu hurriedly said: “Xiao-Ruo, don’t overthink it, this matter actually doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
He worried that Wu Ruo would blame himself over this matter.
Wu Xi huffed coldly: “Of course it has nothing to do with erge. They’re the ones with no sense of shame1没脸没皮 (mei lian mei pi) refers to lian pi (the skin of your face) as a concept of shame. To say that someone doesn’t have lian pi is to imply that they’re shameless. The English term is to say that someone is thick-skinned (has no shame), or thin-skinned (easily ashamed). This also applies in Chinese in the same way, but having no skin on your face is just one step further/slightly more extreme than being thick-skinned.. They’re the ones who took someone else’s betrothal gifts, but they still have the cheek to put on airs2摆脸色给我们看 is literally “to put on a face colour for us to see”, lian se refers to your complexion or expression (one of many, many ways to refer to one’s expression). So to bai lian se is literally to “make a face/expression”. This translates more smoothly to ‘putting on airs’, so I opted to use that in text and leave a footnote instead.. I don’t care3稀罕 (xi han) as a verb means ‘to value as a rarity; cherish’. Wu Xi is saying she doesn’t cherish/value hanging out with them as a rarity. It’s not quite the same as ‘not caring’, but it’s the closest way to express it. Also, wow, we went like a couple of paragraphs with no notes at all and now three at once in one paragraph. Whew. about hanging out with the likes of them. Oh right, erge, you surely don’t know about this, right? The uncles from the Eastern, Western, and Northern main estates actually all had a share in your betrothal gifts. They’re really too much.”
Wu Ruo laughed, asking: “Now only wuge is willing to hang out with the two of you?”
Wu Xi nodded her head: “Xiao-Yu-gege deserves to be called a modest gentleman. He doesn’t seem to mind how other people look at us, and, he even apologized to us for his father’s actions, on his father’s behalf. He even said that he would help dage to successfully come back from training.”
When Wu Ruo heard this, he laughed coldly in his heart. What modest gentleman? He was more like a hypocrite4Although this portion makes sense in English, it’s a little more interesting in Chinese. The term for modest gentleman is 谦谦君子 (qian qian jun zi) and the term for hypocrite is 伪君子 (wei jun zi), where wei jun zi is more literally “fake gentleman”. I am, however, not talented enough to make it make sense while maintaining the interesting comparison. So, here’s a footnote instead..
Talking about this, it was strange. Others were all alienating his dage and xiaomei, yet Wu Yu wasn’t. He didn’t know what Wu Yu was thinking of. Could it be that his dage‘s death in his previous life had something to do with Wu Yu?
No, he couldn’t let dage go training with Wu Yu.
“Dage, what kind of person do you think wuge is?”
Wu Zhu’s impression of Wu Yu was very good: “He’s extremely warmhearted. Whoever has difficulties, he will reach a hand out to help them. He’s also very refined and courteous towards us. His personality is also quite humorous; becoming companions with him, it surely won’t be boring.”
Wu Ruo asked: “What if he’s not what he seems like on the surface to all of you?”
Wu Zhu and Wu Xi froze, stunned to a stop by Wu Ruo’s words.
“Peng!”
The sound of an explosion suddenly came from outside, it caused such a vibration that the whole building was shaking.
“What’s going on?” Wu Qianqing immediately stood up, asking the people outside.
Everyone else also stood up anxiously and quickly left the main hall, afraid that the whole building would collapse and crash onto them.
A bodyguard hurriedly said: “This one will go and check now.”
Not long after, they came back: “Master, the second young master from First Master’s family5The bodyguard refers to Wu Qianjing as 大爷 (daye) here, which means he’s the first of the ‘masters’/brothers in that generation. I might have mentioned this before, but adding it again. and Northern main estate’s Young Master Anrun have started fighting.”
When Wu Ruo heard this, he smiled slightly.
Wu Qianqing asked: “Do you know why they’ve started fighting?”
“I don’t know.”
Guan Tong asked: “Qing6I find this really cute and have mentioned it before, but basically Guan Tong is addressing Wu Qianqing by the only part of his name that is unique to him A.K.A Qing. Since Wu is his family name, Qian is the generational character, the only part of his name that’s unique to him is Qing. I really love these two together too., do you want to go take a look?”
“Hn.” Wu Qianqing left Shuqing Garden.
Wu Xi’s curiosity was overwhelming, so she hurriedly dragged Wu Zhu to take a look at the scene.
Wu Ruo also wanted to know the details of the situation, so he got Shi Yuan and the rest to assist him outside. From afar, he could hear the sounds of fighting, as well as Sang Dongyi and Wu Min’s anxious calls: “Stop fighting, both of you, stop fighting!”
“What’s the matter? Why did they start fighting without rhyme or reason?” The people from the other estates7Just to clarify, this means the other estates within Wu estate, not like… neighboring other non-Wu people. all rushed over.
Wu Qianjing went forth directly to pull the two of them apart: “Wu Anrun, you’re someone from the Northern main estate, why have you run over here to the Southern main estate to cause a scene?”
Wu Anrun angrily said: “Then you have to ask your good son what shameless things he’s done.”
Wu Chu looked at Wu Anrun angrily without saying a single word.
Wu Qianjing was very displeased with Wu Anrun’s attitude, but looking at the situation, it seemed like his own son had done something wrong: “If anything’s the matter, we can talk it out after going into the house.”
“I’m not going in. I want to clarify things right here so that everyone can judge who’s right and who’s wrong.” Wu Anrun pointed at Wu Chu and said: “Your good son clearly knew that Zhuang Qiurong of the Zhunan City Zhuang family is my fiancée, yet he went behind my back to seduce my Zhuang Qiurong. He even fooled me, someone who is staying far away in Gaoling City. He said that Zhuang Qiurong is ugly and useless; his purpose was to make me break off the engagement. Luckily, I took a trip myself to Zhunan City, otherwise, I would’ve been fooled by this son of yours.”
Wu Qianjing’s expression was especially foul. He turned around to look at Wu Chu, sternly asking: “Is there really something like that?”
Wu Chu didn’t speak, which was as good as agreeing with what Wu Anrun had said.
Wu Qianjing was so angry that his hand went flying8一巴掌扇了过去 is literally “his one palm slapped over there”, so Wu Qianjing essentially just slapped his son really hard. It reminds me of back when I was a kid and the adults would threaten to give us “one tight slap” if we kept messing around. Wu Chu fucked around and found out ?, with a ‘pa!’ sound, he smacked Wu Chu to the ground then and there.
Sang Dongyi saw that her son had been beaten so badly that there was blood at the corner of his mouth, her heart ached deeply9心疼得要命 literally means “heart ached to the point of death”. In this case though, yao ming functions more as an emphasis, like ‘extremely’ or ‘a lot’. I just find it funny that Sang Dongyi is being so dramatic. I think 95% of the moms in this story are just ridiculous caricatures of mothers. I normally don’t expect a decent portrayal of women in danmei, and Loser Wife really isn’t as bad as things could be, but it’s still hilarious. It makes me wonder if the author isn’t a woman, or if they just don’t know how to write women in stories.. She immediately rushed forward to Wu Qianjing, angrily saying: “Wu Qianjing10Oof, she pulled out the big guns. I might have mentioned it before when talking about how Wu Ruo addresses Hei Xuanyi in his head, but it’s terrible manners to refer to someone by their full name straight up. You either address them by title or their relation to you, or by an affectionate nickname if applicable. You usually don’t call someone by their full name straight up, unless you’re being rude. Or at least, that’s what I understand., can’t you wait till after you clarify the situation before you throw your fists around?”
Being addressed directly by name by his own wife, Wu Qianjing was even more infuriated: “Alright, you get him to clearly explain exactly what happened.”
Sang Dongyi helped Wu Chu up: “Xiao-Chu, hurry and tell me what exactly happened.”
Wu Chu wiped the blood away from the corner of his mouth and explained: “Mum, I didn’t snatch tangge‘s fiancée. Before they got engaged, I already knew Qiurong.”
“Yes, the two of you got to know each other before our engagement, but, after we got engaged, shouldn’t you have avoided doing things that would arouse suspicion? However, you didn’t. On the contrary, you stuck to her with even more enthusiasm than before. Later on, you even schemed to frame me, to cause me to lose my reputation. You wanted the Zhuang family to mistake me for a lascivious person so that the head of the Zhuang family would break off the engagement of his own accord. You really are so base and shameless!”
Sang Dongyi’s expression darkened and she asked: “Xiao-Chu, is what he said true or not?”
Wu Chu once again tacitly agreed to Wu Anrun’s words.
At the time, he had also been obsessed11鬼迷心窍 (gui mi xin qiao) literally means ‘a ghost enchanted one’s capacity for clear thinking’. One way of translating it would be to say ‘a ghost must’ve possessed him’, but in this case, his over obsession with Zhuang Qiurong muddled his capacity to think clearly. Since this is a setting where ghosts/Gui actually do exist, I refrained from choosing the translation that could potentially be misunderstood., that was why he listened to what others had told him to do and threw Wu Anrun into a brothel after knocking him out so that the Zhuang family head would mistake Wu Anrun as an unreliable person.
Sang Dongyi furiously said: “Xiao-Chu, how could you do this sort of thing?”
Wu Anrun laughed coldly: “He dares to kill a witness to silence them, what else would he not dare to do?”
Wu Chu was stunned: “When did I ever do something like killing a witness to silence them?”
Wu Anrun said mockingly: “What? You dare to commit the act, but don’t dare to take responsibility for it? If it wasn’t for the fact that I had good luck12Here, Wu Anrun doesn’t mention 运 (yun), which is usually what’s translated as luck. He actually says that he is 命大 (ming da), literally his ‘life is big’. It is used to describe being lucky/fortunate specifically in avoiding death or having narrowly escaped death., I wouldn’t even be able to come back to the Wu estate today. Wu Chu, I won’t let this matter go easily. I will notify Great-Grandfather, and get him to punish you properly. Let’s go.”
He turned around and brought his people along with him as he left the Southern main estate.
Wu Qianjing said angrily to Wu Chu: “Have you not made enough of a spectacle of yourself? Hurry and get yourself in here13What Wu Qianjing says here is something more akin to “you still won’t hurry and get your ass in the house?’, it’s a lot harsher than what I left in translation, but because he didn’t actually use any vulgar language, and the words he uses in Chinese don’t exactly have vulgar connotations, I didn’t feel comfortable using this in the actual translation..”
At this moment, Lu Ziding walked out and said: “Father-in-law, I still have some matters to attend to, so I won’t disturb you any longer.”
Without even waiting for Wu Qianjing’s response, he turned and left.
Wu Qianjing was left stunned.
In the past, his son-in-law respected him very much, how come he was so disrespectful today?
Wu Min hurriedly chased after him: “Ziding, Ziding, wait for me!”
Wu Chu simply had no face left to linger around, so he also left.
Sang Dongyi hurriedly yelled after him: “Xiao-Chu, Xiao-Chu, where are you going?”
Wu Qianjing said angrily, with a dark expression: “Leave, all of you leave! If you have the guts, then don’t come back!”
He dragged Sang Dongyi back into Shujing Garden, full of anger, then he commanded the servants to close the doors so that everyone couldn’t look at their family making fools of themselves.
Wu Qianli, Wu Qianbin, and the others met each other’s eyes, then, each returned to their own estate.
Wu Qianqing also brought his own daughter back to Shuqing Garden.
Wu Xi wondered: “I heard the servants saying that Min-jiejie and Ziding-jiefu14姐夫 (jie fu) is what you call an older sister’s husband. Or simply the husband of an older woman that you address as jie. wanted to stay at the Wu estate for a few days, how come they’re already leaving after just arriving today?”
Wu Ruo’s gaze flickered. Looks like the ginseng he’d sent had achieved the desired effect.
He remembered during New Year’s in his previous lifetime, Wu Qianjing had boasted nonstop to their faces, about the amazing jade pendant that Lu Ziding gave him. Actually, it was only just a jade pendant that was worth about 1000 taels, yet he had praised his son-in-law to the heavens. At that time, their father/son in-law relationship was so good that everyone envied them.
So, he had specially sent a piece of ginseng that was more expensive than the jade pendant to Wu Qianjing. Because he’d accurately guessed that Wu Qianjing would think that Wu Ruo would send top-grade materials, and thus open the present when he received it. Then, when Wu Qianjing saw that it was just an ordinary piece of ginseng, he would definitely fly into a rage15The Chinese text is 打法雷霆 (da fa lei ting), which I’m assuming is a typo of 大发雷霆 (da fa lei ting). If anyone sees this and knows better, please correct me. I don’t think the first phrase has a proper meaning? It technically means ‘to while away the thunder’ where da fa in the first phrase usually means ‘to while away (time)’.
In the second phrase, da fa refers to a major explosion, so da fa lei ting is literally ‘a major explosion of thunderbolts’. (My brain just sang ‘thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening’ from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody LOL)
Also, wow, Wu Ruo, you manipulative bastard. I’m amazed. and scold Wu Ruo for being petty. Although Wu Qianjing wasn’t scolding Lu Ziding, the listener would have his own interpretation and this would cause a crack in their father-son in-law relationship.
Wu Zhu lightly knocked on Wu Xi’s head: “Xiao-Xi-meimei, could you not be so curious about every little thing?”
“I’m just mentioning it. I wonder how Great-Grandfather will deal with this matter of Chu-gege‘s after Anrun-tangge tells him about it too.”
Wu Zhu teased her: “Shall I send you in front of Great-Grandfather so that you can ask him how he intends to deal with sange‘s matter?”
Wu Xi hurriedly shook her head no: “I don’t want to meet Great-Grandfather.”
Guan Tong, who was currently waiting for them to come back, immediately asked: “Do you know why they started fighting?”
Wu Xi gave her a simplified version of the story.
Wu Qianqing sighed: “It has nothing to do with us, it’s still better not to stick our noses into it.”
In recent days, he and his brothers were growing more and more distant from each other. If they recklessly got mixed up in this matter, he was afraid that they would only be looking for trouble16The Chinese phrase for this is very interesting. 惹了一身腥 (re le yi shen xing) literally means to ‘to provoke (something or someone) and end up with one’s whole body stinking of rotten fish’. So, it means ‘to end up finding trouble for oneself’.
Interestingly when I searched this phrase up in Baidu, it comes up as 惹一身臊 (re yi shen sao) and the xing character is actually in its explanation instead. It can also be written with this 骚 (sao) character as well, and both sao in this context refers to the rotten stench of foul animal meat. Xing specifically refers to rotten seafood/fish.
I think this might be a common mistake in writing this phrase; using xing instead of sao. Kind of like the confusion in English of ‘in tow’ vs ‘in toe’ (I have genuinely seen people writing it as ‘in toe’, and not jokingly). for themselves. It was still better not to stick their noses into it.
Wu Zhu nodded his head: “I agree with what Dad said.”
Wu Ruo didn’t express his opinion. However, after he finished eating dinner, when they were preparing to leave the Wu estate, he received the news that Wu Chu had gotten into a fight with someone after drinking at a restaurant, and had gotten his spiritual field destroyed.
Notes: Watching Wu Ruo putting his little plans into action is so interesting. I know reality doesn’t actually work like that, but it’s so satisfying to see him manipulating people so well, just cause he knows what they’re like.
