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Canon-typical fatphobia, murder plotting, discussions of adoption
Everyone was struck dumb. At the same time in their hearts, they were wondering, how did this Wu Ruo suddenly become so eloquent?
They glanced over at Wu Ruo and were angered to realize that this person had actually lost weight. Although the loose and large outer coat concealed Wu Ruo’s physique, not allowing people to see exactly how much weight he’d lost, but his face was slimmer by one layer1The author uses the word 圈 (quan), which in this context does mean ’round’ as in one round around something. I guess you can imagine the layers of fats on Wu Ruo’s face like concentric circles and one of those circles just got removed LOL
Edit: Previously was translated as ‘a circle’ but I’ve changed this to ‘one layer’., his eyes had also become much larger.
Wu Yu rapidly came back to his senses, giving Wu Xiao a pointed look as he said: “Xiao-Ruo, Xiao-Xiao was only anxious because he saw that my Dad had gotten so badly injured, that’s why he would say such unpleasant things. Sanshu, sanshen, please don’t blame him for it.
“And you, Xiao-Xiao, you’ve really misunderstood sige. Just now when he arrived, sige already told me that he also got injured. Later on, it was because he took some wound healing medication, that’s why his injuries recovered quickly. Hurry and apologize to sige.”
Wu Xiao was rather unwilling2不甘心 (bu gan xin) does translate as ‘unwilling’, but it’s a little different from the usual word that gets translated as ‘willing’. Normally, the word 愿意 (yuan yi) is translated as ‘willing’. Both yuan and yi in yuan yi separately refer to one’s will, intentions or desires.
So in the case of yuan yi, it is because something is to your will, intentions, wishes or desires, etc., therefore you are ‘willing’ to do it.
As for bu gan xin, the bit that means ‘willing’ is gan xin. And matching it with the negative bu makes it ‘unwilling’. Gan means ‘of one’s own accord; readily; voluntarily’ and xin refers to the Chinese concept of your ‘heart’, the metaphorical one in this case.
So gan xin does mean ‘willing’, but it can also translate to mean ‘willing to accept’ a certain result or outcome. In the terms of the dictionary I use for reference, ‘being able to resign to/reconcile with something’.
So contextually, the nuance to this word is that Wu Xiao is both ‘unwilling’ to apologize, and he’s also ‘not able to accept/resign to/reconcile with’ having to apologize to Wu Zhu., but he bore with it, then spoke up: “Sige, I’m sorry. Just now, it was because I was too worried about the condition of erbo‘s injury, that’s why I would say something so unpleasant. Please don’t take it to heart.”
Wu Zhu and Wu Qianqing’s expressions relaxed a lot.
Wu Qiantong said, expression apologetic: “Sange, I’m really sorry, this child was just too anxious in the moment, that’s why he would offend you. I hope you can forgive him.”
Wu Qianqing looked at Wu Xiao, who was remaining silent, with a dark expression and pursed lips, then nodded. Wu Qianqing didn’t say if he forgave him, but also didn’t say if he didn’t forgive him.
Wu Qiantong reprimanded Wu Xiao: “Little brat, come with me.”
Wu Xiao lowered his head and left Shuli Garden3Actually, the Chinese text says Shuqing Garden, but I’m assuming the author messed up because they’re all in Shuli Garden right now. with Wu Qiantong.
As Wu Bo walked past Wu Zhu, he quietly said: “Sige, it’s really great that you’re alright.”
When Wu Ruo heard this, he couldn’t help but take a few more glances at Wu Bo.
His youngest uncle Wu Qiantong had three children.
His oldest son, Wu Xiao, had the same personality as Wu Qiantong. A little rash, and also a little short-tempered. Whenever they did things, they didn’t think first.
His second4Over here, we are referring to Wu Yun as second in absolute birth order, not that she has an older sister. daughter, Wu Yun, was younger than Wu Xi by one month, but her personality was very cowardly. She often hid behind her parents and brothers, seeking their protection.
His third son, Wu Bo, perhaps it was because he was still young, but Wu Bo was very pure and innocent. However, in Wu Ruo’s previous lifetime, Wu Ruo hadn’t known the reason for it, but after Wu Zhu and Wu Xi had died, Wu Bo had never again returned to the Wu estate.
Wu Ruo guessed that maybe it was because Wu Bo held them in contempt, after finding out what the Wu family had done, that’s why he would leave the Wu family.
After Wu Qiantong left, Wu Qianbin also left, bringing along his own wife and children.
Wu Ruo looked at their backs, narrowing his eyes.
His fourth uncle, Wu Qianbin, was the smartest out of the five brothers. The wife that he’d married into the family was also very shrewd and capable.
Their eldest daughter, Wu Ling, was currently out in the middle of her experience training. Even though she was already 225Over here, the author uses the word 芳龄 (fang ling) to refer to Wu Ling’s age. It is a dated term referring to a young woman’s age., however, daughters of magic practitioner families all got married later than daughters of commoner families.
This was because not only did they have longer lifespans, but because they had spiritual energy, their appearances did not age easily. In addition, these women all placed more importance on future achievements, so, on average, they would only find a partner and get married when they were around 30 years old.
Their second daughter, Wu Jing, was almost 20 years old. This year, coincidentally, she would be going for her experience training at the same time as Wu Zhu.
And as for their youngest son, Wu Shi, whether it was Wu Ruo’s previous lifetime or this lifetime, he loved to gamble.
Wu Yu made an ushering gesture towards Wu Qianqing: “Sanshu, sanshen, I’ll see you out.”
Wu Qianqing, Wu Ruo, and the others followed Wu Yu out together. On their way, they ran into Wu Anyi, who had sent Wu Qiantong and his party off.
Wu Anyi only blandly said some niceties to Wu Qianqing, and simply ignored Wu Ruo and the others.
Wu Ruo laughed mockingly in his heart.
Amongst his second uncle Wu Qianli’s children, the oldest son Wu Anyi was the most like his mother Ruan Lanru. He was cold and haughty, and always thought that he was higher in status than others. He thought that no matter how hard others tried, they would never be able to catch up to him.
That’s why he regarded people like Wu Ruo, with little or no spiritual energy, as beneath him.
Wu Qianli’s second daughter Wu Yuan, although she was in the midst of her experience training, had already gotten married to someone.
Wu Qianli’s third daughter was called Wu Ya, she was the same age as Wu Ling, and right now, the two of them had formed a team and were out together on their experience training.
As for Wu Yu…
Wu Ruo narrowed his eyes. Wu Yu was Wu Qianli’s youngest son. In Wu Ruo’s previous lifetime, like Wu Zhu and the others, he had always thought that this person was a modest gentleman, was a really good person, but he never would’ve thought that…
Wu Zhu saw that Wu Ruo was still zoned out, and asked with concern: “Xiao-Ruo, what are you thinking of?”
Wu Ruo came back to his senses and lied: “I didn’t see dabo and his family coming over, so I was wondering if they were feeling any better6Just for reference, if anyone’s forgotten, Wu Chu got shanked, so Wu Qianjing’s family is currently grieving the loss of a family member..”
Other than Wu Chu, his fourth son, Wu Qianjing still had four other children. His oldest son Wu Anqi, his second daughter Wu Min, his third daughter Wu Yú7You can check from the character list, but the characters for Wu Yu (male) and Wu Yú (female) are different, as well as the tone of the character. Female Wu Yú doesn’t show up much besides this mention, but when/if she does, her name will have this accent.
Author definitely didn’t think that this story would ever get translated into other languages TwT, as well as his youngest son Wu Hao.
Wu Hao loved messing around the most, he was often missing in action. Once classes ended at the academy, he would go out to play with the other cousins from the other main estates. They would keep playing, only returning by the Wu family’s curfew.
Wu Yu said: “I went to see dabo and dabomu yesterday. Both of them have become a lot more haggard. The only things they do now are running to Great-Grandfather’s estate or going to Northern main estate to kick up a fuss. No one knows when sange‘s matter can be settled either.”
Wu Qianqing sighed.
According to his dage‘s personality, Wu Qianjing would only let the matter rest if he managed to get another life in exchange for the one he’d lost.
“Xiao-Yu, it’s fine to accompany us just up to here. We’ll walk the rest of the way back by ourselves.”
“Alright, sanshu, sanshen, sige, Xiao-Ruo, Xiao-Xi, take care.” Wu Yu stopped in his steps, watching them as they left. Only when he couldn’t see them did he mumble to himself: “How come Wu Zhu isn’t dead yet?”
Then what about the people that his Dad had sent out? Had they been killed by the huge Yao?
This Wu Zhu was really so lucky. Well, actually, one could say that everyone from Shuqing Garden had been very lucky recently.
Previously, his Dad, as well as sishu and the others had wanted to use the excuse of needing materials to borrow the materials that Wu Ruo’s husband had sent over as gifts.
However, on the contrary, Wu Ruo had borrowed their precious materials that they’d been treasuring for years instead. He had even found suitable materials to blend with their precious materials and made them top-grade equipment.
Following that, Wu Ruo had uncovered the matter of his Dad and their dabo stealing Wu Ruo’s betrothal gifts. Originally, his sishu and the others had thought of countermeasures to deal with the matter of the betrothal gifts.
But of all things, the situation was uncovered. Even Wu Chenzi’s great-grandson, Wu Yanlan, caught wind of the matter. This forced Great-Grandfather to personally speak up on the matter and supervise their return of the betrothal gifts.
After that was this matter about Wu Zhu. At the time, sishu had undoubtedly gotten Wu Zhu to break the seal using his blood. However, in the end, nothing happened to Wu Zhu. He was really too lucky.
Wu Yu snorted coldly.
They were going to leave for their experience training soon. He didn’t believe that Wu Zhu would continue having such good luck.
At this moment, just as Wu Yu was scheming against Wu Zhu, Wu Ruo was also ruminating over the matter of Wu Zhu and Wu Yu going for their experience training together.
After they finished dinner, Wu Ruo invited his family to the Hei estate for a meal on the following day, the 13th of layue8Reminder that layue refers to the 12th and last month of the lunar calendar. It is normally around January or February of the solar/Gregorian calendar.. Then, he left the Wu estate.
When he returned to Hei Manor, he immediately set Shi Jiu to a task.
The following day, even before wushi9Wushi refers to 11 am to 12:59 pm., Wu Qianqing, Guan Tong, and the others arrived at Hei Manor together.
Wu Ruo brought Dandan with him to the main gate to welcome them.
When Guan Tong and Wu Xi saw Dandan, they immediately scrambled to carry him.
Wu Ruo smiled and said: “Dad, Mum, lunch isn’t ready yet. I’ll take you on a tour around our10Wu Ruo says 我府 (wo fu), which is more literally ‘my manor’. However, with context, we understand that the manor belongs to Hei Xuanyi and by extension of marriage to Wu Ruo.
This isn’t an uncommon way to indicate belonging to a place or coming from somewhere. For example in Chinese, you can say 我国 (wo guo), which again technically directly translates as ‘my country’, but it doesn’t have that nuance.
Personally, I find it very cute that Wu Ruo is using wo fu because it implies that he feels like he belongs there, this lifetime around. manor first.”
Guan Tong hummed in agreement as she played with the child.
Wu Qianqing took the opportunity while Hei Xuanyi and Hei Xin weren’t around to pull Wu Ruo away from the child and ask about him: “Xiao-Ruo, this Dandan, whose child is he? Could he be Xuanyi’s…”
Wu Ruo hurriedly cut off his words: “Dad, don’t let your imagination run wild. Xuanyi and I are both men, in the future, we definitely won’t be able to have children. So we just adopted a child from Xuanyi’s relatives11This doesn’t happen as much in modern times, but it’s still quite normal for relatives to adopt children within the family. Not sure if they do this as much in other cultures/countries.
It doesn’t have to be the case where the child’s parents both passed away or anything. As long as the parents are unable to raise the child, or have too many children already, it does happen that couples that can’t have children might adopt the child to raise instead.
It isn’t treated as a taboo or a secret. Most families will quite openly tell the child who their biological parents are, but they also view their adopted parents as their ‘actual’ parents.
The only reason I can think of for hiding this from the child is if the family/parents feel that the reason for the adoption might be too cruel to let the child know? For example, that the child was conceived as a result of sexual assault, something along those lines..”
It was really just too hard for Wu Ruo to explain that the child had been born from an egg. If he really told them this, his dad would definitely ask another whole bunch of questions that he couldn’t provide explanations for.
Wu Qianqing nodded his head: “It’s not bad to raise the child by your side from such a young age. In the future, he will be closer to you too. You must treat him as if he were your own flesh and blood, do you understand?”
Actually, he was most worried that Hei Xuanyi would marry a concubine in the future to have his own biological children. After all, children who weren’t biologically yours could not become your flesh and blood; it would be difficult to love them as deeply.
If Hei Xuanyi really wanted to do that, it wouldn’t be good for them to stop him from having and raising his own children. Yet they were also afraid that Wu Ruo would have to suffer for it.
It would be good if the Hei family’s family rules were like the Wu family’s family rules. Because Wu Bofang disliked the Wu family having messy relations, and he also didn’t like overly complex circumstances in the Wu family, so, the people of the Wu family were not allowed to have concubines. Even if they had a woman outside, or had a child with another woman, they were also not allowed to bring them into the family12Long footnote: In the vague handwavey olden days that this is set in, it was very common for men of noble families to have multiple wives and consorts. This was not just limited to the royal family or anything. In fact, if you were rich enough to afford taking care of them, no one would blink an eye if any man had multiple wives.
However, of course, if you were a wife, you can only have one husband. In Wu Ruo’s case, I don’t think he’s allowed to officially have any wives or concubines. If his husband/Hei Xuanyi allowed him to, he might still be able to have a relationship with other women, but if his husband doesn’t approve, he’s also not allowed to as someone with the status of a wife.
Theoretically, if Wu Ruo had a child with a female lover, he could bring the child back and ask his husband if he wants to take the child and raise it as part of their family. So the hypothetical child would take the Hei surname, and go through whatever family process the Hei family has to earn a spot in their family records, but the child most likely cannot have the Wu surname..
Wu Ruo responded repeatedly: “Hn, hn, I will.”
Wu Zhu, who was by their side, smiled and said: “I didn’t think that Hei Manor was so big. Xuanyi must’ve spent quite a sum of silver to buy such a huge residence, right?”
“I’ve never asked him about this before.”
Wu Qianqing looked at the corpse servants sweeping up the snow in the gardens, and frowned: “Xiao-Ruo, the servants in your estate are a little strange.”
Wu Ruo followed his line of sight, and immediately understood what Wu Qianqing was talking about, so he didn’t continue hiding it: “Dad, the servants who handle the odds and ends are all living dead.”
Wu Qianqing and Wu Zhu were both stunned: “Living… living dead?”
“Hn, they’re actually people who have already died a long time ago. It’s only that their souls and spirits have been controlled by someone, so they can live till now.”
Wu Qianqing asked: “Then wouldn’t they be unable to enter the cycle of reincarnation?”
“There’s a slave contract period. When the time comes, the person controlling them will let them go, so that they can leave to reincarnate.”
Wu Zhu lowered his voice and said: “Controlling someone else’s corpse, and their soul and spirit, is dark arts, you know.”
Wu Ruo asked him: “Dage, you can control spiritual beings, is that also considered dark arts?”
“That’s not the same.”
Wu Ruo didn’t understand why, but he just didn’t want his family members to look at Hei Xuanyi with judging13The author uses the word 异样 (yi yang) here, which actually simply means ‘different; peculiar’. However, it didn’t quite flow in the English, so I changed it to ‘judging’ to match the nuance intended. Essentially, Wu Ruo doesn’t want his family to look at Hei Xuanyi as if he’s different from others, just because he controls the corpse servants. eyes: “As long as the person controlling the living dead doesn’t use them to do bad things, then it’s fine. What’s the point of thinking so deeply about all the other things?”
Wu Qianqing could tell that his youngest son was defending his own husband, so he changed the topic and said: “Xiao-Ruo, we’re also tired from walking around, I’d like to find a place to take a break.”
“I’ll take you to the main hall. Besides, it’s almost about time for lunch.”
Wu Ruo brought them to the main hall.
When Hei Xin, who was currently working busily in the main hall, saw them coming over, he beamed as he went forth to welcome them: “Welcome, Qinjia Master, Qinjia Madam, to our manor as guests. If there’s any part of our hospitality that is lacking, I seek your understanding.”
Wu Qianqing smiled gently: “Steward Hei is too polite.”
Wu Ruo looked at Hei Xin, smiled, and said: “Dad, let me tell you, our Steward Hei is really talented, especially in divination arts. That’s right, dage should be going off for his experience training soon, isn’t he? It’s just the right time for Steward Hei to help dage divine his fortune, to see what his future prospects will be like, or to take a look at when dage will find and bring a sister-in-law back for me.”
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