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Infidelity (between minor characters), sexual content, canon-typical violence“You deserve it, you lowlife.” Liu Xiaoru aimed a forceful kick at Wu Da, who was lying passed out on the ground. Then she gathered her robes and walked out.
Suddenly, a shadow rushed out.
Right away, Liu Xiaoru was scared witless, and was about to scream, when the person immediately said: “Dasao1大嫂 (da sao): sao is the term used for ‘the wife of one’s older brother’, whereas the prefix ‘da’ refers to the eldest (in this context). So, Wu Qianqing would refer to the wives of his two older brothers as ‘dasao‘ and ‘ersao‘ as well, for example., it’s me.”
She patted herself on the chest2Pardon my phrasing, I couldn’t think of a better way to put it. She’s doing that thing Chinese people do when they get a shock. I think I’ve seen Westerners just put their hands on their chest, but most Chinese people will pat themselves (similar to the way they soothe babies by patting in a downward stroking motion on the baby’s back) on the chest.: “Why don’t you make any noise when you’re walking about, you almost scared me to death.”
“Was the man who just came out of your house the First Young Master?”
“Who else could it be? He found out that the two of you had accepted the Fifth Young Master’s bribes, and came over especially to ask Wu Da about it. He told Wu Da to answer honestly, otherwise he would kill him. Under those urgent circumstances, I admitted to it for him.”
Wu Xiao anxiously said: “Dasao, how could you admit to that? In future, dage and I won’t be able to go back to the Wu estate to work anymore.”
“If I didn’t admit to it, he definitely would’ve run to look for you. When that happens, the one to get beaten up would be you.”
“Dasao, are you worrying about me?” Wu Xiao took a glance towards the house, when he saw that Wu Da was passed out on the ground, he laughed with a ‘heehee’. He tugged on Liu Xiaoru’s hand and dragged her into a pitch-black corner of the house. He pressed her against the wall and kissed Liu Xiaoru’s little mouth.
Liu Xiaoru used her hand to hold him back by the chest: “You devil33 — 死鬼 (si gui): literally means ‘dead ghost’. In this context, she’s gently scolding him, but without any real heat. She’s not actually angry or against it., your dage is still passed out inside the house.”
“Don’t bother about him.” Wu Xiao kneaded the soft mounds on her chest.
Liu Xiaoru moaned: “What about dimei4弟妹 (di mei): I mentioned this once before, in a previous chapter’s footnotes. Dimei refers to one’s ‘younger brother’s wife’. Recap, the funny thing about this term is that it’s literally the characters for ‘younger brother’ and ‘younger sister’. I guess if you wanted to be literal about it, the term means ‘younger sister (from your younger brother)’.?”
Wu Xiao didn’t stop his ministrations, lowering his voice as he said: “She thinks I went to the outhouse5The toilet is separate from the rest of the house. It’s usually just a raised wooden platform, with a bucket underneath. With walls around it, of course, for some privacy. In some villages in China, this is still how toilets are structured. The bathroom (with the tub and all, for washing) is attached to the main house.. Let’s take this opportunity while dage is still passed out and squeeze in one round.”
Liu Xiaoru giggled seductively.
The two of them had no inkling at all of the shadow standing in another corner outside. This person was Chen Xier, who had just come out to take a look and was also Wu Xiao’s wife.
Chen Xier heard the sounds of rough panting coming from the corner, and her lips curled in contempt. In a low voice, she said, ‘both brothers are as disgusting as each other6两兄弟都是一个德行: what she actually says here is ‘both brothers have the same moral integrity/conduct’, with the word dexing meaning ‘moral integrity/conduct’. However, it also has the connotations of ‘poor/disgusting moral integrity/conduct’. What she means here will be explained later on within the story itself.‘, then she turned around and returned into the house.
After Wu Zhu left the estate that Wu Da and Wu Xiao lived in, he immediately went back to Hei Manor.
Guan Tong saw that his expression was poor, and her eyes reddened. She hurriedly stood up and asked: “Xiao-Zhu, did you manage to meet that person?”
The others looked at him with faces of concern.
Wu Zhu said hoarsely: “I guess you could say so.”
Wu Qianqing frowned: “What do you mean you guess?”
Wu Ruo signalled at Shi Yuan to give Wu Zhu a glass of hot tea.
Wu Zhu glanced at Wu Qianqing. He took a sip of hot tea, thinking for a moment: “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
Wu Qianqing’s frown deepened. He felt that his eldest son’s gaze towards him bore traces of restraint, as if Wu Zhu was unwilling to tell him about it.
“If you don’t want to, then you don’t have to. As long as you know who that antagonist is, then it’s good enough. Oh right, Steward Hei also told us before that once you know who this antagonist is, your experience training will be much smoother. So, Xiao-Zhu, in addition to guarding against this person, you have to distance yourself from them as well, do you understand?” Guan Tong consoled him, then she turned to Wu Ruo: “Xiao-Ruo, it’s getting late, we’ll go back first.”
Wu Ruo nodded his head: “Alright, Shi Yuan, help me send my parents off.”
“Yes, madam,” Shi Yuan made an ushering gesture towards Wu Qianqing and the others.
Wu Ruo looked at their figures leaving the house, and his lips curled up. In this moment, his mood was especially good. In the future, he wouldn’t have to worry about his dage and the others seeing as Wu Yu as a good person anymore.
At this moment, Hei Xin, holding onto Dandan’s little hand, Hei Xuanyi, and Hei Gan entered.
“Daddy!” Taking strides with his short, little legs, Dandan ran to Wu Ruo with little steps. He lifted his head to look at Wu Ruo, and asked with an innocent expression: “Daddy, you’re smiling so wickedly, did you do something bad?”
Hei Xin was so amused by his childish way of speaking that he burst into laughter.
“…” Wu Ruo pinched Dandan’s little face in a good mood, smiling: “You smile so adorably every day, then did you do something ‘good’? Hn?”
Dandan pouted. He flung himself at Hei Xuanyi, who was sitting to one side, and hugged his calf, complaining to him: “Father, your wife is bullying me.”
Hei Xuanyi brought the young child into his arms, and helped Dandan to tidy the hairs on his forehead. He said lightly: “It’s good enough if you don’t bully your daddy.”
Wu Ruo saw that Hei Xuanyi was speaking up for him, and looked at the child in Hei Xuanyi’s arms smugly.
Dandan’s lips flattened into a straight line, and he said unhappily: “B-both of you are colluding against me!”
Wu Ruo facepalmed: “Who taught you this? Why are you using idioms wily nily?”
Hei Xin’s face reddened with shame.
He didn’t know where the little young master had learned these words from either.
Hei Gan, who was standing by Hei Xuanyi’s side, suddenly said with an expressionless face: “Every day after breakfast, Little Young Master will ride Jiujiu to Zuiyue Restaurant to steal food from their kitchens. He hides on the roof beams of Zuiyue Restaurant and listens to the storyteller telling stories as he eats.
“After his afternoon nap, he goes to the theatre to listen to the operas. After dinner, he goes to the brothels to listen to the maidens playing songs on the qin. His little days are spent in peerless abundance.”
So, much less just words, Dandan had even memorized those stories and songs. As the person in charge of looking for the little young master every day, even Hei Gan could recite the storyteller’s stories, ripe as a melon that rolls from its vines7滚瓜烂熟 (gun gua lan shu): I thought the literal translation was very interesting, so I left it directly translated in the text. To be clear, the idiom means ‘to know something by heart/inside out’.. Even Hei Gan’s handsome face had been pecked countless times by the maidens from the brothel.
Hei Xin: “…”
Hei Xuanyi: “…”
Wu Ruo: “…”
This child’s entertainment schedule every day was even more exciting and varied than that of Wu Ruo, an adult’s.
Dandan hung his head, and said pitifully: “I only go to those places because Father only cares about making equipment every day, and Daddy isn’t very mobile, so there’s no one to play with me.”
Hei Xin said, feeling sorry8心疼 (xin teng): this term has come up in a previous chapter before, used by one of the Wu brothers’ wives. It literally means ‘heart aches’ (as in, one’s heart aches [the verb], rather than the noun ‘heartaches’).
This phrase has two usages depending on the context. The first usage is, like in Hei Xin’s case, his heart aches for Dandan, so he feels sorry/bad for Dandan. In the second usage, it means to ‘love dearly’. So, as a grandfather, Wu Qianqing can xin teng Dandan, in which case, it would translate to something closer to ‘love with all his heart’. for Dandan: “Master, Madam, Little Young Master only has Jiujiu to play with every day. Please don’t blame him.”
Wu Ruo also felt quite sorry for the child. However, he still needed at least one more month before he could slim down completely. So, even if Wu Ruo wanted to accompany his child and play with him, he still had some mental and physical inadequacies.
Hei Xuanyi frowned slightly: “The day after tomorrow is the Lantern Festival…”
Dandan’s gaze brightened: “Is Father going to bring us out to play?”
“Hn.”
“Excellent!” Dandan excitedly slid down from Hei Xuanyi’s arms: “I must go and make preparations.”
Wu Ruo raised his eyebrows: “We’re only going out to play for a day, what do you need to prepare?”
Just as he finished speaking, Dandan had already disappeared out of sight.
Hei Xin beamed and said: “It’s Little Young Master’s first time going out to play with Master and Madam, he’s very happy.”
“You?” Hei Xuanyi looked at Wu Ruo: “Happy9I hope this comes off as HXY speaking curtly and concisely, rather than sounding stupid. In Chinese, HXY literally uses the least words to get his point across to Wu Ruo. He is the epitome of maximizing ‘why use many word, when few enough?’ in Chinese.
This is the exact reason why Wu Ruo keeps nagging him to speak more. I don’t think he speaks more than 15 words a day ??”
“What is there for me—” Wu Ruo met Hei Xuanyi’s dark and serious gaze, and the rest of his words ‘—to be happy about?’ wedged themselves in his throat in that moment, and he couldn’t say them.
Hei Xuanyi kept staring at Wu Ruo, as if he wouldn’t look away if he didn’t get a response from Wu Ruo.
Wu Ruo’s heart suddenly started beating a little uncontrollably. He immediately got Shi Yi and the others to help him to stand: “I must also go and make preparations.”
Hei Xin smiled and said: “Madam is embarrassed.”
Hei Xuanyi: “…”
Outside the main hall, the sky grew darker and darker. A fine, light sprinkle of snow drifted from the skies.
Since Wu Zhu left Hei Manor, he didn’t speak a single word. Once he returned to Shuqing Garden, he immediately locked himself in his own rooms. This made Wu Qianqing and the others extremely worried. However, the next morning, Wu Zhu was back to normal. After eating breakfast, he went to the academy with Wu Xi.
The academy was built in the central estate, and was only one large plot of land away from Bojin Garden.
When Wu Zhu and Wu Xi arrived at the academy, there were already many cousins practicing their magic skills in the main yard of the academy10Two notes here in this paragraph.
堂兄弟姐妹 (tang xiong di jie mei): Xiong di jie mei is a phrase that refers to ‘brothers and sisters’, it is quite literally ‘older brother, younger brother, older sister, younger sister’. In this context, especially with the tang prefix, it refers to their cousins from their father’s side of the family. For ease of understanding, I have simply translated this as ‘cousins’.
大院 (da yuan): this is a term that I translate differently depending on each sentence, and how it fits in each sentence. Yuan refers to a plot of land, with a few buildings, and some ‘lawn’ space. Each family (like Wu Qianqing and his unmarried children) live in one yuan.
The da prefix means that it’s a big yuan. The whole Wu estate is made up of probably a few hundred of these yuan, you can imagine it is probably the size of a small American suburb or a tiny European village. If you’ve seen those countryside Chinese cuisine videos like Dianxi Xiaoge or Liziqi, you can imagine it as the size of their entire village whenever they pan out for aerial shots.
The academy itself is one big yuan, probably has a few outdoor ‘lawn’ spaces and a couple of buildings. If you’ve watched The Untamed, you can picture it as something similar to the set they filmed at for the Gusu Lan classes, in terms of overall layout (of the buildings and outdoor spaces).
I just wanted to clarify how the ‘academy’ is probably intended to look like since the word itself might have certain imagery attached to it. It isn’t just a standalone tall building on its own like modern schools..
“Xiao-Xi, I’m about to leave for my experience training. When the time comes, there won’t be anyone willing to play together with you. You…” At the thought that his younger sister would have to attend the academy by herself in the future, Wu Zhu was especially worried. However, right now, there wasn’t any solution.
Wu Xi immediately cut off Wu Zhu’s words: “Dage, don’t worry. I can take care of myself even if I’m alone. Eh, dage, what’s wrong?”
Halfway through her words, she realized that Wu Zhu’s expression had abruptly darkened: “Dage, did I say something wrong?”
Wu Zhu didn’t respond to her words. He simply stared, with a deadly expression, at the person who was walking towards them from ahead.
Wu Xi looked in the direction of his gaze but only saw Wu Yu walking towards them with a smile. She burst into a smile, waving towards Wu Yu as she yelled: “Wuge!”
Wu Yu replied: “Sige, Xiao-Xi, both of you have arrived so early to the academy.”
Wu Xi smiled as she said: “Wuge, you’re just as early as we are too.”
“I heard that both of you went to Hei Manor for a meal yesterday. Has Xiao-Ruo been able to adjust to staying at Hei Manor?”
When Wu Zhu heard Wu Yu mentioning Wu Ruo, his gaze darkened again.
“Erge is doing just fine over there. Wuge, let me tell you, my erge‘s son is really adorable, he…”
“Wu. Yu.” Wu Zhu coldly spat those words out from his mouth, interrupting Wu Xi from continuing.
Wu Xi and Wu Yu were both stunned.
The smile fell off of Wu Yu’s face: “Sige, what’s wrong? You look upset11难看 (nan kan): here, the term Wu Yu uses literally means ‘difficult to look at’. Depending on the context, you might interpret it differently. In this particular context, Wu Yu means that Wu Zhu looks upset/displeased with something.
Since this term is contextually interpreted, other people might disagree with my translation, but this is what I think suits the best in this situation..”
“Of course I’m upset.” Wu Zhu laughed coldly: “Because I want to beat you up.”
Just as he said this, he raised his fist, and he swung it at Wu Yu with his full strength.
Wu Yu had never even considered that Wu Zhu would hit him, so he didn’t react in time to avoid it, and he was viciously punched in the face by Wu Zhu12脸上狠狠地吃了乌竹一拳: quite literally translates as ‘viciously ate Wu Zhu’s punch on his face’. The visual this description gives is hilarious, especially when I think of how Wu Yu is suffering, so I had to leave a footnote.. In that moment, his whole person was sent flying, smashing heavily into the trunk of a huge tree not far off. The cheekbones on his face and the bones in his shoulders gave off cracking noises.
Everyone cried out in alarm.
Wu Xi froze for a moment, then anxiously said: “Dage, have you gone crazy? How could you hit wuge?”
Wu Zhu headed in Wu Yu’s direction with a face full of incandescent rage: “He should consider himself lucky that I only used my fist to hit him. Xiao-Xi, do you know why Yu Tianbao and the others always bully Xiao-Ruo whenever they see him? That’s because Wu Yu spent money to get them to do that, then he plays the part of the ‘good guy’ and saves Xiao-Ruo, just so that Xiao-Ruo will feel grateful to him. After that, Wu Yu can get Xiao-Ruo to help him borrow materials and equipment from Dad.”
In the past, he had really been fucking blind13瞎了狗眼 (xia le gou yan): literally “blinded dog’s eyes”, but in this case, gou or ‘dog’ is meant as an expletive emphasis. I hesitated for a bit on whether to translate it as ‘fucking’, since it is not quite that vulgar.
Plus, on the whole, Wu Zhu is quite mild-mannered and not prone to swearing at all. But considering how upset/angry he is about this matter, I thought it was appropriate., that was why he would think that Wu Yu was a modest gentleman, a person who liked to help others.
“What?” Wu Xi looked at Wu Zhu in disbelief. But when she thought back on it, it was true that every time after saving her erge, wuge would borrow materials from Dad. Dad, feeling very grateful to Wu Yu for saving his own son, would naturally take out the materials and equipment for wuge without another word.
“I heard Yu Tianbao and the others saying this themselves with my own ears last night. Wu Da and Wu Xiao had also received money from Wu Yu, so that every time when Yu Tianbao and the others were bullying Xiao-Ruo, no one would come and inform us.”
Wu Xi wasn’t a stupid person. She looked at Wu Yu and asked: “Dage, the antagonist that Steward Hei spoke of couldn’t be…”
“It’s him.”
“This person is really repulsive.” Wu Xi walked up to Wu Yu, full of anger, and kicked him forcefully a few times on his chest: “I’ll kick you to death. Getting people to bully my erge, who told you to get people to bully my erge? You hypocrite, I’ll kick you to death!”
At this moment, a stern shouting voice travelled over: “Who is making a scene here?”
