LWSL Chapter 75

“…” Wu Ruo looked at him, surprised: “How could it be that you couldn’t divine anything at all?”

Even if it were the disciples learning divination in the Wu estate’s academy, they would still at least be able to tell a person’s fortune in life by reading their face. Let alone Hei Xin, who wasn’t a beginner who had just begun learning divination arts.

Hei Xin replied honestly: “It’s not just Young Master Zhu’s future fortunes that I cannot divine. Even for Madam, and anyone close to you, I am unable to divine even the slightest inkling of your fortunes. It may simply be that this old one is incapable and unable to understand the Heavens’ design.”

Wu Ruo: “…”

Could it be that it had something to do with his rebirth?

The more Wu Ruo thought about it, the more he felt that this was likely. After all, after he had been reborn, a lot of things had been changed.

Now that there was no way to divine whether Wu Zhu’s experience training would be successful, he started worrying about Wu Zhu’s safety. He worried that even though Wu Zhu’s fate had been changed, it was still possible that at a certain point or time, it would return back to its original trajectory again.

After Wu Zhu left the Wu estate, the other disciples of the Wu family also packed their bags in succession, bidding farewell to their family members, and left Gaoling City to start their brand new path into the unknown.

The atmosphere of farewells was always sentimental, but the atmosphere of reuniting was joyful. After the departure of the disciples embarking on their experience training came the successive return of those disciples who had succeeded in their experience training.

There were a total of 5 people who were returning from successful experience training this time. In his joy, Wu Bofang first hosted a banquet to celebrate. Then, a ceremony was held to worship their ancestors and gods so that Wu Bofang could bestow the ‘An’ generational character upon them and write them into the Wu family records. And finally, their longevity plaques were carved and entered into the Longevity Hall.

However, Wu Bofang didn’t seem to realize that these actions of his completely agitated Wu Qianjing.

Originally, Wu Chu was also slated to successfully complete his experience training and return. And he would also have been bestowed the “An” generational character like those other 5. However, Wu Chu had died. Now, more than a month had passed, but Wu Bofang had still yet to mete out punishment to the murderer. How could Wu Qianjing not be infuriated?

It was on the day of the worshipping ceremony that Wu Qianjing brought the people of the Southern main estate with him to demand justice from Wu Bofang.

However, Wu Anrun had already been hidden away by his father, Wu Qianheng. Wu Bofang couldn’t find out Wu Anrun’s whereabouts despite exhausting all kinds of ideas to try and find him. In such a situation, he couldn’t simply just take a random person to be punished in Wu Anrun’s stead, so this matter couldn’t be settled.

But, Wu Bofang had already promised that when he found Wu Anrun, he would hand him over to Wu Qianjing for punishment.

When Wu Ruo heard this news, he laughed, then he wrote an anonymous letter to Wu Qianjing. After waiting for more than half a day, he wrote another anonymous to Wu Anrun’s father, Wu Qianheng.

After 5 days, the news of Wu Anrun dying in Pingxuan Town rapidly spread. According to hearsay, Wu Qianheng witnessed Wu Qianjing killing his son with his own eyes. Wu Anrun died tragically; not only was his spiritual field destroyed, but his corpse had also been ripped into pieces. It was obvious to see how much Wu Qianjing hated this murderer who had killed his son.

After this, the Northern main estate and the Southern main estate were both extremely antagonistic to each other, clashing like water and fire. As long as people from these two main estates met each other, they would start fighting. Once, they even fought so badly that people from both main estates had gotten severely injured. It was only after this that things settled down a little.

Wu Bofang currently had an incessant headache. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t understand how such a matter that could’ve been easily resolved could’ve blown up to such a degree. However, what had passed was past, and he could only try his best to mediate the relationship between both main estates.

Wu Ruo stayed in Hei Manor, uncaring of the matters happening outside his window¹两耳不闻窗外事: literally “both ears do not hear what goes on outside the window”. It means the opposite of being a busybody, basically to mind your own business and not poke your nose into the matters of others.. With his whole heart, he only focused on practicing medicine, spending time with his child, and pestering Hei Xuanyi to teach him martial arts. However, because he was too fat, the matter of teaching him martial arts could only be delayed until after he had slimmed down.

In addition, Wu Ruo had already missed out on the best window of opportunity to start learning material arts. Now, learning material arts was only for strengthening his body and keeping him healthy. Against an average person, he could still get by. If he was pitted against someone well-learned in martial arts, he would only lose.

However, Wu Ruo didn’t lose hope because, in his previous lifetime, he had strengthened his body’s base physique²筋骨 (jin gu): refers to one’s muscles and bones. Essentially, it refers to one’s base physique/body type even before training through exercise. Some people have bodies more suited to certain types of sports and activities, while some people will have a harder time picking up physical activities no matter how much they train for it.



Just to clarify, in case anyone didn’t know, this isn’t just some old-timey bullshit belief that people used to have. Scientifically, different genes and traits can make one more well-suited for intense physical activities. Although it is also not to say that people who don’t have a good physical base can’t accomplish these things, it will just be much harder and take a lot more effort. by soaking in medicated baths precisely because he could not learn martial arts. Afterward, he wasn’t sure if it was due to his unique constitution, but he actually didn’t lose to others who had trained from childhood. Although of course, if Wu Ruo came across a highly skilled person, he still couldn’t win over them. So, that’s why he asked Hei Xuanyi to teach him some skills.

In the blink of an eye, time had flown by without anyone’s notice and it had already been a month. The Southern main estate that used to be as crowded as a marketplace was now extremely desolate. The guards by the main entrance were no longer as diligent as before. Their postures were also no longer as upright as before. It was as if they hadn’t had enough sleep, yawning once and again.

At this moment, a resplendent carriage came to a stop at the main entrance of the Southern main estate.

The bodyguards hurriedly straightened their postures. When the curtains on the carriage were pulled back, they saw a slender hand that was as beautiful as white jade stretch out, resting on the back of a servant’s palm. Following that, an extremely beautiful young master emerged.

His long eyebrows were like willows, lips painted with rich red cinnabar. His skin was as beautiful as delicate porcelain, his eyes were bright and dazzling as galaxies of stars. The luxurious white robes that he wore made him seem like a narcissus braving harsh winds, pure as jade and clear as ice³冰清玉洁 (bing qing yu jie): less literally ‘spotless; incorruptible’. I liked the imagery of the idiom and so left it as such in the translation.



In general, it’s also fascinating to see Chinese beauty standards (what the author views as beautiful for this setting, which is also affected by current beauty standards in the country).. His appearance made one unwilling to pull their gaze away from him.

The four bodyguards by the entrance stared until their eyes had crossed, and didn’t return to their senses for a long time. They had been guarding by this entrance for many years, but they had never seen such a beautiful person before. If one didn’t look close enough, they might even mistake that person for a maiden dressed in men’s clothes.

The white-robed young master ignored their existences, walking directly through the gates of the Southern main estate, heading towards the central estate’s academy.

The four bodyguards only came back to their senses once the faintest shadow of his silhouette had disappeared from their line of sight.

“Who was that young master just now? He looks so handsome, I’ve never seen such a beautiful person before.”

“I’ve never seen such a good-looking young master before either. Even Hua Kui of Chunyi Hall isn’t as beautiful as him. Oh, right, who did he come to the Southern main estate to look for?”

As these words were spoken, all four of their expressions froze. Following that, their expressions changed drastically. They had only bothered looking at that person just now and had actually forgotten to enquire about his identity. If their master knew about their dereliction of duty, they would definitely receive the most severe of punishments.

“Which estate did that young master go to?”

“How would I know?”

“…”

At this moment within the academy, the instructing elder was currently getting the disciples to pair up by themselves and spar with their magical skills in the main courtyard. Very quickly, everyone had found their sparring partners. Wu Xi was the only person standing in her original spot, unmoving.

She looked around in every direction and saw that everyone had someone to spar with, and her eyes flashed with a sliver of disappointment. In the past, when dage was around, he would be the one to spar with her. Now that he had left, no one else bothered with her, so she didn’t know what to do.

“Xiao-Xi, I’ll spar with you,” someone suddenly said.

Wu Xi raised her head to look and saw Wu Xia, her tangge from the Eastern main estate. A smile bloomed across her face: “Alright, thank you for sparring with me, Xia-ge.”

Wu Xia’s eyes flashed with a sinister light, smiling as he pointed towards an empty spot in a corner, and he said: “How about we practice over there?”

“Alright.” Wu Xi nodded her head and followed after him.

Wu Xia said: “Xiao-Xi, I’m still not so proficient in the magical arts right now. If I hurt you by mistake later, I hope you can understand.”

“Xia-ge, if I also hurt you by mistake, I also hope you can understand.”

“Alright.” Wu Xia immediately started chanting curses to summon his spectre.

His spectre was a female ghost spirit who had already been dead for a century. She wore white robes with her long hair hanging loose. Her face was colorless, and her eyes were filled only with whites. Her nails were long and sharp, like 10 pairs of deadly longswords. With just a swipe of her hand, she could rip a person into shreds.

When Wu Xi saw him summoning his pet spectre, her expression changed and she hurriedly took out talismans to put up an array.

Wu Xia’s gaze hardened and he didn’t give her any chance to prepare at all, directly controlling his spectre to attack.

The female ghost spirit teleported right in front of Wu Xi, swiping down viciously.

Wu Xi cast out a yellow talisman in a flurry, but she didn’t expect that the female ghost spirit was completely unafraid of such a thing. With one scratch, she tore the yellow talisman into pieces.

“Xiao-Xi, your yellow talismans are completely useless against my spectre. Don’t bother wasting your time,” Wu Xia laughed coldly. His smile was incomparably dark and chilling and even seemed to hold a trace of concealed hatred.

In that attack just now, it was obvious to Wu Xi that the female ghost spirit emanated killing intent. Wu Xia couldn’t be trying to kill her, could he? But there was one thing she couldn’t understand. She had no grudge or enmity with Wu Xia, why did Wu Xia want to kill her?

“Xia-ge, we’re sparring, not fighting for our lives. If you hurt me, the elders will definitely punish you.”

Wu Xia laughed coldly: “That’s right, we are sparring. During a spar, it’s common to injure the other party by mistake. The elders definitely wouldn’t blame me for it.”

At the same time, a wave of unrest had spread at the entrance of the academy.

A white-robed young master entered the main courtyard of the academy. His devastating beauty had caused all of the disciples to stop sparring one after another, and to start whispering to each other instead.

“Who is this young master? He’s so good-looking, is he someone from the Wu clan?”

“I don’t think so? I’ve never seen such a person before.”

“This person looks so beautiful, is he a man or a woman?” A male disciple asked as they nudged the person beside them with their elbow, faces red.

That person looked at the young master walking in, his eyes were also crossed: “How could there be such a beautiful man? It definitely must be a maiden.”

Immediately, a female disciple retorted: “Have both of you gone blind? He’s clearly a man, can’t you see that he’s wearing male robes?”

“Who says that someone wearing male robes must be a man? Some of you girls wear male robes for convenience when you go for experience training too, don’t you?”

The female disciple huffed coldly: “Have you ever seen a woman who is so tall? Even taller than any of you. I think all of you wish that he were a maiden because he’s so good-looking so that you can marry⁴娶 (qu): hey, this word is back! It’s the word for ‘marry’ used when a man marries a woman into his household.



Remember that the word for ‘marry’ in Chinese is different from when a man marries a woman, and when a woman marries a man, because of how households work. A woman transfers her name into her husband’s family registry and becomes a member of his household, so the words used are different.



For reference, a woman 嫁出去 (jia qu chu) marries out (of her family), a man 娶回家 (qu hui jia) marries (his wife) in (to his household). him home, right?”

The male disciple retorted: “Aren’t all of you the same, hoping that he’s a male because he’s so good-looking so that you might have a chance to get married to him?”

“You…!” the female disciple’s words cut off in her throat, and couldn’t help sneaking a glance at the white-robed young master with a reddened face. However, she realised that the white-robed young master didn’t regard them in the slightest.

His pupils that were like black agate flickered back and forth across the courtyard. His line of sight shuttled endlessly across the courtyard. Finally, they stopped at a corner of the academy. That was the exact spot that Wu Xia and Wu Xi were sparring in.

The corner of the white-robed young master’s mouth curled up. His smile was like a Queen of the Night cactus⁵昙花 (tan hua): a Queen of the Night cactus is apparently known to flower very briefly. It is an idiom alluding to a fleeting, transient moment. The direct translation was left in because of the beautiful imagery again.. He was so beautiful that the heavens and earth all lost colour. Everyone who saw him couldn’t help but fall into a daze, forgetting what year it was today. Everyone was holding their breaths, deathly afraid that they would startle and disturb this person.

He strode forward, stretching both arms wide open as he smiled and called out: “Xiao-Xi…”

When everyone heard that it was a male’s voice, they rapidly came back to their senses. They only saw Wu Xi being pulled into the white-robed young master’s embrace. Following closely, they saw Wu Xia’s female ghost spirit attacking towards the white-robed young master and Wu Xi. Her attacking posture was fierce and vicious, it was clear that she wanted to take the other party’s life.

Everybody cried out in alarm: “Xiao-Xi, be careful⁶你们小心: it’s hard to get this across in a translation, but everyone is referring to both Wu Xi and the mysterious white-robed young master. This phrase is the same as the title for this chapter.!”

• 1
  两耳不闻窗外事: literally “both ears do not hear what goes on outside the window”. It means the opposite of being a busybody, basically to mind your own business and not poke your nose into the matters of others.
• 2
  筋骨 (jin gu): refers to one’s muscles and bones. Essentially, it refers to one’s base physique/body type even before training through exercise. Some people have bodies more suited to certain types of sports and activities, while some people will have a harder time picking up physical activities no matter how much they train for it.
  
  
  
  Just to clarify, in case anyone didn’t know, this isn’t just some old-timey bullshit belief that people used to have. Scientifically, different genes and traits can make one more well-suited for intense physical activities. Although it is also not to say that people who don’t have a good physical base can’t accomplish these things, it will just be much harder and take a lot more effort.
• 3
  冰清玉洁 (bing qing yu jie): less literally ‘spotless; incorruptible’. I liked the imagery of the idiom and so left it as such in the translation.
  
  
  
  In general, it’s also fascinating to see Chinese beauty standards (what the author views as beautiful for this setting, which is also affected by current beauty standards in the country).
• 4
  娶 (qu): hey, this word is back! It’s the word for ‘marry’ used when a man marries a woman into his household.
  
  
  
  Remember that the word for ‘marry’ in Chinese is different from when a man marries a woman, and when a woman marries a man, because of how households work. A woman transfers her name into her husband’s family registry and becomes a member of his household, so the words used are different.
  
  
  
  For reference, a woman 嫁出去 (jia qu chu) marries out (of her family), a man 娶回家 (qu hui jia) marries (his wife) in (to his household).
• 5
  昙花 (tan hua): a Queen of the Night cactus is apparently known to flower very briefly. It is an idiom alluding to a fleeting, transient moment. The direct translation was left in because of the beautiful imagery again.
• 6
  你们小心: it’s hard to get this across in a translation, but everyone is referring to both Wu Xi and the mysterious white-robed young master. This phrase is the same as the title for this chapter.