Click for content warnings
FatphobiaFootnote for the title here1亲弟 (qin di): literally ‘blood-related younger brother’.
Dandan was abruptly picked up by someone else. At first, he was confused, then he pouted angrily and used his little hand to push away the man who was rubbing their face full of tears and snot on his body: “Who are you? You’re making my robes dirty, let go of me quick!”
When Jiujiu, who was beside Dandan, saw the situation, he flapped his wings at the man as he crowed loudly.
The handsome young man cried even harder: “Dage, you really don’t remember who I am. But it’s okay, I will find the best doctor to cure you.”
Dandan’s adorable little face was so angered that it was about to burst2Here, Dandan’s puffing his cheeks so badly that he looks like he’s about to pop.: “I don’t have a little brother that’s as big as you! My dad isn’t old enough to have a son as big as you either!”
The customers in the vicinity were all laughing thanks to Dandan’s childish words and were all thinking in their heads that the child had definitely met a crazed person. When they were about to step forth to help, a white-robed young master with the most beautiful appearance walked over, asking warily: “Dandan, what’s going on?”
Dandan’s gaze lit up: “Daddy!”
When the handsome young man heard this, he froze and looked at the person who had just walked over.
Dandan took the opportunity to slip out of his embrace and hugged Wu Ruo’s thigh: “Daddy!”
Wu Ruo picked his child up, and glared at the handsome young man with narrowed eyes: “Young master, what were you trying to do to my son just now?”
“Your son?” the handsome young man froze again.
The bodyguards behind him hurriedly apologized: “I’m sorry, so sorry! Our young master recognized the wrong person, I’m really so sorry!”
When they were done speaking, after they took a glance at Jiujiu, they hurriedly grabbed the handsome young man and left Zuiyue Restaurant.
Wu Ruo glanced at Dandan’s dirtied robes: “Are you alright3没事吧 (mei shi ba): more literally ‘nothing happened, right?’ but is a way of asking after someone else. In the following sentence, in the original Chinese, Dandan shakes his head ‘no’ in response, because ‘nothing happened’. But I had to change the translations to make sense.?”
Dandan nodded.
Wu Ruo said sternly: “Next time someone grabs you like that, you must ask the adults around for help, got it?”
Dandan obediently responded: “Okay.”
Wu Ruo smiled, satisfied: “Were the stories today from the storyteller good?”
Dandan bloomed into an adorable smile: “They were good! I want to come again in the afternoon.”
“Alright.”
Wu Ruo carried him and mounted the horse, returning to Hei Manor.
“You’re back.” When Hei Xuanyi saw them coming home, he went forth to take Dandan from Wu Ruo’s arms and told Hei Xin: “Let’s eat.”
Hei Xin went out to instruct the corpse servants to serve the food.
Hei Xuanyi placed Dandan onto the chair next to his: “I need to make a trip home.”
Wu Ruo was a little stunned: “When?”
“In the next two days.”
Wu Ruo asked: “You want me to go back with you?”
“Hn.”
Wu Ruo frowned.
It wasn’t that Wu Ruo was unwilling to go to Hei Xuanyi’s home with him but that he simply couldn’t feel assured leaving his own family members. Currently, the Southern and Nothern main estates were in an especially tough deadlock, and the people of the Southern main estate were full of ill intent toward those from Shuqing Garden. That’s why his dad and mum’s position in the Wu estate was extremely unfavourable. If he left Gaoling City at this point in time, it was hard to guarantee that nothing Wu Ruo hadn’t anticipated would happen.
“Can’t it wait for a little while more?”
Hei Xuanyi pursed his lips: “Can’t wait anymore.”
He knew that Wu Ruo was worried about his dad and mum’s safety but he could send people to protect them.
Wu Ruo’s frown tightened a little more: “Did something happen back home?”
A flicker of hesitation flashed across Hei Xuanyi’s indifferent expression. Just as he was thinking about whether or not he should come clean about the whole matter, an agitated voice suddenly came from the direction of the main entrance: “Dage, dage! I’m here! Your beloved younger brother has arrived!”
Hei Xuanyi: “…”
Wu Ruo: “…”
Why was this voice so familiar?
Dandan also felt that this voice was very familiar and stared out of the entrance with wide eyes. The purple silhouette of a person rushed into the main hall from the yard, resembling a galloping fine steed. But when he saw the three people sitting in the main hall, he froze.
Wu Ruo narrowed his eyes. Wasn’t this the handsome young master who had just been clinging onto Dandan at Zuiyue Restaurant?
“How did you come here?” Dandan said angrily: “Daddy, this person is following us!”
The handsome young man looked at Wu Ruo, then looked at Hei Xuanyi, and then looked at Dandan. Then, he threw himself over and scooped Dandan into his arms: “Dage, I just knew it was you! I just knew I hadn’t recognized the wrong person just now. Dage, you’ve become so tiny, what am I supposed to tell Dad and Mum?”
Wu Ruo: “…”
Hei Xuanyi: “…”
Dandan used his little hand to yank at the man’s hair, huffing: “I’m not your4It’s adorable because as angry as Dandan is right now, he remembered to use 您 in front of Hei Xuanyi since the handsome young man is clearly older than him. And Xuanyi probably grills him about his manners. dage!”
“Ahem5咳咳 (ke ke): I personally chose not to leave this as the original onomatopoeia because in Korean, keke is the sound for laughter and I’m pretty sure I will get confused. In Chinese, this is the sound for clearing one’s throat..” Hei Xin, standing by the entrance, put a clenched fist to his mouth and coughed lightly: “Fourth Young Master, that child is not your dage.”
“Ah?” the handsome young man raised his head and looked at Hei Xin.
Hei Xin gestured to Hei Xuanyi: “This is your dage.”
The handsome young man looked toward Hei Xuanyi and immediately let go of Dandan, directly throwing himself at Hei Xuanyi: “Dage, how come you’ve become so ugly? Can it still be cured?”
With a dark expression, Hei Xuanyi threw the person right out of the main hall.
Wu Ruo raised an eyebrow: “He’s your younger brother?”
This person was really Hei Xuanyi’s younger brother? How could the personalities of the two brothers differ so much? And on top of that, they didn’t look alike at all.
Although come to think of it, this was actually his first time meeting one of Hei Xuanyi’s relatives. It was really true that after he’d reincarnated a lot of things had changed.
“Hn.” Hei Xuanyi introduced indifferently: “Hei Xuantang.”
Hei Xuantang ran over to hug Hei Xuanyi again: “Your throwing posture is still so good-looking. You are my dage after all!”
Wu Ruo: “…”
His husband’s younger brother was a masochist!
Hei Xuantang carried Dandan: “Dage, who is this kid? How come they look so much like you?”
Hei Xin beamed and said: “This is the Little Young Master, he is Master’s son.”
“What?” Hei Xuantang said, shocked: “He’s dage‘s son? When was he born? How come I didn’t know anything about it at all? Do Dad and Mum know about it? Dage, didn’t you come out this time to…”
Hei Xuanyi’s expression immediately darkened: “Shut up.”
Wu Ruo raised an eyebrow. He felt that Hei Xuantang had just been about to speak of things that he didn’t know of, it was a pity that he’d been stopped by Hei Xuanyi.
Hei Xuantang noticed that his dage‘s mood didn’t seem very good, and obediently shut his mouth.
At this moment, the corpse servants brought forth the food.
Hei Xuanyi said plainly: “Eat.”
“Yes, sir6Xuantang doesn’t say ‘yes, sir’ here, he says 好 (hao) which means ‘good’ or ‘okay’. But I modified the translation to hopefully capture the correct tone/nuance.!” Hei Xuantang speedily picked up his chopsticks and, like a refugee that hadn’t eaten in half a year, speedily placed the food into his mouth. In the short period of one joss stick, the food on the table had been completely wiped out by him.
Wu Ruo and Dandan were both struck dumb. From the moment the meal had started until now, they hadn’t even had five mouthfuls of food.
Hei Xin said, his heart aching7This is the 心疼 (xin teng) that Hei Xin often does, where his heart aches because he feels bad for someone.: “Fourth Young Master, how many days have you not eaten for?”
Hei Xuantang burped: “I haven’t eaten anything since last night.”
When he’d arrived in Gaoling City, he’d originally been intending to go to Zuiyue Restaurant for a meal before looking for dage. However, because he’d recognized the wrong person, he’d been dragged away by his bodyguards. So, he could only eat after he had found dage.
“Then, is Fourth Young Master full? If you’re not full yet, I’ll get the servants in the kitchen to prepare some more food.”
“I’m full, I’m full!” Hei Xuantang scanned the main hall: “Dage, where’s dasao?”
Hei Xin immediately introduced Wu Ruo to him: “Fourth Young Master, this person8There’s a few ways to refer to someone. You can say, literally, 这个人 (zhe ge ren)/’this human’ or you can say it more politely as 这位 (zhe wei)/’this person’ where ‘wei’ is a counter word for people. Essentially, Hei Xin is referring to Wu Ruo politely here and he’s also speaking to Xuantang politely. is Master’s wife, and also your dasao.”
Hei Xuantang’s eyes widened. This man was too good-looking! Other than his dage, he had really never met such a good-looking person before: “He’s my dasao? But isn’t my dasao a…”
At this point, he seemed to remember something, and rapidly shut his mouth.
Hei Xin knew what he wanted to say and smiled, saying: “Previously, it was because Madam had been infected by a parasite, that’s why his body was fat. Now that the parasite has been removed, he would naturally have lost all that weight.”
“Then that’s wonderful!” Hei Xuantang happily placed an arm around Wu Ruo’s shoulder: “Then my dage doesn’t have to be so…”
“Pa!” Hei Xuanyi slammed the chopsticks in his hands down onto the table, and said with a cold expression as he stood up: “Come with me to the study.”
“Yes, sir!” Hei Xuantang whispered softly into Wu Ruo’s ear: “Dasao, later when I come back, I have gifts for you.”
Hei Xuanyi swept a cold glance at that arm that was resting on Wu Ruo’s shoulder and turned around to walk out of the main hall.
Hei Xuantang hurriedly followed after him.
Wu Ruo frowned: “Xin-bo, that person is really your Master’s biological younger brother?”
“Yes, sir.” Hei Xin grinned and said: “Fourth Young Master’s personality is a little livelier, I hope that Madam will not be offended.”
Wu Ruo smiled: “That’s pretty nice.”
Hei Xin smiled but didn’t say anything and glanced outside of the hall. His expression became a little heavy. He wondered what Fourth Young Master had suddenly come here for.
Hei Xuantang followed Hei Xuanyi into the study.
Hei Xuanyi immediately asked: “What have you come for?”
The smile fell off of Hei Xuantang’s face, no longer like the silly and airheaded version of himself from before9I will be honest and say I’m cleaning up a bit of the ableist terms used by Jin Yuanbao here. They use the term 傻缺 (sha que) here, which could be translated as ‘retarded’ in the derogatory manner. It’s web slang and it’s used to make fun of people. I felt extremely uncomfortable using this word directly in text for personal reasons, and leave this footnote for those who might be curious.: “In another two weeks10Literally ‘half a month’., the main gates will be closed.”
Hei Xuanyi’s long eyebrows knitted together in an instance: “Half a month? Shouldn’t there still be over a month’s time before it closes?”
Hei Xuantang’s expression turned heavy: “The time period suddenly shortened. Dalingshi11大灵师 (da ling shi): translates to something along the lines of ‘Great Spiritual Master’. His role and duties will be explained more through the story later. was afraid that dage wouldn’t be able to rush back in time and that would cause problems, so he got me to come out to look for you.”
“Did dalingshi explain what happened?”
“I don’t know.” Hei Xuantang took a small medicine bottle from his chest pocket12To be accurate, it says that he took it from his 怀里 (huai li) which is sometimes translated as ‘one’s embrace’. It refers to something being tucked closely against your chest. and handed it to Hei Xuanyi: “Dalingshi told me to give this to you, there’s only about one year’s worth inside.”
Hei Xuanyi took the medicine bottle and asked: “Then does it mean we have to wait till next year’s time period to go back?”
“Yeah, dalingshi wants you to make the best use of this time13抓紧时间 (zhua jin shi jian): more literally ‘to grab tightly onto time’. It can also be translated as ‘don’t waste time’..”
Hei Xuanyi gripped the medicine bottle tightly and said flatly: “If this was something that could succeed just by making the best use of time, then I wouldn’t be expending so much time here.”
“That’s why—” Hei Xuantang grinned smugly: “—Dalingshi sent me here to lend you a helping hand14I’m assuming here that Jin Yuanbao made a typo where they meant 助你 (zhu ni) ‘to help’ instead of 祝你 (zhu ni) ‘to congratulate’..”
Hei Xuanyi snorted coldly: “It’s good enough if you don’t cause problems.”
Hei Xuantang said unhappily: “Why would I cause problems? Dage, don’t look down on people, alright? Perhaps I might not be as strong as you, but in other aspects, you’re not as great as I am either.”
“Hn, in terms of causing trouble, I truly am not as great as you.”
“Dage, there’s no need for you to be so sarcastic to me, right? Alright, I can’t win this argument, so I won’t continue talking about this.” Hei Xuantang laughed with a ‘heihei’: “Dage, quick, tell me what’s up with that kid that looks so much like you? Who exactly is that kid’s mother?”
Hei Xuanyi: “…”
“Me, dad and the rest of them were still thinking that you wouldn’t be able to have kids for the rest of this lifetime. I didn’t know dage was so capable, to have a two-year-old kid without anyone else realizing15闷声不吭 (men sheng bu keng): closer to ‘without a sound’. The original/Dictionary accurate phrase should be 闷声不响 (men sheng bu xiang) but I think the ‘bu keng’ version gets used a lot more online. It didn’t quite carry the exact meaning the phrase gets across in Chinese, so I’ve modified it in the English translation for ease of understanding.. Oh, that’s right, dasao doesn’t have any objections to you having a kid with some other woman, does he? If he has any objections, then wouldn’t that just be…”
“You speak too much.” Hei Xuanyi didn’t want to continue talking to him, and simply walked out of the study.
Hei Xuantang hurriedly followed after him.
When they were just about to return to the main hall, Hei Xuanyi suddenly stopped in his steps and said to Hei Xuantang with a heavy, warning tone: “The things about our clan and our reason for coming out, you’re not allowed to tell anyone about it. Understand?”
Hei Xuantang hurriedly nodded his head.
![Cannon Fodder Scum Gong’s Whitewashing Manual [Quick Transmigration]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/CFSGWM.jpg "Cannon Fodder Scum Gong’s Whitewashing Manual [Quick Transmigration]")
![The Rebirth of the Last Days and Return to [Fang] Hao](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/image_2021-09-11_143139.png "The Rebirth of the Last Days and Return to [Fang] Hao")
