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Consensual sex, handjobs, discussion/negotiation of sex, mentions of anal sex, elitism (regarding one’s level of education), fatphobia, homophobia, bigotry against wivesWu Ruo watched the curtains that were glowing red from the faint, weak candlelight and blinked his eyes repeatedly. He was now back in the present? So everything that he’d just seen was just him dreaming? But it had felt so real as if it had really happened before. The strange thing was that he’d only just met Hei Xuantang today, how could he be dreaming about him already?
He exhaled lightly and secretly felt to himself that it was really ridiculous. However, it was just a dream, what was the point of thinking so hard about it?
That’s right.
How had he ended up sleeping on the bed?
How come he had no memory of it at all?
Tsk1嘶 (si): the onomatopoeia for when you suck air in between gritted teeth, used for indicating hesitation or when one is thinking over something. In this situation, I think it might be because Wu Ruo’s in pain though.?!
Why did his neck hurt so much? It was as if someone had hit him in the neck with their hand2That martial arts move (not sure if it’s legit), where someone uses the side of their palm to knock into someone’s neck and knock them out. Like a karate chop to the neck..
Wu Ruo agonized over it for a moment. In his mind, his memory only stopped at the memory of asking Hei Xuanyi to pour him some water to drink. He couldn’t remember anything else after that.
When he turned over to look, Hei Xuanyi was sleeping with his eyes closed. His inky, crow-black3Crow-black as in, the same kind of black as a crow’s feathers. hair spilled across the bedding. His thin lips were lightly pressed together, and both his hands rested across his stomach. His posture was elegant, his breathing was quiet and his aura was as cold as it had always been, making him difficult to approach. He was like a lion4雄狮 (xiong shi): the word here specifically refers to ‘male lion’. that would rouse at any moment; his dignified and imposing manner wasn’t lessened just because he was sleeping.
Wu Ruo gently shifted his body, leaning towards Hei Xuanyi, then flipped his body around so that he was lying on his stomach. He stared at the face full of scales, lost in his thoughts.
In his dream, this person had faced others with his actual appearance. However, the person in his dream had been extremely wan and sallow. They hadn’t been as energetic and lively as the person before him, and they weren’t as cold and distant either.
Wu Ruo wondered if, after he had died in his previous lifetime, Hei Xuanyi5In case it was not clear, this is referring to the Hei Xuanyi from the previous lifetime, not this current lifetime’s Hei Xuanyi. would’ve been like the version of him in Wu Ruo’s dream, grieving over Wu Ruo’s death.
Suddenly, the person who had been deeply asleep opened his eyelids. His dark black and brilliantly bright gaze held no trace of having just woken up.
Wu Ruo was badly startled and in the next moment, his body had been seized by the other person.
He hurriedly struggled but the other person kept him firmly imprisoned in their embrace, so he gave up resisting and obediently6安分 (an fen): this word does mean ‘well behaved’, but it describes someone who ‘knows their place’ or ‘is content with their lot’ rather than say, a child who is obedient to an authority figure because they’ve been taught what to do. laid down on the other person’s chest. The sounds of a strong heartbeat traveled into his ears.
Wu Ruo hesitated for a moment, then he slowly lifted his hands and hugged Hei Xuanyi around his waist. Through the layers of fabric, he could clearly feel that beneath all those robes was a sturdy and strong body.
He couldn’t help but think of the image of them making love from his previous lifetime. The other person’s body had been downright sexy, without requiring any adornments7不着一物 (bu zhao yi wu): literally ‘not needing a single thing’.. His sturdy chest, his slender waist, his strong arms, in addition to his thighs that were full of explosive force, and…
“Why is your heart beating so fast?” Because their bodies were pressed close together, naturally, Hei Xuanyi could also feel Wu Ruo’s heart rate.
Not only did his sexy, husky voice not stop Wu Ruo’s wild thoughts, on the contrary, it made his thoughts even wilder. Hei Xuanyi’s rough panting lingered8徘徊 (pai huai): the word choice here has the connotation of a back and forth motion, as it can also mean ‘to pace back and forth’. in his mind without leaving. The memory of the sounds of their bodies colliding without pause made Wu Ruo uncharacteristically hot all over.
“Nothing, nothing!” Wu Ruo buried his head insistently into Hei Xuanyi’s chest; he had almost been too embarrassed to look the other person in the face9If anyone else reads this in Chinese and disagrees, please feel free to contact me and let me know, but I think this sentence implies that Wu Ruo almost shot his load on top of Hei Xuanyi here..
Hei Xuanyi felt that it wasn’t ‘nothing’ and was just about to get up to take a look when he felt something hard pressing against his thigh.
He was stunned for a brief moment, but he very quickly understood what was going on and his eyes flashed with amusement.
At this moment, Wu Ruo felt incomparably awkward. Internally, he couldn’t stop looking down on himself. He really had no sense of shame! He had only hugged the other person around the waist and yet he could think a reaction out of himself. The most depressing thing was that the light lotus fragrance emitting from the other person’s body was making the lower half of his body harder and harder.
“Hei Xuanyi, let go of me quickly.”
Hei Xuanyi didn’t listen to him. On the contrary, he tightened his arm around Wu Ruo and his other hand started exploring the lower half of Wu Ruo’s body.
Wu Ruo was stunned and he immediately raised his head. In the next moment, his lips had been captured10虏获 (lu huo): literally means to ‘capture (men and arms)’. by the other person. Hei Xuanyi effortlessly11轻而易举 (qing er yi ju): breaking down this idiom more literally, it means ‘with light and simple moves’. It is used to describe that something was done easily, or with little effort. broke through the city walls and moat, sweeping out every single spot within the city12I am not messing around with the translations, nor is this a sentence transplanted from some other part of the story by mistake. Jin Yuan Bao does indeed start using military euphemisms to describe their kiss. Please apply your own imagination 😀.
“Relax.” Hei Xuanyi said as he kissed soft lips. His husky and deep voice seemed to carry some sort of magic. It made Wu Ruo unconsciously relax his body, and even instinctively made him want more: “Hurry.”
The amusement in Hei Xuanyi’s eyes grew deeper, and his eyes darkened gradually. Listening to the faint breaths and moans of the person on top of him, his breaths also grew less stable. In the end, the little thing13I’m laughing because Hei Xuanyi really did refer to Wu Ruo’s cock as a ‘小东西 (xiao dong xi)/little thing’. that was so hard that it was burning finally grew soft in his hand.
After Wu Ruo came, he flopped onto Hei Xuanyi’s body, panting. After that, he felt something poking him.
“!!!!!!” He raised his head, shocked, and immediately met a pair of blazing black irises that could melt a person apart: “Want— want me to help you?”
Hei Xuanyi’s huge hands slid down to Wu Ruo’s buttocks, and he asked with a husky voice: “You’re willing?”
“!!!!!!” Wu Ruo’s face turned red with anger: “I was talking about using hands.”
Hei Xuanyi pursed his lips, unspeaking, making it clear that he didn’t want Wu Ruo to help him with just his hands.
Wu Ruo crawled back onto his body and quietly said: “I haven’t mentally prepared myself yet.”
Although they had already had marital relations in their previous lifetime, their relationship had been truly disastrous. In this lifetime, there was no way that they would get divorced14Two notes: I’m assuming JYB made a typo here. In the original, they use the word 合离 (he li), which as far as I know doesn’t mean anything. Quick Baidu search did bring up 和离 (he li) instead, which refers to ‘divorce’ back in ye olde days. The word for ‘divorce’ now is 离婚 (li hun), which technically means ‘to leave the marriage’.
Back then, there were two terms for it: 休妻 (xiu qi) and 和离 (he li). ‘Xiu qi’ refers to the kind of divorce where a husband one-sidedly decides to get a divorce. The literal translation is ‘to cast off one’s wife (and send her back to her maiden home)’. For ‘he li’, it was a mutual agreement between the husband and wife.
I think this would’ve been a relatively rarer form of divorce but I don’t think it was unheard of since there is a word for it that hasn’t been lost to time/history because of how uncommon the practice was. and naturally, they would not remain ascetic for their entire lives. So, Wu Ruo wanted to wait for their relationship to develop a little further before doing such an act.
The corners of Hei Xuanyi’s lips curled up.
Not being mentally prepared meant that Wu Ruo wasn’t rejecting him. Hei Xuanyi could wait patiently for Wu Ruo.
He got up and put on his outer coat, then he wrapped Wu Ruo in another outer coat and carried him over to wash up their bodies.
The next morning, Wu Ruo could feel three sets of eyes staring intently at him in a strange manner. One was from Hei Gan, another was from Hei Xin, and yet another was from Hei Xuantang who was sitting across from him. Their undisguised gazes made it impossible for him to ignore, no matter how he tried.
Wu Ruo had eaten two mouthfuls of porridge when he put his spoon down and asked Hei Xuantang: “Sidi, why do you keep looking at me? Is there anything wrong with how I look15The phrasing Wu Ruo uses in the original text translates a little more straightforwardly to ‘is there anything wrong with something on my person?’ but that doesn’t flow quite well in dialogue, so I opted to modify it a bit.?”
Hei Xuantang wriggled his eyebrows suggestively16挤眉弄眼 (ji mei nong yan): more literally ‘squeezing his eyebrows and making eyes’. The dictionary I referred to translated this as ‘wink’ but I opted to translate it differently. If anyone has any corrections, please let me know! at him and asked: “Dasao, did you sleep well last night?”
The movement of Hei Xuanyi’s chopsticks paused for a fraction of a moment, and his gaze wandered over to Wu Ruo.
Wu Ruo didn’t catch the underlying meaning of his words: “I slept pretty well, just that I felt as though someone beat me up a little. My neck hurts a bit.”
Hei Xuanyi: “…”
Hei Xuantang: “…”
“It’s still a little sore even until now.” Wu Ruo massaged the area around his neck.
Hei Xuanyi impatiently said: “I’m not asking you about that.”
“Then what are you asking me about?” Wu Ruo’s face was full of confusion17不解 (bu jie): more accurately ‘lack of understanding, not understanding’..
“I heard that last night, in the middle of the night, dage carried you out for a bath.”
Wu Ruo blinked a few times. Suddenly, there was a loud bang18It doesn’t say explicitly in the original text, but I’m pretty sure Wu Ruo just slammed his chopsticks onto the table.. His soft white cheeks looked as if they had been smeared red with rouge: “I’m done eating. You have a good meal, I’m going for class.”
He rapidly stood up and ran out of the main hall.
Hei Xuantang laughed: “Tsk19啧 (ze): onomatopoeia for clicking one’s tongue. Doesn’t necessarily have a negative connotation., dasao can still run so quickly. That means to say you didn’t put in enough effort last night, dage, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to get off of the bed today.”
Hei Xuanyi: “…”
Hei Xin and Hei Gan covered their mouths, smiling.
“I know! You must’ve applied wound medicine for dasao, that’s why— hrf20呃 (e): The sound for hiccups. With the context of the next sentence, I figured Xuantang’s words got cut off and modified the ‘sound’ a little.—”
Hei Xuanyi picked up a mantou21You might have heard of 包子 (bao zi) before, which is a bun with filling inside. A mantou is a similar pastry, but it usually doesn’t have a filling added during the cooking process. It is made plain and can be filled with something else later, or eaten as an accompaniment to flavourful food. It’s traditionally steamed, but nowadays, it does get fried after steaming. and stuffed it straight into his mouth.
After Wu Ruo left Hei Manor, he immediately boarded a carriage to Wu estate’s Shuqing Garden and headed to the academy with Wu Xi. On the road, they ran into Wu Xiao and Wu Bo who were leaving Shutong Garden.
When Wu Bo saw Wu Ruo, he immediately sprang forth: “Liuge, liuge, are you really liuge?”
Wu Ruo retorted: “If I’m not your liuge, who do you think I am?”
“But liuge lost so much weight so suddenly. I haven’t seen you for only a little over a month, but it’s as if you’ve become someone else. But, liuge, you look really good like this.” Wu Bo looked at him, giggling.
Wu Xiao snorted: “What’s the use of being good looking? One must successfully come back from experience training and be granted the generational character, then can they be considered capable.”
Wu Ruo glanced at Wu Xiao from the corner of his eye.
However, in Wu Xiao’s eyes, it was as if that glance was hooking onto his soul22勾人魂魄 (gou ren hun po): the translation I used was more literal. To be accurate, Wu Xiao thinks that the gaze looked ‘seductive’., his face couldn’t help but heat up a little. He snorted coldly, and quickly turned away.
Wu Xi refuted him: “Qige, haven’t you heard the saying: ‘there are people more talented than oneself23In text, Wu Xi only quotes part of the full saying (人外有人) but the whole thing should be 人外有人天外有天. The full idiom is: ‘in the wider world, there are people more talented than oneself’.‘? Don’t think that just because someone has been granted the generational character, then they’re all that. They may have established a foothold24站稳脚步 (zhan wen jiao bu): this is more literally ‘to stand steady with their footsteps’. I found it interesting how both Chinese and English uses ‘feet’ in the expression. for themselves within the Wu family, but once they go outside, who knows how they might end up dying?”
These words of hers were the truth. There were plenty of people who were much more talented than those of the Wu family. Take their great-grandfather for example, his abilities would only be considered mid-range in Huangdu City. Those people of prestigious clans wouldn’t even attach any importance25放在眼里 (fang zai yan li): the literal translation of this term is ‘to put (something or someone) in one’s eye’. A.K.A to pay attention to them. I really like this phrase just cause of how bizarre the mental image is every time I come across it. to him.
Wu Bo asked, with a face full of naivety: “Liuge, now that you’ve entered the academy, will you go for experience training in the future?”
Wu Ruo straightforwardly responded: “Nope.”
If this was his previous lifetime, he would’ve taken the matter of experience training to heart. In this lifetime, he didn’t care26不稀罕 (bu xi han): this word has come up before, with Wu Xi being the one using it in an earlier chapter. To ‘xi han’ doesn’t actually mean ‘to care’ for something. It is more accurately ‘to value something as important/cherished’. Unfortunately, my English vocabulary is not extensive enough to figure out a more appropriate/accurate word. So, to put it simply, Wu Ruo doesn’t value the act of his memorial tablet entering the Wu family ancestral hall as something important. whether his memorial tablet entered the Wu family’s ancestral hall or not.
Wu Xi said: “Erge, I won’t go for experience training either. I’ll be marrying out of the family27嫁人 (jia ren): Wu Xi is more accurately saying ‘I’ll be getting married’, rather than ‘marrying out of the family’. But it is the word for ‘marry’ that is used for women, where they ‘leave’ their maiden families and become a member of their husband’s family/clan registry. So I modified it for ease of understanding. anyway, it doesn’t matter whether I’m recorded in the clan registry28Brief reminder: in ye olde days, clan/family registries were important because they were well-preserved and handed down through generations of the family. If your name gets recorded in it, your descendants would know about you and your achievements, which is matter of pride.
Fun fact: there are families out there who have preserved their registries from centuries ago and are still practicing generational characters although from what I know, no experience training is necessary. They’re given from birth, since China/Chinese diaspora no longer practices earning one’s ‘adult’ name once you hit maturity. or not.”
“Hn? You’re still young but you’re already thinking about getting married?” Wu Ruo lightly flicked her forehead.
“Erge.” Wu Xi stamped her feet, embarrassed.
Wu Ruo laughed lightly.
Wu Bo and Wu Xiao, who were next to them, couldn’t help but stare stupidly at his smile. Wu Ruo’s smile was akin to the blooming season of white lotuses, inconceivably beautiful.
When they arrived at the academy, Wu Ruo immediately attracted everyone’s attention.
One day had already passed, but everyone still couldn’t believe that this young master with absolutely beautiful appearances was that big fatty who was as fat as a pig. In their hearts, other than shock, they also felt happy, disappointed and anguished.
They were happy because in the future, they would be able to see such a good looking person every day. They were disappointed and anguished because this person was another Wu family member like them, so they could not pursue him29Translator’s opinion: … uh, guys, did y’all forget that he’s also a married man? These bitches are truly messed up..
Wu Ruo ignored their gazes and sat together with Wu Xi at the same spot.
Wu Xi lowered her voice and quietly said: “Erge, it’ll be Elder Ye’s class in a bit. During his lessons, you absolutely must not get distracted, otherwise you’ll be punished by Elder Ye.”
Wu Ruo ruffled her bangs and smiled: “Don’t worry.”
After a joss stick’s worth of time, all the disciples who were attending classes in this building had arrived. Not long after, a middle-aged man wearing brown robes entered.
Wu Xi quietly said: “He’s Elder Ye.”
The moment Elder Ye entered the classroom, he noticed that everyone’s gaze kept sneaking towards the man with extremely beautiful appearances. He snorted coldly, and walked to the podium30Not exactly the kind of ‘podium’ like the ones commonly seen in modern lecture halls. It’s probably just an elevated seat/place at the front of the class.: “I heard that we have a new disciple today, I wonder which esteemed individual31Elder Ye uses 位 (wei) to refer to this ‘new disciple’, which is a polite form of referring to someone/polite counting word for people. He doesn’t actually say ‘esteemed individual’, but I translated it as such for the nuance. it is.”
Wu Ruo saw that Elder Ye’s gaze fell on himself and he stood up: “Wu Ruo greets Elder Ye.”
Elder Ye asked directly: “Know how to interpret constellations or physiogynomy?”
When everyone heard this, they immediately understood that Elder Ye was deliberately giving Wu Ruo a hard time.
Wu Xi looked at Wu Ruo with a face full of worry.
Wu Ruo answered: “I don’t.”
In this lifetime, he hadn’t learnt anything yet, so of course he wouldn’t say that he knew how.
“Know how to draw talismans?”
“No?”
Elder Ye asked again: “Then do you understand spells32咒语 (zhou yu): literally ‘incantation/spell language’.?”
“I don’t.”
Elder Ye’s eyes flashed with ridicule: “Have you read books about constructing arrays and boundaries?”
“No.”
Elder Ye angrily slammed the desk: “You don’t know this, you don’t know that, then why do you bother coming to the academy? I33Elder Ye refers to himself as 老夫 (lao fu), the way Wu Bofang did when speaking to Hei Xin. Something like ‘this (respected) old man’. also heard that you have no spiritual energy, so even if you learn these skills of the Yin Yang arts, you wouldn’t be able to use them. Why not use this time to keep your husband happy and protect your position as a male wife? Otherwise, you might become an abandoned male wife.”
