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Racism, fatphobia, religious bigotryThese words were too harsh. When everyone heard, some snickered while some sympathized with Wu Ruo.
Wu Xi was beside herself with anger, and she wanted to stand up for her erge, but Wu Ruo held her down by her shoulder with a death grip.
Wu Ruo respectfully said: “Elder Ye, it is exactly because this junior doesn’t know a single thing, that’s why I came to the academy to study. At least when others ask this junior questions about the Wu family’s style of magic, this junior will still be able to answer them, then I wouldn’t tarnish the Wu clan’s reputation1丢脸 (diu lian): literally to ‘throw face’, it’s more commonly translated as ‘to embarrass’.. That’s why one doesn’t necessarily need spiritual energy to practice magic to come and study. And also, it’s not that this junior doesn’t know a single thing. There’s at least one thing that this junior is still very clear about.”
Elder Ye snorted coldly: “Well, I’d like to hear what exactly it is that you know.”
When Elder Ye had learned that Wu Ruo would be coming to the academy to study, he had objected vehemently. Because, to him, someone without spiritual energy coming to learn about magic was simply extremely laughable. It also wasted his time having to instruct just one person.
“Although it’s this junior’s first day attending lessons at the academy, I still know that someone who is an educator should have an open-minded and tolerant attitude. They should not have any kind of prejudices, or belittle others, and they also shouldn’t be so sharp and unkind. Yet it is obvious that Elder Ye has many of these negative mentalities. This is unfavourable when it comes to manipulating spirits, it becomes easy to get controlled by the spirits instead. I believe that Elder Ye must be more aware of this point than this junior.”
Wu Ruo’s attitude that was neither overbearing nor overly humble made everyone shocked to no end.
They realized that not only had Wu Ruo lost weight, even his personality had also gone through many changes. If this had occurred in the past, he would’ve long hidden in god knows which corner. Where would he have had the courage to stand his ground and criticize an elder?
“…” There was nothing Elder Ye could say to refute any of that, and he was so angry that his old face was red and swollen.
“Well said, erge.” Wu Xi couldn’t resist saying aloud.
Elder Ye’s expression darkened, and he reprimanded: “Wu Xi, stand outside the class2Typical punishment for students who are unruly in class. They’re supposed to be standing outside to reflect on their wrongdoings, and also to prevent them from disturbing the rest of the class..”
Wu Xi stuck her tongue out, but obediently went outside to stand.
Elder Ye glared viciously at Wu Ruo, whose expression was full of indifference. When it was time for classes to end, he immediately left the classroom.
Wu Xi ran to Wu Ruo’s side: “Erge, how was your first day of classes?”
Wu Ruo smiled: “I don’t have any special feelings about it.”
To someone like him who had already learned all of this before, it was extremely boring. His only reason for coming here was to accompany Wu Xi.
“Erge, let’s go back to eat.”
Wu Xi held onto Wu Ruo’s arm happily as they left the academy. As they were preparing to leave the central courtyard, five youths entered through the Northern main estate’s main gate. Four of them were disciples from the Northern main estate and the remaining person’s style of dress was extremely peculiar: “Erge, look quick! That person’s style of dress is really strange.”
When Wu Ruo heard this, he looked up. In an instance, a layer of icy coldness overflowed across his beautiful and eye-catching countenance. He pinned a death glare at the peculiarly dressed youth. That person had a clean and handsome appearance. A black teardrop was tattooed onto a corner beneath his right eye. It looked a little dark and evil. The robes that he wore were made3缝制 (feng zhi): the word used here implies that it was made via stitching/sewing. from various kinds of feathers, like a multi-coloured rooster. A few beautiful feathers were even pinned to the top of his head and it attracted the gazes of many people4十分引人注目: Technically this is more like ‘extremely attracts people’s attention and gazes’, but that doesn’t quite flow in English, so here’s my attempt at rephrasing..
Wu Xi saw that Wu Ruo kept staring at the man, and asked curiously: “Erge, you know him?”
Wu Ruo said coldly: “I don’t.”
It’d be stranger if he didn’t. Even if this person had turned into ashes, Wu Ruo would recognize him.
He was the person that Wu Xi had gotten married to in Wu Ruo’s previous life, Ba Se. Wu Ruo hadn’t thought that he would meet him a few years earlier than before.
Ba Se had also noticed Wu Ruo. His eyes flashed with amazement at Wu Ruo’s beauty, and he hurriedly asked the person next to him: “Anshu5Just a general note, but from this person’s name, we can immediately clock that they’re at least in their mid 20s (about 23 and above, at least) and that they’ve completed their internship. This person is recorded in the official Wu family register., who is that very beautiful man?”
Wu Anshu had also seen Wu Ruo, and he shook his head: “I don’t know, I’ve never seen this man before. I only know that the young lady next to him is called Wu Xi, she’s someone from the Southern main estate.”
“Dage, he’s Wu Ruo, Wu Xi’s erge.” The youth next to Wu Anshu, Wu Rui, said: “He’s that big fatty that doesn’t have spiritual energy. Recently, he ate who knows what kind of spiritual pill or miracle medicine and suddenly lost all that weight, so he also turned good-looking.”
Wu Anshu was shocked: “He’s Wu Ruo?!”
Ba Se curiously asked: “Was he very fat previously?”
Wu Rui nodded: “Hn, very fat. I heard that his weight was up to 600 jin610 liang or 16 old liang, approximately 0.5kg or 1.102 pounds/lbs. 300kg or 661lbs. and the width of his body exceeded 6 chi71 chi is about 0.333 metres, or 1.094 feet. Almost 2 metres or 6.5 feet..”
“…” Ba Se was truly unable to imagine that such a beautiful person could’ve possessed such a fat body before.
Wu Ruo didn’t want to let Ba Se have designs on Wu Xi again, so he quickly left the central courtyard with Wu Xi.
Ba Se saw that the beauty was leaving, so he felt very anxious. He wanted to chase after him, but he was held back by Wu Anshu: “Ba Se, you cannot go to the Southern main estate.”
Ba Se was puzzled: “Why?”
“Recently, our Northern main estate has gotten into a deadlock with the Southern main estate. It has gotten to the point where the situation is like water and fire8Like water and fire, as in elemental opposites. Their natures go against each other and there is no way to peacefully co-exist.. If you go over so recklessly and get found out by the people of the Southern main estate that you’re someone I brought along, they will definitely take action against you.”
Ba Se frowned: “It’s that serious?”
Then wouldn’t he have no opportunity to get close to the beauty? When he thought about this possibility, he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed internally.
Wu Ruo saw Wu Xi back to Shuqing Garden, then immediately left the Wu estate. He returned to Hei Manor to get Shi Jiu and the others to inquire about the matters regarding Ba Se.
In less than half a day’s time, news had travelled back. Shi Jiu said: “This man called Ba Se, he’s someone that Wu Anshu had gotten acquainted with during his experience training. Currently, Wu Anshu isn’t very clear about Ba Se’s identity either. He only knows that Ba Se comes from a large clan in the Southeast and that his abilities are very unique. Wu Anshu bringing him here at this juncture, I’m afraid there’s a chance that he wants to use Ba Se’s strength to deal with the Southern main estate.”
Wu Ruo narrowed his cold gaze.
In his previous lifetime, Ba Se had been brought back by Wu Anqi. Everyone hadn’t known about Ba Se’s identity either until Wu Xi had gotten married to Ba Se. Then they found out that Ba Se was the Southeastern Kambuja9Technically, JYB uses the term 柬埔寨 (jian pu zhai) which refers to modern day Cambodia. However, it feels a bit strange for me to use fantasy terms for everything and then suddenly drop the name of a real country, so I opted to use the historical name that the Cambodian empire referred to itself as. If anyone has any feedback about this, please leave a comment or email me and I will do my best to make corrections. clan leader’s son. And Kambuja people all knew Jiangtou arts10降头术 (jiang tou shu): Just like the Wu family have their Yinyang arts, the Kambuja people’s style of magic is called Jiangtou arts. In modern Chinese, this is how they refer to voodoo (the cliche portrayal of it in media, with straw dolls and cursing, rather than actual voodoo spirituality/religion practiced by actual people). To avoid perpetuating a misunderstanding of voodoo spirituality, I have opted not to translate it as voodoo within the text.
If this is your first time hearing about the fact that voodoo is an actual religion, that it isn’t the cursed dolls/violent thing that you’ve heard about, and you’re interested in learning more, feel free to read a brief introduction here. I hope you learned something new and have fun sharing it with others who might not know about this too!, so they were called Jiangtou masters. Jiangtou masters were divided into two different categories, black Jiangtou masters and white Jiangtou masters11黑衣, 白衣: the terms used actually mean ‘black clothes’ and ‘white clothes’, but it’s quite long and unwieldy in English to me so I have opted to shorten it. These refer to the colour of their clothes, not any other indicators, so please do not misunderstand.. The former prioritized receiving money and riches to curse others and they had no morals or virtues to speak of. The latter mainly helped people to break curses and to harmonize interpersonal relations, etc. While the methods and processes of practicing this style of magic were countless, the practitioners often liked to go to dark forests to collect human bones, corpse fats, mummified fetuses, grave soil, and the like to use as materials for their practice. Their method of cultivating was extremely horrifying, as well as covert.
These were all things that he only understood later on. In his eyes, Jiangtou masters and shamans were similar. They both used gu parasites to harm others12Translator’s opinion (feel free to ignore): Commenting here to call Wu Ruo out for being a hypocrite and an asshole. Your master/shifu practices shamanism and you learned from him. You know he doesn’t just harm others with his cultivation. I understand that Wu Ruo is having an emotionally charged reaction because of what happened to Wu Xi, but this kind of racism and religious bigotry is still rampant and it really sucks..
Wu Ruo’s gaze was cold and he snorted.
Ba Se, since you took the initiative to come to my doorstep so quickly, then don’t blame me for being ruthless13心狠手辣 (xin hen shou la): the idiom used here is ‘cruel heart, spicy hands’. It refers to your mindset being cruel and taking harsh action. I liked how the original Chinese sounded, so I am leaving a note..
Wu Ruo took medicinal ingredients and made a powder that could protect against insects. Then he got Shi Jiu to bring it to Shuqing Garden and mark a trail along the perimeter of the estate, sprinkling a circle of the powder, to prevent strange insects from entering the estate.
The next morning, on Wu Ruo and Wu Xi’s way to the academy, they ran into Ba Se again.
Ba Se saw Wu Ruo and his gaze brightened drastically. He immediately walked over and blocked Wu Ruo’s path.
Wu Ruo hurriedly pushed Wu Xi behind him and said coldly: “Yes14有事 (you shi): actually more literally ‘you have an issue/a matter?’ but the nuance doesn’t quite translate right into English. It doesn’t have to be a rude or negative way of asking someone something. But here Wu Ruo is being rather curt and unfriendly.?”
Ba Se grinned as he kept staring at Wu Ruo’s face: “This humble one’s name is Ba Se. I am the Northern main estate’s guest. Today, I had no matters to attend to so I came out for a jaunt, but I accidentally lost my way. Would this young master happen to know where the Northern main estate might be?”
Wu Ruo saw that Ba Se was looking at him lecherously, and his heart dropped. Could it be that this person only cared about whether the other party was good-looking, and liked them regardless of whether they were male or female?
He pointed in the direction of the Northern main estate: “The Northern main estate is this way.”
“Thank you.” Ba Se presented the plum blossom in his hand to Wu Ruo: “This is a plum blossom that this humble one just plucked. Thanks to the young master for helping this humble one with the directions.”
Wu Ruo’s gaze flickered slightly, and he smiled and said: “Thank you.”
Ba Se became a little distracted at the sight of Wu Ruo’s smile. When he saw that Wu Ruo had accepted the plum blossom, his smile widened.
Wu Ruo and Wu Xi continued towards the academy until Ba Se was out of sight, then Wu Xi spoke up and said: “Erge, this person seems a little strange.”
Wu Ruo glanced at her: “Strange? Why do you say so? I think he looks pretty elegant and carries himself in an intelligent manner. His bearing is extraordinary.”
In his previous lifetime, Wu Xi had commented on Ba Se like this15Translator’s opinion: Damn, Wu Ruo, you hold a long grudge..
Wu Xi anxiously retorted: “Erge, I think he seems like a bad guy, you mustn’t be fooled by his outer appearances.”
Wu Ruo remained quiet and didn’t speak.
They had also reasoned like this with Wu Xi in his previous lifetime, but Wu Xi wouldn’t listen, insisting that she wanted to marry this person. However, no one would’ve guessed that Ba Se had put Wu Xi under a love curse.
“Erge, are you listening to me?”
“Hn.” Wu Ruo shook the plum blossom in his hand. Suddenly, with a ‘pu!’16噗 (pu): a ‘puff’ sound. Kind of like the onomatopoeia ‘poof’. sound, the plum blossom in his hand caught on fire.
“Ah!” Wu Xi cried out in alarm: “The plum blossom caught fire!”
Wu Ruo smiled meaningfully: “If it’s on fire, then it’s on fire. I don’t have any intentions to bring it back with me anyway.”
At the same moment, Ba Se, who hadn’t walked off too far, seemed to suddenly sense something. Immediately, he turned around and looked in the direction that Wu Ruo had left in and murmured to himself disbelievingly: “It’s broken?”
He could say quite confidently, other than Jiangtou masters like them and shamans, no one could break the curse that he’d set on the plum blossom. However, now, someone had broken the bewitching curse that he’d cast. Who was it? Who exactly had broken his curse?
Could it be that the Wu estate had other Jiangtou masters or shamans?
Ba Se didn’t dare to act carelessly. However, in the following few days, he would purposely bump into Wu Ruo every day, to find an opportunity to talk to Wu Ruo.
Wu Ruo always welcomed him with a smile as well. As long as this person didn’t have any designs on his loved ones, Wu Ruo wasn’t afraid of anything else.
“Erge, I heard that Wu Xia will come to the academy for classes today.” Wu Xi said.
Wu Ruo raised his eyebrow: “His injury has healed? Didn’t they say that after his injury recovers, he needs to self-reflect for a month?”
“I don’t know whether his injury has recovered. I just know, in order not to hinder his progress, Wu Xia’s father had pleaded with the elders saying that he would attend classes in the day and self-reflect at night. His self-reflection period would be extended from one month to three months.”
“If he comes, then he comes. We don’t have to be afraid of him. He won’t dare to do anything too overboard in the academy. However, this person has a grudge that he must avenge. In future, it’s still better if we’re more careful.”
“I will protect erge properly.”
“You can’t even win against Wu Xia, how do you intend to protect me?”
Wu Ruo pinched her little nose with a grin, then, he sensed someone looking at them. He raised his head to look. The two brothers Wu Xia and Wu Sheng were standing at the main entrance of the academy, glaring at them. Their eyes were filled with irrepressible resentment and anger.
It could be said that the previous time, Wu Xia had lost his soldiers and even his general17损兵折将 (sun bing zhe jiang): ‘to suffer heavy casualties’. Where the word ‘sun‘ means ‘to suffer damage/losses’ in terms of the number of ‘bing‘/troops one has, and the word ‘zhe‘ means ‘to lose/break’ something. A general is considered an important ‘arm’ of the military and to lose one is considered akin to breaking one of your limbs., he had taken a huge loss. He hadn’t succeeded in harming Wu Xi, and yet had gotten injured himself. Even his most prized spirit had been dissipated because of Wu Ruo’s equipment. So how could he not hate the two siblings, Wu Ruo and Wu Xi?
Wu Ruo took the initiative to walk towards Wu Sheng and Wu Xia to greet them: “Wu Xia, is your injury better now?”
“Don’t be cocky.” Wu Xia snorted coldly, and turned and left with Wu Sheng.
Wu Xi listened to Wu Ruo telling her about his previous run-in with Wu Xia18The ice skating competition drama if anyone is confused.: “Erge, this person is truly too petty. You don’t have to bother about this sort of person.”
Holding a grudge against someone just because they had won a sledding competition? It was really too petty. Who would dare to hang out with him in the future?
Wu Ruo didn’t say anything, smirking as he watched their distant silhouettes.
