Chapter warnings unavailable for this chapter (I’m just really exhausted, I will try to add them in future).
Note for the title1下场 (xia chang): refers to a ‘sorry state, bad end’. It’s technically one ‘word’, but doesn’t convey well into a snappy one English word title. I chose to translate it as ‘downfall’ instead..
After Wu Ruo ended lessons and left the Wu estate, he immediately got onto his horse carriage. On the way back to Hei Manor, suddenly, the horse carriage came to a stop. Shi Jiu, who had been in charge of controlling the horse carriage, quietly said to Wu Ruo who was inside the horse carriage: “Madam, I see Wu Da and Wu Xiao.”
When he heard the names of these two people, for a moment, Wu Ruo actually couldn’t recall who they were until the sounds of arguing came from outside. Only then did he return to his senses, pulling back the curtains to look outside.
Wu Da and Wu Xiao were currently being driven out by a restaurant manager.
“Get out2你们快走 isn’t quite literally ‘get out’, but is more literally ‘you (plural), leave quick’. It can also be used in situations where you’re telling someone to run (away from danger), so the nuance of this phrase relies quite heavily on context.! Our humble establishment can’t afford to hire the two of you respectable Buddhas3In an older chapter when Wu Ruo was still fat, he referred to himself and Hei Xuanyi as 尊大佛 (zun da fo) which does translate quite literally to ‘respectable, great Buddha’. In that scenario, it referred to their physical builds. In this one, it refers to their egos as massive.,” the manager held onto a broom in a great rage and was smacking Wu Xiao who was trying to re-enter the restaurant.
Wu Da angrily said: “If you want us to leave, we will, but you have to settle the pay for our 10 days’ worth of work.”
After Wu Zhu had found out about them accepting Wu Yu’s bribes, they hadn’t dared to go back to the Wu estate to work. Now, they could only resort to finding other jobs outside of the estate to support their family.
“The two of you still have the cheek to ask me for pay?” The manager was almost angered to death by these words of his4In Chinese, it is phrased as a double negative. Something similar to ‘almost didn’t miss getting angered to death’. It isn’t awkward in Chinese, but it is a lot more unwieldy in English so I opted for something a little more straightforward.: “The two of you have only worked here5我这里 (wo zhe li): indicates ownership of the place that is being referred to as opposed to just ‘zhe li’ which generally refers to somewhere that has been previously been contextually mentioned. for just 10 days and you’ve already broken an entire pile of dishes, bowls and utensils. You can’t serve food properly either and often drop the food on the floor. And you even put on airs6耍大爷脾气 (shua da ye pi qi): in the Chinese term, instead of ‘airs’, the term is more literally ‘the attitude of a great lord’ where we know ‘da ye’ is generally used to refer to masters of a household or some hotshot. It still has the same meaning of the English idiom, where one behaves in a manner that clearly indicates they feel that they are ‘above’ others. with the customers, offending them. It’s already pretty decent that I’m not asking you to compensate me, but the two of you still have the cheek to ask for pay?”
He lifted the broom up and smacked, aiming at their bodies: “Are you two leaving or not? If you still don’t leave, I’m going to report you to the authorities 7报官(bao guan): literally ‘to report to a guan (official)’. Usually refers to bringing cases up to the local magistrate and having them settle the issue. Most small disagreements and petty conflicts are handled by the local magistrates, and only bigger incidents that may involve national security (or influential figures within the country) get brought up to the Ministry of Justice. Honestly, for like murder and etc. among commoners, the local magistrate will settle that and they are usually pretty corrupt (in fictional stories, I’m not sure about historically).
However, in LWSL, the local magistrate doesn’t really show up. Wu Ruo kind of just acts as his own local magistrate for things LOL and make you compensate me for my dishes and bowls!”
The moment Wu Da heard that the manager wanted to report them to the authorities and make them compensate with money, he immediately spat a mouthful of phlegm8Just in case this isn’t universal, this was and still is considered an extremely rude gesture. Not equivalent, but something like flipping the bird at someone. on the ground and then left with Wu Xiao.
“You really meet all kinds9Manager says something more like ‘what kind of people are these’, but it doesn’t quite carry the same nuance of disbelief and disgust in English as it does in Chinese, so I have modified it.!” the manager cursed as he swept away that mouthful of phlegm.
When Shi Yuan saw that the two of them had walked off, he quietly said to Wu Ruo: “Recently, their days haven’t been that easy to get by.”
After Liu Xiaoru and Chen Xier had married into their family, they had first been gentle and considerate towards Wu Da and Wu Xiao for a period of time, coaxing the two of them to spend all of their savings. After that, the two women started quarreling with their family members. If it wasn’t a small argument every day, then it was a massive row on every third day. Every day, they would cause such a fuss that the chickens would fly and the dogs would jump10Literally translated the text here, but I think you can get the gist of it. The women started to stir shit over anything and everything, all the damn time. And they were dramatic about it.. On top of that, there were a whole string of vexing household matters that made Wu Da and Wu Xiao as frustrated as a person could get11烦不胜烦 (fan bu sheng fan): literally ‘frustration cannot win over frustration’. It means that you can’t get anymore frustrated than this..
Wu Ruo smirked.
Wu Da and Wu Xiao had been by his side since they were 12, 13 years old. They had eaten well, dressed well, and been bestowed the ‘Wu’ surname. On an average day, other than serving by Wu Ruo’s side, they had basically never had to do any harsh labour. Even their clothes had been washed by others for them and they had never had to endure anyone’s temper. They had gotten by comfortably for over 10 years like young masters. Now, asking them to wash the dishes and serve food? How could they possibly do these sorts of things? To endure these sorts of humiliation?
“Madam, shall we follow after them and take a look?”
Wu Ruo said indifferently: “There’s no need, seeing their current situation, their good days are just about to come to an end12Interestingly enough, this phrase in Chinese is literally ‘about to come to a head’, which also exists in English. However, the English idiom means ‘to come to a crucial/critical stage’ or a ‘tipping point’. In Chinese, it more accurately refers to ‘an end’. .”
Shi Yuan drove the horse carriage and left.
Wu Da and Wu Xiao were currently in a funk, so they never even noticed that Shi Yuan and Wu Ruo had been watching them aboard the horse carriage. On their way back to their house, an old madam13This is referring to their mother. walked over in an exasperated fluster: “The wives of you two brothers are simply too much! This morning, I went to ask them for money for your younger brother’s betrothal gifts and your younger sister’s dowry. But they had the nerve to tell me that there was no money! When I asked for this month’s allowance, they also said there was no money! Do they even respect me as their mother-in-law? They’re really angering me to death!14This whole paragraph is loaded with typical Chinese family dynamics.
It’s quite normal for the older/oldest sons to be expected to care and provide for the family if their father is either dead or too old to work. Paying the money for their younger brother’s betrothal gifts (A.K.A bride price) or their younger sister’s dowry is a normal part of what they’re supposed to take care of. And giving the family members allowances for their daily living is also part of their duties to the family.
Normally, finances are managed by their wives as part of general household management. This is also something Wu Ruo is in charge of, as the madam of Hei Manor. Unless he delegates it to Hei Xin (as he seems to have done). I’m not sure how the culture is like for others, but the wives of Wu Da and Wu Xiao have to respect their in-laws as if they’re their own parents after they marry into the family. By telling their mother-in-law that there is no money, it’s kind of indirectly telling her that they refuse to fulfill their filial duties. This is a big no-no.“
The looks on Wu Da and Wu Xiao’s faces got uglier and uglier. It was enough that they had gotten chased out the door by someone else and now, they had yet to even enter through the gates of their house and their mother was asking them for money like a debt-collecting ghost. Their moods became even worse.
When they had gotten married, in order to have a lot of face15The Chinese concept of ‘face’. One’s esteem, prestige, reputation, etc. Similar to its non-literal usage in English as well. in front of their father- and mother-in-law, so that their in-laws wouldn’t look down on the two of them, they had spent more than half of their savings on preparing betrothal gifts. After that, they had also held a feast and bought their wives jewelry.
The money that they had left wasn’t much. Originally, they had assumed that they would be able to return to the Wu estate to work, yet they never thought that the matter of them receiving Wu Yu’s bribes would be discovered by Wu Zhu. After that matter, Wu Yu had even gotten people to beat them up. Their losses had truly outweighed their gains.
If they had known this would happen, they wouldn’t have taken Wu Yu’s bribes. Then, they wouldn’t have ended up not being able to find an easy job. They really missed the days of serving Wu Ruo. However, now, they couldn’t even step foot into Hei Manor. On top of that, they had even heard that Wu Ruo had already lost weight and no longer needed people to serve him.
“Are you two brothers listening to what I say?” The old madam continued angrily: “Before next month, you must prepare the money for your younger brother’s betrothal gifts and your younger sister’s dowry without a single cent missing. Give me the allowance for this month first, I’m waiting for it to go shopping for groceries.”
The ‘ji ji zha zha’16The onomatopoeia for annoying chattering. noises annoyed Wu Da and Wu Xiao, making them feel even more frustrated. On top of that, it was always talk about money, money, money. Did they17The ‘they’ here refers to all their family members depending on Wu Da and Wu Xiao to provide for them, even though only their mother is talking to them right now. think that the two of them could magic money out of thin air for them to spend whenever they wanted?
“That’s right. The both of you have also been married for a few months now. How come your wives still aren’t pregnant with any children? Do their bodies have any problems? If there are problems, then you should hurry and bring them to a doctor. If they really can’t bear children, then you have to hurry and get another concubine18Taking on ‘concubines’ was not inappropriate in the past. Usually this was done in scenarios like their mother mentioned, where a man’s official wife is incapable of having children for whatever reason. A ‘concubine’ in this setting refers to an ‘unofficial wife’ rather than simply a ‘bedwarmer/sexual partner’.
A tangential note/reminder: Wu Ruo is Hei Xuanyi’s official ‘wife’ and will be recorded in the Hei family register. Any ‘child’ he has will be considered Hei Xuanyi’s ‘legal’ children, and may inherit his titles, fortunes, etc. However, it is also Hei Xuanyi’s right to take on ‘concubines’ if he feels that Wu Ruo is not fulfilling his role and social norms indicate that no one would view Hei Xuanyi poorly for it. Rather, Wu Ruo would be disgraced for not being a proper ‘wife’ to his husband.. And another thing, when you get back later, you have to discipline them properly. Otherwise, they’re going to climb all over this mother-in-law’s head already. I won’t say anything else, give me the money quick.”
The old madam stretched her hand out towards them.
The veins on Wu Da’s forehead throbbed, and in the end, he couldn’t stop himself from saying angrily: “Whether your mouth is open or close, it’s all about money19A literal, direct translation of the phrase. What Wu Da means here is that all his mother can talk about is money, and all she seems to think about is money.. Other than money, do you care about anything else?”
The old madam was stunned for a few beats from being yelled at, then she angrily said: “I worked so hard to raise the both of you to adulthood, so what if I ask you for money? Ever since you were young till you grew up, have I ever treated you unfairly? Now that I’m asking you for some allowance, you yell at me? Both of you have hearts of wolves and lungs of dogs20狼心狗肺 (lang xin gou fei): Literally translated here, it means to be ‘heartless and ungrateful’. Interestingly may reflect how the culture viewed wolves and animals as unfeeling creatures.! Once you have a wife, you forget your mother. I just knew those wives of you two weren’t anything good. It must’ve been the two of them who told you not to give me money, right? Hmph, looking like fox spirits21狐媚子 (hu mei zi): So this term doesn’t actually mean ‘fox spirits’. The ‘hu’ in the term does mean fox, but ‘mei’ means ‘to charm/seduce someone’. Foxes were often associated with female seductress ghosts/spirits, so the term ‘hu mei’ means ‘to charm/seduce someone with feminine wiles’. To add the ‘zi’ character at the end of this phrase turns ‘hu mei’ which is a verb into a noun. So ‘hu mei zi’ means ‘the one who charms/seduces someone else with their feminine wiles’.
This is similar to a phrase 狐狸精 (hu li jing) which does actually translate more outrightly to ‘fox spirit/sprite/faery’. You may have heard of this one before in other novels or c-dramas.
It is often believed that fox spirits can shapeshift and often shapeshift into the form of beautiful and charming women. They were thought to target men and would basically swindle them out of their senses, causing them to lose everything they had. This belief resulted in the occasional wariness towards extremely beautiful women, in case they might be some kind of fox faery., they’ve seduced all your consciences away.”
“Enough!” Wu Xiao roared and turned around, walking away.
Wu Da also left, following after him.
The old madam saw that her two sons did not bother with her and immediately sat down on the ground, crying and making a fuss: “I don’t want to live anymore! I don’t want to live anymore! The sons that I raised into adults all don’t care about me anymore! I really raised two white-eyed wolves22Again, just a phrase the reflects how Chinese people in the past viewed wolves as unfeeling creatures.…!”
The passersby in the area and everyone living in the vicinity all looked over.
Wu Da and Wu Xiao simply had no face left to continue hanging around and hurriedly sped up their footsteps to leave. Once they reached their own houses, they hadn’t even had the time to take a breath when they heard shouts for help coming from inside the house: “Help! Help23救命 (jiu ming): This phrase is more literally ‘save (a) life’. Very direct.!”
When the two brothers heard Chen Xier’s voice, their expressions changed and they rushed into the house together, and they saw a man pressing down onto Chen Xier’s body. On top of that, Chen Xier’s lapels24衣襟 (yi jin): refers to lapels in general, but since this is a vaguely guzhuang setting novel, I’m assuming it refers to the front folds of traditional hanfu similar to this. I’m not quite savvy enough to pick up if JYB has indicated towards any particular real, historical dynasty through the novel, so it may not actually look exactly like this hanfu (since they differed through the dynasties) but the image is just an example for illustration. had already been ripped open, revealing her neck that was white as snow.
In that instance, the fury of both men surged to life and they hauled the man up, hurling him to the ground and raining punches on him.
Chen Xier hurriedly put her clothes back on and ran to the door.
“What’s the matter? What’s happening?” Liu Xiaoru, who was outside, ran to the door to ask.
“Ah! Stop hitting! Stop hitting! It’s a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding! Dabiaoge, erbiaoge25Similar to the other forms of address that are hopefully familiar by now. The additional ‘biao’ here indicates that Wu Da and Wu Xiao are this person’s maternal cousins., it’s me, Wang Ting! Both of you, stop hitting!” Wang Ting shouted as he covered his head.
“Wang Ting26Not sure if JYB made a typo here, but Wu Xiao actually calls him 吴亭 (Wu Ting) here. But it’s also a different ‘Wu’ from the one used by the Wu clan.?” Wu Xiao stopped to take a look and it really was his biaodi Wang Ting. After that, he punched him viciously again: “You even fucking dare to touch your sister-in-law272 notes in one here. For ‘fucking’ and ‘sister-in-law’.
他娘的 (ta niang de): more literally translates as ‘his mother’s’. However, as mentioned in an earlier chapter, people will use your relatives as a way to curse you out. This is an extremely rude phrase. I don’t think swearing can ever be accurately translated, but I tried to go for the general vibes.
嫂子 (sao zi): Mentioned before when Hei Xuantang meets Wu Ruo and starts addressing him as ‘dasao‘ but the word ‘sao’ refers to your older brother’s wife. Doesn’t have to be your brother, could just be a close older male figure’s wife., I’ll kill you!”
When Wu Da heard these words, the movement of his punches paused a little, and he glanced uneasily at Chen Xier who was by the door.
“Erbiaoge, it really is a misunderstanding!” Wang Ting had indeed developed lustful feelings towards this erbiaosao28Just in case Chinese titles weren’t confusing enough, this refers to the wife of your second older male cousin from your mother’s side. of his from a long time ago. However, because of the identity of the other party, he had the heart of a thief but not a thief’s guts. He only dared to steal looks. However, who would’ve known that as he was passing by today, his erbiaosao actually took the initiative to invite him into the house and seduce him into bed.
After that, he didn’t hold back and had pressed her down into the bed. However, before he had even had any time to do anything to her, he heard Wu Da and Wu Xiao returning home. In a fluster, he had wanted to get up but Chen Xier had clung onto him screaming for help. After that, it was as Wu Da and Wu Xiao had seen for themselves.
“You fucker, you already had her on the bed and you still dare to say it was a misunderstanding?” Wu Xiao was so angry that he kicked him a few times again.
Wu Da also kicked hard a few times, venting all of the humiliation that he’d recently had to bear onto Wang Ting’s body.
Liu Xiaoru and Chen Xier met each other’s eyes, then hurriedly raised their voices to shout loudly: “Stop fighting! Stop fighting!”
Wu Da and Wu Xiao kicked Wang Ting’s body who-knew how many times. At last, Wang Ting collapsed to the ground, motionless.
“You fucking think that by pretending to faint, I’ll let you off?” Wu Xiao kicked Wang Ting one more time.
Wang Ting didn’t move.
Wu Da used his feet to nudge him: “Wake the fuck up29Technically, Wu Da says ‘wake up for me’ here where the word he uses to refer to himself 老子 (lao zi) is a very arrogant way of referring to oneself..”
Wang Ting still didn’t move.
The two of them were stunned, looking at the person on the ground. Their hearts thumped30咯噔 (ge deng): the sentence translates more as ‘there was a ge deng sound inside their hearts’ where ge deng is a thump or a click. Basically, their hearts metaphorically skipped a beat., he couldn’t be dead, right?
Wu Da was a little braver31Literally ‘Wu Da’s guts were a little bigger’ because in Chinese, referring to being brave is described as having ‘big guts’ as in size rather than being referred to by amount as it is in English., he squatted down, stretching his right hand out beneath Wang Ting’s nose to check. There actually was no breath. It scared him so much that he shot up wildly and backed a few steps away: “He’s, he’s dead.”
“Wh, what?” Wu Xiao’s face was pale as death. “Dage, did you make a mistake?”
He squatted down in a rush and stretched his hand to check. As expected, there was no breath.
Wu Xiao’s legs went soft and he fell into a sitting position on the ground.
Liu Xiaoru and Chen Xier’s eyes met again. Suddenly, they raised their voices and screamed, frightened: “Someone’s died! Someone’s died!”
Wu Da and Wu Xiao hurriedly came back to their senses and said angrily: “Stupid bitch, both of you shut up! Do you want everyone to know that your husbands beat someone to death?”
Liu Xiaoru and Chen Xier quickly backed out of the door.
“Both of you, get back here!”
Wu Da and Wu Xiao worried that they would spread the matter and hurriedly chased after them, out of the house, and saw a group of magistrate officials who were carrying daos32刀 (dao): commonly translated as a ‘sword’, but I don’t think it’s the same thing as Western swords so I left it as ‘dao’., running into their yard: “Where’s the dead person? Where did the person die?”
Wu Da and Wu Xiao were stunned. How could it be that the magistrate officials were here when they had only just killed someone?
They were both frightened until both their legs were trembling. The two of them who had never encountered this sort of thing lost their assertiveness in an instance.
Liu Xiaoru and Chen Xier hid in a corner, with expressions as though they were extremely terrified.
The head magistrate official glanced at Wu Da and Wu Xiao, who had previously ran out in a messy rush. He took a few steps inside and saw Wang Ting, who had collapsed onto the ground. He went forth to check his breathing and realized that this person was already dead.
He walked out and ordered for Wu Da and Wu Xiao both to be arrested. Then, he brought Liu Xiaoru and Chen Xier back to the magistrate’s office for questioning as well.
After arriving at the magistrate’s office, in the court hall, Liu Xiaoru and Chen Xier both identified Wu Da and Wu Xiao in unison as the ones who had beaten Wang Ting to death with their fists and kicks to the judge overseeing the case.
With irrefutable evidence, there was no way for Wu Da and Wu Xiao to deny their guilt.
In the end, the judge issued them the death sentence. They would be beheaded after fall33From my understanding, executions of the death sentence occurred twice a year. So everyone sitting in prison waiting to be executed will be dragged out and beheaded at once, in public, where anyone in the city can just… come and watch.. When Wu Da and Wu Xiao heard their sentence, they fainted on the spot.
Not long after, this matter spread to Wu Ruo.
Note: In case you missed it, LWSL will be going on a one-month hiatus. Things have been overwhelming and the quality of the translations has not been up to par for me, and I don’t want to half ass this. I may need more time to rest but fingers crossed that I can come back in a month as planned.
Also, I just wanted to say: I appreciate everyone who reads, supports and comments on LWSL. Thank you so much for making this such an amazing journey. I may not have the time or energy to respond and interact with everyone, but I’m very grateful for the support. See you when I’m back! 
