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Mentions of insects, general Wu family bullshitteryAfter making arrangements for Ji Xi, Wu Ruo immediately hurried for class.
When he arrived at the Wu estate and alighted from the horse carriage, he noticed a few new unusual little bugs on the trim1It is referring to something like the grey trim along the wall in this picture. of the Southern main estate’s main gate’s corners. However, the guards at the gate seemed to be completely unaware of them. But it was hard to blame them. Because no matter who it was, as long as it was someone who wasn’t familiar with insects, they normally wouldn’t think that there was anything wrong with these insects.
The reason why he could detect these little insects so quickly was that he had already been on guard against Ba Se from the beginning. As long as a single insect crawled past in front of his eyes, he would first inspect if that insect was a gu parasite or not.
The one thing to rejoice about was: although the mood at the Southern main estate wasn’t very good, the defense measures were still done up quite well. Under the double protection of equipment and arrays, the insects were temporarily unable to break in.
Wu Ruo wasn’t sure if Wu Xi was still waiting for him to head over to the academy, so he first made a stop at Shuqing Garden. As he did so, he noticed that the Southern main estate seemed livelier than it had been for the past few days because there were prominently much more servants moving about in the little alleys of the estate than there had been a few days ago. The injuries of those who had been in the fight against the Northern main estate had probably already recovered, so the Southern main estate also gradually recovered its vitality.
“Xiao-Ruo.”
When Wu Ruo heard someone calling him, he looked up and saw Wu Qianqing, Guan Tong, and Wu Xi walking toward him.
Wu Xi ran up to him and worriedly said: “Erge, I kept waiting for you but you didn’t show up. I thought something had happened to you.”
Wu Ruo ruffled her bangs: “Something came up2遇到 (yu dao): means ‘to meet’ something. Over here, Wu Ruo says something more along the lines of ‘I ran into a small situation this morning’ but I feel like that carries slightly panic-inducing connotations in English, so I have modified it to suit the nonchalant tone in the Chinese text. this morning, so I was late coming over. Next time, if I don’t show up, go ahead to the academy first on your own. Don’t let your studies be disrupted because of me, got it?”
“Hn3For those following along as I update, just a little refresher after the break that this is a sound of agreement/acknowledgment..”
Wu Ruo looked toward Wu Qianqing and Guan Tong: “Dad, Mum, where are you going?”
Wu Qianqing was about to open his mouth, but he was interrupted by Wu Xi saying: “Just now, erbomu and the others sent people to summon us to make a trip to Xuanwan Garden for god knows what. Hmph, they just can’t hold it in. The injuries on her body have only just recovered but she’s out kicking a fuss again. I really wish they would rest in bed for another few more days.”
If this had been before, Wu Qianqing definitely would’ve reprimanded Wu Xi and stopped her from saying such disgraceful and unfilial words. Now, when he heard it, he merely frowned.
“Are they only summoning us4Personal note and elaboration here! Feel free to disregard me if you’re not interested in my commentary.
我们舒青院的人: more accurately ‘us from Shuqing Garden’. In the Chinese, you can clearly see Wu Ruo divides loyalties according to each individual household. This might be the norm elsewhere, but as the earlier chapters in the story have established, it’s more common/expected for one to view everyone who lives within the Wu estate as a singular, extremely large family. Wu Ruo very obviously separates Shuqing Garden and its occupants off into its own entity, creating a distinct ‘us vs them’ mentality.
I feel like this is a point that might be interesting to note. Insert suggestive eyebrow wiggling.?”
“No, everyone, as long as they’re from the Southern main estate, has to show up.”
Wu Ruo could hazard a guess at what Ruan Lanru was playing at.
Guan Tong sighed.
She was most afraid of going to Xuanwan Garden. Every time she went, she would incur her mother-in-law’s ridicule. Although it was said that hearing something often would accustom one to those words, but sometimes the things that were said were truly too awful and hurtful.
Wu Qianqing held onto her hand: “Later, no matter what my mum says, just take it that you didn’t hear it. If not, just humor her with some perfunctory words.”
He knew that every time Mum5Quick note: the Chinese switches to Wu Qianqing’s POV here. met Guan Tong, she would always taunt her and speak in an especially awful way. He had also quarreled several times with his mum because of this matter but it was no use. His mum simply didn’t like Guan Tong and it wasn’t like he could choke her and prevent his mum from opening her mouth. Later on, they just avoided her when they could. They tried their best not to visit Xuanwan Garden so that they wouldn’t make themselves unhappy.
Wu Ruo glanced at Guan Tong, narrowing his eyes6Back to Wu Ruo’s POV..
His grandmother didn’t like his mum. Number one, she looked down on his mum for not having any status, for not being the young mistress of a prominent family. Number two, she looked down on his mum for not having spiritual energy and not knowing any magical arts. So, regardless of how filial his mum was to his grandmother, his grandmother didn’t like his mum.
When they arrived at Xuanwan Garden7Just my commentary: so, no school for the kids? LOL Whatever happened to don’t disrupt Wu Xi’s studies?, other than those who were out on missions and those who were on their internships, everyone else had already been waiting for quite a while. And Wu Bo and Wu Shi were each sitting on one side of Grandmother Mu Xiuwan, teasing endless ‘hehe’ laughter8 There are a few different onomatopoeiae for laughter in Chinese. In particular, she’s laughing with the 呵呵 (he he) sound here. out of her. The others saw that Grandmother was happy and laughed along with her. The atmosphere seemed joyous and harmonious.
However, after Mu Xiuwan saw that Guan Tong had arrived, her expression immediately darkened. She said in a ridiculing manner: “To get you to make a trip to Xuanwan Garden, I had to find people to coax and plead with you9Two notes: here, Mu Xiuwan is addressing them plurally, not just Guan Tong. Also, the idiom JYB uses for ‘coax and plead’ is supposed to be 三催四请 (san cui si qing) but it was miswritten as 崔三请四 (cui san qing si). I’m not sure if this is a dialectal variation or a typo, but just leaving a note here in case anyone else reading might have any input.. People who don’t know any better would’ve thought the person I was inviting was our Wu family’s ancestor10If you don’t get the insult, Mu Xiuwan is trying to jab at them for being arrogant and haughty..”
Wu Qianqing gave a simple explanation: “We were delayed by some matters on our way here that caused us to come late. I’m really sorry for making everyone wait.”
Guan Tong and the others went forth to greet Mu Xiuwan11请安 (qing an): means ‘to pay respects to’ but I feel like the common connotation for that in English involves the deceased, so I switched it up a bit. Normally, it involves some kind of bowing and formal lines of greeting. You ever seen how they greet an emperor in monarchy dramas? Something like that..
Mu Xiuwan had originally intended to taunt Guan Tong like she always used to but after she saw Wu Ruo, her expression froze.
“This is Xiao-Ruo?”
She had heard from the servants within the estate about the matter of Wu Ruo losing weight from a long time ago. They had even said that Wu Ruo was as beautiful as a celestial after he had lost weight, capable of ruining empires and cities12倾国倾城 (qing guo qing cheng): this has come up before but just a refresher, this is often an idiom to describe a woman who is so beautiful that the people around her are willing to go to war for her. Just like stunningly beautiful.. At that time, she was still skeptical after hearing it. Now, looking at him, the servants really weren’t over-exaggerating things. He really was so beautiful that even a married woman like her found it hard to take her eyes off of him.
Even Ruan Lanru and the others were also drawn in by Wu Ruo’s appearances. They were the same as Mu Xiuwan; recently, they had been recuperating in their own estates and hadn’t gone out to meet anyone. They had also heard about Wu Ruo losing weight from their children and servants.
Wu Ruo responded, neither humble nor defiant: “Yes, Grandmother.”
Wu Ruo hadn’t liked this grandmother of his since his previous lifetime. She was always putting on a stern face to make herself seem dignified. She liked it when the younger generations obeyed her13Okay, so JYB misses out a word here and I made an educated guess. If anyone reads the raws and thinks I made a mistake, please let me know!. On top of that, her favoritism was very extreme. Towards juniors14Junior here refers to anyone from a younger generation than Mu Xiuwan, so everybody in Wu Qianqing and Wu Ruo’s generations. that she didn’t like, she was always full of all kinds of criticisms. She would only let through a sliver of a smile in front of juniors that she liked.
Mu Xiuwan stared at him for quite a long while and realized that Wu Ruo resembled his mum, Guan Tong. Her mood immediately turned bad: “You do indeed look much better than before after losing weight, but it’s no use just to be good looking. I’d rather you be fat than to be like a loser15The derogatory term she uses here is 废物 (fei wu) which is akin to calling someone a ‘piece of trash’ but it comes off extremely harsh/much harsher in Chinese. It is also the same fei in the title of the whole novel, which is why the title is Loser Wife. without spiritual energy.”
Everyone immediately covered their mouths, snickering.
Wu Ruo ignored them.
Wu Xi and Guan Tong only held back from refuting her because Mu Xiuwan was an elder to them.
Wu Qianqing’s expression darkened: “Mother, if you do not welcome us, we can simply leave.”
It was enough that his father16POV swap to Wu Qianqing again. didn’t like him and his family, even his mother was also like this. He was about to suspect if he was really their child.
Mu Xiuwan was even more unhappy: “What? Can’t I even speak the truth?”
Wu Ruo’s sishen17婶婶 (shen shen) refers to ‘your father’s younger brother’s wife’, and the number prefix is meant to indicate which brother she’s married to. She’s married to Wu Qianbin, so she should be sishen but JYB originally typed it as sanshen. I am assuming they made a typo here and corrected it., Liao Liuyan, noticed that the atmosphere wasn’t quite right and hurried to mediate, lest they were unable to proceed with what they had come here for: “Mother, it’s getting late18My commentary: Just how much time did Wu Ruo spend on the whole Ji Xi matter in the morning? Did Wu Xi just… skip school for the whole day? JYB took one look at the time and said that bitch is a construct., we should discuss the matter at hand.”
When everyone heard this, their sneers rapidly fell off their faces19To be accurate, in Chinese, it says they quickly ‘kept’ their sneers. Cultural differences +1.
Mu Xiuwan huffed coldly: “This time, I’ve gathered all of you here to discuss the matter of repairing the Southern main estate. Everyone present knows, that after that fight with the Northern main estate the last time, our Southern main estate’s losses were severe. Our people either died or were injured and the estate grounds have also been unbearably damaged.
“On an average day, there’s simply no way to receive guests. If word of this gets out, it will be our Southern main estate’s reputation that will be ruined20Mu Xiuwan uses 丢脸 (diu lian) here in this sentence, literally meaning ‘to throw face’. I figured it would probably be confusing, so here’s this note instead.. So, I’m thinking of renovating the entire Southern main estate from scratch.”
Wushen21五婶 (wu shen): wu as in 5th and shen as in wife of your father’s younger brother. Dong Mingji immediately said: “However, after spending a huge sum of money to rebuild Xishan Theater22Brief refresher: Hei Xuanyi wrecked the theatre for putting up a shitty play about him and Wu Ruo. Since the Southern main estate was in charge of security at the time, it fell on them to rebuild the theatre., there’s not much left of our Southern main estate’s funds23This is referring to the funds belonging to the estate itself. Think of it as company funds versus your own paycheck.. There’s just not enough to renovate the estate.”
Mu Xiuwan said: “I want everyone to pay out of your own pockets to renovate the estate.”
Everyone’s expressions immediately turned ugly.
Wu Ruo’s lips curled up into a sneer; the heart of the issue was coming.
Erbomu Ruan Lanru said: “Mother, in the past year, if we weren’t busy making equipment then we were giving the servants their pay. And just a while before, when we got injured, we spent who knows how much money to buy expensive, famous medicinal ingredients to treat our injuries. Right now, we’re not receiving any income either but we’re spending money like a running tap24Specifically, in Chinese, it just says ‘like running water’ but I figured the running tap imagery would be clearer for most folks.. Where would we have any extra money to renovate the estate?”
Dabomu Sang Dongyi said: “My situation is about the same as erdimei‘s25二弟妹 (er di mei): er as in 2nd, and dimei as in ‘my husband’s younger brother’s wife’..”
Her tone was dispirited26有气无力 (you qi wu li): another fun idiom where you can directly guess the meaning of it even if you’ve never seen this phrase before. Some idioms in Chinese reference lore/legends, so it might not make sense off the bat. This one does because it literally means ‘to have air but no strength’. and Wu Ruo couldn’t help but take a look at her. Her face looked wan and sallow, and the hair at her temples was also turning grey.
Liao Liuyan and Dong Mingji were also quick to say that their estates were in the same situation.
When Guan Tong heard this, she generally understood the reason for coming here today and followed along to say that Shuqing Garden was also lacking money.
Following this, everyone turned to look at Guan Tong’s group.
Dong Mingji said snidely: “Sansao, it’s really not that I want to single out your Shuqing Garden, but looking at the way things are right now, the ones with the most money are you lot. When you make equipment, you don’t need to buy anything and can use existing materials. Paying the servants doesn’t cost that much money. And during that time when we were fighting with the Northern main estate, where were all of you? Was anyone in your estate injured? There’s no one, right?”
Wu Xi retorted: “Dozens27In Chinese, this is actually ‘tens’ instead of dozens. Cultural differences +1 again! of guards from our estate died, how could it be that no one got injured?”
“Xiao-Xi, I’m talking about you masters of the estate28主子 (zhu zi): this is the same title Hei Manor servants use to address Hei Xuanyi. In this case, it generally refers to non-servant individuals, so not just one person. In a sense, kind of like ’employers’ or ‘owners’.. Which one of you was injured? And who needed to spend money to buy expensive, famous medicines to treat their injuries?”
“My dad and mum both don’t have spiritual energy, if they went out, it would’ve been as good as sending themselves to die.”
“You have spiritual energy, don’t you? How come you didn’t show up to help? Our Wu Yun and Wu Bo are younger than you, but they also came along to help fight the people from the Northern main estate.”
The others nodded their heads in agreement: “It’s like this indeed29The same phrase as the one used for this chapter’s title..”
Wu Xi: “…”
This was the truth, she had no way of refuting them.
Ruan Lanru looked at Wu Qianqing: “Sandi, we can understand that you and sandimei don’t have spiritual energy, which was why you couldn’t come out to help fight the people from the Northern main estate. We can also understand that you’re worried about Xiao-Xi getting hurt, which was why you didn’t let Xiao-Xi come to help us. However, after the fight with the Northern main estate, shouldn’t it be up to your Shuqing Garden to contribute a little?”
Guan Tong said: “After the incident, our Shuqing Garden also did send many expensive and famous medicinal ingredients to all of you for injury treatment.”
“That we do acknowledge. However, that little bit of medicine was just simply not much compared to our conditions at that time. After that, we still had to spend a huge sum of money to buy medicines.”
Wu Qianqing’s expression darkened and he said: “Ersao, renovating the Southern main estate will take a lot of money. Where can I go to find that much money to renovate the estate? Besides, I still need to take my own future into consideration. My wife and I both don’t have spiritual energy, we can’t accept missions to earn money. In the future, we still need some money to get by.”
Dong Mingji replied: “Sange, we’re not rebuilding the entire estate from scratch and we don’t need you to use top-grade materials to do the renovation. We just need you to repair the areas that have been damaged so that it’ll be more convenient for us to receive guests.”
Wu Qianqing closed his eyes and nodded: “Alright. Then I’ll get the areas that have been damaged repaired.”
Wu Ruo glanced at Wu Qianqing and didn’t make a sound.
The rest saw that their scheme had succeeded and smiled smugly.
“Dad!” Wu Xi didn’t dare to believe that her own dad would agree to this matter so easily. The Southern main estate was so massive, that even if they were only going to renovate the damaged areas, it would still require a lot of money.
Ruan Lanru chided: “Xiao-Xi, the adults are talking, this is no place for you to interrupt. If you really want to talk, then let’s talk about the day when Xiao-Zhu injured my son. I heard from people who were there that you also kicked my son many times during the incident. How do you intend to settle this?”
Wu Xi glared at her angrily: “Erbomu, the one at fault in this matter is wuge.”
