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Homophobia, mentions of suicide, brief mentions of genital mutilation
Wu Ruo ignored the various looks coming from all four sides and eight directions1The four sides and eight directions refer to ‘all around’, in case that was unclear., and looked at Ba Se with a calm expression.
Wu Shi never thought that Wu Ruo would actually do this sort of thing that offended public morals2伤风败俗 (shang feng bai su): I vaguely recall this idiom coming up before but I can’t remember if it actually did, so refresher note for everyone! This literally means ‘to damage customs and ruin conventions’., and hurriedly took advantage of the opportunity to jeer sarcastically at Wu Ruo: “Tsk3嗤 (chi): essentially the same meaning as ‘tsk’ in English, but I just wanted to leave a note that the Chinese way of writing the sound is ‘chi’., how shameless! Actually going to an inn to rendezvous with someone else. Last night, they must’ve been fucked boneless by another man4I took some liberties with the translation here. There isn’t a translation for the word 操 in this context but it’s generally used the way ‘fuck’ is. Wu Shi doesn’t say ‘boneless’ but 舒服 (shu fu) as in ‘comfortable, feels good’. It didn’t seem to convey the right tone, so I changed it a little. He is also being homophobic here by specifying that Wu Ruo (a man) was fucked by another man..”
Wu Shi deliberately didn’t name any names5In Chinese, it refers to both the given name and family name.. Everyone knew who he was talking about anyway.
“You, shut up!” Wu Anyi angrily chided.
He had seen with his own eyes what had happened and he also knew who Ba Se had marital relations with. That’s why he didn’t want to stir trouble with the Eastern main estate after they had just ‘mended’ relations with the Northern main estate.
Wu Shi was scolded without understanding the reason for it: “Erge, what’s with you?”
Didn’t his erge hate Wu Ruo too? Why didn’t he let Wu Shi speak?
“If you don’t know the truth of the situation, then don’t speak carelessly about it.” Wu Anyi paid attention to the expressions on the Eastern main estate’s side as he spoke.
Wu Ruo glanced at Wu Shi and sneered: “Ba Se, I think you’ve gotten the wrong person…”
“How could I have gotten the wrong person?” Ba Se still believed, to this point, that he’d had marital relations with Wu Ruo: “Xiao-Ruo, did you forget how passionate you were last night? Your legs were wrapped around my waist, and you couldn’t stop asking me to do it harder. You even wanted me to leave marks all over your body. That place of yours was so small and tight, it was so lovely…”
He said these words shamelessly, without regard for the situation that he was in, he simply said these words aloud.
“You fucking bastard!” An infuriated voice howled from amongst those of the Eastern main estate. Following that, a dark grey silhouette rushed toward Ba Se and landed a punch directly on him.
Ba Se was in so much pain that he immediately curled up his body.
And the one who had struck him was the fourth master of the Eastern main estate, Wu Qiansu, who was also Wu Sheng and Wu Xia’s father.
“I’ll6Wu Qiansu is in the same generation as Wu Qianqing, A.K.A Wu Ruo’s dad if anyone has lost track of all the Wu family members. Here, he’s using the very arrogant 老子 (lao zi) to refer to himself. Again, in case I’ve never explained this before; there are a few reasons why people like to use the term ‘lao zi’ as an arrogant way to refer to oneself and one of them is referencing Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism. beat an animal like you to death!” Wu Qiansu punched Ba Se across the face once more, full of anguish and fury. After that, he drew his long jian7If I remember correctly, I did not translate the weapon as ‘sword’ and instead opted to leave them as the pin yin terms because ‘sword’ doesn’t accurately translate the name of the weapon. A jian is a type of Chinese longsword and differs from Western swords. preparing to kill Ba Se.
“Fourth Master, please wait a moment.” Wu Bofang’s steward held Wu Qiansu back.
How could the current Wu Qiansu listen to anyone else’s mollifications?
“Get out of my way!”
Ever since his youngest son left Zuiyue Restaurant last night, he had still yet to return home. Wu Qiansu had sent people to look for him but they were all unable to find anything. He didn’t know if Wu Xia might have done something silly either8This is a euphemism for ‘committing suicide’.. At the thought that his youngest son might have sought an early end somewhere out there, Wu Qiansu’s heart ached to death and he wanted nothing more than to hack at Ba Se with a thousand strikes into thousands of pieces9千刀万剐 (qian dao wan gua): literally ‘a thousand dao and ten thousand gua‘. The dao here refers to a short dagger-like Chinese weapon and gua refers to the historical capital punishment of dismemberment. Wu Qiansu wants to turn Ba Se into human mincemeat..
“Fourth Master, please calm down!” Wu Bofang’s steward hurriedly dragged Wu Qiansu to a corner.
Those who were ignorant wondered: “That man called Ba Se clearly claimed to have marital relations with Wu Qianqing’s son, but why is Wu Qiansu having such a huge reaction?”
“Then you must not know. Last night, the one who actually had marital relations with Ba Se was Wu Qiansu’s youngest son, Wu Xia.”
“Ah? What exactly happened?”
Those who knew what had happened immediately explained last night’s events once over. Very quickly, everyone in the Wu estate found out about last night’s matter between Ba Se and Wu Xia. Even if Wu Qiansu hadn’t rushed forth to beat Ba Se, the matter couldn’t have remained hidden. Because last night, there had simply been too many witnesses to the scene of Ba Se and Wu Xia’s lovemaking. It was impossible to silence them all.
After everyone caught wind of the matter, they all felt that Wu Xia had gotten what he’d deserved. If he hadn’t schemed to harm someone else, would it have ended in him getting fucked by another man himself?
Wu Shi heard others discussing the matter from last night and pursed his lips. In his heart, he thought: Wu Ruo was really too lucky. Things had already gotten that far and he’d still managed to dodge it.
Wu Bofang, who was coming over from Bojin Garden, heard the sounds of everyone’s discussions and frowned deeply. The night before, he had just gotten the Southern and Northern main estates to reconcile. Now, it was the Northern and Eastern main estates’ turn to kick up a fuss. This year, things were really going very poorly for the Wu family.
He couldn’t help recalling the results of the ceremony that had been held during the winter solstice. Could it be that the Wu family really had an unavoidable disaster?
Elder Rong and Elder Xian who were trailing behind him were also thinking10不约而同 (bu yue er tong): ‘to be the same even without prior agreement/discussion’. All three of them had remembered the same thing even though none of them had brought it up to each other. of the divination that they’d seen during the winter solstice.
Elder Xian asked: “Clan Leader, it really has been very difficult for our Wu family recently. Did you perhaps bring up the matter of our winter solstice divination to Lord State Tutor11国师大人 (guo shi da ren): the respectful (or kiss ass, depends on who you ask) way of referring to Wu Chenzi A.K.A the leader of the main clan. Guo shi refers to the title bestowed upon him by the Emperor, which I have approximated as State Tutor. In other media, it has also been translated as ‘State Preceptor’ and other titles.
Essentially, it refers to the Emperor’s highest-ranked advisor and most trusted right-hand man. The person with this title is usually neck and neck with the Crown Prince in terms of how politically powerful they are, right after the Emperor himself.
To be clear, the State Tutor title/position is separate from Wu Chenzi’s Clan Leader title. As the State Tutor title is an actual government position, it ranks higher than his title as leader of the main clan, so Wu Chenzi is almost exclusively referred to as State Tutor.
Previously the term da ren showed up briefly and was translated as the title of the official I assumed it was referring to (I think, I have a horrible memory). Again, it’s a respectful way to refer to anyone with a government-assigned post and is gender-neutral.?”
Wu Bofang sighed: “Before the New Year, I already told Wu Yanlan12Gentle reminder that Wu Yanlan is Wu Chenzi’s youngest great-grandson and is implied within the story context to be greatly favored by Wu Chenzi. about this matter and asked him to relate it to the Lord State Tutor.”
Elder Rong said uncertainly: “Right now, so much time has already passed, has Lord State Tutor sent any news?”
Wu Bofang’s frown deepened: “As of today, I have yet to receive any news from Lord State Tutor. Perhaps his lordship13他老人 (ta lao ren): literally ‘the elderly him’, but it’s a respectful way to refer to someone of an older generation. If I’m not wrong, generation hierarchy-wise, Wu Chenzi is one or two generations above Wu Bofang. is preoccupied, and doesn’t have the time to oversee the matters of our side clan for now. Or maybe Wu Yanlan forgot to tell Lord State Tutor about this matter.
“For now14罢 (ba): usually means ‘to forget about it, to cease, to stop’ but in this case, Wu Bofang isn’t shutting off this conversation permanently. He is telling the elders to set it aside first and discuss it later., let’s not talk about this matter first. Right now, how are we going to resolve this situation between this Ba Se person and the Northern and Eastern main estates?”
Elder Rong and Elder Xian both sighed.
Wu Bofang walked over to Ba Se and said self-righteously: “Ba Se, if you hand over the antidote for the gu parasite, I’ll pardon you from death.”
Ba Se endured the pain and coughed a few times. A streak of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth: “If you let me go right now and let me leave with Xiao-Ruo, I’ll immediately hand the antidote over to you.”
Wu Bofang couldn’t help looking at Wu Ruo. Undeniably, the slimmer Wu Ruo really was a matchless beauty. Although he did resemble his mother a fair bit, his mother did not possess the elegance that he did. In terms of height, manner, confidence, heroic spirit, etc., Guan Tong fell short in every aspect compared to Wu Ruo.
Closely after, Wu Bofang received an icy and stern look from the man next to Wu Ruo. He hurriedly looked away15收回视线 (shou hui shi xian): literally ‘to keep/put away his line of sight’.: “Xiao-Ruo already has a husband, there’s no way he can leave with you.”
Ba Se snorted: “I’ve already had marital relations with Xiao-Ruo, why can’t I take him with me?”
Wu Bofang’s expression darkened: “The one who had marital relations with you wasn’t him.”
Ba Se froze.
If it wasn’t Wu Ruo, then who was it?
He thought of himself having had sex with an ugly man whose name he didn’t even know16不知明 (bu zhi ming): over here I assumed JYB made a typo when they meant 不知名 (bu zhi ming). Bu zhi means ‘not to know; unknown’. The original ming used in the text has multiple meanings but commonly means ‘bright; public, open’. The ming I assume it should actually be is ‘name’. If anyone recognizes the original phrase, please let me know in the comments! and felt disgusted throughout his entire body.
“You’re lying to me.” Ba Se didn’t believe it.
Wu Bofang laughed coldly: “It’s up to you whether you want to believe it or not. However, I’ll tell you this: we already found a shaman to cure the gu parasite. It’s just that they won’t arrive in Gaoling City that quickly. If you have any sense in you, you’ll immediately cure the gu parasite for the people from the Southern main estate. When everyone from the Southern main estate has been cured, I’ll immediately let you go. If you’re unwilling, then you can wait for those from the Eastern main estate to deal with you instead.”
He was telling the truth. The shaman that his acquaintance had invited was already on the journey here. It was only that they couldn’t be sure that the shaman would be able to cure the people of the Southern main estate of the gu parasite.
Ba Se snorted: “If you really found a shaman, would you need me to cure them of the gu parasites? Your words would only fool an idiot.”
Wu Bofang saw that he was unwilling and so, he didn’t speak to Ba Se any further. He just said to the people of the Eastern main estate: “Then, I’m handing this person over to all of you to deal with.”
When the steward who was currently holding Wu Qiansu back heard this, he immediately let go of Wu Qiansu.
Wu Qiansu held his long jian up high and rushed forth: “I’ll kill you, you filthy beast!”
Abruptly, a loud, rumbling sound came from the skies. Following closely, the ground trembled and the mountains shook, everyone hurried to steady themselves: “What’s going on?”
Wu Ruo was held in Hei Xuanyi’s embrace by the other whose bright and crystal clear gaze was directed somewhere in the distance.
It was at this moment, countless silhouettes flew into the estate and rushed toward Ba Se. Taking advantage of this moment while everyone was still out of their senses, they chopped apart the iron chains that were on Ba Se’s limbs and speedily brought him out of the Wu estate.
Wu Qiansu saw that Ba Se was being rescued by someone and anxiously yelled: “Ba Se is getting rescued!”
The people of the Eastern main estate immediately summoned spirits and specters to chase after Ba Se and his rescuers.
Hei Xuanyi looked in the direction that Ba Se had left in and a cold glimmer flashed across his black gaze.
Ba Se’s people had already prepared an escape route ahead of time. They had also planned how to avoid the pursuit of the spirits and specters of the Wu family ahead of time. That was why, after leaving Gaoling City, they easily shook off the various spirits and specters that the Eastern main estate had let loose on them.
They only slowed down their pace after they had left the boundary of Gaoling City, hiding in a wooded mountain that was devoid of people.
“Young master17少主 (shao zhu): yet another title that translates to ‘young master’. The title 主人 (zhu ren) or 主子 (zhu zi) means ‘master’ as in ‘owner’, like someone who owns a bunch of slaves and servants. Shao zhu is usually the son of zhu ren/zhu zi, who has yet to inherit the title yet. These people who came to save Ba Se serve under his father.
As a side note, the servants in Hei manor call Hei Xuanyi zhu zi so his hypothetical child who will inherit his position (usually the first son) would also be called shao zhu. , are you alright?”
Ba Se massaged his wrists that had been bound for a whole night and snorted coldly: “I’m fine, it’s just a pity that I didn’t manage to take Wu Ruo away with me.”
“Young master, we will have opportunities again in the future.”
Ba Se suddenly thought of what Wu Bofang had said and his eyebrows furrowed into a frown: “Do any of you know who I was with last night?”
“We heard the Wu family saying that the person who spent the night with master18Why do the servants switch from calling Ba Se shao zhu to zhu zi? Your guess is as good as mine. I’m guessing it could be that Ba Se’s father gave him his own bunch of servants who listen only to Ba Se and not even Ba Se’s father, so they would call him zhu zi. last night was Eastern main estate’s Wu Xia.”
“I clearly saw that it was Wu Ruo, how could it be Wu Xia?”
The bodyguard said: “Young master, you could’ve fallen to the Wu family’s illusory arts, that’s why you saw Wu Xia as Wu Ruo.”
“If that’s the case, there’s a chance that Wu Anshu was unable to get Wu Ruo to show up, so he found someone else as a replacement to fool19敷衍 (fu yan): this means ‘to do something perfunctorily just to get it over with’. I couldn’t think of the right word to use here, so please settle for this note. me?” Ba Se’s expression darkened. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this was likely: “Wu Anshu, you fucking dare to fool me? I wanted Wu Ruo, but you shoved such inferior goods to me? Do you think I, Ba Se, am so easy to fool around with? You better fucking remember this, there will definitely come a day that I, Ba Se, will clear this debt with you.”
The bodyguard looked at their surroundings: “Young master, it isn’t suitable to linger here, it would still be better to hurry and leave this place.”
Ba Se nodded his head, however, it was as if his body had been restrained by someone, he could not move.
He couldn’t help but be alarmed: “What’s going on?”
The bodyguards were in a similar situation as him. Not only could they not move their bodies, but they couldn’t even speak either.
Ba Se hurriedly chanted an incantation. The talismans on the clothes of the bodyguards flew out and aimed behind his body, but it was as if they hit the air, there was no effect whatsoever.
He anxiously said, angered: “Who is it pretending to be a god and messing with the supernatural20装神弄鬼 (zhuang shen nong gui): means ‘to purposely make a mystery of simple things; deliberately mystifying; purposely obscure’ (from Pleco Dictionary). I like how indignant the Chinese sounded so I left it literally translated.? Show your face!”
Still, no one responded to him.
Following after, the lower hem of his clothes was lifted up and his pants were removed. Then, a cold breeze blew past his lower half and made him shiver involuntarily.
Ba Se thought that someone was controlling very powerful gui and shen to capture them. On top of that, he could be very sure that the other party was not someone from the Gaoling City Wu family. Currently, in the Wu family, there was no one powerful enough to avoid his talismans entirely21In the text, it is more literally “there was no one powerful enough that even [Ba Se’s] talismans couldn’t hit the other party’s gui and shen” but the sentence is quite clunky so I edited it and leave you this footnote..
“This junior doesn’t know how I might’ve offended you, senior. Could I invite you to come forth and meet me22Over here, Ba Se has switched over to very formally phrased and respectful language. Previously, he was yapping about like the arrogant bastard he is. It’s a little hard to translate into English, but hopefully, I captured the gist of the tone.
More literally the dialogue goes something along the lines of: “Don’t know how junior (Ba Se referring to himself) offended senior (mysterious powerful person), would like to invite senior to come out and meet.”?”
In the end, still, no one responded to him. However, the little Ba Se in his lower half was seized by someone.
Ba Se saw that his family jewels had landed in someone else’s hands and finally betrayed a trace of fear: “What does Senior intend to do? Senior, in the future, I will have to rely on it to carry on my ancestral line, you absolutely must not injure it!”
The bodyguards by his side widened their eyes and could only watch as their master’s family jewels were twisted like fried dough twists23This is what it looks like., aggressively turning in a few circles. It scared them so much that they involuntarily tried to tighten their own legs together.
“Ah—!”
At once, a shrill, miserable, and bloodcurdling shriek came from the wooded mountain. 
