Special thanks to biki, mavi, an anonymous supporter, mu, and Kimumchi for the tips on ko-fi!
Wu Bofang hastily sent people to follow after the giant yao beast. He only breathed a sigh of relief when he confirmed that the giant yao beast was far away from Gaoling City. Then, he turned around to survey the magic practitioners on the city gates. If they weren’t dead, then they had suffered serious internal injuries. It would be difficult for them to recover within a short period of time.
This was his first time encountering such a massive yao beast since he’d established the Gaoling City branch of the Wu family. With the skills of the magic practitioners in Gaoling City, they were simply no match for the giant yao beast. If it wasn’t for the giant crow yao just now that chased the giant yao beast away, he was afraid that all of the magic practitioners would’ve died there and then, and Gaoling City would also become ruins.
Elder Rong appeared in front of Wu Bofang to report the casualties: “Clan Leader, we already did a head count check. Other than the Western main estate that’s in charge of Gaoling City’s security this year, the fatalities from the Eastern, Southern and Northern main estates that arrived later were all bodyguards…”
Wu Bofang took a deep breath, and asked with a shaking voice: “How many people1When he says ‘people’, he is referring to Wu family members, not their servants, bodyguards, attendants, etc. from the Western main estate died?”
Elder Rong’s expression was anguished: “Other than the children who are out for training or who were attending lessons in the academy, the Western main estate’s first and third masters, as well as their families, have all unfortunately lost their lives. In addition, the second master’s oldest son as well as your son, old master, Xuanjun2For anyone confused, there are about four generations living within the Wu family estate right now.
Wu Bofang belongs to the first generation. Those with the generational name ‘Xuan’ belong to the second generation, those with the generational name ‘Qian’ belong to the third generation, and the youngest generation has the generational name ‘An’ or have not received the generational name like Wu Zhu, Wu Ruo and Wu Xi.
Those of the ‘Qian’ generation are currently referred to as ‘爷 (ye)’, so those of the ‘Xuan’ generation are referred to as ‘主爷 (zhu ye)’. I have decided to translate this as ‘old master’ even though it’s not quite what that means.
As a side note, the random ‘Xuanjun’ character is from Wu Xuanran/Wu Ruo’s grandfather’s generation. He is Wu Bofang’s son and one of Wu Xuanran’s brothers. The ‘second master’s oldest son’ refers to someone from Wu Ruo’s generation., he also…”
When Wu Bofang heard this, his body swayed violently, and everything before his eyes turned black.
Elder Rong hurriedly supported Wu Bofang: “Clan Leader, are you alright3Translator commentary: Of course he’s not fine, you peanut. His son just died.?”
In an instance, Wu Bofang’s appearance aged dramatically, he waved Elder Rong away, agonized: “I’m fine, I’m fine. Arrange for the injured to be attended to first. As for the other matters, we’ll discuss it later.”
“Yes, sir.”
Elder Rong first arranged for those who had gotten injured to return home to receive treatment, then he arranged for people to properly bury the bodyguards who had died. As for those of the Western main estate who had passed away, he got people to carry them back to the estate first4Reminder that there are funeral rites and etc. for those who can afford to have them done. So the Wu family isn’t wasting money/resources doing the funeral rites for the bodyguards who passed away, but they’ll still want to get it done for their own people..
When he finished arranging all the matters, he returned to the Wu estate and immediately heard that the Western main estate’s second master, as well as the second master’s mother5These would be someone from the ‘Qian’ generation and his mother, a wife of someone from the ‘Xuan’ generation. So, Wu Bofang’s grandson and his daughter-in-law., wanted Wu Bofang to mediate for them. They wanted those of the Southern main estate to be heavily punished; if they hadn’t unleashed such a massive yao beast, then the Western main estate wouldn’t have lost so many lives.
Originally, the Western main estate already didn’t have as many people as the other main estates. Now, after this massive battle, the Western main estate was even more desolate.
Wu Bofang and Elder Xian had only just mollified the Western main estate’s second master and his mother, convincing them first to go back and rest, when they received news that the Eastern main estate’s fourth master6Another peanut from the ‘Qian’ generation. had brought people to the Northern main estate to settle scores with someone and that they had gotten into a fight.
“Why have things turned out this way?”
Wu Bofang suddenly felt that he was very tired and didn’t have the heart to oversee these matters anymore.
Elder Rong said: “Clan Leader, I’m afraid this is our Wu family’s disaster. It’s still best to quickly think of a solution, otherwise, it’ll be over for our Wu family.”
Elder Xian sighed: “Right now, it’s only the third month7He is referring to the third lunar month, not March according to the solar calendar, so it hasn’t been translated as March., there’s still more than half of the year left to go. I don’t know what else could happen in the future8The nuance is more like he can’t imagine how bad it’s going to get, if things are already so terrible in just the third month..”
Wu Bofang sat down on a chair, exhausted, not wanting to move anymore.
“Bofang, write immediately to Lord State Tutor and ask him for some suggestions,” Wu Bofang’s wife, Yao Shuyuan, said as she walked into the room.
“That’s right, that’s right!” Wu Bofang hastily mustered his energy, getting the steward to prepare ink and paper.
It was at this moment, a servant from the estate hurriedly led a tall bodyguard in: “Clan Leader, someone from Huangdu City has arrived.”
Wu Bofang immediately stood up and looked at the person who had arrived: “You’re… you’re Lord State Tutor’s personal bodyguard, Bodyguard Yao9Wu Bofang is speaking very respectfully to this person, addressing them with the polite ‘you’.?”
When he had gone to meet Wu Chenzi, he had met this person twice.
Bodyguard Yao smiled: “Yes, actually, this junior is from the Huangdu Yao family. My name is Jinkun, my father is Yao Shuzhi, so I should actually address10尊称 (zun cheng): literally ‘to respectfully address’. Extra polite. both of you as gufu and gumu11If you noticed, Jinkun’s father has the same family name and generational name as Yao Shuyuan. And by saying that he should address them as gufu and gumu, he’s effectively telling us that Yao Shuzhi and Yao Shuyuan are siblings. 姑母 (gu mu) is a similar title to what Dandan calls Wu Xi, except it’s used for your father’s sister who has gotten married. 姑父 (gu fu) refers to your gumu‘s husband.
Yao Jinkun is Wu Bofang and Yao Shuyuan’s nephew, from the same generation as those with the ‘Xuan’ generational character. However, he is from the Yao family, so he won’t carry the ‘Xuan’ generational character. As a refresher, for families that use generational characters, each family will have a record that lists generational characters to be used, often many generations in advance, and these records of which character to use for which generation is unique to each family..”
Yao Shuyuan said, surprised: “You’re Shuzhi’s son?”
Ever since she had gotten married, she very rarely returned to Huangdu City. Even if she went back, it wasn’t guaranteed that she would meet all of the people from the Yao family. On top of that, she was only a shu nv12庶女 (shu nv): a daughter by a concubine, not the official wife. Yao Shuyuan isn’t considered an illegitimate child, but she ranks very low on the pecking order. within the Yao family, her status wasn’t prominent and the status of the person she had married wasn’t prominent either13The families in Huangdu City are usually the main branches of those families, since it’s the capital city of Tianxing (the fictional country that the story is set in). The Gaoling Wu family is a side branch, so they’re less powerful and less prestigious than the Huangdu Wu family even though they descend from the same ancestors.. When she returned to the Yao estate, the people of the Yao family wouldn’t all take the initiative to receive her, so it was quite normal that she didn’t recognize the person in front of her.
“That’s right, gumu.”
Yao Shuyuan hurriedly invited him to enter and take a seat: “Is there something we can help with14Actually very different from the original sentence, but I couldn’t think of a better way to phrase it without losing the nuance. In Chinese, Yao Shuyuan is speaking very formally and politely to Yao Jinkun even though he’s younger and of a junior generation. Normally, just by generations alone, Yao Jinkun should be deferring to Yao Shuyuan and she would be speaking to him more informally.
In this case, since Jinkun is from the main family branch and his father is most likely a son by an official wife, so status wise, he’s much more prominent than Yao Shuyuan. What Yao Shuyuan says is much closer to ‘I wonder what brings you here to the Wu family this time’, but it isn’t mean to sound rude or sarcastic. I’ve modified the sentence to better convey the nuance rather than to stick to the original.?”
Yao Jinkun accepted the tea that the servants presented him: “I’m here to deliver a letter to the Wu family on behalf of Lord State Tutor.”
When Elder Rong and Elder Xian heard this, they hurriedly perked up.
Wu Bofang hurriedly asked: “Has Lord State Tutor already come up with a solution for the Wu family’s disaster this time?”
Yao Jinkun’s expression was grave as he took the letter out from within his robes15Specifically, he’s taking this out from the chest area of his robes. I couldn’t think of a way to phrase it without sounding awkward. and presented it to Wu Bofang: “Gufu, I think it’s better if you take a look for yourself.”
Wu Bofang speedily tore the letter open, skimming through it once. The contents of the letter was not long. In the end, there were only three words: split the family.
Wu Bofang’s expression froze with shock, he didn’t even notice when the letter fell from his hands.
At the same time as this, Wu Ruo also received a letter sent from Huangdu City. There were also only three words written on it: split the family.
He smiled faintly and slowly folded the letter away with care.
Although the letter left no indication of the sender’s identity, but he knew that it was sent by the Crown Prince Ling Mohan16The language here is a little ambiguous. It could be personally sent by Ling Mohan, or he could’ve gotten a trusted confidante to write and send it out on his behalf. I’m pointing this out, for future reference or re-reads..
On that day of the winter solstice sacrificial rites, when the three joss sticks while Wu Bofang was inquiring with the deities, Wu Ruo already anticipated that Wu Bofang would definitely ask Wu Chenzi for ideas on how to resolve this disaster. That’s why, the condition for sending Ling Mohan back to Huangdu City was very simple. Wu Ruo got him to arrange for one of his17Ling Mohan, not Wu Ruo. It’s most likely that Ling Mohan has spies among Wu Chenzi’s people because Wu Chenzi supports the second prince instead of Ling Mohan. Reminder that Wu Chenzi is related to the second prince on the prince’s maternal side. spies close to Wu Chenzi to secretly influence the results when Wu Chenzi divined for the solution to the Wu family’s disaster, so that splitting the Gaoling City Wu family would be the solution to the disaster.
Now that he’d received the letter, it meant that Ling Mohan’s spy had already successfully convinced Wu Chenzi and that Wu Chenzi had even sent someone to get Wu Bofang to split the family.
Suddenly, the letter in Wu Ruo’s hand was snatched away by someone.
“Dasao, what are you smiling about?” Hei Xuantang opened the letter and took a look: “Splitting the family?”
Following that, his eyes widened: “Dasao, it can’t be that you want to split from dage, can it?”
Hei Xuanyi glanced at Wu Ruo.
Wu Ruo rolled his eyes at Hei Xuantang irritatedly: “What are you saying?”
He snatched the letter back and burnt it.
Wu Ruo said: “Sidi18Reminder: fourth younger brother. He’s addressing Hei Xuantang the way Hei Xuanyi would, since he’s Hei Xuanyi’s wife and a wife follows their husband., since you’re so idle every day, I’ll trouble you to help me out with something.”
Previously, when they had returned to Hei Manor after seeing the giant yao beast leaving Gaoling City, this idiot had actually been sleeping soundly, unmoved by thunder19雷打不动 (lei da bu dong): literally ‘cannot be moved by thunder’. The idiom actually refers to someone who is unyielding, or plans that don’t change no matter what, or a rigid adherence to the rules. JYB’s usage of the idiom isn’t quite correct for the context, but I guess it works.. He wasn’t the slightest bit afraid that the giant yao beast would come attacking and stomp him flat.
Hei Xuantang’s gaze brightened: “Dasao, what would you like me to do?”
Ever since he’d arrived in Gaoling City, he’d had nothing better to do all day. Once he was done eating, he would sleep, once he was done sleeping, he would eat. There was nobody to accompany him to play around. Wu, wu20Sobbing sounds., he was really pitiful.
Now, he finally had something to do! There was truly nothing better.
“A few days ago, I bought a residence next door. You’ll be responsible for helping me to find someone to renovate it. This matter needs to be settled as soon as possible, do you understand?”
Hei Xuantang widened his eyes again: “Dasao, you really do want to separate from dage after all!”
“…” Wu Ruo couldn’t be bothered to explain to him.
At this moment, Dandan ran into the main hall, excitedly sprawling into Wu Ruo’s arms: “Daddy! Father! I’m home!”
“Did you get hurt?” Wu Ruo immediately held him up to check his body.
“Nope!” Dandan slid down from Wu Ruo’s body, and said happily: “Daddy, I have a gift for you!”
Wu Ruo raised an eyebrow: “What kind of gift?”
“Xixi21As in Ji Xi. He’s addressing Ji Xi affectionately LOL, Jiujiu, come in quickly!”
Ji Xi rolled his eyes as he entered: “Didn’t I tell you not to call me Xixi?”
This little brat originally called him dagege22Literally ‘big brother’.. However, he felt that this form of address rendered him beneath Wu Ruo and the others, so he didn’t allow the little brat to call him that. Who knew that the little brat would change to calling him Xixi? It sounded exactly like a young maiden’s name.
Jiujiu followed behind Ji Xi. A small thing that had been burnt to black ashes hung from its mouth, its body was not only emitting white smoke, but it was also emanating a smell of roasted meat.
Hei Xuantang sniffed the air: “Little nephew, are you gifting dasao a roasted whole pig23Usually roasted whole pigs are for major, joyful occasions, like a wedding or some celebration on a similar scale. In modern context, from my experience as Chinese diaspora not living within China, roasted whole pigs are eaten during the Lunar New Year, at weddings, during prayers before the filming of a drama series or movie. It can be part of a religious offering, but that’s not entirely necessary.?”
When the little thing hanging from Jiujiu’s mouth heard this, it immediately struggled vehemently, making loud ‘ao ao’ noises.
Hei Xuantang was startled: “Ah! It’s still alive!”
Ji Xi explained: “This is that giant yao beast from just now. Jiujiu accidentally burnt it into this state just now.”
Wu Ruo couldn’t help sizing Jiujiu up. This bird looked plain and ordinary, it was only that its body was bigger than other birds, but who would’ve thought that it was even more powerful than this giant yao beast? It probably wasn’t just an ordinary bird.
Jiujiu placed the giant yao beast in front of Wu Ruo.
Wu Ruo was feeling a little conflicted.
After experiencing a lifetime before, he had known early on that after this giant yao was released, it would need over a month before it would recover its physical body24LWSL is a fantasy novel that’s in a ‘cultivation’ setting. The main focus of the novel in this arc isn’t the cultivation setting, but just some additional information for those who are unfamiliar.
Yao are generally living things (plants, animals, etc.) which gain human-like sentience through cultivation. In some fictional world building, yao can cultivate into an entirely human-looking form. The stronger a yao‘s cultivation, the more human-like they can appear. Before reaching the human resemblance stage, lower level yao may be smaller in size or have less defined bodies, and higher level yao tend to be larger with more features.
Forcibly sealing away yao can cause them to gradually lose their cultivation, depending on what kind of seals are used. It’s possible that the seals used on the giant yao beast caused its cultivation to deteriorate and reduced its spiritual power, which is why Wu Ruo mentions that it required some time to recover.. And according to its personality that hated others disturbing its slumber, it would definitely come and cause trouble for Wu Qianjing and his lot again. So, he had already decided that he would let this giant yao deal with the people of the Wu family, and when the time came, he would let it kill as many people as it could. And as for Wu Ruo, he didn’t intend to form a contract with this giant yao again either.
However, he would never have expected that the final result in the end, this giant yao was still sent back to him. Was this a sign that the wheels of fate were still turning in this direction?
Dandan saw that Wu Ruo had no sign of a smile and he immediately asked: “Daddy, don’t you like it? It can protect you!”
Wu Ruo ruffled his bangs: “It’s not that I don’t like it, but right now it still needs to recover first.”
Dandan said: “I’ll let Jiujiu take care of it!”
Jiujiu immediately picked up the giant yao with its beak and left the room.
Hei Xuantang said enviously: “I’m really envious of dasao, little nephew is so filial to you.”
“He’s my son, if he isn’t filial to me, who would he be filial to?” Wu Ruo picked Dandan up and kissed his little white and tender face.
Dandan giggled.
Hei Xuanyi watched the father and son pair being so close to each other and the corners of his lips curled.
Ji Xi rolled his eyes, but, the tiniest bit of envy flickered in his gaze.
It was all well and good at the Hei Manor, but it was all doom and gloom on Wu Bofang’s side. How could the Wu estate that he and his father had painstakingly built from scratch be split so easily with just a word? If it was really split, in the future, it was possible that it would not be able to reunite, then Gaoling City would not have a Wu family branch again.
Therefore, he would never agree to splitting the family.
Elder Rong and Elder Xian had originally not agreed to splitting such a great clan into scattered fragments either. However, every day, if it wasn’t the Western main estate coming to sob and kick up a fuss, then it was listening to the sounds of the Eastern and Northern main estates fighting. The Southern main estate wasn’t well-behaved either. Every day, they would run over to pester Wu Bofang about the shaman that he had invited.
Sometimes, as luck would have it, the Southern and Western main estates would both come looking for Wu Bofang at the same time. Then, they would immediately devolve into roaring arguments in front of Wu Bofang. In the end, once they started, they wouldn’t stop.
In the short period of just five days, Wu Bofang’s two temples gained a lot more white streaks.
Elder Rong and Elder Xian could only advise Wu Bofang to let everyone move out. However, this was only a stopgap measure. After this year had successfully passed, then they could get everyone to move back in.
Translator’s note: From January 2023, I am starting a Patreon account. Chapters of LWSL will still be free and released on KnoxT. My Patreon will include additional commentary, lengthier footnotes, unedited excerpts of future chapters, and some behind the scenes content. There is also a tier which will allow you to request for translations of a specific excerpt from future chapters. Subscribing is completely optional, as all novel content will eventually be posted for free on KnoxT. I am not locking advanced chapters, only short excerpts.
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As always, thank you for supporting my translation of LWSL in any way, whether it’s by reading it without ad-blockers on KnoxT, commenting, sharing with others, tipping me on ko-fi, or subscribing to my Patreon. I’m very grateful to everyone, even if I don’t reply to every single comment. It means a lot to me that there are others out there who appreciate my translations. Have a healthy, peaceful and contented 2023!
![He Lived Like You [End of the World]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/HLLY.jpg "He Lived Like You [End of the World]")
