Big thanks and a shout-out to biki for sending me a laptop so that I can translate LWSL more conveniently!
Special thanks to biki and saitohimea for the tips on ko-fi !
Ruan Zhizheng’s attention was on Wu Ruo watching him, so he coughed lightly and hurriedly controlled his emotions: “I heard that the Wu family is having a great calamity, that it requires the Wu family members to move out to avoid it, is that true?”
Wu Ruo nodded his head: “That’s right, after this year passes, everyone from the Wu family will move back into the Wu estate.”
“A little while ago, my gugu came to the Ruan estate to look for us.” The corner of Ruan Zhizheng’s lips hooked upwards with a hint of derision: “They hit me and even beat my people to death1This is referring to that incident in Chapter 22, where Ruan Zhizheng’s other two servants were beaten to death for molesting a maid from Shuli Garden., but now they want to drag their entire burdensome family over to live at our Ruan estate? Tell me, isn’t it ridiculous? I have no idea where she gets the cheek from2脸皮 (lian pi): I’ve mentioned before that lian pi refers to the skin on your face. Someone with thick lian pi is someone thick-skinned and therefore shameless. In English, to have the cheek to do something refers to being shameless enough to do something. It was the closest reference that I could think of, but I leave this footnote here to hopefully make it clearer..”
Wu Ruo knew he was referring to Ruan Lanru. Actually, he had already heard Shi Yi talking about this matter from before: “How did you3This is the plural you, referring to Ruan Zhizheng and his family, and not Ruan Zhizheng alone. reject her?”
“We simply said that we didn’t have any spare rooms for them to stay in. My gufu4Ruan Lanru’s husband, Wu Qianli. and dabiaoge5Wu Qianli and Ruan Lanru’s first son, Wu Anyi, he is the 2nd oldest male cousin in Wu Ruo’s generation. wanted their faces, so they just swept their sleeves and left.” Ruan Zhizheng said indifferently: “If they want to leave, then they can leave. Anyway, since they beat me up the last time, I’ve never thought of relying on them again. That’s why, this time, I wanted to come and let you know, I’m going to leave Gaoling City for a period of time.”
Wu Ruo’s gaze faltered: “Where are you going?”
Ruan Zhizheng snorted self-deprecatingly: “To look around and see who’s willing to take me in as a disciple.”
When he heard these words, for a fleeting moment, Wu Ruo wanted to contract Ruan Zhizheng and make him submit to Wu Ruo’s commands from here on out. However, he didn’t want to be too entangled with this person. On top of that, he was afraid that after he contracted this person, it would change Ruan Zhizheng’s destiny, and then Wu Ruo would never be able to find the person who wanted to kill him.
“You’re so talented, there’s definitely someone who will take you as their disciple, don’t be discouraged.”
Ruan Zhizheng’s lips split into a smile; he loved when Wu Ruo praised him like this. Only when he was in front of Wu Ruo would he be able to feel like he was capable. At least, he wasn’t as pathetic as Wu Ruo, who didn’t have spiritual energy.
Wu Ruo patted his shoulder and waited until Ruan Zhizheng met his eyes. He discreetly used enchanted speech to implant a suggestion in Ruan Zhizheng’s mind, word by word: “If. You. Find. Your. Master. You Must. Let. Me. Know.6The original Chinese also has this word by word punctuation, so I’ve copied the formatting as well.“
Ruan Zhizheng was lost in a trance and could only dumbly nod his head: “Alright.”
Following that, he came back to his senses, and his eyes flashed with doubt: “Why did I just…”
Why did he just say ‘alright’?
Wu Ruo redirected his attention and said, smiling: “You’re about to leave, yet we haven’t met in such a long time. How about having dinner here before you go?”
Ruan Zhizheng shook his head no: “No, I especially came over to bid you farewell, as well as to check if you’re getting by alright in Hei Manor. Afterwards, I’ll immediately be leaving Gaoling City.”
Wu Ruo raised an eyebrow: “In such a hurry?”
“Right now, Gaoling City’s safety isn’t secure. It’s still better to leave earlier, then I won’t have to watch the people from the Wu family fighting each other every day. If it keeps going on like this, the Wu family will sooner or later be ruined.” Ruan Zhizheng sized Wu Ruo up as he said: “Now that you’ve slimmed down, you’ve also become beautiful and charming, your husband will probably treat you better, won’t he?”
Wu Ruo deliberately said self-deprecatingly: “Someone who doesn’t have spiritual energy, what does it matter how good-looking they are?”
When Ruan Zhizheng heard this, in an instant, he felt much happier, because he assumed that Hei Xuanyi wasn’t treating Wu Ruo well, and so he comforted him: “You shouldn’t lose heart either, your husband will come to discover your positive attributes in time. It’s getting late, I should leave.”
“Alright then, I’ll send you off.”
Wu Ruo couldn’t wait for Ruan Zhizheng to quickly leave, once he sent that person off to the main gate, only when Ruan Zhizheng boarded his carriage did Wu Ruo relax.
Ruan Zhizheng lifted up the carriage curtains and shouted: “Xiao-Ruo, when I’ve settled down, I’ll write you a letter. If you’re unhappy at Hei Manor, then come and look for me.”
“Alright, have a safe journey!” Wu Ruo waved his hand at Ruan Zhizheng until he couldn’t see the carriage anymore, then he turned around and returned to Hei Manor.
He originally intended to arrange for people to follow after Ruan Zhizheng, but if they were discovered by Ruan Zhizheng’s future master, then it wouldn’t be good. Therefore, he gave up on this idea.
After Ruan Zhizheng let go of the carriage curtains, the smile fell off of his face and he sneered: “So what if his appearances are more charming and beautiful than before? Isn’t he still the same piece of shit?”
Not long after the carriage left Hei Manor, it suddenly came to a stop.
Ruan Sheng who was outside said: “Young master, I see the people of the Western main estate and the Southern main estate quarreling, it seems like they might start fighting. Are we to proceed ahead or switch to a different route?”
Ruan Zhizheng pulled aside the carriage curtains to take a look. With one glance, he saw Wu Xuanran and a few of his bodyguards.
Following, his gaze flickered, and he said into Ruan Sheng’s ear: “In a while, get someone to tell Wu Xuanran that his third son misses him and wants to invite him for a stay at Qing Manor.”
Hehe.
He was ‘good friends’ with Wu Ruo, so before leaving Gaoling City, he should still gift Wu Ruo a ‘generous gift’, such that Wu Ruo could have some ‘excitement’ to his days, only then would he be able to live up to their friendship.
Ruan Sheng nodded his head: “Shall we now…”
“Switch to a different route.”
Before Ruan Zhizheng left Gaoling City, there would still be someone monitoring his every single move. So, the matter of him getting someone to tell Wu Xuanran that Wu Qianqing missed his father quickly reached Wu Ruo’s ears.
Wu Ruo laughed mirthlessly: “He really is such a good friend.”
For his first visit to Hei Manor, he didn’t even bring a gift, yet when he was about to leave Gaoling City, he didn’t forget to send such a generous ‘gift’ to Wu Ruo, could it even be said that he wasn’t a good friend?
However, even if Ruan Zhizheng hadn’t done such a thing, Wu Xuanran who was used to living in sprawling estates wouldn’t be able to tolerate his current meager residences. Sooner or later, he would still come looking for Wu Ruo’s dad, so Wu Ruo didn’t intend to stop Wu Xuanran from coming over.
Wu Xuanran who had just fought a bout with the Second Master of the Western main estate didn’t seem to know about Ruan Zhizheng scheming against him. He returned home full of injuries and scars and immediately heard his sons and their wives quarreling, with no one at all to care about he who was covered in wounds. Only his wife hurriedly handed him some medicine to apply on them. In his heart, he was full of unspeakable anger and anguish. He had had so many sons, yet not a single one was filial to him.
At this moment, someone came to report to him, saying that his third son Wu Qianqing missed him and wanted to invite him to Qing Manor for a short stay.
When Wu Xuanran heard this, at first, he was angry. After that, he felt especially pleased with himself and felt that his son still couldn’t be without him. Then, when he thought about how his third son was currently staying in a large estate, he was even more gleeful about it, so he discussed with Mu Xiuwan about whether or not to go over and stay.
Mu Xiuwan said, worried: “Before we moved out, we already said very clearly, that we wouldn’t stay together with them. Now, if we go over and stay, would it be alright?”
Wu Xuanran said self-righteously: “We are his parents. No matter how poorly we speak to him, we are still his parents. Moreover, right now, he’s the one who invited us to go over. It’s not like we’re the ones brazenly begging him7死皮赖脸 (si pi lai lian): si pi refers to ‘dead skin’, or in this case, I think it would be something more like forcing yourself to be as thick skinned as possible. The phrase lai lian means ‘to be shameless’ but I really like the standalone meaning of the lai character here, which means ‘to deny one’s own responsibility or wrongdoing’ or ‘to go back on one’s word’. The idiom for ‘brazen’ here is specifically when you deny your own wrongdoing, and thicken your skin to shamelessly behave a certain way..”
Most importantly, he really couldn’t stand this tiny place anymore. He often smelled the odor of pig and cow urine wafting over from nearby. It was so horribly smelly8臭死人 (chou si ren): literally ‘so smelly that the odor would kill someone’., on top of that, there were dogs howling in the middle of the night. There was just no way to sleep peacefully.
Mu Xiuwan thought over it and agreed, however, they still wanted to put on airs, so they deliberately waited out two days before they went over.
Wu Qianjing and the others saw that their parents were packing a whole assortment of luggage onto a carriage and immediately guessed where they wanted to go: “Dad, Mum, are the two of you thinking of going over to sandi‘s place?”
Wu Xuanran felt a little awkward. In the first place, he was the one who said that he didn’t want to stay with Wu Qianqing, yet now they were moving to Qing Manor, he was simply slapping his own face.
“Your sandi begged me to go over for a short stay.”
Wu Qiantong said furiously: “Do you need to bring so many things for a short stay? Dad, from the beginning, you were the one who said you didn’t want to stay with him. Now, what do you mean by abandoning us and going over?”
Wu Xuanran and Mu Xiuwan looked away, feeling guilty.
Wu Qianbin said: “Dad, Mum, since you want to stay with sange, then we won’t stop you. However, after you go, I want our kids to move into your rooms.”
“Go ahead, go ahead.” Wu Xuanran didn’t have any thoughts of coming back again anyway. Taking the opportunity when his sons weren’t stopping him, he hurriedly drove the carriage away.
Wu Qiantong angrily said: “Sige, how could you let them go?”
Everyone no longer spoke.
Wu Xuanran and Mu Xiuwan gleefully arrived at Qing Manor, but unexpectedly, they were stopped outside the gates by the bodyguards: “We’ve never heard of our master inviting anyone to the manor for a short stay. The both of you had better go back instead.”
Wu Xuanran courteously replied: “We’re the parents of your master. All you have to do is go in and let them know, your master will definitely invite us in.”
“Our master and mistress have gone out and aren’t within the estate. Also, our master’s parents once said that they would never ever live together with our master. Yet right now, you’re trying to claim to be our master’s parents? What kind of evil schemes are you plotting, why would you pretend to be our master’s parents?”
Wu Xuanran was so angered that his whole face turned red in an instant: “We are indeed your master’s parents. If you don’t believe us, you can get the servants from Shuqing Garden to come out, then you’ll know if we’re real or fake!”
The bodyguard’s expression darkened: “If you still won’t go, then we’ll have to get our hands dirty to make you leave.”
Mu Xiuwan started to panic: “We really are your master’s parents!”
The bodyguard in charge immediately commanded: “Beat them up!”
Wu Xuanran was infuriated: “How dare you! I’m the father of your master!”
The bodyguards directly started punching and they were beating to kill.
The bodyguards that Hei Xin had assigned were all highly skilled. How could Wu Xuanran and his lot be their opponents? Not more than half a joss stick’s time later, Wu Xuanran and his lot were beaten till they dropped everything and fled, hastily boarding their carriage and leaving.
Aboard the carriage, Mu Xiuwan sulked: “What do we do now..”
“What else can we do? Right now, we can only…”
Wu Xuanran stopped halfway through his words. When they left, they had happily boarded the carriage and left. Now, where would they have the face to go back?
The more he thought about it, the harder it was to suppress the fury in his heart. He gingerly held onto his face that had been beaten swollen and said, fires raging for three zhang9火冒三丈 (huo mao san zhang): meaning “to get extremely angry” but I liked the literary image of it, so I left it directly translated. It’s fascinating to see all the different ways JYB uses to describe anger, but it’s also silly how the douchebags from the Wu estate only know how to get upset when they appear. Comical, really.: “Bastard10王八蛋 (wang ba dan): literally ‘egg of a wang ba‘, which is a kind of turtle. Often translated as ‘bastard’, so I’m using that. It’s definitely meant to be a swear word and cussing someone out.! It must be Wu Qianqing who planned this whole farce so that he could give us a good beating!”
Mu Xiuwan was also especially angry, but when she thought about it, it didn’t feel right: “According to my understanding of Qianqing, there’s no way that he’s this sort of person. Do you think we might’ve been fooled by someone else? Think about it, the person who came to relay the message wasn’t someone from Shuqing Garden and also wasn’t someone we recognized. If Qianqing really wanted to invite us, he also should’ve gotten Wu Xu, the one who manages the household, to come and invite us, shouldn’t he?”
Wu Qianqing had always been filial towards them, even if he was angry, there was no way he would be able to do something like beating his own parents.
“If it’s not him, then who could it be?”
Mu Xiuwan thought about it: “When we came out, Qianjing and the others didn’t bother stopping us either. In addition, Qianbin immediately wanted our rooms for their children to stay. Do you think they could’ve deliberately looked for someone to say that Qianqing had invited us to his manor for a short stay, so that they could snatch away our rooms? Or is it because they don’t want to take care of us anymore?”
Wu Xuanran was stunned. When he thought about it, he felt like this wasn’t unreasonable.
“Fuckers, the more they want us to move out, the more we won’t! Let’s go back immediately!”
After they left, the bodyguard stationed at Qing Manor immediately reported this incident to Wu Ruo.
After Wu Ruo heard everything, the corners of his lips curled up. In the future, no one would ever bother his parents again.
T/N: Thank you to everyone who has left a kind comment, I really appreciate the support. Please know that I’m reading every comment left, even if I don’t respond to them, and I’m very grateful that you take the time to leave something nice behind for me. I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will work hard to roll out the next chapter on time as well, we are finally almost at the three-digit mark \o/ 
