CH 20

T/N: In case you forgot, Li Yanzhen is the emperor’s name, and Xu Tong is the guy they were betting against in the casino. Please ask me if you wish to repost this translation on another site.

Chen Siheng’s stance seemed to imply that he was intending to perish together with this enemy. Light reflected in a sharp glint off the dagger in his hand as it stabbed towards Chu Mingyun viciously.

Chu Mingyun turned his head, and squeezing Chen Siheng’s hand, he shoved him away with ease. Chen Siheng fell heavily to the ground, his dagger dropped out of his hand and fell far away, but he didn’t even look at it. As soon as he got up he lunged towards Chu Mingyun again and flailed indiscriminately towards him. He actually snapped Chu Mingyun’s hair tie abruptly. Long crow-coloured hair immediately scattered over his shoulders.

”Tsk.” Chu Mingyun ran out of patience and threw him to the ground. He lifted his foot and stepped on the shoulder of Chen Siheng, who was struggling to get up but couldn’t move anymore.

”Brat, what are you trying to do?” Chu Mingyun’s eyes scanned him.

Chen Siheng’s eyes were reddened, and in a voice so loud it resembled a roar: “You killed her! You killed her!”

”Oh,” Chu Mingyun sneered, “Before you even grow up, you’ve become muddled by infatuation with pretty ladies?”

”She saved me! Only her1!” Chen Siheng was already in tears, “You said that you were colleagues of my grandfather, said you’ll take care of matters for me, but where were you when my family was ruined? Only her! It was only her who saved me from the fire!”

”If she didn’t cause your family’s ruin, would you even need her to rescue you?” Chu Mingyun said coldly.

”You’re speaking nonsense!” Chen Siheng glared at him, “As if I’d believe what you say!”

Su Shiyu walked over, looked down at him and said, “Earlier you said, that it was Miss Jingshu who went into the fire to rescue you?”

”Yes! “

”Then do you remember, how you described it to us at the Red Sleeve House? “Su Shiyu said.

Chen Siheng was suddenly speechless.

Su Shiyu then said slowly: “She said, you escaped from the house by yourself, and then fainted in front of her carriage.” He gazed downward at Chen Siheng, and continued: “There’s something wrong about Miss Jingshu, you’re aware of it in your heart, aren’t you?”

Chen Siheng remained silent.

”You deliberately ignore and avoid it, because you are afraid that once you figure it out, you would no longer have anyone to rely on?”

This man’s voice was so gentle, and each word broke the self-deception that he used to go on living2. Chen Siheng closed his eyes, and lay back on the ground as if sapped of strength. Tears slid off his pale cheeks, and fell to the ground.

The author has something to say:

Su Shiyu: “Wash up and sleep.”

T/N: Thought this was going to be a simple chapter to translate, took even longer than the previous chapter ORZ. Acquired an adopted child, check. This is starting to resemble Word Of Honor/ Tian Ya Ke a bit. Because wordpress doesn’t allow you to edit CSS unless you buy a premium plan, we can only have footnotes instead of embedded tooltips like the sort that Chrysanthemum Garden uses. But I hope you’ll read them anyway because it took 2 hours to write them ;-;

2. 借以喘息 – these two phrases put together literally means “for the purpose of gasping for breath”, so I’m going to interpret this as it being so important that he feels like he needs it to keep living.

3. 宅子 – this is a colloquial term for a residence that has an attached courtyard. The same word was used to talk about Chen Siheng’s family “house”. And Chu Mingyun got another one outside the city to put Chen Siheng in. Basically, these people be ROLLING in money.

4. 御炉浮香，莺啭未央。金阙晓钟开万户，玉阶仙仗拥千官。This actually stumped me a bit because the author used different words for the first verse (matching phrases highlighted in blue), but this is actually a reference to the poem 《奉和中书舍人贾至早朝大明宫》by Cen Shen. The poem is in seven-character-verse ode-style, and the original verse goes: 鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒，莺啭皇州春色阑。金阙晓钟开万户，玉阶仙仗拥千官。Note that the last two verses are the same, but instead of talking about the spring scenery and the cold light of early morning, the author used four character verses to talk about the imperial incense and the call of orioles. Because the call of orioles has yet to stop, spring is not over. I can’t remember if the earlier chapters mentioned that the current season is spring, but I’ll edit this if that is the case.

5. 讪笑 – jeering at others. I’m also not sure why the author used this word, perhaps she intended to use a word for self-mockery but accidentally used this one instead.

6. 犬子 – literally meaning ‘son of a dog’, it is a very self-deprecating term for one’s own son.

7. 睡我 – one of the less impolite ways to say “f*ck me” but basically implies that Xu Tong wanted to be the top in the supposed reward of spending a night with Chu Mingyun.

8. 不冷不热 – literally means neither cold nor hot, refers to having a lukewarm attitude that is neither intimate nor distant.

9.般配 – to be a good match, as in an arranged marriage.

10. 一宿都未合眼 – this is the same phrase used by Xu Yin, which means that Su Shiyu was likely eavesdropping on their conversation even as he was walking by the side. Enhanced hearing is one of the supposed benefits of proficiency in martial arts.