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Comparable to Severing All Relations (3)
T/N: Translated by Jen on Broken Jinsei! Please do not repost my translations! All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
Luo Rong Yan blankly stood in the same spot. Towards his wife, his daughter still carried a ‘hating the iron for not becoming steel’ attitude, but towards him, she seemingly just completely ignored?! He always knew that his daughter didn’t like concubines, tongfangs, and such. He once thought that it was because of her mother, but afterwards, he learned that this was just a portion of the reason. In her bones, she just detested these. He once thought, the father-daughter feelings between them were still pretty good. After all, others shouldn’t be able to affect this share of familial love between them, but turns out, this wasn’t the case either. Right now, afraid, it has already turned into disgust.
He’d always thought that his wife and concubines were harmonious, and although he didn’t have many children, it wasn’t few either. Setting the smaller ones aside, his eldest son and eldest daughter were both extremely outstanding. For his entire life, he was free and unfettered, yet was able to obtain what others may not necessarily be able to obtain even with great effort. How could he not be proud, even showing off in front of some friends before. And looking at it now, he was actually very laughable, very defeated, very incompetent, and perhaps…………..even the kind of person that his own daughter looked down on the most.
Luo Rong Yan slightly returned to his senses, seeing his wife silently shedding tears. He knew, it was those ruthless words of their daughter’s that hurt her. He knew she loved him, this bit didn’t need to be doubted. In the past, she’s never really displayed jealousy before, but he’d felt it was normal. Recalling his daughter’s words, he suddenly felt, how abnormal.
“Asking older sister-in-law to please leave. In the future……….this whole family of relative, don’t do some meaningless things, having the relation grinded into nothing. In the Luo family, the person mother loves the most is precisely Wan Wan. If you really make her unhappy, without saying another word, mother will just stand up for her. You think, you, in my mother eyes, can have much weight? Moreover, father deeply respects mother, so mother’s influence towards father is extremely big. Similarly, Wan Wan is also the grandchild father likes the most, not surpassed by anyone.”
As long as one wasn’t a moron, who wouldn’t be able to understand the meaning in these words. It was just calmly stating a fact, but also a warning and threat. She and her husband brought their children and a younger sister-in-law into the capital, traveling thousands of miles. Could it be that it was just for the sake of sightseeing? Naturally, no.
In the beginning, when the Zhang family and the Luo family made marriage ties, Zhang father and Luo Pei Shan were of equal rank. But Zhang father, till his death, was still nothing more than just a high fourth rank, his descendants also average. Yet, Luo Pei Shan right now was a high first rank, and even the Head Minister of Appointments that was the head of the six ministries, extremely illustrious. This kind of wealth and honor, originally should’ve been hers, but at the time, it originally should’ve been her discussing marriage, yet it got stolen by her younger sister. How could she not hate, not get angry. “You……….” Her voice was a bit choked up, and her eyes filled with sorrow.
“Older sister-in-law, don’t put on such an appearance. The marriage arrangements at the time, I chose myself.” Luo Rong Yan coldly stated, “This kind of appearance of yours, not only Wan Wan dislikes, I also very much dislike, pretentious and putting on airs, further at such an age……………”
Luo Rong Yan inherently wasn’t one to have tender feelings towards the fairer sex. The more one cried, the more he felt it was unlucky.
Getting stabbed by an ordinary person, it was probably just getting wounded and shedding blood, but getting stabbed by the person one cares about, and even admire, that was just directly attacking the heart, and would make one painfully wish for death.
Sun Yi Jia coiled around Jing Wan’s arm, quietly walking in front, while Luo Jing Bo followed behind them. They knew Jing Wan’s mood wasn’t good, and thinking about it, it was indeed quite an infuriating matter.
When they were about to reach the main courtyard, Sun Yi Jia finally patted her hand and said, “Little sister Wan, don’t worry, on mother’s side, there’s still me. Moreover, I’m still just a daughter-in-law in the end, and although there’s also a layer of misgiving, for somethings, it’s instead easier to take care of.”
(T/N: I guess for Sun Yi Jia, Zhang-shi is still leagues better than her own mother.)
Jing Wan smiled. “Many thanks elder sister-in-law.” That, in the end, was still her mother. She’d stayed a period of time in her stomach and knew the pain she was in when giving birth to her. Speaking of which, they were just people with different systems of values in life, that’s all. There weren’t any other conflict. And although her mother wasn’t a qualifying mother, she still genuinely from the bottom of her heart loved her own children. Jing Wan knew, her own way of thinking, she shouldn’t forcibly impose upon others. Since she won’t listen to her mother’s views, then her mother naturally didn’t need to accept her way of thinking either. Each person had their own way of living.
Along the way, Jing Wan actually thought quite clearly. When unable to endure, the best way was to just stay far away. What the eyes doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over. In the future, it was probably just this way.
When Jing Wan and them arrived at the main courtyard, Luo Old Madam had also taken a short nap and had just gotten up not long ago. “How come came over at this time?” Afterwards, she even noticed that Jing Wan was a bit off. Others perhaps couldn’t tell, but towards Jing Wan, she understood too well. “What happened?”
Rather, it was actually Sun Yi Jia that very bluntly ‘complained’.
Towards that daughter-in-law, Luo Old Madam has long just thoroughly ignored. “What are you bothering with her for? Just do the things you as a daughter should do, the rest, whether it’s hardship or happiness, it’s all her own business. This the so-called, ‘people who walk different paths cannot make plans together’.”
TN: All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
“Grandmother, I’m fine, and this is also the last time.” Jing Wan said with a smile, “That’s right, grandmother, I plan on holding the coming-of-age ceremony after the mid-autumn festival. The various corresponding arrangements still need to trouble grandmother to worry over.”
“Hold the coming-of-age ceremony after the mid-autumn festival?” Luo Old Madam looked to Jing Wan, “I thought this would wait until the spring of next year, but shifting in advance a little isn’t that big of a deal either. This is a big occasion, grandmother will have it arranged grandly for you.”
Jing Wan kept feeling like her grandmother had seen through her, her face slightly reddening, “Many thanks grandmother.”
“In grandmother’s remaining years alive, aside from you, there are no other attachments.”
Jing Wan’s eyes slightly reddened, yet said with a smile, “These words of grandmother’s, if grandfather were to hear, won’t he be jealous?”
“Who cares about him.” Luo Old Madam very unconcernedly waved her hand. Seemingly in her eyes, that old man really wasn’t worth a cent.
The three of them whittled away the time at Luo Old Madam’s place, all the way until it was time for the evening meal.
And the Gu family staying as guests in the Luo Manor also formally kowtowed and paid their respects to the two elders with the highest position and status.
The Gu family, among the younger generation, aside from Gu Lian’er, there was another girl and three boys. Jing Wan rather wasn’t interested in caring whether they were di or shu. It had nothing to do with her after all. As long as they don’t provoke her, then naturally it’s living together in harmony. Since she had the words said that clearly, believe no one will blindly come annoy her either.
Just don’t know whether this maternal uncle-in-law already knew about the things she said or not. At the time, he had a younger sister present after all.
As the younger sister, learning that one’s own elder sister-in-law constantly thought of another man, one definitely would be very angry. But at the time, this girl didn’t have any reaction, and was even one that was short-sighted. As such, the possibility of her not telling her own older brother and using this as blackmail to seek even more benefits from her sister-in-law was instead even higher. Of course, one didn’t rule out the possibility of her truthfully telling him, and this man, if wanting to draw support from the Luo family, naturally will just endure it. After all, it was just thinking in her heart, and not actually giving him a green hat.
The two elders separately gave them greeting gifts, but Luo Old Madam was rather cold towards Gu Zhang-shi. Gu Zhang-shi’s expression was somewhat stiff, and now really didn’t dare go near Jing Wan. If they really were to be swept out the door, then just don’t even think about establishing themselves in the capital. They’d just arrived in the capital not long ago. Such flourishing extravagance, how could she bear to part with.
The evening meal was in the main courtyard, the male and female seating separate.
After the meal, they rather weren’t in a hurry to disperse, moving to the side hall as the servants prepared tea.
Luo Old Madam first asked about little Wang-shi and the child, and when Wang-shi expressed how about having the child brought over for her to see, Luo Old Madam expressed that she will go see tomorrow. The child was still small, carrying back and forth would easily frighten him. She then casually asked about some other matters in the home. Wang-shi has been managing the household for several years, and in these aspects, she naturally won’t make careless mistakes.
However, Luo Old Madam didn’t ask much, but Wang-shi still had each aspect all roughly explained.
The corresponding things for mid-autumn were also all prepared appropriately.
Luo Old Madam nodded her head, “Wan Wan’s coming-of-age ceremony will be held after mid-autumn. Eldest one’s wife, trouble you to work some more.”
Wang-shi rather very straightforwardly agreed, expressing she will handle it appropriately, even saying with a smile, “When time comes, this main guest will certainly be the Grand Elder Princess.”
The Grand Elder Princess was Jing Wan’s adoptive mother, and her status also couldn’t be more noble.
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I mean.. it ended in two chapters, in other books it only folded after several volumes..
Jen, I crawled to get through this small arc. How did you survive ah? I needed a glass of water every several paragraphs that even my partner was confused…
Thank you for the hardwork! Otsukare!
My blood pressure was definitely up there 😩😩
So, again, thanks for the hard work. I even appreciate the history lesson on ancient china more and more now 😊
I think I learnt more about moral and ethics by reading this novel and its comments than the entirety of my 20 years of education (from toddler school until senior undergraduate)
Thank you for your hard work Jen ! I really like JW’s reply in the last chapter, about whether her mother really loves her father and being virtuous, because for me it highlights something I always have difficulty understanding in novels set in ancient China: that is how people really believe it is possible to be virtuous/ not be jealous when being in love with a man. I mean isn’t it in human nature to be jaleous when someone is threatening to take your man? For me it is against nature, hence impossible to achieve. Isn’t that why most novels in ancient China depict fight between women in the same harem? How can men really believe it is possible to have a relationship with multiple women at the same time, without hurting the women’s feeling? These men who expect love from their wife while playing with concubine at the same time, aren’t they fooling themselves ?
I mean if you want to go into the historical reasonings, the purpose isn’t just ‘playing with other women’, it’s having children to continue the family bloodline, and that in Confucian ideology is the duty of the man, to make sure the incense fire for the deceased ancestors doesn’t discontinue. You need to take the personal feelings out of it. Ancient people practiced ancestor worship, so the idea is that without an heir, all your ancestor’s hard work will go to waste, so as the man, you need to have as many children as possible for your family. And don’t forget, in ancient times, infant deaths were very high, and life expectancy wasn’t very high. The family clan provide for you and raised you, so you need to pay back the family. In ancient times, you really benefit from your family, like most wealthy nobles lived in the benefits of their ancestor’s hard work. It’s also why without a family clan behind you, you would be less than a slave. So if you want to continue living in the benefits of your ancestor’s hard work you need to fulfill your obligations to the family. And also having a family clan is a very powerful thing in ancient times, like the saying goes, there is power in numbers, especially in a hierarchical society. The idea is that in ancient times nobody lives for the self, because that is considered selfish, you live for your ancestors and for your descendants. You work hard and make sacrifices so that your children and descendants can live better. And this cycle continues down the line.
In Confucian teaching, the family is like the government, everyone has their roles and duties they need to fulfill in the family, both men and women. You need to take the idea of self and individualism out of it, just like if you work in a company you can’t have personal feelings get in way of work. It might be hard to understand if you don’t have background in Confucianism, but you can’t just look at it with just modern standards and views, it’s very different of an environment, and some things you very much need the historical background and context to understand. In ancient times, most don’t marry out of love, but out of obligation, this is true for both men and women, and having children is also an obligation to the family clan. Most men and women aren’t even allowed to meet before marriage. Familial love was considered more virtuous over romantic love, actually romantic love is very much looked down upon in ancient times. Just like how before Jing Wan said she can love LHY like family and won’t care how many women he has. Confucius was an idealist in my opinion, because in his mind, the ideal world is that everyone is a good person who is willing to make sacrifices for the bigger cause. When you tie responsibilities and personal feelings together, it’s just a disaster, then mix in bad people who exploit the system, you get this clusterfuk. The problem with the fighting in the harem isn’t something Confucius really considered when he was passing down his teachings, because in his view, the concubines respect the wife, and the wife is magnanimous to the concubines.
In the end, for a lot of things in historical novels, you need to consider all of the historical contexts, views, and ideals. I sometimes worry about historical cnovel readers having an incomplete understanding of a lot of things because they don’t have knowledge in the historical background. A lot of your questions about the men can really be answered with, they weren’t the ones that made the rules, they are just people following the established system, and exploiting it to some degree, but there was a reason for all this. History is like a chain reaction, and everything happens for a reason, but the side effects will trickle down over time.
Thank you for your explanation, it is indeed me who is lacking knowledge and leting my frustration take over. It is just I can’t help but feel sympathy over these women…
I think I should look more into history of ancient China, Conficianism, etc.
Thank you again for your work 🙂
Don’t forget these women are also considered fortunate for being born into the top 1% of society, so in comparison to poor commoner women, or even just slaves in general, they are already way better off. When you compare the threat of possibly starving to death vs being in a loveless political marriage, the issue doesn’t seem as comparable. Even in the previous chapter about the flooding disaster it talks about poor commoners trading their children for food. It’s kinda interesting people can be easily swayed by these harem issues portrayed in historical cnovels, but most don’t bat an eye at the slavery and human trafficking.
It’s so refreshing to see the typical villains being dealt with in such a straightforward manner. Theres a lot more satisfaction in doing it the way Jing Wan did than if she went about it in a round about way like most MC do. Of course, Jing Wan’s position and favor in the family also plays a big role in her being able to take care of the matter like that.
Thank you for your efforts Jen!
You know, Gu Zhang-shi reminds me of Kang Wang-shi, the sister of Minglan’s legal stepmother from the Legend of Minglan. Manipulative and knows how to use someone’s weakness against them, namely her own sister, Luo Zhang-shi.
Ha…
Thanks for the chapters, Jen.💖💖 I’m so glad these two rather aggravating scenes were released all at once. That prevented the aggravation from getting strung out over a few days.😅
Thank you for your hard work Jen!
I quite enjoyed reading through these chapters even if you have suffered though them. 😁
I think the author is really amazing being able to create so many different type of white lotuses 😅.
I think the entire gu family is a pond cause nearly everyone be white lotus bitch.
Thanks for your hard work Jen! I enjoyed the schadenfreude but yeah I can see how they’d be annoying as all heck to translate. It makes me question how someone can translate those dogs blood face slapping novels, lol.
I want that kind of immunity too lmaooo
Tbh when I’m reading I can at least turn my brain off at certain parts, but when translating, I’m forced to pay attention ;;v;;)
We appreciate your efforts Jen-San! I kinda enjoyed reading about how an atypical MC deals with typical villains. I wish most MCs dealt with villains this quickly and efficiently. And her parents disappointed me far too much. i now get why the Luo grandparents are so apathetic to them.
Tbh in my opinion, it’s a bit hypocritical for grandpa and grandma Luo sometimes, since they are just as terrible as parents, and sometimes as grandparents too to anyone other than Jing Wan. I mean what is more important, how useful of a parent you have or a parent that genuinely loves you? Like if you just look at usefulness, Le Cheng Emperor is the most useful father, but he doesn’t genuinely love his children. Jing Wan’s grandparents are literally apathetic to anyone that’s not JW.
Comparatively, having parents like Jing Wan’s parents who genuinely love and care for their children, is far better than having a parent like the Ding Duke Manor couple who only view their children as tools for their own benefit. Or even grandpa Luo to some degree who openly states that he doesn’t even care if some of his children didn’t exist, that’s like a terrible thing to hear from your father.
I see your point. Though i think in the Luo Old couple’s case its more like severity and strictness plus disappointment in their sons. Plus i gathered that they probably have the whole “sons must be taught and daughters must be pampered” mentality. Sadly Jing Wan cracked the code on their affections before anyone else so she ended up with all their doting. Later on, i do see Luo Old Man beginning to warm up to JWs dad since he starts to work hard. (well that’s what i gathered from Google Sensei). It was mentioned before that hhe had the best ability of all Luo Old man’s kids but was the laziest, much to his father’s ire.
They are a bit harsh to everyone else though, I will admit. but I think thats just their natural characters. JW is their favorite only because she managed to crack the tough exterior and was not afraid of them. I mean would you be happy if your own kids trembled at the sight of you all the time even though you’re just trying to make them better people by being strict?
On the other hand, they do take the favoritism too far. That is a fact. i think the author is just trying to elevate JW’s status by having her grandparents dote on her so. Technically in the family hierarchy, she really should not even warrant marriage proposals from any of the people that she did. but since she is the publicly acknowledged favorite granddaughter of Luo Old Man, even becoming an Imperial Concubine is possible.
Her father isn’t lazy tho, he just doesn’t like the dirty dealings in court, thus doesn’t have the drive to climb up, which literally last chapter, it mentioned that he’s been trying hard to change. And it’s very unfair for grandpa Luo, who in the beginning of the novel praised JW’s father for being the most reassuring because he didn’t participate in politics to now be upset at him. Just like it was mentioned previously, because grandpa Luo was too busy during his youth trying to climb up in court, he neglected his sons, and just allowed them to live however they wanted as long as it doesn’t harm the Luo family. You can’t just tell your children to follow their dreams, and then later get disappointed at them for following their dreams.
haha i’d forgotten about that. but i guess that’s the allure of the novel for me. you’d be hard pressed to find a truly morally praiseworthy person in the entire novel…maybe the 3rd Imperial Concubine (Gong Wang’s adoptive mother, i think. i forgot who’s mom she is) might qualify but im sure we’ll find something about her too.
Isn’t that just how real life is, no one is truly perfect, humans are more morally gray in my view, so when novels try too hard to push moral perfection and make everything black and white, it’s very unrealistic and fake. Isn’t that why people don’t like mary-sues. It’s fine to have a flawed character and still be likable, that’s just being human. imo it’s more problematic when people start having obsession with moral perfection. Humans aren’t capable of being saints, because just like being truly virtuous, you would have to give up human emotions to achieve it.
Actually if we’re just talking about moral praiseworthiness, Jing Wan’s mother Zhang-shi is the most morally praiseworthy person in the entire novel. Despite how people treat her she has never complained, and never has ill-will towards anyone. And she always treats, even people who have wronged her, well and the only person in the novel that regards human life, even her enemies’. Literally the only time she has gotten angry was when Jing Wan got schemed against during the Grand Elder Princess’s birthday, and she only got angry because her daughter was harmed. She has never gotten angry for her own sake before. That’s why she’s considered a holy mother level saint. It’s not that it’s hard to find moral goodness, people sometimes just choose to overlook it.
Shu Consort Qin, though she’s not really Gong Qinwang’s adopted mother, because his birth mother still alive, he was just raised in her presence. But she has no children and no favor yet still able to have a stable position in the imperial harem, so definitely not clean.