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Literature Gathering, Dragon Boat Festival, Falling for a Trap (5)
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!
Even if this was already agreed upon prior to leaving, Luo Jing Bo was still very displeased, especially hearing the word ‘former’. This was hinting at Yi Jia’s current appearance? “Miss, you were rude.”
Li Chu Chu’s tears instantly fell. There was probably nothing more heartbreaking than this.
“You, do you not know how to talk?” The servant girl behind Lin Chu Chu seeing her wronged immediately blurted out in discontent.
Lin Chu Chu hurriedly stopped her, “Apologies Gentleman Luo, Chu Chu will takes one leave.” She rather distressfully turned around and left.
“Jing Bo really doesn’t know to cherish a fair maiden, even bearing to reject this kind of beauty.”
“That’s right, that’s right, even if you can’t take back, you can just look for a little residence outside to raise her in.” Someone else added on.
Raising an outside mistress, unless his brain broke, he definitely wouldn’t dare do this kind of thing. Aside from possibility causing a ruckus at home, causing his wife to be heartbroken, this even touched upon the problem of one’s moral conduct, and naturally will also concern his future career prospects. “For a woman from the pleasure boats, causing one’s pampered wife at home to be heartbroken, how is that the conduct of a man.”
Once this dropped, quite a few people suffered a calamity. The place instantly went silent.
Rui Qinwang heartily laughed, “Jing Bo, should this prince say you’re infatuated, or should say you’re henpecked?”
“Because love thus fear.”
“Really can’t tell.” One after the other all teased Luo Jing Bo.
This matter also just turned over, no longer getting mentioned. However, those that originally planned on using women to rope in Luo Jing Bo really did give up on the thought. Since he had already gone this far, if one were to insist on sending, and if by chance he were to refuse, wouldn’t it be difficult for everyone to step down. However, Luo Jing Bo did get drowned in quite a bit of wine. Who let him ‘not conform with the group’.
The literature gathering itself was just a title. It was still mainly to provide a platform to ‘make friends’. However, even so, quite a few good poetry verses still resulted from it.
When finally returning, Luo Jing Bo, in any case, had already collapsed.
……
The Dragon Boat Festival in two days, in Qi Yuan, was a very grand holiday, the Emperor setting out to enjoy the festivity with the people.
The most lively was probably still the dragon boat race.
TN: All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
In past years, it was the high-ranking officials’ families that prepared dragon boats, every year ten dragon boats, the families taking turns. This year, it was instead the princes that prepared the dragon boats, starting from the eldest Kang Qinwang, counting downwards until all ten spots were filled. Because among the first ten princes, two had already passed away, they thus just counted all the way down to the twelfth prince. The latter two still haven’t reached sixteen yet, and thus haven’t reached the age to be conferred as a wang. That was really just making up on the shortage of people.
Because a certain few were already at war with one another, they naturally needed to compete in everything, and fight for everything. Thus, this year’s dragon boat race, there was entertainment to be seen.
On the riverbank of the city moat, after confirming the position of the imperial tent, with it as the center, on its two sides, in accordance to the families court rank, the other tents began lining up in succession. Because Luo Pei Shan was promoted to the position of Head Minister of Appointments, this year’s position naturally was closer to the imperial tent than last year’s. However, last year Jing Wan wasn’t in the capital, so for her, it naturally didn’t matter where they were.
The big and small masters of the Luo family all came out, even Luo Jing Ying was all the same. However, she appeared to be rather quiet.
Once the respective masters of each family all arrived, the canopy was already set, with the rug spread out, and the table and chairs arranged. In addition, there were various kinds of fruits and desserts laid out, and at noon, there will also be a banquet feast.
One has to know, each and every family for the most part all set out collectively, so just two lines——a lot of people and lively.
The small children all darted around everywhere, and behind each one all followed a slew of servants, just worrying their family’s little ancestor will accidentally get hurt.
Jing Wan sat in her own family’s tent, propping up her chin as she stared out into the expansive moat’s river surface. She estimated that it was at least over a hundred meters, much more wider than she’d imagined. Although called the city moat, it should be considered the inner city’s moat, because in the outer surroundings of the city moat, there was still a large residential district. Heard it was because Qi Yuan’s increase in population, especially in the capital, so there was no choice but to expand outward.
“Miss, the Grand Elder Princess let someone invite you over to her place.”
“It’s my fault, I should’ve gone to greet adoptive mother.” Jing Wan got up and tidied her sleeves.
Jing Wan brought along Gong mama and two servant girls, and headed to the Grand Elder Princess’s tent.
Along the way, she encountered quite a few other manor’s young miss. Regardless of what reason and purpose, at least on the surface, they amicably greeted her.
When Jing Wan reached the Grand Elder Princess’s tent, she just so happened to run into Ruan Fang Fei. Ruan Fang Fei was still that manner, smiling gently and elegantly, appearing incomparably beautiful. However, this kind of similar coincidence already wasn’t the first time. This made Jing Wan have a kind of ‘being haunted by a grieving ghost’ feeling. That feeling really wasn’t all that great.
The curtains were lifted. Ruan Fang Fei let Jing Wan go first, and Jing Wan didn’t refuse either. With the Grand Elder Princess, this layer of relation present, it wasn’t considered discourteous. Moreover, she had a feeling, if she were to modestly decline and whatnot, perhaps it will cause some other trouble.
“Wan Wan has come, quickly come over.” The Grand Elder Princess beamed with joy.
Jing Wan still curtsied, going forward after paying her respect, “Adoptive mother.”
“Sigh, good child.” The Grand Elder Princess pulled her to sit down next to her. On her other side was Yu Yao Wenzhu. Afterwards, the Grand Elder Princess finally saw Ruan Fang Fei behind her, “Ruan girl has also come, quickly sit.”
Ruan Fang Fei gracefully performed her etiquette, “……..Many thanks Grand Elder Princess.” Going forward, she sat down on the seat below the Grand Elder Princess.
The seat next to the Grand Elder Princess versus the seat below[1] her was just like the difference between main and secondary. Was this making clear the difference between their statuses? Ruan Fang Fei lowered her eyes, then in an instant smiled like blooming flowers again.
“You two are both good children, in the future, if you have the chance, nicely get along more.” The Grand Elder Princess looked to Jing Wan, and then looked to Ruan Fang Fei as she said this.
A girl to the side covered her mouth and laughed, “Indeed need to get along more, after all, in the future, will be all one family.”
The Grand Elder Princess slightly blanked. Afterwards, she put away her smile. She finally recalled just now, not only was her adopted daughter bestowed to Jin Qinwang, this Ruan family girl was also bestowed to him as a side consort. Speaking of this, she was also helpless. It was all her imperial older brother’s good deed. But she was also at fault, temporarily forgetting about this matter previously. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have had the two called over at the same time. Thus, she faintly casted that girl that spoke a glance. Speaking of which, it was just a young miss from the Jiang family.
Because of a glance from the Grand Elder Princess, that girl couldn’t help going pale.
Jing Wan pretended to not hear and didn’t say anything, while Ruan Fang Fei further didn’t react, not even batting an eyelid.
Probably for the sake of breaking this awkward atmosphere, someone suggested playing madiao[2].
The Grand Elder Princess agreed. Jing Wan originally wanted to turn down, but the Grand Elder Princess let her sit down.
Thus, Jing Wan sat across from Ruan Fang Fei.
Towards this kind of playing card game, Jing Wan, just as she said to the Grand Elder Princess, only knew how to play a little. As a result, the game speed was relatively slow.
During the third match, when it was Jing Wan’s turn to play a card and Ruan Fang Fei’s turn to take a card, in that instant when they crossed over, for some unknown reason, the back of Jing Wan’s hand got scratched by Ruan Fang Fei’s nail, directly cutting the skin, drawing blood.
Ruan Fang Fei hurriedly apologized. Jing Wan felt there was something strange, but didn’t say anything either, just using a handkerchief to press on top her hand.
“Should say this skin of Luo third miss’s is a bit too tender.”
Even the Grand Elder Princess couldn’t help agreeing.
Speaking of skincare, Jing Wan just smiled, “I’d previously taken the recipe to the Rouge Pavilion to work in collaboration with them, and the finish product has already come out, just don’t know if they’ve started selling or not.”
This kind of thing, young ladies naturally all liked, and they began excitedly discussing in high spirits. No one noticed the sinister light flashing across Ruan Fang Fei’s eyes.
[1] Although described as ‘below’, it’s more so to the right of the main seat, commonly known as the first guest seat. I don’t want to go into too much detail on the etiquette of seating arrangements, so I just drew a rough layout on seating arrangements below.
[2] Madiao – One of the ancient chinese gambling games. The name roughly translates to ‘hanging horse’, the name originates from the idea of the four legs on the horse, because you need four people to play, and the game can’t progress if one is missing. There’s a wikipedia page that explains this game in depth.
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She properly have something in her nail, like the step mom in another novel do.
Thanks for the chapter! π
That nail of RFF probably have some poison in it. !!Ξ£(οΎΠοΎ;β‘β‘β‘β‘β‘γΎ(;οΎΠ΄οΎ)/
That madiao card game is so confusing I just finished reading full page and I know just slightly more than nothing.
Probably you can use stepmother, godmother or honored mother instead of adoptive mother?
Definitely not stepmother; one will automatically think that this lady married Jing Wan’s dad.
Though I think it’s actually ok to use godmother, if I have to translate into my language, I’d also use the same term as “adoptive mother” π
That’s right. I recalled just now many cnovel use “godmother” term
Wa wa wait… did Ruan Fang Fei put something on her nail before she scratched Jing Wan? I can’t help but be suspicious ah… she’s scary. Ugh please don’t come into my dream tonight… ew… π±π±π±
That nail is probably poisoned.π I guess this is the trap referred to in the title.π€
Thanks for the update, Jen.π
Hi Jen, great work translating all the little nuances in historical Chinese novels. I’m a native Chinese speaker but sometimes I also struggle to understand as well >w<
anyway I just wanted to add in my two cents here: the Grand elder princess and JW ‘adoptive’ relationship in English would probably be godmother I think π
As always, thanks for the translations!
δΉζ― literally translates more to ‘mother in name’; I didn’t want to use godmother because of the religious associations with the address. And even in english, an adoptive parent and a godparent are still two very different things. The definition for godmother is ‘a woman who presents a child at baptism and promises to take responsibility for their religious education.’
Ah…… So it’s like that
Yeeah, I don’t feel like there is a great English equivalent here. The connotation of a fairy godmother, someone who is like a benefactor and is kindly watching over you/helping you out because she likes you and thinks you deserve it, FEELS right, but she’s not a fairy using magic to do the helping haha. A straight up godmother is someone who takes religious responsibility for a child. For anyone who knows that/is actually religious in that way, it would be a really weird fit. Like, people would probably accept the word is just being used incorrectly, but it would certainly give pause. And some amount of “well actually…”s in the comments.
Jen — greatly appreciate your kind clarification on why raising an outside mistress touch upon the problem of one’s moral conduct but its perfectly acceptable to have many concubines or even tong fang??. To me, they are the same …… other than the wife, the rest are all mistresses.
Pretty big difference because a concubine or tongfang are known by the family, and for the time period, it was perfectly acceptable. But a raising an outside mistress is equivalent to cheating, after all why raise them outside if not hiding from your family, and why the need to hide from your family, if not because of questionable reason? You shouldn’t think of it as moral conduct by modern standards, but moral conduct by Confucian teachings and for the time period.
Concubines and Tongfangs are official positions within the family. That’s why children given birth by an outside mistress are considered illegitimate (not shu) because they aren’t recorded into the family registry. This is the difference between a η§ηε (illegitimate child) and a εΊΆε (shu child), and in a way, an illegitimate child is even lower in status than a shu child.
Adding, concubines and tongdangs are still wife, and can’t be considered mistress per se. Outside mistresses is the mistress by monogamy’s standard. Concubine and tongfangs are still wife–they’re married to the family. Their families are in-laws with each other. Outside mistresses isn’t.
Err, concubines and tongfang families can’t be considered in-laws because only the di wife’s family are considered in-laws. In a way, only the main wife is ‘married’ in. Concubines and tongfangs are more like servants owned by the family, so they are part of the family that way, tongfangs are literally former servant girls. There’s a reason why concubines can’t leave the manor after entering, and usually will never see their own family ever again. Even their children have to refer to the di wife’s maternal family as their maternal family. The concubine’s family usually would never be acknowledged.
It generally breaks down like this (some parts may slightly vary):
Legal Wife – the one properly recorded in the family lineage. Children are the di (legitimate) children
Concubines – legal concubines taken in. They can vary from being daughters or lower ranking families down to daughters of merchant families or commoner families. sometimes ranked according to their maternal family status. Sometimes recorded in the lineage. Children recorded in the lineage as Shu. generally considered half-servants
tongfang – generally the ‘playthings’, women given favor and raised in status from being servants. They’re generally not seen at all by the outside and stay in their rooms just waiting for the master. Can, on rare occasions, be raised up to proper concubines if they birth a shu son. Sometimes the first woman a man would ‘have’ would be a tongfang.
Outside mistresses – the lowest of the low. they are raised secretly outside the manor and are completely illegitimate. Having an outside mistress is considered the sign of being a ‘beast’ and will seriously affect your reputation in the society.
Of course, there are sometimes different variations depending on what dynasty’s system the story is generally based on but that’s the basics.
I think I’d also read somewhere that a part of the reason an outside mistress is so bad is that tongfangs and concubines still have to acknowledge, honor, and respect the main wife. The main wife is supposed to have the power to manage them and also makes final decisions on behalf of the home. The main wife is a master of the home, concubines are like half masters, and tongfangs are glorified servants.
An outside mistress, on the other hand, is hidden from the wife. She doesn’t pay respects and is essentially a master of her own secret home. That’s turning the moral values of the time on its head. If she has a kid who knows how she’s raised the child or with what education as her own existence is so against social norms.