Don’t be a Kept Man – Chapter 142

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Chapter 142: Only When You Have Died Once, Do You Finally Know How to Live

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Lying down on the bed, Xiao Feng Wu had no inkling of sleep at all. His fingers tapped out a random rhythm, each tap sending a signal all the way to the bottom of his heart and occasionally making him anxious. He closed his eyes, thinking back to the prognosis of the Empress, and his eyebrows couldn’t help but bunch up for whatever reason. After a long while, he suddenly pushed himself up with a loud rustle. 

Frightened by Xiao Feng Wu’s sudden movement, Xiao Feng Chuan quietly admonished him, 

“What are you doing, surprising others in the middle of the night!”

The Empress could be giving birth tonight——

Xiao Feng Wu’s lips moved, but in the end, he swallowed those words, not making a sound. 

Sitting by the edge of the bed, his hands tightly clenched together, so tight that the pressure caused his knuckles to go white. 

Through the faint moonlight shining down from the window designed to bring some air into the prison, Xiao Feng Chuan could see Xiao Feng Wu’s tightly locked jaw and the veins on his forehead almost bursting out of him. Feeling as if some evil spirit had come over his youngest brother or something, he didn’t dare do anything else. Instead, he silently moved a bit further away, finding a corner to continue sleeping.

The moon was hanging high up in the sky but the Imperial Palace was still full of brightly lit lanterns. Numerous people walked in and out of Jing Yang Dian amongst a silent atmosphere that was fraught with tension. The delicately carved windows were tightly shut to keep out the cold night wind but still, every so often there was the stuttering, pain-filled cries of a woman screaming.

At first, there was still some strength to those cries, but the voice began to grow weaker and weaker until her screams almost couldn’t be heard.

Sitting right outside the hall, the Emperor was rhythmically rolling a bracelet made of prayer beads faster and faster around his hand. When a palace maid came running out from the inner palace hall with a cry, that bracelet suddenly split open, and all the beads fell onto the floor with a jarring pitter-patter, irritating to the ear.

The palace maid knelt on the ground as she cried out, 

“Your Majesty, the Empress… the Empress, she has fainted……”

When a woman gives birth, the scariest thing to avoid was fainting, as there was the danger of dying with the baby still inside the womb. Upon hearing her, the Emperor suddenly opened his eyes, the sharpness in them made others not dare to look straight at him. 

With a bang, he stood up from his chair and he said with a heavy tone, 

“If the Empress has even one small issue, the entire academy of physicians can be buried with her!”

Every servant in the hall immediately knelt down, and as it was as silent as death in the hall, these words from the Emperor were carried all the way inside without fail.

Numerous physicians from the Imperial Academy of Physicians were all here. Separated by a divider from the inner room, they discussed with haste as a bloody scent was slowly wafting over, enough to make others gag. Through a curtain, Xiao Lin Ru felt the Empress’s pulse, and his face was quickly becoming ashen.

A female physician quickly asked, 

“Senior Physician Xiao, what should be done?”

Xiao Lin Ru rose up with a complicated and terrible expression on his face, 

“Feed her another stabilizing pill.”

A maid quickly brought hot water and handkerchiefs in but when she passed by his side, she accidentally tripped. Xiao Lin Ru unconsciously went to stabilize her and a thick wad of paper appeared in his hand. In shock, he lifted his eyes but that maid did not look at him, directly heading inside the curtain instead.

Xiao Lin Ru hid the papers in his sleeves, quickly turning around to face the back and quickly taking a few glances when no one was paying attention. A shocked expression descended onto his face and there was evident hesitance, yet it was at this time that the female physician’s frantic voice came from behind the curtains, 

“Physician Xiao! We have already fed her the pill, but the Empress’s pulse is getting weaker and weaker——”

“Wah-la——”

Hearing this, Xiao Lin Ru couldn’t control his strength and a corner of the stack of papers was ripped. A facial muscle twitched, as if a trapped monster was pacing back and forth. Cold sweat was also beginning to fall, making it look as if he just emerged out of water. In the end he stomped on the ground with a ruthless conviction, as if making a decision that could change the world, 

“Prepare a knife and some strong alcohol. We will cut open the Empress’s stomach to take out the child. Cong Yue, you will hold the knife, and do exactly as I say!”

Cong Yue was the best female physician in the Imperial Academy of Physicians. The moment she understood what he was saying, her face turned white, but she did not dare to disobey. This was a method used amongst commoners when they had trouble giving birth, but with the Empress’s body being infinitely much more precious, who could dare to take a knife to it. Yet at this time and place, why not take the last chance that they have as anything would be better than having the entire academy of physicians all be buried alongside the Empress.

In front of Jing Yang Dian, the eunuchs could only hear the shattering of a teacup. They did not know what was going on, but the Emperor seemed to be enraged, as if he could swallow humans whole. Each one of them shrunk their necks, terrified and trembling from fear, yet for whatever reason, it was quiet once more. Only the servants preparing for the birth were coming and going, bringing basins and basins of bloody water out.

The night seemed extremely long, and the legs of the eunuchs guarding the door were all numb from standing. But just thinking that the Emperor was sitting inside, they didn’t dare to change guard and they could only keep enduring, enduring under the soundless and almost suffocating pressure knocking all the way into their hearts.

For however long, perhaps it was an hour, or two, just when humans felt the most tired in the late late night, a weak cry of a baby came out, waking up everyone into a state of complete alertness and all of them widened their eyes—-

The Empress is finally giving birth?!

The thought just appeared when a sudden and frantic yell broke out from all of the racket.

“Oh no! The Empress is bleeding out rapidly!”

A small ray of light could be seen shining through the thick layers of clouds from the skies above, yet it was enough to feel basked in it. The glass on top of Jing Ying Dian was shimmering with a colorful rainbow, rising along with a red blazing sun.

Morning, has come……

Xiao Feng Wu had not slept for the entire night. He loosened his hands and his palms were full of deep imprints from his nails. Getting out of bed, he shook off the numbness from his legs, and he looked outwards through the window the size of his palm just as a bird flew by.

Xiao Feng Chuan was sleeping quite well on the dirty floor, and perhaps he was woken up by the sun’s rays but he unhappily used his hands to block his face, mumbling a few words before flipping over and continuing to sleep; his snores as loud as thunder.

Xiao Feng Wu looked over, suddenly finding that he actually wasn’t the most heartless out of the Xiao family after all.

When the time came for their meal, guards came around to deliver food. With a bucket full of congee, Jiang Ping An passed around bowls, and those that couldn’t be woken up from their sleep could keep their stomachs empty. Xiao Feng Wu grabbed onto the bars and quietly asked when he received his bowl, 

“Has there been any news from the capital?”

Jiang Ping An said, 

“Yes there is! It seems as though the patrolling officials from last time around had filed a case against our district magistrate, saying that he was corrupt or something, and a new one will be immediately coming over to take his place.”

Xiao Feng Wu seemed to be a bit disappointed. Yan Cheng was neither near nor far from the capital, so even if there was news, it wouldn’t come so quickly. He wanted to ask about Qin Ming Yue’s recent whereabouts, but after a while, he still couldn’t open his mouth and only stuffed everything he wanted to say down along with the congee into his stomach.

Xiao Feng Chuan was not a quiet one either, having quite the courage even as a youth, and with his strength, he had no small share in bullying others. Sleeping as deeply as he was, his ears picked up the sound of squeaking. He opened his eyes and, taking a look, found that it was a grey rat. With another squeak, it disappeared from his view.

Seeing this, Xiao Feng Chuan kicked away the hay by his feet and found a mouse hole in the corner. The jail had not been well maintained over the years, and it was rotting from inside the walls. Just a quick poke and the concrete wall would crumble a little, leaving him a smattering of rocks. His eyes turned and swirled, as he built up a great strength to punch at the wall with his fists. With a “wah-la”, the mouse hole visibly widened.

When Xiao Feng Chuan did things, he never thought about it. Happiness immediately erupted in him when he saw the hole widening, and since no guards came over, he quickly took off his clothes, using his sleeves to cover his fist, and enthusiastically began to dig. 

Since Xiao Feng Wu had a sleepless night, he was lying on the bed and sleeping away in the bright light of day to make up for it and he did not find out.

The hole wasn’t big so having a stack of hay in front could hide it from view. The surprising thing was that no one noticed when Xiao Feng Chuan dug and dug for the entire afternoon.

The first who found out was Xiao Feng Ming. After lunch, when everyone was going to take a nap and he had nothing to do, he saw Xiao Feng Chuan squatting by the corner huffing and hawing, doing who knows what, and he shuffled over to take a look. Blocked by the shape of Xiao Feng Chuan’s body, he could only furrow his eyebrows, knocking on the bars, 

“Unlucky dumbass, what are you doing?”

“Ah?”

Xiao Feng Chuan turned his head around in confusion, and the moment he did, it revealed a hole around the size of a watermelon. Upon seeing this scene, Xiao Feng Ming’s eyes widened and a breath was caught in the middle of his chest, unable to get out and almost choking him to death. He patted his chest feverishly, pointing at Xiao Feng Chuan and exclaiming in shock, 

“You you you….. you are crazy! It is a death penalty to escape from prison!!”

Xiao Feng Chuan rolled his eyes at that, 

“And you won’t die if you keep staying here?”

Stomping his feet in his haste, Xiao Feng Ming looked left and right, and finding that no one was paying attention to them, quickly said, 

“Quick! Quickly block it up again! You can run away by yourself, but we will have to stay here! You fucking idiotic dumbass, did your brain get caught by the door?!”

This made Xiao Feng Chuan unhappy, and he pursed his lips, unwilling to move another inch. Xiao Feng Ming’s anger made his mind blank out and he just directly yelled at Xiao Feng Wu, 

“Sixteen! Sixteen! Don’t sleep! Quickly manage this fucking bastard! Or there’s going to be big trouble!”

His yell immediately woke up Xiao Feng Wu and also brought the guards over.

The jail was already very dim, and now that there was a hole about the size of a watermelon, the light was shining in but it wasn’t that bright. Xiao Feng Chuan quickly unraveled and put his clothes back on and blocked the hole with his body. Yet he was frozen in a strange way, his expression panicked, letting anyone who looked at him know that he was up to something.

Jiang Ping An looked at him suspiciously, using his sword to bang on the bars, 

“Stand up.”

Xiao Feng Chuan shook his head as if his life depended on it, not willing to move.

Seeing this, Xiao Feng Wu could faintly understand what was going on. He coldly laughed and did not wish to care about it, continuing to sleep. But then he saw one of the guards quietly say something and not long after, he heard a pained and pitiful scream and Xiao Feng Chuan was jumping up from the floor holding his waist, as if a fire had been lit on his bottom.

A guard knelt by the escape hole from the outside, 

“Boss! He was planning to escape!”

Jiang Ping An’s eyebrows furrowed into a deathly glower, signalling with his hands as he said, 

“Take him away. Go quickly and find something to fill the hole back up!”

If there was any issue with the prisoners, the guards wouldn’t be able to escape taking responsibility, so Xiao Feng Chuan was dragged out. Tied to the wooden rack, he was whipped thirty times. The whip cracked in the air with each stroke, piercing the ears with a sharp painful crack, and when interspersed with Xiao Feng Chuan’s screams for his mom and dad, it caused everyone’s hearts to tremble.

Xiao Feng Wu was taken to a new jail cell, being jailed along with a homeless person who had stolen money. The scent of something foul and disgusting went up Xiao Feng Wu’s nose, turning his face green. 

Xiao Feng Ming asked him from far away, 

“Ah, would Eighth Brother be okay?”

Xiao Feng Wu didn’t even have the heart to care and said, 

“He won’t die.”

If it was not for Jiang Ping An letting it slide, he would have had to go and suffer thirty whips himself too. It made him mad enough that he wanted to strangle Xiao Feng Chuan.

Jiang Ping An walked by his jail cell, 

“Physician Xiao, endure it for two days. When the hole’s patched up, I’ll put you back in your original jail cell.”

But when the hole was patched, three days had already passed.

Bright and early in the morning, a guard he didn’t recognize opened the jail cell door, 

“Xiao Feng Wu, come out.”

At first he thought that it was to switch jail cells, but when Xiao Feng Wu came out, the guard walked to another jail cell, bringing out Xiao Er-Ge, Xiao Liu-Ge and the rest of his siblings out. At this time, even an idiot would understand something was going on. Xiao Feng Ming’s legs weakened, collapsing onto the ground. He was not willing to come out and was instead dragged out.

“We’re done for, done for……” Xiao Feng Ming’s face was completely white. “We’re not going to be dragged into the marketplace to be decapitated, right?”

Silence was the only answer, with everyone’s face an ashen grey, powerless as they were pushed outside. Xiao Feng Ming’s mouth wobbled and then he began to cry as if his father had died. Xiao Feng Wu originally wanted to stop him crying, yet his throat felt as if it was stuck with something and he couldn’t get out a single word.

Xiao Er-Ge was walking fine in front of everyone, when his footsteps suddenly stopped and he turned around to ruthlessly slap Xiao Feng Ming, 

“Cry cry cry, what have you become! Is it not just the chop of a knife? What kind of man are you to pee your pants for this. If I see you cry again, I won’t need anyone else to do it, I’ll just strangle you right now!”

He had an honest looking face, someone headstrong and loyal, yet when he was angry, he was very frightening. Xiao Feng Ming immediately did not dare to utter another sound, hiding behind his younger brothers and using his sleeves to wipe away his tears.

“One at a time, don’t fight or rush.”

A guard held the key, unlocking the chains around their wrists. At first they thought it was so they could be tied up together to be sent to the chopping block, but the guards returned all of their clothes, 

“Change out of your prison uniforms. You can all leave.”

Xiao Feng Wu’s pupils dilated, and he unconsciously lifted his head at that. All his brothers beside him had the same reaction, all shocked beyond belief, unable to believe their own ears. Their minds had gone blank, completely surprised as they asked, 

“What?! We can leave?!”

The guards laughed, 

“Of course. Apparently it was the Emperor’s own decree, and His Majesty even gifted the nameplate of “Physicians Who Save Lives” to your Xiao family. Your second uncle, he had been the one to save the Empress’ life, hoh……”

Xiao Feng Wu’s brain had blanked out, and he didn’t even know how he changed his clothes nor walked out of the jail. There was a person on a horse waiting for him right outside, and Xiao Feng Wu squinted, wanting to see who it was, but the moment he lifted his head, he couldn’t open his eyes against the bright sting of the sun.

That person seemed to have sighed and then came down from the horse. He had a head full of white hair, and who could it be but Xiao Lin Ru?

Xiao Feng Wu squinted his eyes, 

“Second Uncle.”

Xiao Lin Ru seemed to have aged in the short time he was away, and he slightly shook his head, 

“It was me who harmed you all….. If it were not for you entrusting someone to bring me the papers, I would not have danced on the line of danger, and chosen to open up the Empress’s stomach. But thankfully we have saved one life…… Now I have already resigned and retired.”

Xiao Feng Wu’s eyes slightly lifted up, a bit dazzled, 

“I…… had sent someone to bring you papers?”

“This was quite a big issue, and each movement could put a life on the line. No one dared to tread these troubled waters, but thanks to your good friend who had knelt in front of the general’s estate for a day and a night. Because of this, he was able to get the chance to beg General Huai Hua to think of a way to bring the papers into the Imperial Palace. Otherwise, the entire Xiao family would have perished.”

The moment the last syllables left his mouth, his hands were emptied and he could only see Xiao Feng Wu steal his horse whip and flip onto the horse. In a cloud of dust, he was gone.

Qin Ming Yue……

Qin Ming Yue……

All around his ears was the sound of wind, and the surrounding scenery was changing quickly, yet the only thing Xiao Feng Wu could feel was his heart about to jump out, a feeling he had never felt in his entire life. Quickened steps ran and ran, and when he passed by Sheng De Lou, there was already a new singer being pushed to fame, but his voice was not like the one before that had such soul in it.

Xiao Feng Wu turned his head to the side, taking a quick look before retracting his gaze, as he heard the play slowly fade into the distance. Even so, he could still tell that it was << Wenzhao Pass >> ¹.

“The shine from the clear moon to the window, is like an arrow that hits our hearts with worry.

Who could have known that Wenzhao Pass would have such a barricade, when we wish to head to Wu to turn our situation around.

Thankfully that Dong Gao Gong has ease of access, that he could hide me here in the back of his garden…”

Quickened horse steps stopped in front of a small courtyard where the crabapple tree inside had just reached full bloom, looking the liveliest it has ever been. Xiao Feng Wu flipped off the horse and was just about to push the door open when Zhong Bo coincidentally just came out. The two of them looked at each other and before Xiao Feng Wu even opened his mouth, Zhong Bo happily exclaimed, 

“Physician Xiao, you have finally come back. I had really thought that you were dead.”

With huffing breaths, Xiao Feng Wu said quietly, 

“I was dead, but I came back alive…… Where’s Ming Yue?”

Zhong Bo said, 

“Did you not know? Xian-sheng has already packed up and left. I heard he was going to Tong Cheng.”

Xiao Feng Wu’s pupils dilated and his fingers tightly grabbed on the door frame at his reply, 

“How long ago has it been since he left?”

Zhong Bo thought about it, 

“He went north. Past the mountain to the harbour for a ship ride.”

Xiao Feng Wu came in a haste and left in a haste. The moment he heard, he immediately flipped back up onto his horse and disappeared without a trace in a gust of wind. 

In his youth he had followed his family’s merchant caravan, and he knew that there was a small shortcut road nearby. He quickly hastened his steed, and when he was at the bottom of the mountain, he could see a carriage in the distance. Quickly putting on even more speed, he blocked the carriage right in the middle of the road.

The coachman thought it was bandits and got frightened, immediately grabbing a stool from his side. He jumped off the carriage and said, 

“Gah! Where has this horse come from! If you dare to fool around then you can eat a piece of this stool from your grandfather!”

Xiao Feng Wu’s gaze however was focused on the curtain doorway instead. He got off his horse, wanting to step forward, but he was blocked by the coachman who had immediately flew forward the moment with his stool when he moved. The coachman was kicked aside by Xiao Feng Wu and his cold face, 

“Get out! Keep messing with my business and I’ll take off your tongue!”

Kicked and now rolling on the ground, the coachman lay where the momentum left him, motionless and pretending to be dead.

Xiao Feng Wu’s gaze returned to the back of that deep blue curtain and he moved his lips, but the only words that could come out in the end was, 

“Ming Yue……”

He tightly held on to the carriage, lightly asking, 

“Why must you leave?”

The person inside the carriage did not make a sound and a breeze passed through, lifting up the corner of the curtain before letting it fall back down. Still, silence.

Xiao Feng Wu couldn’t hear a reply and his straight back bent down, lowering his head as he slowly closed his eyes. He looked a bit disheveled, a bit pitiful, and as his voice transmitted out, it trapped the slight sound of the trees shuffling from the wind, making it hard to tell what his emotions were.

“I, Xiao Feng Wu, have been mischievous since youth, living so falsely and uselessly all these years, never having a moment to grow up. Others have scolded me, hated me, and this is what I deserve. On these roads of Yan Cheng, find any ten people to ask, and all ten would say I am a fucking bastard, but you said, why…….why……”

The hand on the carriage was clenched so tightly that his hand was white. Xiao Feng Wu’s throat felt as if it was caught with something, and after a while he was able to speak out the words. It was as if he was asking others yet it felt more as if he was asking himself, 

“Why would there be people…… who would be willing to give up their life, for this kind of fucking loser bastard?

“I was held in prison for six days, yet it felt as if six years had passed. I kept thinking about the past, all my numerous mistakes that were not only limited to the hundreds. The thing that I have regretted the most in my life was two years ago……

“Did you know, two years ago I had kicked someone out. I had put him on a pedestal, and pushed him higher and higher, yet when he fell, I had not cared nor asked. When he was starving and suffering under the harsh cold winter days, I was not by his side. When his fingers got slammed into and broken off, I was not by his side. When he was eating leftovers tossed onto the side of the road, I was not by his side….. When he suffered the most, I was not there……

“When he became famous, I appeared again. He was the best singer in all of Yan Cheng. The moment he stepped on stage, who knows how many people were willing to toss him gold and silver, yet he was still willing to follow me. Follow this penniless, status-less bastard, me.

“I had fallen down into prison, yet he flew across many miles towards the capital, knelt on the ground outside the general’s estate for the entire night, to save the entire family of Xiao from their death…… He knelt for the entire night and yet I was still not by his side. Xiao Feng Wu is of this year, 25, yet in these twenty five years, I had lived like a dog—–“

Xiao Feng Wu’s head was lowered, his eyes red. A teardrop did not even have time to slide down his face and instead immediately dropped onto the back of his hand. The veins of his forehead suddenly popped as he slammed a fist onto the carriage, and the iron nails pierced his skin, causing a deep maroon red to flow out.

With a trembling voice he said, 

“Now that I’ve come out, he has left. Would you say that he hates me to death, that he wouldn’t be willing to even see me once more?”

“Xiao Feng Wu died in jail, but he lived again. This Xiao Feng Wu who survived wants to fight again, fight to lay riches and wealth for that person, boosting him up and up, never letting him fall ever again in this lifetime, but he left……

“I have so many words that I want to say to him, and I have so many words that I have not told him. I have never seen him as a thing to be played with, I have also never felt that he was someone worthless, someone lower……”

The back of Xiao Feng Wu’s hand was overflowing with fresh blood yet it was as if he did not feel any pain. He grabbed the curtain on the carriage tightly, leaving behind trails of blood on the deep blue fabric. With a low voice narrowing on begging without any hint of pride, almost giving up for any shred to be given, 

“Ming Yue, don’t go.”

“If you leave, Xiao Feng Wu would truly die…..”

The deep blue curtain doorway slowly lifted, revealing a pale colored robe, but no familiar face as expected could be seen. Instead, a weak and skinny little lady was shrunken in the corner as she cried. Xiao Feng Wu’s pupils immediately shrunk, his face frozen, feeling as if he was hit on the head and his mind went blank, turning him completely mindless.

He then came back to his senses and realized he got the wrong person. Immediately, hastily, he went to grab his horse to chase off again. Yet the moment he turned, he found that behind the carriage on the mountain road was the shadow of someone wearing a veil on a horse. That person had held the reins taut, the pinky of his hand could be seen to be missing a section, and as he slightly lifted up his head, the shadows revealed a skinny chin.

Xiao Feng Wu froze, eyes not even moving as he stared at the other man.

The horse was uncomfortably moving around, but the person on it stayed his hand, and after looking at Xiao Feng Wu for a while, he flipped off the horse. The moment he landed, his footsteps looked a bit strange, as if one was limping.

“Ming Yue……?”

Xiao Feng Wu was having trouble breathing. He took one step at a time slowly, slowly and carefully reaching out his hand, as if facing towards the most precious treasure in this world. The veil was slowly lifted, revealing a pale white face with a pair of phoenix eyes that still held so many emotions like before, so beautiful he was out of this world.

Xiao Feng Wu tightened his hand slowly and then slammed the other tightly into his embrace, his strength so suffocating and overpowering. Qin Ming Yue turned his head slightly, a playful glint to his eyes,

“Sixteen Master, your eyes have some problems and you should take some time to heal them.”

The most expensive thing in the world was, undoubtedly, the opportunity to retry after losing.

Xiao Feng Wu tightly hugged him, 

“My eyes cannot recognize treasure when I see it. It definitely needs to be looked at.”

Wind slowly shook the trees, swirling silently in the air. After a long while, Qin Ming Yue pushed him, 

“Let’s go back.”

Xiao Feng Wu was not willing to let go, but Qin Ming Yue shoved at him again, his patience finally all used up, 

“You haven’t showered for so long, your body smells so bad!”

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TL Tidbits:

It’s been a while since I’ve drafted a chapter haha : ) Plum’s currently on their vacation, so the task has fallen back onto my hands for this week, and I hope I didn’t miss anything! Please let me know if something is not working, as I’m a bit dusty at this (▔﹏▔)/

Since I am here and since it’s been a while, I wanted to give a warm thank you to all the Galactic Judges out there who is still on the journey with us (even if you’ve just started!). It’s really encouraging to see that there are people who (still) enjoy this translation (and I’m really glad that you all enjoy the novel as I have especially since I feel like I’m discovering new easter eggs like the footnote below), and I really do thank you all for your continual support, from the commenters, likers and silent readers ʚ♡⃛ɞ(ू•ᴗ•ू❁)

There is currently only one chapter left to this volume, and then we will bid farewell to our couple here! Next volume is an interesting one, as it is actually the most memorable out of all the volumes for me (though I’ll have to compare my feelings for volume 4 now that I’ve gone reading it more in depth…) but we’ll see what you all think (a little bit of a spoiler that you may or may not already know, it’s apocalyptic! …(；′⌒`) which does give me some apprehension over the new terms that I will probably be struggling over lol).

In any case, let me know what you think of Xiao Feng Wu and Qin Ming Yue as we wrap up this volume! I will say Plum dislikes Xiao Feng Wu the most out of all the volumes because they don’t really feel like he’s really changed nor made up for the fact of what he did to Qin Ming Yue. I do agree with that it feels like more should have been done for Qin Ming Yue, but I do feel that Xiao Feng Wu has changed, especially given his attitude from the very beginning to the point where he showed that he can take responsibility for himself when he opened up to Qin Ming Yue in the prison ( ｡_｡)

But anyway, I hope you all Galactic Judges are safe and see you next next Saturday for the finale of volume 6! ヾ(｡･ω･｡)

(Side note: …… has anyone seen the BL drama collections (HIStory 1/2/3/4)? Plum’s very tired of my commentary haha, but I’d be interested if anyone has any thoughts on it… especially that ending for HIStory3: Make Our Days Count | ू•ૅω•́))

Click here to bypass the footnote!

Notes:

^*1 Wenzhao Pass is an opera piece based on the “Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms” by Feng Menglong which is a historical novel about the late Ming Dynasty. This particular part is about King Ping of Chu and his wrongful pursuit of the Wu family. As the remaining Wu family members were trying to run away, they were in danger of getting caught when they had to pass through Wenzhao Pass to get to where they wanted to go but of course, it’s tightly guarded. They then happen to be saved by Dong Gao Gong, a disciple of Bian Que who is a well known Chinese physician, and he devises a way for them to get out. 

The Wu family members were able to escape because of him and when the Wu family members come back into the state for revenge, they find that the place where Dong Gao Gong resides was all empty and not lived in for a long time, so it ends with the commentary that Dong Gao Gong was a great man for giving his grace but not expecting anything in return (and the Wu family members go on to give him a grand bow and say they will repay him much more than he gave if he ever returns to Wenzhao Pass). (TL sidenote: it feels quite symbolic if you compare it to Xiao Feng Wu’s situation with Qin Ming Yue which was perhaps the intention of the author : ) )

Note that the “Wu” mentioned in the opera piece is not the Wu family (as “伍”)  but the state of Wu (as “吳國”), and also note that I did a very very rough literal translation of the opera piece since there’s not really a english version I could find, so please bear with my terrible literary skills again lol. If you are interested, here’s a version in chinese opera style (headphone/volume warning!) and the verse to be sung is from the beginning to around 3:40ish – Wenzhao Pass (Youtube)

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Edited and Proofread by Plum

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