Chapter 5.1 - The Family Meeting (1)
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Wu Tong came out of her younger brother’s hospital ward. Just as she turned around, she saw Wu Kai standing nearby smiling to himself.
“Xiao Kai, why are you here?” Wu Tong asked.
“I did a bunch of tests today. I finally got some free time, so I came here to chat with Xiao Yuan.” Wu Kai glanced at the door to Xiao Yuan’s hospital ward before asking, “Did Xiao Yuan go to sleep already?”
“Yep, he just went to sleep,” Wu Tong replied.
Wu Kai decided not to chat with Xiao Yuan anymore. “Then I’ll drop by again tomorrow.”
“Xiao Yuan also did a bunch of tests today, so I didn’t have a chance to check up on you. Was it tiring?” Wu Tong asked.
“I’m fine. The only ones who were busy were the nurses and physicians, and my mom who was making a big ruckus. I was only responsible for sitting and lying down,” Wu Kai responded with a smile. He suddenly thought of something and asked, “Oh, by the way. Second sister[1], when you went to my home yesterday, what did my parents say to you?”
[1] It's very common in East Asian culture to call a relative, friend, or stranger who is older (or younger) than you: "older brother/older sister" (or "younger brother/younger sister"). So even though Wu Kai and Wu Tong are cousins, he still calls her "older sister." Since Wu Tong is younger than his biological older sister, he calls Wu Tong "Second (older) sister."
"Nothing much,” Wu Tong replied with a smile.
“If my parents also don’t know what they said yesterday[2], then they definitely brought up some kind of demand. Ignore them,” Wu Kai said. “Xiao Yuan is also my younger brother, so I will definitely help him out.”
[2] Wu Kai probably asked his parents what they were discussing in private with Wu Tong the day before and they told him: "Nothing." But even though his parents aren't willing to tell him, he has some clue as to what they were saying, which is why he tells Wu Tong to ignore his parents.
“Thank you.” Wu Tong’s smile filled with warmth. “But it was really nothing. I’m going home early to rest, so I’ll be leaving first.”
“Ok, bye second sister.”
Wu Tong watched as Wu Kai’s back slowly receded from view. Although she wasn’t sure if he really had no clue what his parents had planned, what he just told her added a touch of warmth to the cold and heartless transaction that she made with his parents.
In the blink of an eye, Wednesday arrived. Ever since morning, Wu Tong’s second aunt picked out clothes for Wu Tong and took her to get her makeup done. In response to her second aunt’s flurry of movements, Wu Tong only chuckled as she cooperated. Seeing the slightly more refined-looking woman in the mirror, Wu Tong suddenly fell into a trance. It seemed to have been a very long time since she cleaned herself up so nicely.
“Women need to know how to take care of their appearance,” commented the makeup artist. Satisfied, they put down the blush brush in their hand and admired the masterpiece that they spent the entire afternoon on.
“Yeah,” Wu Tong nodded slightly in agreement.
“Are you done yet?” Wu Tong’s second aunt walked in while checking the time.
“We’re done.” The makeup artist swiveled Wu Tong’s chair around to face Wu Tong’s second aunt. “Miss Wu is very pretty.”
“Sure enough, fine feathers make a fine bird[3],” said Wu Tong’s second aunt while scrutinizing Wu Tong. Although her manner of speaking was peculiar, she seemed very satisfied.
[3] In the original Chinese, Wu Tong's second aunt said something along the lines of: "People need to rely on clothes (the same way) horses rely on saddles," which is equivalent to "fine feathers make a fine bird."
“Can we go now?” Wu Tong asked as she stood up.
“Let’s go. Your second uncle’s car is already waiting for us outside.” After Wu Tong’s second aunt finished speaking, she turned around and walked out first.
Wu Tong politely smiled at the makeup artist before leaving with her second aunt.
The makeup artist’s little assistant saw the two of them leave before running over and gossiping. “I heard that the Wu family and Qin family have a marriage alliance. That young miss must be the marriage prospect. But… why isn’t there even a tiny bit of festive spirit surrounding them?”
“She’s marrying the eldest young master, not the second young master,” another assistant replied.
*Sigh* “It’s not easy being the daughter of a rich family. That young lady from the Wu family is quite pretty, it’s a shame that she’s marrying an unromantic soldier,” said the little assistant pityingly.
“There’s something wrong with your way of thinking.” At this time, the makeup artist decided to speak up as well. “We’re already in the 21st century. Women nowadays should all dress up for themselves. A woman dressing up for the person she likes is a characteristic way of showing that women depend on men.”
I'm so sorry for not updating last month!!! ; v ; I had this chapter translated but I wanted to translate the rest of it, so I could come up with a chapter title, but then it um... inserts busy with essays excuse hrnggg
So I'm not done translating the rest of the chapter because it's VERRRYYY long. (I literally spent my entire day translating 2 pages of Chinese characters because I'm still new to translating novel chapters and a lot of stuff in this chapter was super hard to translate sobs)
So here is the deal: I translated almost half of the rest of this chapter, BUT it's like over 5-6 pages long. I might break up the 2nd part, so that instead of 2 parts for chapter 5, it will be 3 parts. Hopefully that is ok with everyone. If not, then it might take some time for me to release the next part ; v ; (Some time as in maybe when I procrastinate on my 3 finals papers during Thanksgiving break, we shall see wew.)
The release for next month will likely be at the end of the month (after my Fall semester is over woohoo! But I have mandatory Chinese classes for my winter break hrnggg.)
Feel free to hop on ISO's Discord channel and chat with me~ uwu
Btw, here is my Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/tomochi ;)