Warnings for non explicit allusions to period typical underage.
On the second day, the army withdrew from the front.
The whole city was full of stifling heat. Women and children, young and old, crowds poured into the streets from nowhere.
“Welcome the Northern Border Army back!”
The troops entered the city. With the officials on either side of the road, there was a strange atmosphere, like a boiling pot who’s rippling had been covered quickly by a wooden lid, but the enthusiasm churned on regardless underneath.
People bowed their heads, peeking at the general’s elite horseback riding out of the the corners of their eyes.
Mo Xi was in full military attire, and his galvanized iron boots were pressed to the stirrups. Besides the belts and hand guards gleaming with silver, his entire body was dressed in black.
"Xi Hejun is so handsome!"
"I want to die, I want to die."
"He just looked at me!"
"Wow, don't kid around, there’s no one but Princess Mengze in his eyes, alright?"
"But he hasn’t married the princess... He’s thirty this year, no wife, no fiancee, no kid, that won’t do, really[1]!"
As for the other generals and soldiers, they reacted much more sweetly than Mo Xi.
They all happily waved to the people in the welcoming parade, especially Yue Chenqing, who actually took the flowers handed over by the girls happily but stuck them through his hair by the temples. After Mo Xi gave him a warning look, he smelled them in his hand instead with a wronged expression.
The road was very long, Yue Chenqing was only behaved for a moment, before he began eying a beautifully dressed woman, smiling and throwing her flirtatiously[2]: "Hello, young lady..."
"You're beautiful..."
"This humble one is seeking a concubine, food and accommodation provided.."
Mo Xi said sternly: "Yue Chenqing!"
Yue Chenqing covered his mouth.
The Northern Border Army’s armor shone in the sun, and the swords and ensemble looked magnificent. All in all, the military’s parade was completely different from Gu Mang’s past homecomings. After all, when Gu Mang was triumphant, he took the lead in the front on horseback playfully, and the soldiers behind him were happy as well, laughing and taking the snacks and wines handed to them by the people. At this moment, the leader of the army is Xihe jun. Xihe Jun didn’t smile even once, and others naturally didn’t dare behave presumptuously.
The gate of the city to the palace took over half an hour to travel. In the palace, there was a lengthy awards ceremony, with kneeling and paying respects and thanking again and again. It was annoying to the point of death. It all ended with a long nightly feast. Mo Xi remained placid nonetheless.
In the words of Yue Chenqing - he was the sort where "The fierceness with which he defends his chastity did not make him sacrifice his iciness, the distance at which he holds himself from the world did not make him lose his manners”.
Incidentally, when Yue Chenqing had first made a joke for the first time of what he said of Mo Xi, and he was sentenced to a hundred copyings of《Female Virtue》. Yan Hejun said coldly, Yue Chenqing, do you not know what it means? Come, come here, I’ll let you copy it until you’ve had enough.
However, no matter how many times Yue Chenqing tearfully copied, "the female virtue is unbounding, the complaints of women are unending", jokes of "Xihe Jun, The fierceness with which he defends his chastity did not make him sacrifice his iciness, the distance at which he holds himself from the world did not make him lose his manners” were still spread secretly throughout the army.
Everyone thought, right, Xihe jun, in order to wait for Princess Mengze, dragged his refusal to get married out into his 30s, just look at the situation at the dinner party. A group of young ladies surround him, but he’s barely even looking at them, just watch.
"Xihe jun, long time no see."
"Xihe jun, you seem thinner."
"Xihe jun, do you think the hair ornament[6] I wore today were pretty?"
Within this group of peerless beauties, the most intolerable was Princess Yanping. She was Princess Mengze’s sister. This year, she had just reached marriageable age[8], but her body has grown very seductively, and from her lush eyes, she clearly had love on her mind.
She smiled and walked to Mo Xi, her lips as soft and tender as fresh, succulent berries.
Yue Chenqing saw her from a distance, and didn’t even have time to swallow the cakes in his mouth, he was too busy pulling aside a friend he had not seen in a long time: "Hey hey hey."
The friend: "What are you doing?"
Yue Chenqing excitedly said: "Come on, look over there!"
"Isn't that Princess Yanping and Xihe jun... What’s the good in watching, Princess Yanping's chances are definitely hopeless."
"No, no. I will let you see what they call “fierceness with which he defends his chastity does not make him sacrifice his iciness, the distance at which he holds himself from the world does not make him lose his manners!”"
Friend: "...Haven’t you copied《Female Virtue》enough?"
Yue Chenqing forgot past pains once the wound healed[9], and happily dragged his friend over to eavesdrop.
"Brother in law[10]." Princess Yanping smiled and came to a halt in front of Mo Xi with a rather mocking opening.
Mo Xi lowered his eyelashes, pausing mid sentence at the name, and turned around with a "ready to die to preserve his chastity[11]" desire to leave.
Yanping quickly grabbed him: "Brother in law, you haven't been having fun with other girls, just standing here with a blank face, are you angry that my sister hasn’t come?"
Mo Xi paused and replied “icily[11]”: Princess, you have the wrong man, I remain unmarried."
"I was just teasing."
Mo Xi repressed his irritation, and "distantly” replied: “This is no trifling matter.”
"Okay, okay, don't get mad, my sister felt ill last month. She went to Yangzhou, Tangquan palace to take care of herself. She wasn’t at the imperial capital from the start. Otherwise, she definitely would have come to see you."
Mo Xi knew that Princess Mengze's constitution was deteriorating. That actually was an inescapable responsibility of his.
So he “politely" asked: "Is she doing alright?"
Yue Chenqing: "Hahahaha! What did I say! I didn’t speak wrong, did I!"
His friend thought he was laughing a bit too loudly, even with the crowd bustling about noisily, there are dangers I was noticed by Xihe jun. Even if Yue Chenqing does not care about copying《Female Virtue》, he couldn’t afford to lose this guy. He grabbed Yue Chenqing's mouth and dragged him away.
The two of them left, but Yanping princess and Mo Xi’s conversation wasn’t over yet.
Yanping continued grinning as she said: "Being blown around by the wind beyond the Great Wall for two years, and you could only think of my older sister? Don't worry, that old habit of yours, it’s not like I don’t know about it already, a bit of convalescing and she’ll be fine again."
Mo Xi did not speak.
"But to be perfectly honest, with my sister's body like that. If she doesn’t take care of it properly, how can she properly enjoy Xihe Jun?"
As Yanping spoke, her eyes eagerly admired Mo Xi’s long legs, and her eyes lingered on his handsome profile.
Such long legs, such a straight nose, with that sexy throat, and those slender, cultivated hands. Just looking at him one could imagine how strong the man was, how one would feel pressed underneath him.
Yanping sighed: "If my sister is sick all her life, she never be able to marry. All you really going to wait for her forever?"
"..."
"Wouldn’t that be such a shame..."
She pressed very close, the body carrying a sweet perfume, pearls and jades nestled in her black hair and with a rouged, peony like fae, she smiled and deliberately leaned forward, her towering, snow like half exposed chest trembling.
"Shouldn’t you consider me? I’m grown up too, and I’m not any worse than older sister."
As she spoke she wrapped her arm around his waist sash: "Just going to bed together, nothing too serious." She smiled. She smiled, the tip of her pink tongue flickering out to lick her lips. "You’ll love it."
She was done for.
"Just going to bed together, nothing too serious." This phrase could be ranked in the top three of Mo Xi’s most hated words, Yanping Princess was only unsuccessful, but jabbed one of his sorest spots in the process.
"..." Mo Xi glared at her, pausing, and coldly ordered, "You get out of my way."
"Ah-you, you-- !" But Mo Xi had already walked far away from her.
Feiyao Terrace’s curtain tassels fluttered. Mo Xi took an amber colored glass cup from a servant, walked to the edge of the terrace, his leather clad legs finally relaxed. Leaning against the cinnabar railing, he gazed at the city ablaze.
Leaving that boredom crowded hallway, he breathed a sigh of relief and drank a cup of berry liquor, his Adam’s apple moving with the motion.
For a while now he had been enduring the “favoritism" of women.
But his dislike continued and he was remained rather unused to it.
Honestly, once upon a time, Mo Xi wasn’t adored by many, if he was walking by on the road, few snuck looks at him. At the time, his temper was very poor. How poor was it? Let’s just say that in comparison, today's Xihe jun could be regarded as a gentle, good natured sweetheart.
Later, there was massive upheaval in his family. Everyone thought that this Mo Gongzi was at the end of his rope, and the nobles and cultivators were unwilling to acknowledge him. Cultivators born from slaves, servants, were also too scared to approach him.
Only Gu Mang, a madman unafraid of death, was willing to be his friend[12]. Only he chose to comfort that stranded young master, comfort him, tell him, it doesn't matter, even if you’re not some noble heir anymore, you’ll be you all the same. You have this spark in your heart, sooner or later it’ll shine. If I can see this light, others will see it later too.
Later, when Mo Xi’s crisis ended, he could not cast off the Mo Clan’s shadow. He fought off war from all sides, and his military merit surpassed even his forefathers. He as never thought of again as the only son of the Mo Clan, but rather regarded him as Xihe Jun, the original[13].
More and more girls were beginning to have feelings for him.
After Gu Mang’s treason, the girls’ tastes obviously changed. They admired Mo Xi, and some even said: "With men, it’s better to be a little bit boring and honest, so they won’t be disappointing like Gu Mang."
"Xihe Jun’s temper may be poor, but he is magnanimous. If he has something to say he’ll say it directly, he doesn’t lie at all."
A brothel woman, tightening her waist sash recklessly, said: "Xihe jun is the most innocent man I’ve ever seen! If this lady’s being honest, if Xihe Jun came over to visit me, the old lady would not only refuse his money, but pay him instead!”
The next day, Xihe Jun really came, not to visit her, but to shut the brothel down with a dark face.
"Seducing lords, like you don’t know the meaning of shame. Your punishment is to go back to your family and be good women." Mo Xi shut the building down with those fierce words, and, after scolding them angrily, left just as furiously.
The brothel women were left howling, saying that XIhe Jun had told them to be good, to marry and leave their work as prostitutes, they would never be prostitutes again for all their life, wah. Xihe Jun is truly the world’s only good man.
What a mystery!
People always love to find someone who looks good, get attached to them, and then project their own beautiful fantasies onto that person, and bask in that radiance. Mo Xi had no desire to become that sort of noble Buddha type character – he didn't have the integrity that they imagined he did.
He also had some unspeakable desires that could not be spoken aloud.
It was just that absolutely no one realized that.
It’s like no one remembered what a miserable life Mo Xi had lived before.
Therefore, what Gu Mang said was both correct, and incorrect.
He left the shadow of the Mo Clan and relied on himself to become a star in the eyes of everyone. But he was perfectly clear that that radiance was only the flawless, incorrect illusion of Xi Hejun, one that had nothing to do with that lonely, embarrassed child from so long ago.
From the start to the end, only Gu Mang went to the silent kid sitting alone in the corner of the military barracks, the only one wholeheartedly happy to see him again, the only person who had happily extended his hand to him, his sharp, white canines peeking out as he smiled.
The bonfire was warm.
He smiled and said that it had been a while since we’ve last seen each other, Mo shidi, can I sit next to you?
---
"It’s been a while since we’ve last seen each other, can I sit next to you?"
Suddenly hearing such a similar sentece, Mo Xi’s fingertips shook, and the wine in his glazed ceramic cup nearly spilled.
He turned his head as though he were dreaming and saw a familiar figure.
In the moonlight, under the Royal Empress[14] flowers of Feiyao Terrace, he was watched quietly.
Translation Notes:
[1] 装逼 acting pretentious/cool. Usually in a negative way like trolling, boasting or (commonly seen) putting on a cheesy "I'm the cool kid" airs. Also, the title is phrased in a similar way to Chinese clickbait, specifically the adult type, as China has restricted advertisement of adult content.Thanks Shibb on Nu for the guidance!
[2] 真是的 (interj. of annoyance or frustration). Not really sure what to translate that conveys the same meaning?
[3] 花枝招展 lit. lovely scene of blossoming plants swaying in the breeze (idiom); fig. gorgeously dressed (woman)
[4] 招猫逗狗 playful, he’s not literally playing with cats and dogs obviously
[5]贞烈 ready to die to preserve one's chastity.
[6]步摇 dangling ornament worn by women
[7]金枝玉叶golden branch, jade leaves (idiom); fig. blue-blooded nobility, esp. imperial kinsmen or peerless beauty
[8] Meant to be around 15.
[9] 好了伤疤忘了疼 Idiom, literal translation is forgetting the wound once it heals
[10]The specific translation is “older sister’s husband”
[11] The fierceness with which he defends his chastity did not make him sacrifice his iciness, the distance at which he holds himself from the world did not make him lose his manners: A running joke, all quoted words this chapter reference this phrase.
[12] The “friend” used here implies great intimacy
[13]本尊 Deity, original. He’s overcome the shadow of his ancestors
[14]Paulownia tomentosa, a deciduous tree native to China. Though it has beautiful pink and yellow flowers, it is considered semi invasive in most other countries.An interesting fact about them: in Japan, the tree is planted at the birth of a girl,and when she is eligible for marriage the tree is cut down and carved into wooden articles for her dowry.
Dante’s Notes:
As always, if any of you feel like a warning is needed for any chapters, just hit me up. I’d be happy to edit it in for you.
The next few chapters contain material that may be interpreted as dubcon, and violence/gore. Also, more genre typical violence.
(Half of the) Author’s Notes:
Theater:
Mo Xi: Yue Chenqing, you come out here.
Yue Chenqing:(Shaking)Hello everyone, I’ll explain everything to you, yesterday I said that General Mo was not a happy newlywed was my mistake. I was just joking with him. General Mo is not married to Princess Mengze. He is a bachelor. A virgin...
Gu Mang: Oh, a bachelor, absolutely, not a virgin though.
Chapter translated by Dante