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Lacking virtue and ability
Nannan slowly shifted his eyes away from the scene below, took a small breath and began to stick his hands inside the small purse hanging on his waist. After a while, he took out a tiny and delicate porcelain bottle, removed its cork and sneakily laughed.
The brawl between the two below seemed to be nearing its end, the white-clothed lad’s movements were becoming slower. His stance clearly contained a hint of playfulness and teasing towards his bulky opponent.
Nannan felt anxious as he started a motion in order to throw the poison in his hand. Soon there would be no time for him to do it anymore.
Staring at the two men below, he slowly tipped over the content inside the porcelain bottle towards the skinnier man, splashing it over him.
“These poisons developed by my mother’s hands are top notch. They can affect anyone and their effect is pretty much an immediate one. Hehehehe” he muttered in a low voice as he continued pouring out the content. His little rosy mouth was perching in a cute way..
The concoction inside of the porcelain bottle had indeed an immediate effect, however, the lad in white had also previously sustained injuries in his arm, and so, upon contact with the poison, he immediately started to feel pain in his chest and dizziness[1].
The little boy gave a mischievous smile, seeing that the man’s gait wasn’t that steady anymore. He then proceeded to store the porcelain bottle.
But he couldn’t expect that the man below would suddenly raise his head and stare sharply at him with a pair of deep and gloomy eyes. His expression towards Nannan was like an eagle spotting its prey, fierce and vicious. Shocked by it, Nannan slipped and fell from the beam he was sitting in.
It’s all over! It looks like he’s fated to die young in endless misfortune. His head would be split open and he would be left with an incomplete corpse. Oh, cruel heavens! He was an unmarried little child, and he still hasn’t even found a man for his mother… how could he die in such a shameful way? It’s over, all over! Sure enough… after following his mother for such a long time it seems that the bad energy surrounding her had affected him too, causing him to have such bad ending!
Mommy, it looks like Nannan cannot serve you any longer[2], you better remember to burn me a young wife[3] aaaaah… uhn, why don’t i feel any pain?
Nannan opened his eyes, astonished to see that the man in white had brought him together while fleeing away. His eyes were wide open in surprise as he stared at the man.
Not long after, he finally reacted and began to struggle to get out of his arms.
“Hey, hey, hey, you let me go, what are you doing?! What do you want from me? I’m telling you, I’m not into men… I don’t swing that way. Especially towards an old guy like you, yeah not a single shred of interest. You, you, you child trafficker! You better watch out if you don’t want to have a tragic death!”
Where does he want to bring me to? Mother had just asked me to stay put waiting for her. If she comes back and doesn’t see me, later she’ll will surely shave a layer of my skin off!!
The man let out an angry breath, lowering his head and glaring at Nannan viciously he threatened “Shut up, otherwise, I’ll kill you!”
After speaking, his movements became even faster.
Nannan covered his mouth, he could only stare at him with two round eyes. After a long time staring, he felt that his eyes were starting to sting. He sighed inwardly while thinking very angrily ‘whatever!’ That guy was hurt and poisoned, so no one would expect him to be in a good mood. It is not difficult to imagine why his tone would be so bad. But since he is as generous as a kind elder, he shall not step down to his level.
The lad in white noticed that the kid didn’t open up his mouth again and finally took his sight away from him, putting all his energy into rushing forward.
At that moment Nannan faintly noticed that it almost seemed as if there were some pursuers coming after them. His eyes showed some confusion, could it be that the other big guy from the brawl had a partner?
This time, it looks like he was really miserable. Will he ever be able to meet his mother again? Mommy! Your son is in danger, you better change to your ‘big god’ pants[4] and come save this little one.
“Achoo!”
At this exact moment, Yu Qingluo sneezed. She lifted her hands hurriedly to cover her mouth as to avoid being noticed by other people. But her eyebrows knit tightly as she got herself wondering who still had the guts to curse at her behind her back[5].
She shook her head, to free herself of such messy thoughts. with her eyes squinting, she kept on following the two people ahead of her.
But soon, she saw that Yu Zuolin had separated from his subordinates before steeping into the inn[6], she couldn’t help but become relaxed and let a small smile form on her lips.
This inn was packed with people, making the place unusually lively. As soon as Yu Qingluo entered, the waiter[7] hurried to make her questions “Miss, are you here to stay for the night or…”
“I came in search of a person.” Yu Qingluo didn’t let him finish his questioning as she threw some silver ingots to him. Her action succeeded in shutting the waiter up, as he immediately turned around with a small smile went to make himself busy.
After taking some steps, she reached the foot of the stairs. Raising her head Yu Qingluo spotted, amongst the guest rooms, a door that had just been closed with a ‘click’. So she thought to herself, ‘if there are no other coincidences, Yu Zuolin should be staying inside that room.’.
She swept her eyes over the entire second floor and saw that opposite to the restaurant which was packed with guests eating and behaving unusually excited, the guests staying on the second floor were oddly quiet, the environment surrounded by a pleasant and peaceful atmosphere.
Yu Qingluo walked in silence for a bit as she inspected her surroundings. But she wasn’t able to find a proper place so she could hide and peek into Yu Zuolin’s room, she let out a disappointed sigh.
It’d be better for her to let go and just wait nearby for now.
But who would have thought, Yu Zuolin’s luck might be really bad after all. Because he suddenly opened the door of the room he had gotten in a while ago and with a displeased expression went downstairs and called for the inn’s waiter.
Yu Qingluo’s eyes brightened, she took advantage of the fact that he had his back turned towards her and flashed like a shadow. With the stance of a stealthy cat the girl nimbly and soundlessly entered the room Yu Zuolin had just exited, hiding herself behind a screen[8] inside.
She let out a relieved breath. Yu Zuolin took some seconds before returning to the room. But now he wasn’t alone as the subordinate whom he previously had parted ways with followed him in this time.
“How is it? Any news?” Yu Zuolin’s voice sounded somewhat impatient. He started his questioning with an evident frown on his forehead before even sitting down.
That subordinate let out a breath before proceeding to shake his head and answer: “Young master, I already went to ask that household. The head of that family has left for more than two days and hasn’t returned yet. They aren’t clear as well of where he went.”
‘BAM!’
Yu Zuolin slapped hard on the table’s surface, sounding extremely angry: “Did we come late again?”
The subordinate turned restless, letting out a hidden sigh. But he hesitated a little before opening his mouth again, to talk in a low voice “Young master, we have already been away from the capital for two months, if we don’t return soon Your Majesty is going to be dissatisfied with your unapproved extended absence. I’m afraid that this will implicate the entire Yu Household, you see…”
“It wasn’t easy to find a clue on that person, how can you ask me to go back now? Since that person said that he would be back in a couple of days to the City of Jiang[9] then it’s better if we search for a couple more days. You can’t say for sure that there won’t be any news. Even the imperial doctors said that Ranran’s illness is probably impossible to be treated unless it’s by the Ghost Doctor’s hands. No matter what, this time I also want to find that Ghost Doctor and, even if I have to tie him up, I’ll bring him back with me to treat Ranran’s condition.”
Yu Zuolin’s voice was filled with anger and urgency. His tone sounded irritated.
However, Yu Qingluo, who was hidden behind the screen had a distracted expression on her face, her mouth was twitching in disbelief.
Could it really be that the reason why Yu Zuolin was so far away from the capital in the City of Jiang was precisely to find her?
This is really… lacking in virtue and ability. Haha?[10]
Translated by C, The Apostle of Coffee
Edited by NoveLeo, Life is a Drama
Translator’s Notes
[1] – To the reader: A poison can exert its effect after arriving at the target organ via the bloodstream. When comparing the absorption through the skin vs. the rapid spreading by directly entering an open wound, the latter makes for a far more rapid onset and development of symptoms. It also affects the dosage, because when a medication is applied over the skin, only a small fraction of it is absorbed and gets to the bloodstream, but when a drug has a direct route of access to the bloodstream, such as open wounds, IV bags and injections, almost 100% of the substance is absorbed and distributed throughout the body.
[2] – ‘serve his parents’ is considered to be a filial duty of the descendants towards their progenitors. And since Nannan likes to act like a little adult, a man taking care of his old mom, he speaks in such way.
[3] – burn a young wife -> it isn’t uncommon for a marriage between the dead 冥婚 (Míng hūn) to be held for a dead unmarried man. A dead woman is chosen to be his bride based on their life charts and matched by an expert in divination. It is believed that this is a way to make sure that the man will have someone to keep him company in the netherworld.
[4] – 黑白无常 (Hēibái wúcháng)- What Nannan actually says is, literally, “Black and White Impermanence” and according to Wiki they are two Deities in Chinese folk religion in charge of escorting the spirits of the dead to the underworld. Depending on the person it encounters, the Wuchang Gui can appear as either a fortune deity who rewards the person for doing good deeds or a malevolent deity who punishes the person for committing evil.(to see more, you can click here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heibai_Wuchang).
[5] – It’s a saying that if you sneeze for no reason, someone must be speaking badly of you behind your back.
[6] – 天满楼 (Tiān Mǎnlóu) – I’m not so sure if this is a single word or if the first hanzi is the name of the building. If someone has a better idea, please feel free to comment, but from what I found in my research this building is sort of an Inn/hostel which has a restaurant in the lower floor. Its a place for travelers to rest or settle for the night.
[7] – 小二 (Xiǎo èr) – Lit. ‘Small two’. it’s how they call a waiter/servant that receives guests in an inn or restaurant, and oh, not to be confused with 小三 （Xiǎosān）which is the term we use to refer to a third part in a relationship (like a lover or a mistress of someone already engaged in a relationship with someone else).
[8] – 屏风 (Píngfēng) – its a screen that works out as a partition. They put it in a room to give some privacy to those living inside. Usually when changing clothes or taking a shower they’d do behind this partitions. They can also be used to separate guests in a room, so that the parties in different parts of the screen will not see each other.
[9] – 城 (Chéng) – Means ‘city’ – everyone will see that usually when referring to a city’s name they’ll put a name in front and the hanzi 城 for ‘City’ in the back. I decided to name the cities in such way then: “City of ….”
[10] – In a note: I believe that she’s saying that he got really unlucky this time. Since the Ghost Doctor he’s so desperately searching is Yu Qingluo herself.
Obviously Too Busy to Translate 
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