The dead Yu Shi [1]
Yu Zuolin’s pupils constricted and both his hands unconsciously darted towards the handle of the sword hanging on his waist.
The man let out a laugh while looking at him: “Yes! I’m also very curious. What kind of ailment could General Yu be suffering from that is worthy of him leaving behind his military duties without authorization in order to rush to this remote Jiang Cheng?”
Yu Feng immediately put his body in front of Yu Zuolin’s, glaring at the person in front.
Yu Qingluo was sitting on the roof leisurely currently, the corners of her lips bending into a smile, growing wider and wider as she watched the scene below. The person who she had been waiting for had finally shown up.
This was the real purpose behind her asking Jin Liuli to invite Master Yang. Only Yu Zuolin’s mortal enemy can seize this opportunity to give him (YZL) a painful lesson.
Ye Xiudu glanced at the woman next to him and seeing her expression that looked like a cat that just succeeded in stealing a fish, he felt his heart stop for a second.
After a while, he frowned and, pursing his lips into a straight line, he kept on looking down expressionless.
Yu Zuolin’s face was already hard to look at. Those people who heard the by the man next to Master Yang way of addressing Yu Zuolin became flabbergasted, one after another: “General? He is a General?”
“Yes!” that man kept on smiling: “Not just a General, but the young General whose popularity has recently soared amongst the crowds.”
“Lin Fan, let me through.” Yu Zuolin’s face became sullen. He could have never imagined that he would have met his sworn enemy, who came here under the order of the Emperor, in this place.
Lin Fan laughed until his whole body was shaking: “Why is General Yu so anxious? Is it because you are in a hurry to go back? That’s natural, after all, if it reaches the Emperor’s ears that you left your post without permission, then the consequences might be quite severe. But oh, if General Yu decided to travel here, miles away from his post, simply to ask for medicine for his illness, then as long as he tells his Majesty the truth, by our Majesty’s benevolence, he will surely understand you. However, if General Yu isn’t sick, then… ha ha ha.”
Yu Zuolin glared at him, his expression turning crude and cruel, almost as if he was ready to attack Lin Fan.
But the latter paid no mind to that, as he was already carelessly saying: “Nevertheless, in order to have a chance to meet with the Ghost Doctor, General Yu actually spent 10.000 taels of silver. Leaving only regret for the seriously ill patients of the common folk who lost their chance to be treated on time by the Ghost Doctor. About this, it would be better for General Yu to inform your Majesty personally about your sin. Shall we return together, General Yu?”
The crowd was taken aback. Yes! This General Yu had no sickness nor woes but still rushed to this faraway place to compete with the common folk like them for a token, how can this be let by?
Especially because this General Yu looks like he’s ready to act against them, and that made the dissatisfaction in their hearts even stronger.
“Let me say, Sir General, just what kind of sickness do you have?!”
“That is, to my viewing, your body is robust and strong as a bull[2]. You are rich and influent, so even going to the palace to ask for an Imperial Doctor’s opinion isn’t a hard task, so why did you run all the way over here?”
“General, do you have some kind of ‘unmentionable disease’[3]?!”
“Pft…” Yu Qingluo couldn’t hold her laughter in as she listened to these people inquiries.
An ‘unmentionable disease’? Well said.
The veins on Yu Zuolin’s forehead became visible as his anger made blood rush to his head, the speculations from the crowd entering his ears made him even more embarrassed.
Yu Feng suddenly felt a sense of unease in his heart while facing the accusation of others, so he turned to raise his hands to scold those people.
But as he was about to do so he was stopped by Yu Zuolin: “Don’t cause more trouble, let’s go.”
“Yes, Young Master.” Yu Feng held himself back, putting his raised hand down. Then proceeding to walk over to Lin Fan, obstructing their way to let Yu Zuolin pass through the arched door.
Lin Fan let out a smile that was not a smile (TL: A smile with the mouth, but not with the eyes, a fake smile) as he stared at the back of the man swiftly walking away. Smiling, he blurted out: “General Yu, where are you going in such a hurry? Anyway, you already came all the way here, just wait for a bit longer, It won’t make a difference. Eh! Wait for me! Let’s go back together to the capital!”
“There’s no need, let’s go our separate ways[4], it’s better if we don’t go together.” Yu Zuolin replied without looking back, then whispered to Yu Feng, who was following him behind: “Hurry up and prepare the horses, we don’t have that many things left on the inn to get, so there’s no need to go and grab them. We are leaving at once. We must return to the capital before Lin Fan accuses me before the Emperor.”
It was him who wasn’t prepared, he originally thought that this was the last day he was staying here and was planning to rush back to the capital overnight after seeing the Ghost Doctor today. But, contrary to expectations, in the final moment, he actually bumped into Lin Fan.
If it was any other person, then it would be ok. At best he just had to move his hands a bit and he would be able to cover this matter.
But Lin Fan was his sworn enemy, and their families were the same, and in the Imperial Court, they did their utmost in order to drag the other down.
Before, Lin Fan’s father had suffered a big loss by Ye Xiudu’s hands and now Lin Fan just managed to get a hold of an advantage over him. So, how could he not think of every way possible to beat Lin Fan down?
Damn it! Why had Lin Fan appeared here right now?
Yu Zuolin’s steps became faster and faster, after Yu Feng got the command, he rushed to the back of the tavern.
Seeing the master and servant duo disappear out of the door, Lin Fan’s eyes squinted, he turned to bid farewell to Master Yang: “Uncle Yang, I have bothered you throughout these days. I now have a task at hand and need to rush back to the capital, so I’ll be leaving hastily.”
Yang Yansheng naturally knew that they were opponents on the Imperial Court, so he didn’t try to keep him back: “Be careful on the road, the luggage you have left on the Yang Mansion will be sent over to the Capital later on.”
“Thank you very much.” Lin Fan nodded lightly then, lifting his robes, he walked away.
Just as he took a step over, he suddenly seemed to remember something, turning around again he smiled at Jin Liuli, and said with a meaningful tone: “Shopkeeper Jin, for now, should I thank you for today?”
There were some matters that he can be said to have understood. The reason why Shopkeeper Jin had invited Master Yang to come in here turned out to be him.
Heh, even though he was taken advantage of by someone, it could still be considered that both parts were benefited. To gain the chance to get back at the Yu Family, he was very willing to be used.
Nevertheless, he couldn’t understand just what kind of enmity Shopkeeper Jin had against Yu Zuolin.
“I don’t quite understand what Gongzi means.” Jin Liuli pretended to be clueless, blinking her eyes with an innocent look, seemingly very puzzled by his words.
Lin Fan let out a laugh, not saying anything else back. He turned around and left the tavern.
As soon as he left, a waiter ran to Jin Liuli’s side and said in a loud voice: “Don’t worry, the Ghost Doctor is safe. The guy who wanted to harm her (TL: I’m putting ‘her’, but they just refer to as ‘the Ghost Doctor’, never putting gender, so don’t be surprised, no one thinks that the GD is a woman) was already caught by us. But the Ghost Doctor has a kind and benevolent heart and said that since he hurt no one we should just let him go.”
Jin Liuli almost couldn’t keep her expression, ‘kind and benevolent heart’? Is Yu Qingluo, this little wench, trying to wash herself clean[5]?
Her eyes floated towards the roof, those two were still there in an embrace and it seemed that no one had realized just how ambiguous was their posture.
At this moment, Yu Qingluo, who had been previously looking down, was awakened by Ye Xiudu’s voice that sounded dangerously low on her ear: “Yu Zuolin’s previous wife, who died 6 years ago, seems to be a Yu Shi.”
Translated by C, The Apostle of Coffee
Edited by NoveLeo, Life is a Drama
Translator’s Notes
[1] 玉氏 – Yu (as in Yu Qingluo’s surname). Shi, when put after a surname and the subject is a married woman, is used to point out her maiden family name. That is because when a woman (be it a side room or the main room – that is, concubine or main wife) is married she’ll never change her surname to the husband’s surname. Only her title will change. So, for example: If Yu Qingluo marries Ye Xiudu, her title as a wife would be Mrs Ye, or if he has a court title it’ll follow the husband. But her name will stay Yu Qingluo, it won’t be changed to Ye Qingluo (something we would do in western tradition).
Although the definition is quite easy to grasp, the usage might be a bit complicated for people who were just introduced to the concept. I find that the situations where these titles are used are mostly impolite. And besides this meaning, there are some others which I’ll not point out in here!
[2]孔武有力 – means ‘Herculean’ or ‘Courageous and Strong’ – I decided to place ‘Strong as a bull’ as I believe the meaning is about the same!
[3] 隐疾 – ‘unmentionable disease’, ‘secret disease’ – it’s basically another term for a disease you don’t want to mention to the outside, for example, venereal diseases. But! I think the meaning hidden in here is alluding to a problem with his lil’ bro. Yah ~ (ED/N: lil’ General’s Wiener)(TL: LMAO)
[4] 道不同不相为谋 – Yu Zuolin uses a figure of speech in here which Lit. means: “There’s little common ground for understanding between people with differing principles”, but it can be used to say about going into separate ways or when breaking up with other people – so, I’m going to make a rough translation to make more sense in English, but I’ll leave this note here to share the beauty lying underneath this line!
[5]洗白 – Lit: ‘wash white’ – meaning ‘ to clear someone from their bad reputation/ sins’ in the eyes of others.
Obviously Too Busy to Translate 
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