Chapter 5 (2/2)
Lady Cen asked: “I reer brother by blood, ill request to be sealed as the Heir to the Duke of Ying after two years?”
”Yes”
“Back in the day, our Highness was originally supposed to be er sister by blood, that is, the current consort of the Prince of Qi At that ti's official residence still had the second Fu lord as its master Since that was his eldest niece, it was not suitable for him to arbitrate this matter on his own initiative, so he instead inquired fro the hair on her te in the capital back then A wave of shallow sorroithout discernible cause suddenly swept over her heart
“At the tie as the Pri his sister was unhappy with thefurther Their Fu fah bones to chew, and the Marquis of Jing Ning went even further, risking the ire of His Highness all to give his younger sister her choice ofhad such a wonderful elder brother, truly attracting others' admiration and envy
“Back in the day, for the sake of the position of Heir, Lady Qin abandoned all se wo such an unsightly fuss And as the result? The Marquis of Jing Ning's younger sister was still nificently married to the Prince of Qi If Lady Qin runs into any trouble, she can only count on Primary Consort Fu Even then, she has to find ways to avoid this princess17, like a lowly thief” Lady Cen sneered, ”If her son had even half of the Marquis of Jing Ning's independence and capability, Primary Consort Fu would never need to s my insults and stoop so low”
The ” had touched a distant ht the crown princess consort was extraordinarily sharp-tongued tonight, and expressed agreement: “Then… Ihness for the next few days?”
Lady Cen looked into the bronze mirror andwhile, she waved her hand: ”No need For such worthless18 people, no hness lifts theht, within the Spring Fragrance Pavilion of the East Palace
The crown prince Sun Yunliang had taken the rare occasion to stay the night19, so Pri his outer robe and attending upon hient as usual, a tinge of unhappy depression reht knotting of her y brows, Sun Yunliang only felt her beauty was accentuated by hera different kind of ro her tenderly Only when the clouds had parted and the rain had stopped20 did he lazily ask: “What is it? What troublesome matter has actually caused you to worry yourself into this state?”
Fu Ting quickly rose, and then knelt down at the foot of the bed in apology: “Today, Mother sent a er to inforhtened into agitation and panic May His Highness please showin somewhat of a trance”
The Crown Prince raised his hand to hug her back: “This prince22 forgives your offenses What is on your 's frown immediately disappeared, as if she had seen her savior Her eyes bri the Crown Prince's self-satisfaction even further She rant as orchids: “I do not wish to hide this frohness, but this matter concerns this servant's elder brother, the Marquis of Jing Ning, Fu Shen…”
Footnotes ( I think this is a new record?):
1 This woman is referred to as 秦氏 氏 indicates that her maiden name was 秦 before she married into the Fu household Either Madame or Lady Qin would probably work fine as translations, so I just closed my eyes and picked one
2 The phrase used here is ”眼珠一转” which literallylike ”rotated his eyeballs” It actuallyof a clever idea or so similar
3 Lady Qin adds 儿 (ér) to Fu Ya's first name This is an affectionate nickname for a beloved child
4 Of note, the servants call Fu Shen 大公子 where 大 = eldest and 公子 = noble son (previously translated as ”young nobleman” in chapter 2) They call Fu Ya 少爷, which is basically ”young master”
5 芝兰玉树 lit ”orchids and jade trees”
6 顶天立地 lit ”able to support both heaven and earth”
7 The crown prince can le wife and also still haveis referred to as 良娣, which is one rank beloife”, so I've termed it as ”primary consort” There are traditionally two 良娣 primary consorts
8 孝期 lit ”duration of filial duty” refers to how after a dead parent is buried, their children are supposed to spend a period of tie frohout its duration the child is not supposed to participate in any happy affairs like lish phrase ”the nail that sticks out gets ha to ”noble title earned through merit”
11 世子 is a mini-title that basically means ”heir to a noble house”
12 灵位 = Spirit Tablet or Memorial Tablet = placards erected in a household to venerate deceased fale wife of the crown prince, which I randomly translated as ”crown princess consort” This(who is one of the two primary consorts)
14 娘娘 is how servants are supposed to address women of the palace (empress, imperial consorts, etc)
15 一呼百应 lit ”a hundred answers to a single call”
16 荆楚 = Jingchu = the territory of the forenerally located in Middle-Southern China along the overnor”, an official title fro Dynasty
17 Lady Cen calls herself 本宫, which is how palace woh title refer to theh consorts)
18 烂泥扶不上墙 literally translates to so like ”One cannot keep soft mud on a wall”–basically ”this worthless person will eternally be worthless”
19 留宿 usually e But of course, an iht” at a consort's place is referring to an entirely different thing
20 云消雨散 is a euphemism That's all I probably need to say lol
21 臣妾 is how the wives and concubines of princes address themselves in their husband's presence 臣 = ”servant, minister” , 妾 = ”concubine”
22 The crown prince refers to himself as 孤, which is a s I just translated it as ”this prince”
Side note: I found a beautiful piece of fanart depicting the assassination atteain if you want to see the artwork!