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Internalised fatphobiaInside the main hall, Hei Xuanyi was seated at the head of the table, and seated on his left side was a middle-aged man. The contours of his face made him look resolute and steadfast. He didn’t have eyebrows, yet his eyes were big with a bright and piercing gaze. His nose sat high on his face, his lips were thick, and on his lower jaw grew a black, long beard. The sound of his laughter was frank and open, with an air of heroism. Just from hearing it, one could tell he was a generous person who didn’t bother about trifling matters.
Wu Ruo saw the middle-aged man and was so excited that he almost just called him “master”.
Hei Xuanyi saw that Wu Ruo had entered, rising to introduce them: “My wife, Wu Ruo.”
Following that, he looked at the middle-aged man: “He’s Nu Mu.”
Wu Ruo: “…”
What a simple introduction.
“So this is your wife?” Nu Mu stood up and walked up to Wu Ruo, looking from the left, and looking from the right. Then, his huge hand slapped on Wu Ruo’s shoulder, laughing with a ‘haha’: “Young man, you must be the most beautiful person I’ve ever met. No wonder Little Hei wanted to have you as his wife. You look just like a young maiden, hn. There’s nothing more suitable to use to describe you than the phrase ‘lovely enough to cause the fall of cities and states'”.
Hei Xuanyi: “…”
“…” Wu Ruo gritted his teeth and said: “I’m a man, it’s not proper to use ‘beautiful’ to describe me.”
In his previous lifetime, when he first met Nu Mu, the first thing out of his mouth had also been ‘Young man, you must be the most beautiful person I’ve ever met’. At the time, he was also a big fatty like he was now, so, his first reaction was to assume that Nu Mu was taunting him. He was so angry that he wanted to beat this person up. After getting to know him better, then he found out that Nu Mu could distinguish a person’s real appearance from the outline of their face and their facial features1五官 (wu guan): specifically meaning “eyes, nose, mouth”. It’s the five (wu) ‘holes’ on your face..
After he lost weight, he resembled his mum a lot. With his delicate bone structure and being tall and slender, it was true that he was often mistaken as a woman by others. However, he wasn’t as beautiful as Nu Mu said, and he wasn’t ‘lovely enough to cause the fall of cities and states’ as Nu Mu said.
But, he hadn’t gotten to know Nu Mu through Hei Xuanyi.
The first time he met Nu Mu was on a main street. At the time, Nu Mu had blocked his passage, saying that he was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen. Following that, he’d turned away and left after giving Nu Mu a scolding. After that, Nu Mu kept appearing in front of him time and again. It was only after Nu Mu had cured someone who was on their death bed at a clinic that Wu Ruo’s opinion of him changed. Thereafter, through slowly getting to know him, learning that Nu Mu’s medical skills were above average, he started thinking of being apprenticed to him. Nu Mu didn’t reject him, and even immediately readily accepted him as a disciple.
“You’re wrong. The word ‘beautiful’ can be used on anything.” Nu Mu immediately took his wrist to check his pulse: “I heard from Little Hei that someone gave you a parasite, that’s why you became so fat and that the parasite in your body can even suck a person’s spiritual energy…”
“That’s right.”
Nu Mu took his pulse seriously, only after a long while did he say: “It’s possible to cure the parasite, just that it’ll take some time. After all, the parasite has been living inside your body for over ten years.”
Wu Ruo knew that Nu Mu could cure the parasite, but right now, he was most concerned with how Nu Mu ended up here.
“Hei… Xuanyi made a special trip to ask you to come help me cure the parasite?”
“Of course, if it wasn’t for the fact that he personally asked me to come help you cure the parasite, even if the Emperor2天王老子 (tian wang lao zi): doesn’t actually mean Emperor. It refers to the person with the most power, in a situation. Over here, I’ve translated it as Emperor because he’s the person with the most power in Tianxing, probably. himself asked me to come, I wouldn’t come.” Nu Mu retracted his hand and walked towards the entrance: “I’m going to the pharmacy to get some ingredients, I’ll only be back tonight. You don’t have to wait for me for dinner.”
Once he left, the main hall quieted down.
At this moment, Wu Ruo was feeling extremely complicated. He was feeling both shocked, yet extremely infuriated. At the same time, he also felt grateful and helpless because he realised that his meeting Nu Mu in his previous lifetime was something deliberately planned by someone. And the person who planned for them to meet was his husband, Hei Xuanyi. So, he had the feeling like someone had messed around with him, but since this was something from his previous lifetime, it wouldn’t be good to take it out on this current Hei Xuanyi.
Besides, in his previous lifetime, he couldn’t blame Hei Xuanyi either. If at the time he’d directly brought Nu Mu to examine him, considering how much Wu Ruo hated Hei Xuanyi, he would definitely have refused. Hei Xuanyi must’ve seen this point and thus arranged for Nu Mu to get close to him.
Hei Xuanyi turned around and sat back down on the chair, continuing to drink his tea.
Wu Ruo said: “That…”
Hei Xuanyi lifted his head to look at him.
Wu Ruo made as if to speak, then stopped. The two words ‘thank you’ were stuck in his throat. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t make a sound. In the end, he decided to thank him with a different method: “Let me take you out for a show tomorrow.”
Hei Xuanyi: “…”
Notes: *chants while I bang my fists on the table* DATE DATE DATE DATE DATE.



It was as I first guessed! Secret doting in the previous life! <3
Ah, that warms my heart! Its incredibly sweet as an outsider, but I can understand Wu Ruo's feelings too. It's a very hard thing to entirely change your first incredibly bad impression of a person, especially when you've maintained it as long as Wu Ruo has. There a lot of anger borne out of frustration with himself and the situation but it's way easier to have an instinct to lash out than reflect on yourself. It's a good sign Wu Ruo is able to accept his negative emotions and move forward, step by step!
Thanks for your hard work translating!
I absolutely love the fact that Hei Xuanyi loved Wu Ruo in the previous lifetime and also this one, and that Wu Ruo gets a second chance to see his husband in a brand new light, knowing what he knows now.
I’d also like to point out, I think Hei Xuanyi is the only character who Wu Ruo seems to see as different from the previous lifetime. For all the other characters, he sees their past life’s transgressions as transferring over, but probably because of what happened in Chapter 1, he always gives Hei Xuanyi a pass and is willing to see him in a different light.
Thank you for your kind comment, and today’s chapter will be up in a few hours!
This is a very fair point! Sometimes revenge is taken to great excess. Wolfish Silkpants Bottom comes to mind right away. I enjoyed the story personally, but all the negative reviews were justified- is it fair to go to such lengths for revenge for crimes the people in the rebirth timeline haven’t committed and even probably won’t ever even think of with such changed circumstances? This story of course isn’t even half as extreme (kind of hard to match to be honest! Haha!), but it’s always a thought that goes through my head when I read rebirth stories. I LOVE the genre though! I like seeing plans and machinations pay off in the end.
I remember seeing a review on LWSL on the original Chinese site about how the story plot was ridiculous, since you’re not exactly enacting the revenge on the actual perpetrators but rather an ‘alternate timeline’ version of them. I think with LWSL, since the Wu family aren’t repentant even in this timeline, it’s still pretty satisfying to see the kind of stuff Wu Ruo does to them. I think the author manages a pretty decent balance and even includes some meta commentary about the whole “rebirth” genre in the later part of the story! I’m excited for you to read it.
I think it boils down to whether you like the genre. I’m willing to be pretty accepting of the “once evil, always evil” judgement placed on characters because it tends to be a genre trope, but I can see why others might not like it. I tend to also really enjoy slow burn stories and it makes me laugh a little every time I run across reviews complaining about nothing happening and how ridiculous the wait is or how unrealistic it would be for feelings not to be noticed by now, etc. Either you enjoy the “will they, won’t they” dynamic and the associated drama or you hate it.
I think when revenge is exacted on characters with bad behaviour, I’m willing to accept it, but if it’s just cruel schemes on characters who aren’t even behaving poorly then it’s just making your MC the villain of the story.
I don’t understand how people can see stories with the chapter count being like…… in the 300s, 400s, and even 1000s sometimes and then not realise it’s probably slow burn? It’s probably going to drag out a fair bit and give a lot of details? That’s the whole selling point to fans of the genre!