Meng Huan: Sniff, sniff QWQ (Part Two)
Translation Checker: jellypeaches
Editor: jellypeaches, Dobhsh
The procedure for promoting Meng Huan to Royal Consort was very complicated.
The next day, people came knocking on Meng Huan’s courtyard door one after another, with servants coming to tailor his clothes and make accessories, and even people who came to give presents, claiming they were relatives.
Meng Huan listened patiently for as long as he could.
The news that he had been brought back to Lin Bozhou’s chamber for a night of intimacy had spread again, unsurprisingly. Everyone was saying how His Royal Highness showed a very deep and unprecedented favor to the Royal Consort and how the Royal Consort’s future life would be very prosperous.
“Royal Consort? This humble one has a jade hairpin. It’s smooth and elegant. It will definitely enhance beauty as it compliments the Royal Consort very much.”
“This humble one has a spring palace picture book that contains secret techniques for the Royal Consort to learn and use to please His Royal Highness in the bedroom.”
Meng Huan’s temperament was very easygoing, so they were able to say anything, disregarding appearances. As the chattering continued, his smile gradually disappeared, but he never gave orders to kick the guests out; he just spoke less.
After everyone left, Meng Huan ordered, “Close the gate and don’t let anyone in.”
So annoying.
Sitting in his yard, he propped his chin up and looked at the deep shadow cast by the tree’s canopy.
Having lived in the city, he was rarely this close to nature, even if he was simply sitting out here to sunbathe. But thinking that this was just the dull life of a canary, he lost the heart to do anything.
Feng Zhi approached. “Madam, do you want to play Pai Gow to relieve your boredom?”
It was played the same as mahjong. Meng Huan shook his head and declined the offer. “No, I’m not interested.”
Feng Zhi racked her brain and suggested, “How about Polo?”
“No, it’s too violent.”
“How about we go catch goldfish at the lotus pond in the west garden?”
This finally piqued Meng Huan’s interest as he stood up. “Let’s go.”
However, as soon as he reached the door, he heard a knock.
Meng Huan frowned and said, “I already said I’m not seeing any more guests.”
The door opened, but just as Feng Zhi was about to speak, she turned and walked back.
Meng Huan saw the little old man, Shan Shu, his teacher, standing there with a fan and a small hat. With a calm face, he bowed with his hands held in front. “Greeting the Royal Consort.”
Shan Shu was his teacher, after all, so Meng Huan’s hair stood up immediately. He asked in disbelief, “Is the teacher also here to give—”
He stopped himself before he could finish saying ‘presents’.
Shan Shu said, “Give what?”
“Nothing.” Meng Huan looked up and met his teacher’s eyes. “Then what is the teacher here to—”
Shan Shu regained his serious expression. “The Royal Consort wasn’t literate yesterday; is the Royal Consort still not going to be literate today? As the saying goes, learning to read and write should be accumulated over time. Every drop of water wears away the stone. If madam fishes for two days and dries the net for three, in a few years you still won’t be able to write more than just a handful of words because you lack perseverance.”
After getting scolded, Meng Huan’s ears were red.
Sure enough, teachers were what he feared the most.
He awkwardly put down the fishing net in his hands and walked back. “Feng Zhi, serve tea. A-Qing, please bring out the paper and brush.”
“Teacher, please come this way.” Meng Huan went to the room where he studied.
Shan Shu was an aloof and cool little old man. He didn’t change the rules just because Meng Huan got promoted to Royal Consort. “Today we will learn the characters from the final two pages. Like before, memorize them, then take a test. For every word you can’t write, the punishment will be striking—”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Feeling like physical punishment was not appropriate, he changed it to “Copying a full page.”
Zfcu Lejc cbvvfv qlafberis. “Xba la.”
Lf rja yjmx lc tlr mtjlg, qeiifv eq tlr riffnfr, jcv qlmxfv eq tlr ygert. Dfobgf tf rifqa klat Olc Dbhtbe, tf mbeiv ralii yf mbcrlvfgfv j affcjufg, rb la vlvc’a wjaafg lo tf kjr gfqglwjcvfv ys atf afjmtfg. Dea cbk tf kjr j oeii-ugbkc jveia klat j rfz ilof, sfa tf ralii tjv ab ifjgc tbk ab gfjv jcv kglaf ogbw j afjmtfg ilxf jc fifwfcajgs rmtbbi raevfca.
He felt so ashamed of himself.
Flipping open his textbook, he cheered himself up and began to memorize the characters on the last two pages.
The summer heat was intense under the blazing sun.
Feng Zhi, A-Qing, and Xiao Shun were waiting at the door with their fishing nets, watching Meng Huan’s movements from time to time. As long as their Royal Consort could finish writing in time, they could still take advantage of the long evening to catch some fish and other river critters. They might be able to catch some crabs and shrimp to braise tonight.
But obviously, they had overestimated their Royal Consort’s memory.
First of all, it was true that these few dozen words were difficult to memorize, but Shan Shu was Lin Bozhou’s teacher in the past. He thought that all students were as smart and hardworking as Lin Bozhou, so he assigned these tasks very casually.
As an ordinary person at a normal level, Meng Huan couldn’t remember a single word under pressure; he would even write the wrong words, having mixed them up in his memory, so writing them was like fitting a square peg into a round hole.
“Royal Consort, how can you not remember?” Shan Shu pointed at a place on the page with his ruler. “There are always some missing strokes; what are these words?”
Simplified Chinese characters.
Meng Huan only had the courage to reply in his mind.
“If the Royal Consort can’t concentrate on memorizing them and can’t complete today’s task, more effort will need to be put in after class.” Shan Shu said, “Write two lines for each word. This old teacher will check it tomorrow afternoon.”
“…”
Meng Huan had graduated from senior high school a year ago, but he was already back to the life of burning the midnight oil in order to finish his endless homework. He had clearly worked so hard, yet others still said he was not earnest enough. Feeling down, he hung his head and pursed his lips, then he heard the soft voice of his maids at the courtyard door.
“Greeting Your Royal Highness.”
Meng Huan’s heart sank.
He suddenly clenched the brush in his hand, but he showed no change of emotion on his face, only moving his gaze towards the courtyard door.
Lin Bozhou had returned from the court.
As the canary’s master, he finally had time to come and tease his little bird.
Meng Huan’s back tensed up, as if something was weighing it down and suffocating his heart. He lowered his head, fiddling with the brush in his hand.
“Your Royal Highness.” Shan Shu saluted him.
“There is no need to be formal.” Lin Bozhou turned to look towards Shan Shu from the side. “Is Uncle done with the lesson today?”
“Answering Your Royal Highness, the lesson has ended.”
The two talked in a natural tone, just like a teacher talking to a student’s parents, briefing them on the situation of the kid’s learning. For Meng Huan, Lin Bozhou was that parent.
This association made Meng Huan purse his lips, lower his head, and continuously fiddle with his brush.
Shan Shu told on Meng Huan without mercy, “Madam is slow in learning and often misses strokes, which is very difficult to correct. More diligence is required in studying.”
“…”
The distance between Meng Huan’s head and the table decreased gradually.
He detested Lin Bozhou the most.
But his teacher actually talked badly about him in Lin Bozhou’s presence; he couldn’t even lift his head up anymore.
Damn it!
Meng Huan lowered his head and was able to catch Lin Bozhou’s low and calm voice. “Yes, understood. Uncle, thank you.”
—What do you mean ‘understood’?
—Do you really think of yourself as my parent?
Meng Huan took up his brush and started writing.
—Annoying, annoying, annoying…
He wrote them very large and soon filled an entire page. Meng Huan found gaps and filled them with the same word.
A set of footsteps left the courtyard, and then a shadow covered Meng Huan, shielding him from the evening light.
Meng Huan finished the final ‘annoying’ before raising his head to see Lin Bozhou’s dark eyes gazing down on him. He could clearly see the man’s high-bridged nose, eyes shrouded in shadow, and a few strings of loose hair framing his forehead, increasing his wicked handsomeness.
Lin Bozhou stooped down and checked his words, saying in a gentle voice, “Did Huan Huan get scolded again today?”
“…” Meng Huan really didn’t want to say anything.
Lin Bozhou took out a piece of paper from the pile, inspected Meng Huan’s mistakes, and said after a moment, “Some of the words Huan Huan wrote firmly, like they were supposed to be written that way. But after being corrected many times, they are still written incorrectly—has Huan Huan been writing words this way in the past?”
Meng Huan slowly looked at him, expressed his attitude of being a little annoyed with him, and said, “Yes.”
“Then that habit needs to be corrected first.” He sat down beside Meng Huan.
The weather was a little hot, so he had changed out of his court outfit and into a set of regular clothes. The sleeves of his robe were wide, carrying a warm scent of sandalwood and looking as gentle as jade.
Meng Huan slowly took out a piece of paper, implying that he wasn’t actively cooperating and didn’t want to acknowledge the man. Until he subconsciously looked up and saw the wound on the back of Lin Bozhou’s hand.
It had scabbed over in one long strip.
He had accidentally made that scratch with his nails yesterday.
Today, at the cabinet, the grand secretary and the members of the cabinet expressed their concern one after another for Lin Bozhou’s wound. Then, later in the court, he ran into the young Emperor, who almost burst into tears in the throne room. He immediately pulled Lin Bozhou to the imperial physicians to have his hand treated, causing uproar in the whole court.
Out of everyone who saw the small wound on his head, only Meng Huan seemed to be unconcerned about it, like he wasn’t paying attention at all.
Though it was indeed a very small wound.
“Huan Huan, get more paper and a brush. This husband will teach you how to write it once.” Lin Bozhou said.
…There was quite a sense of a top student hubby mentoring his straight-Ds student wife. With this inexplicable comparison, Meng Huan grumbled, and after looking at the man’s wound again, he spread the paper on the table.
Beautiful and elegant words appeared under Lin Bozhou’s brush one by one. His confident handwriting was simple, with vigorous hooks and fine strokes, and could be framed as a work of art.
However, after years of writing, the calluses on his fingertips made his hands less aesthetically pleasing. One could even imagine the rough feeling of their touch.
“…” He suddenly remembered the strange touch he felt in the bath last night.
Those long fingers had pinched his thin waist before wandering, sparing no effort to rub all parts of his body roughly. Although Meng Huan wasn’t in his right mind at the time and couldn’t remember the specifics, it still left a deep memory on his skin without his permission.
“…”
Meng Huan’s face burned unbearably hot as he hung his head, clutching onto his brush.
The original book always went into detail about how fierce Lin Bozhou was in bed, but when he was dressed in his imperial or regular outfits, he looked so righteous and noble, so beautiful, that no one could imagine that kind of lust underneath. No one would expect him to be exactly the same as a character in a spring palace picture book, doing many indecent motions just to satisfy the wave of desire in his heart.
…It was hard to imagine that this man actually slept with him.
“Huan Huan?”
Lin Bozhou noticed that Meng Huan wasn’t writing, but just as he was about to call out, he looked to see Meng Huan’s nose almost buried into the table with the back of his ears red. The pale arms extending out of his sleeves were resting on the edge of the table, looking like he could not face the hardships of life.
At the sound of the man’s voice, Meng Huan jerked his head up.
With his pale and small face, he opened his mouth, looking as if he thought of something, before dropping the idea and saying, “Writing!”
Lin Bozhou curled his lips into a faint arc.
Although he didn’t know what Meng Huan was thinking, he looked absolutely adorable.
When Meng Huan wasn’t angry, he would make a huge fuss, letting the whole world know about his violent temper.
But he was very petty and was really good at holding grudges. Despite being a very gentle and harmless person, he would hold grudges for decades and stew over them from time to time.
Meng Huan wasn’t happy about the fact that Lin Bozhou had bedded him, but the youth didn’t throw down his brush and refused when Lin Bozhou offered to teach him to write. Instead, he chose not to listen to him, deliberately dragged out his writing, and did not respond to him when talking.
Lin Bozhou pointed out, “Huan Huan, you wrote ‘broom’ wrong. There is only one horizontal stroke in the middle.”
Meng Huan pursed his lips and uttered an oh slowly, holding his brush and seemingly scrubbing a few times in an attempt to salvage the word, but he was actually dancing around the question.
—He had a problem with Lin Bozhou, and he was just going to express it in a roundabout way.
Near his ear, he heard Lin Bozhou’s low chuckle.
It carried a shallow breath as it landed against his ear.
Meng Huan huffed inside. Hmph, you can still laugh.
“You wrote ‘steamer’ wrong as well.” Lin Bozhou informed him, “Let’s write it again.”
“Fine.”
Meng Huan wrote the word in the same incorrect manner without changing his face.
Watch me waste your time. I’m not gonna let you have an easy time… Meng Huan plotted inside. If Lin Bozhou found out just how tiring it was to teach him how to read and write, he wouldn’t bother Meng Huan in the future.
Meng Huan happily wrote the word incorrectly once more.
Behind him, Lin Bozhou seemed to laugh again, as if he couldn’t hold it back anymore.
“Didn’t you write it correctly before? Why are you getting it wrong again?” He asked quietly.
Meng Huan blurted out, “I got it mixed up with another word.”
“Mixed up?” Lin Bozhou gave an ambiguous response.
Meng Huan completely ignored him and with his brush, he deliberately wrote a ‘hat’ with skewed strokes. Just as he placed the tip of his brush on the paper, his wrist was suddenly lifted gently.
Lin Bozhou used his cool hand to cover Meng Huan’s fingers, gripping them tightly. Inch by inch, his thin white hand was completely restrained and controlled with great precision.
Then, guiding his hand, Lin Bozhou wrote each stroke in the correct direction, saying, “Huan Huan, don’t write them incorrectly on purpose again.”
“…” Meng Huan looked up at him.
The evening’s shadows shrouded Lin Bozhou’s eyes as he said with a smile, “It’s late. If you drag it on too long and can’t finish your homework, you won’t be able to go to sleep early tonight.”
Meng Huan, “…”
What does it have to do with you?
You still have to get up at two in the morning every day to go to court.
What’s wrong with me staying up late to finish my homework?
As he grumbled inside, Lin Bozhou had already shifted his attention, saying, “Put it away. This is enough studying for today. Let’s eat first.”
The servants came forward and put away the brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone.
Another group of servants came in one after another with food, serving it on the table. Tonight, they were having the thirty-course meal as usual.
There was a bottle of wine on the table, and when Lin Bozhou saw it, he raised his eyebrows, deep in thought. After a moment, he turned to Meng Huan. “Huan Huan.”
Meng Huan looked at him. “Yes?”
Lin Bozhou’s eyes darkened, but he asked in a very calm voice.
“That day at the restaurant, Huan Huan hastily poured out the contents of a cup for this husband. What was inside?”
The author has something to say:
Huan Huan (inspecting after his shower): Sniff, sniff. Lin Bozhou is a big! Scum! Bag! For Playing! With this Young Master’s! Body! Sniff, big! Fat! Jerk! (sobbing with tears pouring down)
Meanwhile, Lin Bozhou (thoughts of a man who just ate meat for the first time): Why is precious Huan Huan still angry with me?
Ahah, Our Huan Huan is real modern person!!! Using passive aggressive behaviour to express his emotions
Thank you for your translation 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛
I love bratty Meng Huan! 🤣
Lin Bozhou just wants to spoil wife but wife thinks he’s taking him as a canary! So dramatic!
Maybe when he’s answering Lin Bozhou’s question, he’ll work out a few other answers for himself at the same time! Yes, what was in the cup, Meng Huan 😏.
Also finding myself laughing at all the “relatives” thinking he’ll remember them later. They would probably give up that idea if they saw his lessons pfft.
Pouting. Not seeing you, not hearing you…yeah, that didn’t work for long. Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣
You’re not going to get rid of Lin Bozhou that easily now, Huan Huan ^-^
Thanks for the chapter!
Thank You for the new chapter (´,,•ω•,,)♡
Hehe, “don’t intentionally write wrong” proceeds to write every word wrong intentionally