Very enjoyable chapter, I hope I did it at least partially justice. Also, we all know that the answer is: since a certain WKX appeared in your life.
Thank you Emma P whose proofreading and commentaries are precious :) <3 <3
Notes
1. 桂花, the osmanthus is a symbol of wealth and nobility because 桂 (gui) is a homophone of "expensive" or "noble" which are themes associated with Lord Seventh through the chapter.
2. 芝兰玉树 idiom translated literally, said of people born in riches and who have a bright future.
3. 满月酒 It was a tradition to celebrate the first full month of a baby because the first month was considered a critical time for a newborn in an environment with high infantile mortality. Tangentially, mothers who just delivered babies were to remain bedridden for a full month to nurse the baby and themselves. The practise still exists.
4. Lord Seventh is the second person to qualify as ZZS's 知己 (blossom buddy/soulmate/person who can understand him).
5. Lord Seventh basically talk while using a literary reference/turns of phrase every two words. In this sentence, he evokes a rich environment (the Court) with the golden cups and kingfisher plumes — the latter being a kind of hair ornament worn by men. Then he alludes to his surprise at gay!ZZS while citing 《武陵春》 by 李清照 with "物是人非" ("objects remain the same while people pass/change")
6. 雕栏玉砌 from《虞美人》by 李煜. Evocation of ZZS being a playboy who probably has seen the inside of a number of bordellos or "baluster houses".
7. "相思一夜知多少，春眠睡死不觉晓" creative variation from Gu Xiang on the 春晓 (Spring Morning) by Meng Haoran. She mocks the guys getting sentimental/jealous, and humorously use "sleeping like the dead" (no pigs in her mouth, I added it to recreate the intended effect) in the verse: it's a coarse turn of phrase in Chinese that wouldn't turn up in poems.
8. The Inlaid Harp (锦瑟) is a poem Li Shangyin about nostalgia.
9. 雅积大伪，俗积厚德 idiom translated literaly.
10. Convention on never using the name of an emperor who is always addressed as "his majesty". Since characters in an emperor's name also couldn't be written, emperors were either obliging and changed the character in their names to obscure/rarely used homophone when accessing the throne, or were dicks and let everyone else struggle with the taboo by, for example, removing strokes when they had to write a taboo character.
11. 乌溪 "crow creek". Why must people resemble their names? Or is that the other way 'round?
Man, this is so sad... ;_; I'm sad.
WKX turning meek and well-mannered as soon as it involves giving ZZS more years ;-;
Aw, ZZS feeling attached to life again, so bittersweet.
Thanks for the translation ❤️
Thank you for the translation!