Chapter 448 – A woman’s principles (1)

Zhu Yurun blankly looked at her. While she was trying to puzzle out Ji Man’s words, an honored concubine had pulled Qian Yingchen over to catch these two in an illicit act.

“Sir, it’s not that this servant wants to give Madam a hard time. It’s bad enough that Madam doesn’t take charge on household matters; she also frequently spends time with other men. She’s truly not suitable to be the matriarch of this family.” As the honored concubine said this, she pulled Qian Yingchen into Zhu Yurun’s courtyard.

Qian Yingchen’s face turned green as soon as he saw Ji Man’s attire. He sent the honored concubine away. He pulled Ji Man to the side and harshly said, “Miss Nie, why have you come here to cause trouble for this one instead of saying in the marquis’s estate to serve him?”

Ji Man responding with beaming smile. Sir Qian, didn’t you send beautiful women to the marquis’s estate? Where would I get the chance to serve him?”

Feeling the beginnings of a headache, Qian Yingchen rubbed his head. “Miss Nie, you’ve misunderstood. Those girls were sent over there to receive lessons. They’ll be sent off to the palace later.”

Ah, so it was like that. Ji Man nodded. This saved her a trip to Ning Yuxuan’s courtyard and giving him the impression that she was petty. Sure enough, if you want to catch a couple in an illicit act, it was better to probe out the situation first by asking another man.

“However, there are a couple of pretty good women in that group. If the marquis becomes interested in one of them and wants to keep her, this one can’t stop him.” Qian Yingchen sympathetically looked at her. “Miss, don’t be like before and do something stupid.”

What a joke. She wasn’t Nie Sangyu, so how could she be as stupid as before? Ji Man patted his shoulder and said, “Sir Qian, I’ll have to trouble you to send those court ladies to the other estate if they need to be instructed. Find older female servants that specialize in tutoring to instruct them. Don’t send them to the marquis’s main estate.”

Right now, Qian Yingchen had become a powerful official. Nie Sangyu was only a commoner woman without status or rank. Why should he care about what she wanted?

However, Zhu Yurun came over from behind with a brush and repeatedly nodded. “Yeah, why are you sending women to the marquis’s estate and troubling Miss Nie? Yingchen, why can’t you be more considerate of Miss Nie?”

Qian Yingchen’s temper towards this ancestor had increasingly diminished. He had originally wanted to maintain a man’s dignity. However, as soon as he saw her chubby face looking so serious and sympathetic, he didn’t know how to deal with her. He sighed and said, “Alright, fine.”

Ji Man grinned and immediately saluted. Afterwards, she searched and collected numerous novelty toys and sent all of them to Zhu Yurun’s courtyard. Once Zhu Yurun was happy, Qian Yingchen didn’t continue to make life difficult for her. The previous batch of court ladies-in-training servant girls that were already in the marquis’s main estate was sent off to the other estate.

However, as Ji Man was leaving Qian Residence after that fruitful conversation, she turned her head to look at Zhu Yurun. There weren’t any impurities in her smile. Ji Man felt somewhat envious of her. She was the luckiest woman in the world. Her love was simple. She didn’t feel the need to compete for anything, and her husband was willing to protect her.

During this episode, Ning Yuxuan wasn’t aware of what had transpired. He only knew that Qian Yingchen was responsible for training up a group of servant girls and had moved them to his other estate. He didn’t think anything of it.

—

Ji Man didn’t have any rank. Nonetheless, she continued to stay in Feiwan Courtyard. She and Liu Hanyun peacefully coexisted by staying out of each other’s way.

Ji Store reopened its doors, but it had lost the honor of selling the tribute rice. It no longer sold Zhangjun’s superior rice and was selling ordinary rice grown in the fields near the capital. However, Ji Man wasn’t worried about starving to death. She still had most of the tenant farmer contracts in her possession. With Yan Buba managing her business for her, she remained in the marquis’s estate and took care of Ning Yuxuan without worries.

—

Two days after the second group of women entered to the palace, the results of the selections were announced. Now only was Erxin chosen, she was the first one to be promoted. The emperor praised her for her remarkably beauty and magnanimous conduct. That very night, the emperor favored her.

Errong felt quite happy. She and Ji Man hosted a celebratory banquet. Many people came over to congratulate Errong. After all, she was the only other person from Marquis Jingwen’s household left in the capital.

However, although Errong was happy, she worried that imperial harem was too sinister of a place and that Erxin would be mistreated.

Ji Man spent a few a few days to write a booklet of advice for Erxin. It included information like how to treat other people in order to keep herself safe, how to smoothly praise or criticize other people, as well as short articles that she had read online. She wrote all of it down and asked Errong to pass on her gift. Although it was only theoretical tactics that might be worthless in practice, Erxin might find parts of it useful.

—

Although Marquis Moyu had recovered from his shoulder injury by now, he still frequently lay in bed and wouldn’t get up. Ji Man would pick Haohao up, put him on the bed, and watch as he smilingly flopped down on Ning Yuxuan’s body until his father got up.

“Ai, even you two are bullying me.” Ning Yuxuan’s hair was tied with brocade ribbons and left hanging behind his back. Dressed in wide white robes, he looked a lot like a cultivating immortal. Combined with his sleepy appearance of half-opened peach blossom eyes, Ji Man was dazzled for quite a while by this sight.

Haohao was lying on his father’s knees. He giggled and said, “Teacher said that it’s not good for people to lie in bed for too long. Dad, you should get up and take a walk around the garden with Haohao.”

Outside, the sun was shining perfectly today. Ji Man also smiled. “If you can’t walk, I can go find a wheelchair and push you.”

Ning Yuxuan fixed his gaze on Ji Man for a while, then he suddenly reached out, wrapped his arm around her waist, and brought her onto the bed too. He lightly kissed her lips.

Haohao blankly watched his parents from the side.

Ji Man’s lips twitched. She pushed him away. “Haohao is still here. You’re teaching him bad things.”

Ning Yuxuan couldn’t resist laughing. He hugged her and looked at Haohao as he said, “Haohao, when you grow up, you have to find a woman as beautiful as teacher and bring her home to marry.”

Although Haohao wasn’t 100% sure about the meaning of these words, he still nodded before turning his face and scampering outside.