Chapter 13

Title: The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir

Chapter: 013 out of 513 – The conflict won’t end stop (1)

(T/N: I had extra time today, so posting an extra chapter, but please only expect one release per day.)

Ji Man turned around to look at her, “Little girl, sometimes we have to lose something in order to gain something better. To achieve a certain goal, we must pay a corresponding price. Aunty Zhao is a servant with status. If we don’t give her plenty of money, why would she be willing to do work for us? Our request isn’t excessive. We’re only asking for better food. The remaining one hundred silver taels will be enough for us for a period of time. It’s fine as long as our days aren’t cold or exhausting.”

Muxu still felt a sense of injustice. She held the remaining silver taels for a long time before she finally turned around and hid them on the bottom shelf of the cabinet.

“What did you ask her to buy?”

Ji Man picked up the embroidery needle and continued embroidering the handkerchief. She unhurriedly said, “They were all very ordinary things. I wrote on the list for her to bring a small quantity of those items to me each month. Once we use those items to make things, we won’t have to worry about not having enough money.”

Muxu didn’t understand her master’s words. But since her master appeared to have planned something out in advance, she didn’t ask any further questions and sat down to help her embroider the handkerchiefs.

——–

As a result of Nie Sangyu’s diligent work of embroidering two handkerchiefs each day and handing them over to Liu Mama, the entire residence’s madam and concubines were using new handkerchiefs within a few days. She had embroidered the handkerchiefs with patterns that had excellent meanings: a pair of mandarin ducks or twin lotus flowers on one stalk*. In addition, Nie Sangyu was very talented with her embroidery skill. Even Wen Wan loved the handkerchiefs so much that she didn’t want to put them down.

*(T/N: These patterns symbolized a happy and devoted marriage.)

When Marquis Moyu was sitting at a table drinking tea, he saw Wen Wan clutching one of these handkerchiefs and carefully stroking the pattern on it. She said, “Even if I practiced for several years, I don’t think I can embroider something of this level.”

Ning Yuxuan followed her gaze and looked at the handkerchief. The light purple lotus flowers were blooming beautifully and it felt as if you could even faintly smell their scent.

“This is her only talent.”

Wen Wan raised her head and rolled her eyes. “Sangyu’s personality doesn’t seem as bad as you had described. Perhaps, she had done wrong things in the past. But, hasn’t she become docile and obedient now? Why are you so biased against her?”

He was biased against her? Ning Yuxuan couldn’t resist sighing. Nie Sangyu had married him when she was only fourteen years old. She has been jealous of his other concubines for the past several years. How many sharp and unkind words have they said to each other? Who knew her personality better than him?

He had married her when he was fifteen years old. As soon as Nie Sangyu entered the household, she had dismissed all of his bedroom servants. Whenever he became angry with her, she would go to his mother lodge a complaint against him. Because of her familial relationship with Noble Consort Ning and the fact that his own mother sided with Nie Sangyu, he couldn’t even show his anger towards her when he was angry.

When he was sixteen years old, Nie Sangyu still hadn’t given birth to a child. Naturally, this was something he was intentionally responsible for. Later on, when he took Qi Siling as an honored concubine, that poisonous woman had almost destroyed Qi Siling’s face. After he stopped her, she wouldn’t repent and even said that she hadn’t done anything wrong.

When he was eighteen years old, he had brought in Qing Lian Xue and Liu Han Yun. Nie Sangyu had thrown a tantrum and was sick for a month. Her actions had caused Noble Consort Nie to censure him.

When he was twenty years old, he had taken Mu Shuqing as a concubine. Nie Sangyu had drunk poison, but was unsuccessful with committing suicide. This made the marquis’s household a laughingstock for the entire capital.

Right now, he was twenty-one years old. That woman had finally caused enough trouble to lose her position as the marquis’s wife. Her actions were directly responsible for promoting Wen Wan. Either she had finally become sensible, or perhaps she was secretly scheming something.

If his mother hadn’t forced him to marry Nie Sangyu, he would have never married this shrew. He had originally been an elegant, unrestrained, and leisurely marquis. Because of this woman, he hadn’t had a single good day in the past several years. Now, he had finally locked her in the confinement courtyard. Even if he were to be beaten to death, he wouldn’t easily let her out of there.”

“I don’t know why. I find her rather pitiful.” Wen Wan sighed. She put the handkerchief back into her sleeve and raised her gaze to look at Ning Yuxuan as she said, “I also feel jealous that she’s been with you for so long.”

Ning Yuxuan raised an eyebrow and looked rather good-looking as he curved his lips into a smile. “Jealous of her? You still have decades left to stay by my side.”

Wen Wan cast a rebuking glance at him as her cheeks turned slightly red. “You two share a mutual past that I wasn’t part of. Of course, I’ll feel jealous. But, it’s fine. I’ll be the only person in your world in the future.”

Marquis Moyu stretched his hand out and brought her into his embrace. With his chin lowered so that it was against her forehead, he said, “I’ve never loved anyone before you. Nie Sangyu doesn’t mean anything to me. You don’t need to be jealous.”

“En.” Wen Wan smiled and hugged him back. Feeling at ease, she closed her eyes.

——–

Ji Man sneezed several times in a row to the point that tears came out. She sniffled and said, “It couldn’t be that I really got sick, right?”

Her mood suddenly became gloomy. She didn’t know why she was feeling this way. She usually wasn’t a melancholy and sensitive person. Most of these feelings were probably from Nie Sangyu. She felt slightly uncomfortable when she thought about how there was another person residing in this body. But why did Nie Sangyu suddenly feel sad when everything was perfectly fine right now?

Ji Man heard the sound of someone knocking on the courtyard’s doors. After Muxu ran over to open the doors, Ji Man heard a servant girl’s crisp voice say, “My family’s Master Shuiqing likes the handkerchiefs embroidered by your master. Send two more handkerchiefs to Feiyu Courtyard tomorrow. My master doesn’t have enough.”

Muxu looked at the handkerchief in Banxia’s hand and her little face became tense. “Master Shuiqing is only one person. How could she not have enough? We’re both servants. How can you use something embroidered by a master?”

Banxia was Mu Shuiqing’s personal servant girl and had the same deplorable behavior as her master. She arrogantly raised her head and said, “Servants are divided into different ranks. There are some masters who aren’t even as good as some servants. Since Master Shuiqing gave me this handkerchief, of course I can use it. If you’re unsatisfied, go and tell the marquis about it.”

“You!” Muxu’s mouth wasn’t clever and she could only look at Banxia helplessly.

They shouldn’t bully people like this. Her master was already exhausted from embroidering two handkerchiefs every day. And now, she had to embroider handkerchiefs for servant girls too? They were treating her master as if she was an embroideress!

(T/N: I’m not sure if this was clear? Ji Man doesn’t know the six-year history between Nie Sangyu and Ning Yuxuan. She only has a vague knowledge of the other characters. Her knowledge is limited to the stuff that happens in the original novel. She briefly mentions this in chapter 4, “The author had used her pen to mostly write about the male lead and female lead, so Ji Man really didn’t know what Nie Sangyu had done in the past.” This is the reason she’s doesn’t understand why he’s still holding a grudge despite the recent change in her behavior.

Generally, when there’s a different POV, the author is giving us information that Ji Man doesn’t know yet.)

Also, there are 261 raw chapters, but I’m splitting most of the raw chapters into 2 translated parts. There are a few shorter chapters that haven’t been split. And, to simplify my excel schedule, I numbered the chapters so that Chapter 1 in raws = Chapter 1 & 2. When the translation is done, there will be 513 translated chapters.)