Chapter 164 - Reversal in fortunes (1)

“Madam, do you remember when this servant broke your treasured teacup two years ago and you ordered this servant to kneel outside in the middle of the winter as punishment?”

Ji Man raised her eyebrows. Nie Sangyu hadn’t shared that memory with her. It was probably because she hadn’t found it important.

“Madam, you definitely have no idea what it’s like to to suffer coldness,” Muxu said, “During the past six years, you treated this servant as less than human. On that day, when this servant was kneeling in the snow, Mistress Xue passed by and secretly took this servant back to her courtyard to warm up. Then, she gave this servant warmer clothes, and this servant went back to kneeling.”

Mistress Xue? Qian Lianxue?

“Later on, Madam scolded Mistress Xue and told her to mind her own business.” Muxu desolately laughed. “If it wasn’t for Mistress Xue, this servant might have frozen to death that day.”

Ji Man was slightly surprised. She hadn’t expected that the person would be Qian Lianxue. She had thought Qi Siling would be a more likely suspect than Qian Lianxue. After all, Qi Siling clearly disliked her. As for Qian Lianxue, hadn’t she treated her differently at the beginning because of the cold cream?

Thinking of that sickly person that couldn’t even steadily walk by herself, Ji Man’s smile gradually faded. If the culprit had been Qi Siling, she would be much easier to deal with. But, why was it Qian Lianxue?

“Do you think she’s a good person?” Ji Man lightly asked Muxu.

Muxu nodded. Her eyes showed gratitude as she said, “At the very least, Mistress Xue has always treated this servant well.”

For a sickly honored concubine to treat Nie Sangyu’s personal servant girl well for no reason, how could it be possible for her intentions to be pure? Ji Man shook her head. In this household, Qi Siling was interested in the account book, Wen Wan was interested in Marquis Moyu, and Jinse was interested in status. She had thought that Qian Lianxue and Liu Hanyun were the only two people in this household that weren’t interested in anything. Hadn’t even Old Madame said that Qian Lianxue was a pitiful woman?

She was a woman that appeared to accept her lot in life. Why would Qian Lianxue manipulate Nie Sangyu’s servant into harming her?

Qian Lianxue seemed to be the only person that Nie Sangyu hadn’t offended before. Why did this behind the scenes BOSS want to harm her? Ji Man pondered these questions for a long time.

Muxu looked at Nie Sangyu’s expression and carefully asked, “Madam, do your earlier words still count?”

“Of course, it counts. How can it not?” Ji Man returned to her senses and lightly smiled at her. “Since I mistreated you for several years, it’s only right that I compensate you. I’ll go over to Old Madame’s place later to report to her and have the marquis give you a position.”

“As for my pregnancy...” Ji Man asked, “Did you tell Qian Lianxue?”

Muxu lowered her eyes and lightly nodded.

“Then, does she also know that we made the cold cream instead of buying it?”

Muxu nodded. After a pause, she added, “This servant only told Mistress Xue about this matter after you gave her the cold cream. After you took the cold cream out to sell, this servant didn’t tell her that you had earned a lot of money that was stored in your wardrobe.”

This Qian Lianxue was very talented at scheming and knew how to plan long-term for major returns. She hadn’t notice her attempts at harming her until now.

The enemy was hidden in the shadows and she was exposed in the light. Ji Man sighed. This was truly unfavorable, ah.

Right now, she wanted to keep her unborn child, but the person that wanted to torment her to death knew of it’s existence. Didn’t this mean that her future path had become more dangerous? Qian Lianxue didn’t seem threatening at all. But, as it turned out, she was like a cactus that had a deep root system that was camouflaged by a layer of fallen leaves.

Fortunately, after she had found out that Muxu had betrayed her, she had put on the show of cleanly severing her ties with Shuiji Rouge Store. Qian Lianxue probably didn’t know about her connection with that store. Right now, Shuiji Rouge Store could also be used to harm her.

Ji Man amicably allowed Muxu to stand up and said a few words to her so that she wouldn’t feel worried anymore.

—

During lunchtime, when she went over to old madame’s courtyard, she simply asked old madame to allow Muxu to become one of Marquis Moyu’s concubines.

Old Madame nodded and agreed, “I’ve been thinking that it’ll be better for you to have someone that can assist you. Let’s accept Muxu as one of my son’s concubines then.”

Muxu was overjoyed. She immediately knelt down and thanked them. Although Madam had said that she would help her become an honored concubine, she knew that they would have to take things step by step. She had thought she would have to start off as a bed servant. She would have never imagined that she could jump straight to being a concubine.

Old madame looked at Muxu again. Her tone was slightly severe as she said, “Since you’re Sangyu’s servant, don’t do anything that would wrong your master. It’s good if you can receive the marquis’s favor, but don’t forget that you stepped on your master’s back in order to go up.”

Even though she had become a concubine, everyone would think that Muxu was a despicable servant that had used the marquis’s affection for her master to climb up socially. She understood old madame’s words. Even if she became an honored concubine one day, her life wouldn’t be good if she wasn’t loyal to her master.

Ji Man arranged for Muxu to move to Wenxiang Courtyard and assigned two lower ranking servant girls to her. Starting from today, Muxu had accomplished her original goal and would be counted as a minor master.

Muxu happily walked around in her new room. She stopped at the mirror and looked at her new hairpin and clothes. She was extremely satisfied.