Chapter 92 - Setting out on a journey (1)

Ji Man comforted her, “I already said I would embroider your wedding dress. You don’t have to prepare anything. You just need to obediently wait until two months have passed and it’s your wedding day.”

The wedding between their two clans had been set for two months later. The emperor felt very favorable towards this marriage and added Ning Errong and Nie Qingyun’s names to the list of people that would be going on the trip. When he visited Noble Consort Nie, he even said that he was doing this to foster the feelings of these two people before their wedding.

While Ning Errong’s heart was full of joy, Ji Man silently listed out all of the good and bad things to herself in advance so that she could take preventive measures. Ji Man didn’t know for sure if there would be any changes in the plot. Would Ning Errong and Nie Qingyun still divorce later in the story? If the story’s ending could be changed, then why couldn’t she try to change Errong and Qingyun’s fate?

—

In the evening, after Ji Man returned to Feiwan Courtyard, she started on the task of preparing Ning Errong’s wedding dress. Since Ning Errong had decidophobia, old madame had given Nie Sangyu ten dress designs and told her to just pick one from these ten.

After lighting a lamp, Ji Man started to look through the designs. Marquis Moyu had come to her place tonight and was currently languidly lying on the cushioned couch. He looked at her serious appearance.

“Didn’t you use to be very clingy towards your older brother? Why are you so happy that he’s marrying another woman?” Marquis Moyu asked.

In ancient times, the rules against marrying close relatives were very murky. The more noble and powerful a family was, the more important bloodlines were to them. There were many brothers and sisters that married each other in the imperial family. This was why Ning Yuxuan would ask such a question.

In a bad mood from his question, Ji Man said, “It’s one thing for my older brother to show concern and care towards me, marriage is an entirely different matter. Why should this servant feel unhappy? This servant is happy about every aspect of his marriage with Errong.”

After saying this and thinking things over, she selected two designs and picked up a brush. She wanted to make a few alterations. However, no matter how she grasped the brush, she felt like she didn’t have a good grip. She couldn’t figure out how to use the brush. And so, she turned her head to look at Ning Yuxuan and in a fawning voice, she asked, “My lord, are you busy?”

He was idly lying on the couch. Of course, he wasn’t busy. Ning Yuxuan looked at her ingratiating smile, snorted, and asked, “What do you want me to do?”

“Heh heh, how about coming here and modifying this design for this servant?”

Ning Yuxuan turned himself over and got up. With his outer robe draped over his shoulders, he walked to the table and looked at the two designs. “How do you want me to change it?”

“Change the skirt and upper outer garment like this.” Ji Man gestured.

Ning Yuxuan took the brush and contemplated for a moment. His hand rose and the brush landed on the paper. The sight of his slender fingers holding onto the brush was exceptionally good-looking.

Ji Man looked and couldn’t help learning a little bit. So, that’s how you hold a brush...

After redrawing the design, Marquis Moyu handed it to her, then he lazily lied back down and said, “You should go to sleep early.”

Ji Man responded, “En.” Then, she looked at the design he handed to her. Needless to say, Ning Yuxuan’s drawing skills were pretty good. The design he had drawn was even better than what she had imagined. It seemed that he had also made a few minor changes that wasn’t out of sorts with the wedding dress’s overall design.

“Okay, then I’ll go with this one.” Ji Man clapped her hands, then moved over the bright red silk so that she could start cutting it.

Seeing that she was going to continue working, the person behind her finally couldn’t resist stuffily harrumphing, “Did you not hear what I just said?”

Ji Man hurriedly turned her head, “What did you say?”

Ning Yuxuan felt like strangling her. This was already the third time that he had urged her to rest early. Was she really pretending that she hadn’t heard?

However, he wasn’t thick-faced enough to repeat himself for the fourth time. He could only purse his lips and say, “I’m sleepy.”

Ji Man was completely focused on making the wedding dress. Hearing his words, she casually replied, “Then you should go to sleep early.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Marquis Moyu, “...”

Enough is enough! It was already a rare opportunity for her that he was here. He had only come here because he felt that the quality of sleep he got here was pretty good. But, what was the end result? Nie Sangyu completely didn’t have the intention of doing a woman’s basic duty.

Ning Yuxuan took a deep breath, then he stood up with an unhappy expression, walked to Nie Sangyu’s side, swiped her scissors from her hand, picked her up, and threw her onto the bed.

“Ow!” Ji Man couldn’t resist quietly yelping. This wasn’t a modern day mattress. Although there were two layers of cotton padding, it would still hurt a lot to be thrown onto this bed! What a rotten man!

Sensing Nie Sangyu’s unfriendly gaze, Ning Yuxuan wanted to apologize, but his pride stopped him. He could only harden his voice and say, “It’s your fault for taking so long to come to bed. If you don’t sleep, how can I sleep?”

Why? Was he afraid that she would sneak attack him in the middle of the night? In a bad mood, Ji Man rolled her eyes. It was really hard to serve someone with a prince syndrome.

(T/N: Prince/princess syndrome is an east Asian term used to describe someone who acts really spoiled like a prince or princess. Jay Chou has a silly song about this topic. Here’s a link for the official MV without translations and a link that has the English translations.)

Ning Yuxuan looked at her expression. After being somewhat astonished and shocked, he moved closer. “Did you just roll your eyes at me?”

“Of course not.” Ji Man immediately put on a smiling expression. “My lord, you must have saw wrong.”

“Really?” Ning Yuxuan lied down on the bed. After pulling up the quilt, he carefully examined her face.

Ji Man dryly coughed twice. She hurriedly removed her outer clothing and lied down next to him. “In two days, we’ll be leaving for the trip to the south. This servant has already made arrangement for everything. While this servant is out with the marquis, Siling will be the one managing everything in the household.”

Marquis Moyu looked at her, “You’re quite clever.”

She knew that he wouldn’t have a reason to refuse if her responsibilities were given to Qi Siling. If she handed her responsibilities to Wen Wan, it wouldn’t be easy for her to ask the main wife for the inner court’s account book back after the trip. Qi Siling was only an honored concubine. It would be much easier to get the account book back from her.

“My lord, your words are too flattering. Madam’s mood has been very good lately. This servant will be able to go on the trip with the marquis without any worries.” As Ji Man said these words, she yawned. She seemed very sleepy. “Tomorrow, this servant will arrange for people to attend to old madame while this servant is gone.”

“En.” Ning Yuxuan looked at her closed eyes for a while before closing his eyes too. Why was he feeling that Nie Sangyu was rather suitable at managing a household? Was it just a misconception?