Title: The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir
Chapter: 038 out of 513 – It’s time to have a son (1)
Although Wen Wan had tried her best by personally cooking all of old madame’s favorite dishes, because of this unpleasant episode, old madame didn’t smile even once during this meal.
Wen Wan felt bad. On the way back to Qiangwei Courtyard, she turned around and cried into Ning Yuxuan’s chest. “Yuxuan…”
Feeling distressed for her, Marquis Moyu hugged her and comforted her by saying, “En. It’s okay. You have me. That’s just mother’s temperament. If you can’t please her, then just go to the main courtyard less.”
Wen Wan pouted and said with a grievance voice, “But she’s your mother. I want her to like me.”
“Go slowly with this.” Marquis Moyu patted her back. “As time passes, old madame will naturally see your good points.”
Wen Wan nodded. She leaned against Ning Yuxuan’s chest with her eyes slightly downcast.
—
After old madame came back, the treatment towards Nie Sangyu clearly improved in all aspects. Not only did she move to a larger courtyard, the kitchen servants also delivered better quality food.
Aunty Zhao also personally cooked pigeon soup and brought the soup along with the remaining thirty silver teals to Feiwan Courtyard today.
“This servant is here to return the leftover money. This is amount remaining after this servant had purchased the items that Master Sang had wanted.” Her tone was flattering and without any of her original audacity of a servant bullying her master.
Ji Man pursed her lips into a smile, “Aunty Zhao, does this mean you’re not willing to work for Sangyu anymore?”
Aunty Zhao hurriedly shook her head. “How could that be? Master Sang, if there’s anything that you want, you only need to give your command.” She had seen that Master Sang could now freely leave the residence and she also had old madame’s protection. Thus, she naturally wouldn’t need her to buy things on her behalf. She had come here to curry favor with her by returning the money.
Ji Man stood up, personally helped her stand up, and said with a smile, “Since you’re still willing to work for me, then why are you returning the money to me? Even if you no longer need to use the money on my behalf, you can keep it and use it to send your son for private schooling.”
Aunty Zhao hadn’t expected that after Master Sang would still be so gentle after she had regained power. Her heart was slightly moved and she wrapped up the silver taels, “Master Sang, thank you for this reward.”
Ji Man continued to smile. After she said a few sentences of praise, she changed the topic and said, “I heard that recently a rouge shop in the capital has been doing good business by selling cold cream. Old Madame also likes to use this item. Aunty Zhao, if you really want to help me, invite the shopkeeper to the residence for me, so that I easily order more cold cream from her.”
Either Steward Qian would be in charge of this type of purchase or the marquis’s wife would be the one making this decision. Either way, it would never be Nie Sangyu’s turn to make the order. However, cold cream was a special item that could obtain the favor of masters and servants. Beside, the other masters in the household didn’t seem particularly aware of this yet. As soon as Aunty Zhao thought of this, she understood. Master Sang probably wanted to use this item to compete for favor.
She would definitely help with this task. For an inexplicable reason, she suddenly thought that if she followed Master Sang, it might be possible for her to have boundless future prospects.
“This servant will secretly bring that shopkeeper into the residence.”
—
Ji Man cheerfully waited. After Ji Man attended to old madame during lunchtime, Shouwu would apply a facial for old madame during the break after lunch. Since she had free time, she should ask about the rouge store’s current situation.
Aunt Zhao was still quite reliable with handling work. Halfway through the afternoon, Ji Man saw a very surprise-looking Miss Shui entering Feiwan Couryard. She was dressed up from top to bottom.
“Madam, this…” Miss Shui hadn’t known about her identity. Seeing that she was someone from Marquis Moyu’s household, her face immediately paled. Then, she looked at the courtyard Nie Sangyu was living in and her lips started to slightly tremble.
“Don’t be scared.” Ji Man said with a smile, “The better my position is, the better position our rouge store will be in. Why are you scared instead of being happy?”
Miss Shui hadn’t expected that Ji Man would have such a noble identity. After a while, she finally recovered from her shock and started to feel happy. This madam was the rouge store’s behind-the-scenes shopkeeper. In other words, she was the store’s supporter. The more stable the supporter was, the better off the rouge store would be.
She had brought the account book and also the list of orders. Her smile was so big that her eyes were closed. “Madam, look at this first. Our store has only been open for three days, but our business is absolutely flourishing. My previous customers had all come to the new store. Yongning Street is a bustling street, so there were also numerous new customers. I met many madams from noble families during the past two days.”
Ji Man pretended to look through the account book. She didn’t want to bother with looking through these financial records. After flipping through the pages, she turned her attention to the list of orders and brought it closer to look.
She had stipulated that there would be a limited supply of cold cream. One after another, many madams and misses had wanted to place an order after trying the cold cream. Miss Shui was a person that knew how to do business well. Seeing that there was only a limited supply, she only accepted two orders per day and kept the remaining order in reserve. If she met a woman from an ordinary family, she would say it was sold out. When she met a customer from a rich family, she would take out the order form.
The store’s publicity was also doing well in the capital. Although they weren’t able to buy the cold cream yet, they were able to sample it. Praise for the cold cream spread further and further. She believed that it would take less than a month for cold cream to become a huge success.
Ji Man was very satisfied. First, she had Muxu give the big and small boxes of cold cream they had previously made to Miss Shui. Miss Shui had brought a large bag with her that was filled with the raw material that Ji Man had requested in order to continue the production. And so, when she left with the same large bag, no one said anything.
—
The women in the marquis’s residence either spent their days embroidering or competing for his favor. It was mind-numbingly boring. And so, Ji Man used her free time to make cold cream to earn money and didn’t think about assigning this work to other people. Muxu worked with her as they experimented with new flowers to make different types of cold cream. Whenever there was a failed product, they would secretly bury it in the garden. Anyways, this courtyard was big enough.
Thinking about the bank notes that would soon arrive, Ji Man smiled even when she was dreaming. When she went to old madame’s side to serve her each day, she was always brightly smiling, so her skin appeared even better.