Chapter 168 out of 513 – A disastrous chemical reaction (1)
Gancao, who had been sleepily guarding the doors, had obviously been startled awake too. However, she was too shocked by the sudden appearance of a man barging into her master’s room. She didn’t know if she should shout for people to come or not.
Smelling a familiar scent, Ji Man calmed down from her initial panicked response to feeling someone breathing on her neck. She stretched her hand out and used all of her strength to pinch a soft spot on the man’s waist.
Ning Yuxuan let out a muffled yelp. His peach blossom eyes were full of anger. “Why did you pinch me?”
Ji Man was so irritated that she felt as if there were cross-popping veins on her head. She couldn’t resist the urge to glare at him. “It’s the middle of the night. Why did you run here for no reason instead of sleeping? This is Old Madame’s courtyard. Aren’t you afraid that she’ll break your legs for acting so shady?”
(T/N: Below is a picture of cross-popping veins that’s commonly seen in anime.)
Marquis Moyu’s breath was slightly hot, but he was still clear-headed. Lying next to her, he coldly harrumphed and said, “Mother is always biased in favor of you. Would she really break my legs for coming here to favor you?”
Ji Man angrily responded, “You still have to act responsibly in accordance to the situation. This servant came here to pray to Buddha and abstain from eating meat.”
Marquis Moyu chuckled. His fingers slid back and forth over her belly. It wasn’t clear if there was any hidden meaning behind this action. “You have a belly full of evil tricks. Can you really pass on these thoughts to Buddha in a few days just by eating vegetarian food and praying?”
Feeling his hand on her belly, Ji Man felt a slight chill on her back. She hurriedly used a blanket to create a barrier between them. “My lord, if you believe this servant has a stomach full of evil tricks, then this must be true. But, weren’t you suppose to go to Xuesong Courtyard tonight? Why did you come here?”
After Ning Yuxuan spent a few moments steadying his breath, his voice abruptly cooled as he said, “Isn’t this because you’re overestimating your own intelligence and think that I’m easy to fool? You’re willing to use all types of dirty tricks on me. Sangyu, it must be because I’ve been treating you too well lately.”
How was this related to her? Ji Man was at a complete loss. The only thing she did today was move to Old Madame’s courtyard. She hadn’t done anything else, right?
“My lord, can this servant ask a question? Are you convicting this servant of a crime right now?”
Ning Yuxuan’s smile was a bit cynical. Without saying word, he sat up and said, “I praised you for being clever, but this doesn’t mean you can scheme against me too. Go to sleep. I just came here to tease you, but since I’m not welcome here, it’s not very fun.”
After finishing these words, he immediately got up and left.
Outside the doors, Gancao used the light of the lanterns to get a clear look of Marquis Moyu’s face. At the same time she let out a sigh in relief, she also felt there was something strange going on. Why had the marquis come here?
Having been woken up in such a manner, Ji Man naturally couldn’t easily fall back asleep. She propped up her chin and thought for a long time before calling Gancao inside to ask her, “Did the marquis go anywhere after dinner?”
Gancao was a well-informed person, so she was able to immediately report Ning Yuxuan’s whereabouts for the evening. “Master, after the marquis had dinner at Xuesong Courtyard, he went over to Feiwan Courtyard. Seeing that you weren’t there, he went back to Xuesong Courtyard.”
Xuesong Courtyard, Feiwan Courtyard. One place had Qian Lianxue, the other place had Wen Wan. Ji Man couldn’t figure it out. Which person and what method had that person used to push Marquis Moyu to come here in the middle of the night to cynically ridicule her? She felt that even when she was trying to stay out of the way, she was still getting into trouble.
Ji Man lied back down. Her sleep wasn’t very peaceful the rest of the night.
—
The next morning, she went to Old Madame and report last night’s incident.
Old Madame’s expression immediately sunk. She summoned Qian Lianxue and Wen Wan to the main courtyard and had them stay kneeling on the ground.
“Which one of you can tell me what happened last night?” Old Madame’s eyes severely looked at these two women. Although Old Madame was feeling under the weather, her threatening aura wasn’t even slightly reduced.
Qian Lianxue had a weak body. After kneeling for only a little bit, her body started to falter. She did her best to straighten her body as she said, “To respond to Old Madame, the marquis decided to stay the night in Xuesong Courtyard last night. After dinner, he went out for a walk. After he came back, he didn’t stay for long before leaving again. This servant doesn’t know why the the marquis was upset.” Her voice was especially sincere and her appearance was also very good at getting the sympathy of others.
Old Madame pursed her lips, then she waved her hand to indicated for a servant girl to help Qian Lianxue stand up and sit down on a nearby chair.
Old Madame started at Wen Wan and asked her, “Why did the marquis go to Feiwan Courtyard?”
Wen Wan was still properly kneeling with her head lowered. She said, “This servant doesn’t know. When the marquis came to Feiwan Courtyard, this servant didn’t leave my room.”
“Who can act as your witness?”
Wen Wan paused, then she shook her head. “At that time, Dengxin had gone out to get dinner from the kitchen.”
The implication was the she had been the only one in Feiwan Courtyard when the marquis had visited.
Old Madame coldly harrumphed. It seemed that very few people knew what had happened last night. It was an unsolved mystery for why Xuan-er had been angry at Sangyu last night. She couldn’t just directly ask her son. It had been a private matter between him and Sangyu. As his mother, it wouldn’t be appropriate for her to interfere.
This household truly wasn’t peaceful. Old Madame cast a glance at Wen Wan. The change in this girl’s attitude had been quite drastic. It was almost catching up to Sangyu’s drastic change that had happened a couple of months ago. Now that Wen Wan was well-behaved, Old Madame felt she wasn’t as much as an eyesore.
After contemplating for a while, Old Madame waved her hand to signal for them to withdraw. After they left, she held Nie Sangyu’s hand and said, “It’s hard to guard against a covert attack. Just stay in my courtyard for now and don’t go outside.”
“Alright.” Ji Man nodded.
—
Wen Wan left the main courtyard with her head lowered. She slowly walked back to Feiwan Courtyard.
After being locked in the woodshed for a month, she had figured a lot of things out. In addition, a clever person had given her useful pointers. Now, she finally understood how she should compete with the other women for the marquis’s favor.
Translator Ramblings: I don’t think anyone was behind Ning Yuxuan visiting Ji Man/Nie Sangyu. I think he just missed her and got upset that she wasn’t happy to see him. What do you guys think?