Chapter 195 – The shifting of power in the midst of smallpox (2)
However, the female lead had another characteristic, a very weak body. It didn’t take much effort for Wen Wan to faint. She took a deep breath, turned around, looked at Marquis Moyu, and said, “Wan-er will properly serve…”
Before her words were finished, she had already fallen onto the ground.
Hearing the thumping sound from outside, Ji Man thought; Wen Wan really wasn’t scared of falling. She probably had a huge bump on her head right now. It could be counted as Wen Wan not hesitating to pay a price.
It would have been really interesting to see Marquis Moyu’s expression right now. What was that saying? A married couple could only stay together when everything was going well. They would fly apart like birds in a forest that were startled by a noise when faced with a disaster. Ning Yuxuan would definitely be more guarded against Wen Wan in the future.
Ning Yuxuan had Guibai carry Wen Wan back to her room.
In the end, Ji Man wasn’t able to escape her fate of caring for the marquis that night.
—
Compared to the chaos that was running rampant outside, this estate could be considered relatively peaceful. The imperial court was rapidly going through substantial changes. While Marquis Moyu was absent in the Six Ministries, people were causing trouble and secretly defecting to the third prince’s faction.
In the midst of his illness, the crown prince wrote an anxious letter to Marquis Moyu. Unfortunately for him, Marquis Moyu was also sick and could only express his inability to take any helpful actions.
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The third prince wasn’t inferior to the crown prince in handling political affairs. On the contrary, he handled the crown prince’s responsibilities remarkably well and received the emperor’s praise. In addition, the imperial noble consort’s younger son was turning one month old, so the emperor was feeling quite happy lately. Even though the emperor had a capital full of seriously sick people, he didn’t seem that upset.
And so, in a short period of half a month, many people in the imperial court had changed their allegiance to the third prince’s faction.
Since the prime minister had reached an elderly age, the third prince formally wrote a report requesting the emperor to allow the prime minister to retire and return to his hometown. The emperor agreed, and the position of the prime minister became vacant. A group of people supported Xiao Tianyi to succeed his father’s previous position as the prime minister. Another group of people supported promoting someone else to that position.
(T/N: Just in case it was too long ago, Xiao is the name of empress’s maiden clan.)
The two parties clashed, and there was chaos in the imperial court. While countless people were dying of smallpox outside of the capital, the people in the imperial court were still in the mood to scheme around for political power.
—
Sitting by Ning Yuxuan’s bedside, Ji Man couldn’t resist sighing, “The life of the commonfolk is bitter regardless of whether an empire is on the rise or falling.”
The leisurely Marquis Moyu looked at her in askance. “As a woman, you should only focus on being a good wife and mother. Why are you worrying about the commonfolk?”
Ji Man twitched her lips. This lord certainly had a sturdy body. Even though he was infected with smallpox, his appetite was better than before. He ate food with relish and slept peacefully at night. If red spots hadn’t recently appeared on his face and body, Ji Man would suspect that he was just pretending to be sick.
“My lord, are you not worried about your current unfortunate situation?”
As the person most sensitive to the shifts in powers, it was impossible for Marquis Moyu to remain neutral in the current power dispute.
Ning Yuxuan faintly smiled and pointed at one of the rashes on his handsome face. As if he was talking about the vicissitudes of life, he said, “Sangyu, my life is almost gone. Who would come here and force me to make decisions? The most important thing in life isn’t money and power, it’s living.”
In other words, he was risking his life for stability and peace.
Ji Man pondered over his words. She somewhat understood the meaning of his words.
—
From time to time, Old Madame would send over tonics and other supplements to the other estate to show her care towards her only son. When Old Madame had initially heard that her son had become infected with smallpox, she almost collapsed. She knelt in the prayer hall for several days in hopes that Buddha would protect Ning Yuxuan.
—
The crown prince sent over a letter expressing his condolences as well as asking, “Have you been eating and keeping up your strength?”
Ji Man saw Ning Yuxuan picking up a brush and scribbling out a few words, “I’m alright.”
After the crown prince saw Ning Yuxuan’s reply, he didn’t send any more letters.
On the contrary, the third prince was the one that sent over many tonics and herbal supplements under the excuse that he was Marquis Moyu’s cousin-in-law.
—
Ji Man strictly followed the imperial physician’s order of not overworking herself. She didn’t make any attempts at guessing what Ning Yuxuan was up to. After taking care of him every night, she would clean herself with disinfectant and work on maintaining her own health and the unborn baby’s.
—
This outbreak of smallpox had spread far and lasted for a long time. However, the crown prince seemed to have inherited the rumored dragon spirit and body. He was the first person to recover from smallpox.
Or, to put it in another way, the crown prince finally couldn’t keep staying in his estate and doing nothing. Seeing that the third prince’s power was rising each day, the crown prince didn’t have any other options. He went to the place, kneeled down in front of the emperor in an attempt to win himself some sympathy, and said that he wanted to assist his imperial father with his worries and difficulties.
In the end, the emperor still cared about his oldest son. The crown prince had been sick for so long. It couldn’t have been easy for him to recover. And so, he allowed the crown prince to work together with the third prince in managing state affairs.
However, the third prince had an entire group of helpers on his side. Nie Qingyun had also been recently promoted to a higher position in the Ministry of Revenue. In addition, Ning Mingjie was like a jack-of-all-trades that had a hand everywhere. In comparison to the third prince, the crown prince was in a much weaker position.
And so, even though Marquis Moyu’s other estate was a place for insane people and sickly people, the crown prince still honored this place with a visit.
As Guibai reported the news of the crown prince’s visit, Marquis Moyu was lying in bed and unwilling to get up. Ji Man decided that it would be bad if the crown prince felt slighted, so she called Liu Hanyun over and went to greet the crown prince.
The crown prince had recently recovered from his illness, and there were still traces of red dots on his face. After looking at Nie Sangyu’s pregnant belly for a few moments, he wanted to go inside to see Marquis Moyu.
“Your Highness, wait. The marquis hasn’t recovered from his illness yet.” Ji Man naturally had to try to stop him. The person inside had already been showing an attitude of not wanting to see any guests. As the marquis’s good wife, she had to make a token effort in stopping this tiger from barging into his room.
“That’s fine. The imperial physician said that once a person fully recovers from smallpox, he’ll be immune to it.” The crown prince ignored Nie Sangyu’s attempts and continued walking towards the main room. “This prince hasn’t seen Yuxuan in too long. I really miss him.”