Chapter 272 – The sky is filled with little stars (1)
Ning Yuxuan swept his gaze over her and treated her utterly serious words as a joke. He turned his head and said, “Mingjie’s mood probably won’t be good for a while. If you have any good friends that aren’t married, you can bring them over to Ning Residence to walk around.”
What a rotten idea. Ning Mingjie had only recently experienced such a disheartening wedding. Why did he want her to rush forward to play matchmaker? Ji Man silently cursed him, but she nodded her head in agreement and turned around to leave.
Ning Yuxuan called out to stop her, “Wait.”
“Yes?” Ji Man curiously turned her head back.
Marquis Moyu lightly averted his gaze and quietly said, “Come to the western courtyard tonight.”
Come to the western courtyard? Ji Man nodded. Although she didn’t understand what he was planning, when a superior ordered something, a subordinate only needed to execute his order.
—
Hearing Yun-er‘s cries that filled the room, Wen Wan impatiently shouted, “Where’s the wet nurse?”
The wet nurse hurriedly took Yun-er and said in a low voiced, “Miss Wan-er, this child has poor health, so it’s very easy for her to get sick. This servant has already fed her milk, but she’s crying because she’s slightly feverish.”
“She’s sick?” Wen Wan’s expression slightly changed. She took Yun-er from the wet nurse for a closer look. This was totally Liu Hanyun’s, that wretched and shabby girl, fault for not taking good care of Yun-er. Otherwise, Yun-er wouldn’t be so sickly right now.
Original translation is from fuyuneko dot org. If you’re reading this elsewhere, this chapter has been stolen. Please stop supporting theft.
“The timing works out well, Yun-er hasn’t seen the marquis in a while. I’ll bring her over to the study to see him.” Wen Wan stood up.
Tanxiang hurriedly came over and draped a cloak over her master. After adjusting the cloak so that it covered Yun-er too, they headed outside.
After the children had been switched back, Liu Hanyun’s side was finally happy. From top to bottom, she did a good job with taking care of Xi-er. Her spirits had also become much better. But, on Wen Wan’s side, the son had turned into a daughter. No matter how you looked at it, there was a drop in her level of happiness. Right now, Wen Wan’s goal was to be favored more often so that she could get pregnant again.
Arriving at the study, she saw Marquis Moyu blankly looking at a sky lantern. He took out two bamboo sticks from the lantern, then put them back and stroked the lantern.
“My lord?”
Before she could announce her arrival, Yun-er had already started crying. Ning Yuxuan raised his head to look at Wen Wan. She was smilingly very warmly and sweetly. Holding Yun-er, she said, “My lord, you haven’t come to see Yun-er in a long time. Look, Yun-er is always crying.”
Putting down the sky lantern, Ning Yuxuan smiled. He stretched his arms out and took Yun-er from her. “It’s probably because you haven’t been taking good care of her.”
“How could that be?” Wen Wan pressed her lips together. Her laugher sounded a bit pained. “Wan-er just feels that my lord has gradually been distancing himself from Wan-er. Even the snow in my courtyard has gotten higher. Wan-er was just too focused on missing my lord, so Wan-er might have overlooked Yun-er a bit.”
Ning Yuxuan pursed his lips together. He handed Yun-er to the wet nurse and said in a low voice, “I’m not done with household matters or affairs of the nation. You’ll have to wait.”
“Wan-er doesn’t want anything else,” Wen Wan quietly said, “It’s just that I have Yun-er now, but everyone still calls me Miss. Isn’t that a bit strange. My lord, are you still unwilling to change Wan-er‘s status?”
He just knew that when a woman came to his door, there would be something that she wanted. Marquis Moyu sighed. He didn’t want to change Wen Wan’s status. If he changed it, she would be unhappy if her new status was too low, but if her new status was too high, there would be no peace in his household.
A long time ago, a very long time ago, Ning Yuxuan had thought Wen Wan was someone that had the ability to manage his household. It was only later that he found out that merely liking someone wasn’t enough for her to be a suitable person to share his life with. If a person was suitable… then it was possible for him to slowly fall in love with her.
Looking at the sky lantern that he had placed down in the corner, Ning Yuxuan’s expression softened. He said, “Regarding the matter of your status, go to Madam. She’ll decide.”
An incredulously expression appeared on Wen Wan’s face. “This type of matter… Does it really require her approval?”
“She’s the matriarch of this family after all,” Marquis Moyu said, “Moreover, no matter what your status is, it’ll be the same to me.”
Wen Wan felt rather wronged. Crying and laughing, she looked at him and said, “My lord, do you dare to swear on your heart that Wen Wan is the most important person in your heart?”
Ning Yuxuan paused.
“Are you hesitating?” Wen Wan widened her eyes and laughed. “You once said that you would protect me for a lifetime. Where did the person that said he wouldn’t let me suffer any grievances go?”
“Wan-er…”
“Other people can’t be blamed for saying that a man’s words are the most untrustworthy ones.” Wen Wan was still smiling as she retreated. Not even caring about Yun-er, she twisted her body and ran out of the room.
Ning Yuxuan continued to sit in his chair and only let out a long sigh.
—
“Master!” Dengxin ran into the room. In high spirits, she said, “Something funny happened today.”
Ji Man was almost done with her embroidery of Wang Zhaojun. She glanced at Dengxin and asked, “What’s so funny?”
(T/N: Wang Zhaojun is one of the four great beauties of ancient China.)
Covering her smiling mouth, she told her master what had recently happened in the study. She was still laughing as she said, “The servant girl that had been serving tea at the time is still laughing about it. Wen Wan had once been such a favored wife, but now she’s just a servant girl without any status. And now, she even failed when she asked the marquis to change her status.”
Ji Man paused. Her embroidery needle pierced the wrong spot and left behind a small flaw.
“Feeling change with circumstances.” After sighing, she continued to embroider. “People have to work hard to maintain a loving relationship. If you don’t work hard, then you can’t turn around and blame someone for changing his or her feelings. After all, love is a fleeting emotion. Marriage requires both partners to get along with each other for a long time.”
Not really understanding her master’s words, Dengxin just nodded and smiled again as she said, “Master, it can be counted as you finally getting rid of resentful feelings. Back when Wen Wan had so grandly stolen master’s position as the main wife, she probably never expected that she would fall to her current state.”
Ji Man lowered her eyes and laughed. “Yeah, this world can only have main wives that aren’t diligent enough. The other woman can always be defeated if the main wife is careful enough.”
Although Dengxin didn’t completely understand these words, she still thought that her master looked very impressive as she said these words.