Chapter 310 – Personally handing over the advantageous position (1)
Ji Man nodded and picked up the divorce letter. When she raised her head, her eyes were calm as she looked at Ning Yuxuan and said, “Sangyu thanks my lord.”
Marquis Moyu was slightly startled. He lowered his eyes and clenched his fist. With a lowered voice, he said, “Leave with Guibai.”
Guibai was already standing by a nearby carriage with Dengxin waiting next to him. The rain hadn’t lessened yet, instead it had gotten worse. The rain was heavy enough that the water was overflowing from the execution ground. As Ji Man walked towards the carriage, the stream of bloodied water stained her shoes.
Ji Man’s mind was somewhat muddled. She really needed to find a place to have a good rest. A divorced woman, whose family had been destroyed, naturally didn’t have any good options. Nie Sangyu no longer had any value. In a manner of speaking, she was more likely to be considered a harbinger of disaster. So, there was no reason for Ning Yuxuan to want to use her future, that’s why she trusted him and decided to leave the execution ground with Guibai.
However, at this moment, the crippled and psychopathic second prince looked at the nearby carriage and asked with a smile, “Yuxuan, where are you planning on sending Sangyu?”
Ning Yuxuan returned to his senses. His brow was furrowed as he tried to think of a suitable answer.
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On the side, Ning Mingjie lightly said, “Nie Clan has perished, and it’s pitiful to see Sangyu orphaned and impoverished. She and Errong are best friends. Could Sangyu be sent to Jing Province as well? This way Errong will have someone to take care of her too.”
Nie Qingyun raised his eyes to look at Ning Errong. Ning Errong protectively clutched her belly, clutched her cloak to herself, and said, “That’s a good idea. Jing Province is very far from the capital. Your Highness, there’s no reason why you would need to worry about a woman that’s been thrown away by her husband either.”
Holding an umbrella over Zhao Li, Pengyue nodded and said, “Errong is such a kind-hearted person. As a pregnant woman, she really does need someone to care for her. Just let Sangyu go with her.”
Zhao Li silently sighed, pursed his lips, and said, “Fine.”
He knew that he couldn’t allow Pengyue’s soft-heartedness, but it was rare for her to request something from him. He couldn’t just flippantly refuse her. Although he verbally agreed, he looked at his nearby bodyguards meaningfully and stroked the dragon-shaped jade accessory at his waist.
Ji Man had inadvertently raised her eyes at this moment and thought that the jade accessory looked familiar. Where had she seen it before?
(T/N: Just in case it was too long ago, Ji Man saw a dragon-shaped jade accessory in Qian Lianxue’s room in chapter 246.)
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The corpses of Nie Clan’s members were dragged away, roughly wrapped with straw mats, taken outside of the capital, and haphazardly tossed into a pile. Because they were judged guilty of the highest official offense, they weren’t even allowed to be buried with their ancestors. Huizhuang Empress Dowager had already committed suicide inside the palace and was given a burial rite in accordance to her status as a member of the late emperor’s harem.
(T/N: There was a brief mention of Nie Sangyu’s aunt being given the title of Huizhuang Empress Dowager after the late emperor’s death.)
The third prince was stripped of his imperial status and buried without any rites. His grave marker didn’t even have his last name carved onto it.
In the midst of these turbulent changes in the capital, the second prince obtained the emperor’s seal and acted as the temporary ruler. Using the laws of the imperial court, he settled past debts. Countless people were imprisoned or exiled. As for certain officials that originally had little status and were ignored, he promoted them into higher ranks.
Of course, none of these matters had anything to do with Ji Man. In the midst of that heavy rain, Ji Man never looked back as she had got into Errong’s carriage while bring Dengxin along.
Ning Yuxuan silently watched as the carriage moved farther and farther way.
Inside the carriage, Errong squeezed her friend’s ice-cold hand and said, “Forget about everything else. You can just live with me in the future.”
Nie Qingyun was still wearing his prison clothing and sitting across from them. His eyes were blood red.
“How can I forget?” Ji Man partially closed her eyes. “Errong, after we find an inn and change out of our wet clothes, I’ll share a carriage with my older brother, and you ride another carriage by yourself.”
“Why?” Errong tightened her grip on her hand. “What are you planning?”
Ji Man curved the corners of her lips. “If I was the second prince, I definitely wouldn’t allow any members of Nie Clan to leave the capital alive.”
Stunned, Errong suddenly became panicky. “He took the late emperor’s imperial edict. He can’t go back on his words, ah.”
“In the face of imperial power, only a muddled-headed idiot would keep his words.” Ji Man took a deep breath, then she looked at her and said, “It was outside of my expectations that you would come here to save my older brother.”
She had originally though that it would be very difficult for Nie Qingyun to escape too.
Errong glanced at Qingyun, then she pursed her lips and said, “He thinks that I’m an idiot. It’s not like I’m someone that doesn’t know anything. At first, I was really sad when I went back to my maiden home, but as soon as my father explained the matter, I understood what Qingyun had been thinking.”
Ji Man nodded. “It’s good that the two of you can mutually understand each other. Older brother, you want to keep living too, right?”
Nie Qingyun clenched his fist. “If I don’t keep living, then I wouldn’t be worthy of Errong come from so faraway to save me.”
“Let’s stop at that inn up front and send the servants to buy clothes for us to change into as well as hiring another carriage.” Ji Man squeezed the edge of her thoroughly wet clothes and lightly said, “After that’s done, just follow my plan.”
Errong glanced at Nie Qingyun in worry. “Nothing bad will happen, right?”
“It’ll depend on our luck.” Ji Man wryly smiled. “We’re going to have to do something dangerous if we want to escape with our lives. Besides, we don’t have anyone to help us.”
One of the carriage’s wheels suddenly got stuck in a water-filled pothole, and the carriage stopped. While the three people inside this carriage were startled, Dengxin and Baizhi had already gotten off from their carriage and walked to the carriage in the front. Holding up umbrellas, one of them said, “Masters, please leave the carriage. We have to pull the wheel out of the pothole.”
Ji Man parted the carriage’s curtain to look. There happened to be an unremarkable-looking inn by the carriage. Because of the heavy rain, there weren’t many pedestrians on the streets.
“Let’s change our clothes here.”
Errong nodded in agreement, and they went inside the inn. They had one of the inn’s staff lead their horses to the stable to get them fed, then they sent him off to purchase another carriage for them.
Ji Man and Nie Qingyun looked like two bedraggled drowned rats. Fortunately, the innkeeper didn’t ask any curious questions and just led them up the stairs. He even warm-heartedly brought over two commoner outfits for them to change into.