Chapter 459 – Standing by your side (2)
“You don’t have to worry about what I’m doing. I wouldn’t do anything that would harm you.” Ji Man took the list back from him. “Since you’re doing your best in the front, I naturally have to do my best to support you from behind. It’s only by doing that, that I have the qualifications to stand by your side.”
Ning Yuxuan looked at Ji Man for a long time before finally letting out a heavy sigh and hugging her. “I’ve truly picked up an extraordinary treasure.”
Ji Man felt somewhat embarrassed. “Actually, all the women from my world are this clever too. It’s only by chance that I was the one that came here.”
“En.” Ning Yuxuan smiled and kissed her forehead “Exactly, it was you.”
Ji Man smiled. She tugged him down to the seat next to hers and started to show him the results of this month.
Ning Yuxuan’s expression didn’t change much, but his mind had turned into a spectacular mess.
“How do you know…that Assistant Minister Zhu is loyal to me?” Seemingly inadvertently, Ning Yuxuan asked. “Yingchen and Zhu Yurun’s wedding was rocky. Who knows if Assistant Minister Zhu has secret plans of his own?”
“He won’t.” Ji Man pointed her writing brush at Zhu Yurun’s name and said, “Assistant Minister Zhu cherishes Zhu Yurun greatly. Yurun has married Qian Yingchen, and her life is pretty good right now. When she returns to her maiden family, she only reports good things and leaves out anything negative, so her father must be feeling relieved and reassured. Even if Assistant Minister Zhu felt resentful towards you at the beginning, his anger would have dissipated once he saw how happy Zhu Yurun is with Qian Yingchen.”
Zhu Yurun was the simplest girl that she had met in this world, or perhaps, she could say that she was stupid to the point of being cute. Assistant Minister Zhu’s parental love for his daughter was the most sincere love she had witnessed after coming to this world. As long as his daughter was happy, he was happy too. Since Zhu Yurun had married Qian Yingchen, there was no way that her father wouldn’t help Marquis Moyu.
Ning Yuxuan’s eyes slightly dimmed. Ji Man was really too different from the women here. She could sway the hearts of people and even analyze political affairs. During the past period, when he had met with difficulties, he would occasionally mention those people to her. He hadn’t expected that she would remember all of this, come up with a list of people that had connections with those court officials, and figured out what motivated them.
Her observations were relatively simple, but she only had access to limited information. If she could see the full picture, those important officials would be thoroughly analyzed to death by her.
This type of woman was a bit terrifying and might even be a threat to the imperial power. If she turned out to be as bewitching as Daji, it was possible that she would be a beauty that caused the next downfall of the nation.)
(T/N: Daji was the favorite consort of King Zhou of Shang Dynasty. She’s portrayed as a beautiful fox spirit that caused the downfall of a dynasty in legends.)
No, that wouldn’t happen. Ji Man wasn’t that wicked. Ning Yuxuan closed his eyes for a moment, then he stretched his hand out, scooped her onto his lap, and stroked her stomach.
He knew that she just wanted to work together with him to throw off the restraints that Zhao Zhe had placed on them and lived a better life.
—
However, with her help, he became much closer with the officials in the Six Ministries. For example, when Li Licheng, the Minister of Revenue, came over to exchange greetings with him, he joked, “My wife has repeatedly spoken highly of Miss Nie. She said that Miss Nie is a virtuous and magnanimous woman. Once there’s free time, she wants to prepare a banquet in our humble home and invite Miss Nie over. May she honor us with attending.”
Hearing these words, Ning Yuxuan couldn’t stop the corners of his lips from curving upwards. He naturally felt happy that other people would praise his woman so highly.
—
Ji Man was used to running around to make sales, so she had her own set of skills to establish connections with other people. She definitely wouldn’t inadvertently offend anyone. Without them noticing, she would draw them into a closer relationship. Although the marquis’s household didn’t have many people, there would be madams and young ladies coming over here every day to eat melons seeds, embroider, and chat. It was much livelier than before.
The only unfortunate thing was that Errong and Luo Qianqian had already left to travel back to their respective fiefdoms. It was only Zhu Yurun that would come over every day to keep her company while eating snacks.
Ji Man asked Zhu Yurun, “Why are you coming over so frequently? Don’t you need to keep Sir Qian company?”
Zhu Yurun pouted. “Yingchen recently became interested in a dancing girl and doesn’t need my company, so I came over here to keep you company.”
Ji Man didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It was only Zhu Yurun that could be so open-minded. When Qian Yingchen occasionally gained an interest in amother woman, Zhu Yurun wouldn’t get angry. Instead, she would take the initiative of avoiding him. Once Qian Yingchen got bored of the other woman, she would slip back to his side. The two of them would return to being the model of a loving couple and as if nothing had happened.
Oh my god!
Ji Man thought only Zhu Yurun could be capable of living her life so happily and decided not to go over there to bother her. She would peacefully stay at home to care for her pregnancy and gossip with the other visiting madams and young ladies.
—
When spring arrived, news came from the borderlands that the army had done poorly in a battle. Ning Mingjie had left with an army of 80,000 soldiers. On the way to the borderlands, he had recruited more soldiers from various fiefdoms so the army had increased to 120,000 soldiers by the time they reached their destination. However, once they had arrived at the borderlands, after only two months of battle, they suffered a crushing defeat on the battlefield one day, and a military report was sent from the borderlands. The 120,000 soldiers had been reduced back down to 80,000.
The imperial court was shocked. Ning Mingjie was leading elite soldiers. How could they have done so badly? The emperor was furious. When his gaze landed on Marquis Moyu, it clearly showed that he blamed him for not leading the army as originally planned.
When the important court officials saw that the emperor was going to name Marquis Moyu as the commander again, one after another, they recommended a deputy general from Xiao Clan to go into battle and accomplish meritorious service. The person they recommended was Xiao Sihai. He was the emperor’s distant relative.
Zhao Zhe hesitated for a while before agreeing. However, he felt suspicious how unified the imperial court had become. He kept having the nagging feeling that the officials were becoming more loyal to Marquis Moyu.