翁公和在厨房猛烈进出

Today, everyone had sat down to chat after the women had finished paying respects to old madame. Ning Yuxuan had also happened to come by at this time, but he seemed tired. He also brought a message that Wen Wan wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be coming.

Sitting at the highest position, old madame coldly harrumphed, “It seems like it’s really easy for her to get sick in this weather. You’ll have to order the servants to properly take care of her.”

There wasn’t anything that Marquis Moyu could say to refute. He could only agree.

Nearby, Qi Siling, who had been recently been favored, said with a smile, “Younger sister Qing-er’s belly looks really big. It doesn’t seem like it’s only one month old.”

Mu Shuiqing had received special permission to sit at a chair below Qi Siling’s instead of standing as usual. She hadn’t expected that a person that she usually got along well with would open fire on her. Mu Shuiqing slightly froze from shock, then she pulled back her belly that been positioned somewhat exaggeratedly. “Older sister, you must be joking.”

Marquis Moyu looked at Mu Shuiqing in the passing and asked, “Have you been eating well?”

Joy appeared in Mu Shuiqing’s eyes. She lowered her head and said, “My lord, thank you for your concern. Banxia has been serving me well and the doctor has been coming to see me every few days. Everything is fine.”

Marquis Moyu nodded. His feelings towards Mu Shuiqing’s baby were more complicated than anyone else’s. In this end, this baby was his flesh and blood, but it wasn’t Wen Wan’s, so he couldn’t look forward to its birth. He could only overcome this difficult situation by taking things step by step.

“My lord, it seems as if you haven’t visited younger sister Sangyu in a while.” Qi Siling turned her head and warmly said, “It’ll be winter soon. If you don’t visit her soon, younger sister Sangyu might get cold.”

The corners of Ji Man’s lips twitched. Why was it possible to drag her into every issue? Marquis Moyu was probably annoyed at Wen Wan for being narrow-minded, so he had slept in the other courtyards as a warning to her. It was one thing to involve the two honored concubines. Why did Qi Siling have to involve her in this mess too? Although she was the secondary female lead, she had no desire to become the typical cannon fodder.

Ning Yuxuan turned his head to look at Nie Sangyu, who was standing by old madame’s side. Something moved in his eyes. He pursed his lips and said, “Ling-er is right. How about I go to Feiwan Courtyard tonight?”

Mu Shuiqing’s heart became slightly uncomfortable. The marquis had only gone to her courtyard once during the past half month. Why was Qi Siling willing to help Nie Sangyu rather than her?

Previously, when she had a good relationship with Qi Siling, she would tell Qi Siling all of her problems and Qi Siling would occasionally help her. But after she became pregnant, Qi Siling decided to no longer be friends with her. Even when she went to Jiyue Courtyard to visit her, a servant would tell her that Qi Siling was resting and wasn’t available to see anyone.

Qi Siling was clearly avoiding her.

Mu Shuiqing secretly grinded her teeth and looked at Qi Siling for a moment before turning her head away.

Ji Man took a deep breath and bowed to express thanks. “My lord, thank you.”

Even if she had successfully avoided the problem at first, she still couldn’t escape in the end. She was this man’s concubine. No matter what, she still had to fulfill the duties of a concubine. However, Ji Man found it very difficult to accept this reality. She absent-mindedly returned to Feiwan Courtyard and looked at the person in the mirror for a long time before she turned her head and asked Muxu, “When I served the marquis before, did that... take a long time?”

A normal woman wouldn’t be able to ask this question and Muxu wasn’t married yet, so her face naturally turned red from embarrassment. She stammered out, “Master, you rarely served the marquis. This servant doesn’t remember well. It seemed that during those few times, you would ended up with bruises each time.”

Ji Man widened her eyes. Ning Yuxuan liked to play roughly? No, not okay. She should go back to thinking of a way to avoid this. Even though this wasn’t her body, she wouldn’t be able to endure that.

She had originally gone over there to see how they would cause trouble for Mu Shuiqing. The result was that Qi Siling had said those words and Honored Concubine Xue had acted completely weak and didn’t say anything. Not only had she not seen a good show, she had also ended up involving herself into this messy situation.

When she thought of Ning Yuxuan’s meaningful glance when they were leaving the main courtyard, the corners of Ji Man’s mouth twitched again. It couldn’t be that he thought she had asked Qi Siling for help? That woman clearly didn’t have good intentions. Qi Siling had recently been frequently visiting Qiangwei Courtyard. Most likely, she had lured in the female lead to her side.

Because of tonight’s matter, Ji Man’s mood hadn’t been good the rest of the day.

And so, when Marquis Moyu pushed opened Nie Sangyu’s doors that evening, a woman with a deathly pale face and loose hair was looking blankly at him. She called out, “My lord...”

Ning Yuxuan instinctively took a step back before he realized that this woman was Nie Sangyu. He couldn’t help slightly frowning, “Are you pretending to be a ghost to try scare me?”

“This servant wouldn’t dare.” Ji Man hurriedly straightened her white sleeping clothes and went forward to politely attend to Marquis Moyu. “Please follow me.”

Marquis glanced at her before lightly smiling and said, “Ling-er can’t be blamed for saying that I’ve been giving you the cold shoulder. The last time that I favored you was a year ago.”

Ji Man inwardly cursed. If he only had intimate relations with Nie Sangyu once a year, what person wouldn’t go insane? He was a man that drove his own woman towards insanity. What right did this man have to call Nie Sangyu a vicious woman when he was doing something like this?

Last time, she pretended to be sick to avoid being favored. Obviously, she couldn’t repeat herself. As a clever person, she knew that she had to do something differently this time.

Once the doors were closed, the only lighting in the room came from a silently burning red candle. Marquis Moyu looked at the woman next to him and his eyes darkened, but he sat down like a great lord and expected her to make the first move.

Ji Man said with a smile, “This servant heard a story today and wants to share it with the marquis.”

Ning Yuxuan raised his eyebrows, straightforwardly lied down on the bed, and not understanding why she would mentioning this, he asked, “What story?”

Ji Man also lied down on the bed and warmly covered him with the quilt. “It’s a story about a person named Ali Baba from another world. Do you want to hear about it?”

Ali Baba? This name was so strange. Marquis Moyu couldn’t help being curious. “Tell me about it.”

Elated, Ji Man gentled her voice into one that would promote sleep, “A long time ago, there was an impoverished youngster. His name was Ali Baba. His older brother had married the daughter of a wealthy merchant, but he had married a woman from a poor family...”

Ji Man thought; Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was an excellent bedtime story. She would just treat him as if he were her son and coax him to sleep!