Liu Hanyun was currently frowning as she looked at Ning Yuxuan. It had already been half a month since he had stayed over in someone else’s courtyard. Today, she had prepared food and invited him over, but he appeared preoccupied. 

  Liu Hanyun quietly asked, “My lord, is something bothering you? This servant hasn’t seen you much lately.” 

  Ning Yuxuan nodded and picked up Xi-er. Pursing his lips, he said, “I’ve been busy with work matters related to the imperial court.” 

  But, he clearly spent a lot of time at home and was frequently going over to see Haohao, so why didn’t he have time to see Xi-er? Liu Hanyun lowered her eyes and said, “Xi-er is already old enough to read short poems, but my lord never comes over to listen to him.” 

  Holding the child, he raised his eyebrow and asked, “En? Which poems? Xi-er, read one for me?” 

  Xi-er shyly snuck a look at him before turning his head away and staying silent. 

  Somewhat anxious, Liu Hanyun lightly tugged Xi-er’s little hand and said, “Come on, recite it.” 

  Pouting, Xi-er continued to keep his mouth closed and even started to squirm. Ning Yuxuan could only put him down. Right after he released him, he saw Ji Man coming over with Haohao in her arms. 

  Haohao had just learned a new poem this morning. When he saw his father, he wanted to go over there to share it with him and started to wiggle around in Ji Man’s arms. As soon Ji Man put him down, she saw the little marshmallow-like creature jump into Marqus Moyu’s arms. Haohao’s little face was tilted up and adoringly looking at Ning Yuxuan. Ji Man though; if Haohao had a tail, it would probably be whipping back and forth as fast as a windshield wiper. 

  Haohao didn’t even say a greeting before reciting the new poem that he had learned, 

  “Goose, goose, goose, 

  Curving its neck to sing a song. 

  It’s white feather floats on the crystal-clear water, 

  While its red-webbed feet pushes the clear water and ripples form.” 

  After reciting the poem, he looked at Ning Yuxuan with an eager expression that seemed to say, “Shower me with praises please.” 

  Marquis Moyu chuckled. He picked him and said, “Ah, you learned a new poem again.” 

  Liu Hanyun’s expression was slightly unpleasant. Xi-er had timidly hugged her leg to help himself stand up. 

  Ji Man walked into the room and saluted her first. “Madam.” 

  Liu Hanyun nodded and looked at her as she asked, “Why do you bring the heir over at this time of the day?” 

  Ji Man looked at the sky. It was about time to eat dinner. Ji Man awkwardly smiled and said, “This one has matters to discuss with the marquis, therefore this one presumptuously came over.” 

  “Why do you need to bring the heir over to discuss business?” Liu Hanyun’s tone was slightly unpleasant. She pressed her lips together and rubbed her temples before saying, “It’ll be bad if he bumps into something and knocks it over.” 

  Ji Man raised her head to take a look at Liu Hanyun. Right now, Liu Hanyun was the main wife. Although she didn’t have a strong family background, she had sufficient grandeur from attitude and being dressed up in her current attire. Compared to her previously unobtrusive presence, Liu Hanyun had already transformed into someone that was composed and sensible. 

  “This is one is at fault for being careless.” Ji Man saluted by placing one hand over her fist. 

  Ning Yuxuan raised his eyes to look at her. He stood up while holding Haohao and said, “Let’s go back to discuss.” 

  “Understood.” Ji Man nodded. 

  Liu Hanyun’s reaction to Haohao was much more extreme that she had imagined. Ji Man had originally thought Liu Hanyun would remain as the gentle and noncompetitive person that she used to be close to. But, there were too many things in Liu Hanyun’s eyes when she saw the two of them today. She was clearly unhappy. It couldn’t be that all women would completely change after having children, right? 

  As Ji Man followed Ning Yuxuan out of the courtyard, she felt as if she was being watched with a piercing gaze from behind. 

  Ning Yuxuan asked, “What was it that you wanted to say?” 

  As Ji Man walked, she quietly answered, “I want to get married.” 

  Marquis Moyu stopped walking. His gaze was completely bewildered. “What did you just say it? Say it again.” 

  “I said that I want to get married.” Ji Man raised her eyes to look at him as she said, “I already agreed that I’m going to marry Miss Zhu, so I want to discuss where I should move to so that I’ll still be able to easily come over to give Haohao daily lessons. 

  Ning Yuxuan didn’t recover from his shock for a long time. By the time that he understood what Ji Man had said, his face paled. “Do you think it’s a child’s game to get married? Your body…… how can you marry someone?” 

  “We already discussed it. It’s just for the purpose of giving her baby a last name. We’re not actually going to have a real wedding night,” Ji Man said, “I’m not telling you this because I want your permission. I’m just letting you know.” 

  Ning Yuxuan’s eyes became cold. Pursing his lips, he looked at her in askance and asked, “You don’t care if I agree or not?”” 

  “Why do I need you to agree? It’s not like I sold myself into this household,” Ji Man replied. 

  With a sneer, Ning Yuxuan took a step closer to her while still holding Haohao. Looking down on her, he said, “You’ve been staying in my estate for a while. Are you unaware of how well I’ve been treating you? Marriage is such a big matter, but you’re actually saying that you don’t care if I agree or not. That you’re just informing me.” 

  Ji Man furrowed her brow. “Marquis, the only connection between the two of us is Haohao. What else is there?” 

  Haohao blinked his eyes and innocently looked to the left, then to the right. 

  Ning Yuxuan took a deep breath. It was obvious that he was extremely angry as he laughed and said, “Okay, okay, you can do whatever you want. Nothing you do is my business.” 

  “What’s whatever?” Haohao looked at his dad in confusion. “Haohao doesn’t like whatever.” 

  Both parents froze in surprise. Ji Man was the first one to react, as she couldn’t stop herself from laughing. However, Ning Yuxuan’s expression didn’t change for the better. He turned around and started walking away from Ji Man. 

  Ji Man hastily yelled out, “Hey, marquis, we haven’t finished discussing where I’m moving to.” 

  Ning Yuxuan ignored her and started walking faster. 

  A short amount of time later, he had already walked far enough that his figure had disappeared from her view. 

  Ji Man felt worried. Recently, her personal funds were scarce, so buying any home and what not would be a bit problematic. Moreover, the relative cost of a home in the capital in this era wasn’t that much cheaper than a home in modern-day Beijing. 

  It was getting late and time to return to her room to sleep. From beginning to end, Ji Man firmly believed that she should just cross that bridge when she came to it. 

  — 

  When she woke up the next morning, she couldn’t find Haohao. 

  It was Steward Qian that came over, politely bowed, and informed her, “Teacher Ji, the marquis said that you won’t need to teach the heir today.” 

  Translator Ramblings: I feel its worse that Ning Yuxuan is telling Liu Hanyun fake excuses about why he doesn’t spend time with Xi-er. And, okay, it would be way worse if he told her truth that he likes Haohao a lot more from the start because he’s Nie Sangyu/Ji Man’s son. 

  And then, there’s a horrible feedback loop, where Xi-er rarely sees his father, so he understandably feels shy and nervous around him. Plus, since he doesn’t get to see his father as often as Haohao, his mother will feel more anxious that he has to do his ABSOLUTE best when he gets these rare opportunities to see his father, which he’s really sensitive to and that makes him even shyer and tenser. 

  I think the only person that has the power to break the vicious loop is Ning Yuxuan. He can easily do this just by spending more time with his son, so that Xi-er won’t feel that a visit from his father is a big deal. 

  On the other hand, it wouldn’t be unusual for parents to make up excuses for why they’re favoring one child over there. From Ning Yuxuan’s perspective, he might not even see his excuses as being untruthful. 

  Anyways, I think it’s very understandable that Liu Hanyun would be irritated with Ji Man and Haohao popping up a few minutes after she finally got Ning Yuxuan over to see his son and taking away his attention again. Liu Hanyun is probably thinking, why couldn’t this person have just waited until tomorrow morning or asked during all the other times that he seems him? Why must you interrupt our dinner? It’s one thing to be able to accept being in a loveless marriage, and a completely different thing to see your child always being neglected by his other parent. 

  What do you guys think?

  Chapter 336 – Getting married is only a trifling matter (1) 

  Ji Man felt despondent. What did Ning Yuxuan mean by canceling the classes? She had been planning on teaching Haohao how to sing nursery rhymes today. 

  After changing her clothes, she went looking for Ning Yuxuan. However, when she got to his courtyard, Guibai stopped her and said that the marquis was with a guest. 

  He was holding Haohao while he was with a guest? Who was he trying to trick?! Ji Man stood at the doorway and looked at Guibai with awkward smile for a long time. She remained here so that she could eavesdrop. 

  It seemed that there were people talking inside. She even heard words like, “congratulations, congratulations” and “will definitely show up”. She was helpless though. Haohao was Ning Yuxuan’s heir, so she couldn’t take Haohao away by force. Since he wouldn’t allow her to give Haohao lessons today, then she could only accept it for now. 

  Since she had agreed that she would marry Miss Zhu, she had to start preparing for their wedding. Regarding the problem of a betrothal gift, Ji Man had already figured out what she would do. According to the rules of this era, she would have to spend several hundred silver taels to buy the traditional gifts that would be up to par, then she just needed to hire a matchmaker to go to Miss Zhu’s home on her behalf. Assistant Minister Zhu was in hurry to marry off his daughter, so he wouldn’t be too picky and complain. 

  As Ji Man walked through the streets and ordered red silk and other wedding decorations from one store and jugs of fine wine from another store, she continued to have conflicting emotions. After she had finished with most of the preparations, she dropped by Zhu Residence to discuss the specific details for the wedding day. 

  — 

  Assistant Minister Zhu was broadly smiling. Ji Man had fixed the big problem that had plagued him. Although he felt a bit wronged that his daughter’s wedding would be done so casually, it was already a blessing from the Heavens that someone was willing to marry her. 

  Teacher Ji seemed like a trustworthy person, and he heard that Teacher Ji was from a well-off family too. If he opened a few paths for Teacher Ji, his future son-in-law would definitely have a bright future. His daughter wouldn’t suffer by marrying this man. Thinking of it like this, Zhu Shuyou was full of smiles as he exchanged many words with Ji Man. 

  At the end of their discussion, he even offered to visit Ji Man’s rice shops to look around. 

  Ji Family’s rice business was going pretty well, but their customers were all normal citizens, and their stores weren’t big. Although there was a store in the north, west, south, and east parts of the capital, each of their stores only took up the space of two standard storefronts. 

  Before leaving his estate, the assistant minister of revenue had changed out of his high-ranking official’s attire and into plain clothing in order to go about incognito. He had also brought along a few trusted aides during his tour of Ji Family’s business. As they visited each of the four stores, he gave Ji Man some pointers. By his side, there was a person scribbling down his advice. After they had taken a tour of all the stores, Ji Man and the rest of the group bumped into Shopkeeper Liu. 

  Since the election for the new head of the grain merchant association was at a critical point, Shopkeeper Liu was putting forth his full effort. He had invited Director Tang out today and spent a lot of money to entertain him. They had just come out of Luoyan Pagoda and ended up bumping into Ji Man. 

  Ji Man politely bowed. “Sir Tang.” 

  Director Tang still had a very good impression of Ji Man, so he nodded his head to acknowledge Ji Man’s greeting. Just as he was going to continue walking forward to go browsing at a jade artifact store with Shopkeeper Liu, he saw that the curtain of the palanquin that was next to Ji Man being slightly parted. 

  Director Tang’s expression slightly changed, and he went forward to politely bow at the palanquin. He didn’t call out that person’s title and only bowed deeply. 

  Shopkeeper Liu was quite startled by this sight and hurriedly followed with a bow of his own. Why was Teacher Ji with a person that even Director Tang had to greet with a bow? 

  Assistant Minister Zhu cast a glance at Director Tang and said, “No need to bow, I just came out to walk around with Teacher Ji. You can withdraw first.” 

  With a broad smile, Director Tang looked at Ji Man and said, “Teacher Ji, you’re certainly an extraordinary person.” 

  Smiling, Ji Man responded with a trite formality, “It’s all thanks to Sir Tang’s help.” 

  Shopkeeper Liu’s expression didn’t look good. Fortunately, they were in the middle of a busy road, and it wasn’t convenient for them to continue standing here to talk. After Ji Man left with the palanquin, Director Tang resumed walking forward. 

  Director Tang changed his stance, which he had recently stated before they had bumped into Ji Man. “There’s no needed to rush with that matter with the rice merchant association that you brought up before. There’s still one more month left. Your qualifications are sufficient. You don’t need to worry too much.” 

  Shopkeeper Liu was barely able to keep a smile on his face as he made a sound of assent. 

  — 

  When they returned to Zhu Residence, Assistant Minister Zhu said that it was more important to focus on the wedding preparations and that Ji Man didn’t need to worry about the rice business. After Ji Man thanked him for his favor, she followed a servant girl to visit Zhu Yurun. 

  Servants had already started putting up wedding decorations in Zhu Yurun’s courtyard. Zhu Yurun seemed to have also gained more weight since the first time Ji Man met her. Her plump body was sitting down at the table. Seeing Ji Man, she said, “Older brother Man, come over here and take a look. What do you think of this handkerchief that I embroidered?” 

  Ji Man chose to automatically ignored Zhu Yurun’s address and walked over to look. There was a strange-looking duck embroidered on the red handkerchief. 

  The corners of Ji Man’s lips twitched. “Donald Duck?” 

  “.…… What duck?” Feeling annoyed, Miss Zhu pouted and said, “This is a mandarin duck!” 

  (T/N: A pair of mandarin ducks symbolizes a happily married couple.) 

  “Okay, it’s a mandarin duck.” Covering her mouth to hide her expression, Ji Man sat down. Unable to resist her impulse, she took the embroidery hoop from Miss Zhu and said, “But this isn’t the right way to embroider. Don’t most women learn embroidery skills? How can even a simple mandarin duck design turn out to look like this? 

  The nearby servant girls tactfully left the room and closed the doors to give these two some privacy. 

  “My dad never forced me to learn feminine skills like embroidery, and I found it bothersome, so I haven’t tried embroidering much before.” 

  Watching as Ji Man fixing her embroidery, Zhu Yurun pouted again and said, “Ah, you actually know how to do this?” 

  Ji Man hadn’t embroidered in a long time, so Nie Sangyu’s hands had felt itchy with the desire to practice her craft. Without even being consciously aware, she had started trying to rescue the badly embroidered mandarin duck. 

  “I picked up the skill during childhood from my mother when I was feeling bored.” 

  Zhu Yurun looked at Ji Man in admiration. “My mother died young, and I’m the only daughter that my father has, so I’ve been spoiled to the point of not knowing how to do anything.” 

  Ji Man nodded. She had already figured that part out. For a woman to dare to force a man onto a bed, Zhu Yurun must have been spoiled to the point of being out-of-control. 

  “It’s okay. The servants can do this. I’ve discussed our marriage with Sir Zhu today. I’ll send the betrothal gifts the day after tomorrow, then ask a matchmaker to choose an auspicious day for our wedding. I’ll marry you before this month is over.” 

  Zhu Yurun’s eyes curved into small crescent moons. “That’s great. I can finally wearing a wedding dress.” 

  But as she smiled, her eyes started to redden. “It’s just a pity that you’re not him.”


  Chapter 337 – Getting married is only a trifling matter (2) 

  Ji Man was really becoming more and more curious about this “him” that Miss Zhu kept mentioning, but she didn’t feel comfortable asking, so she could only suppress her curiosity and continue fixing the mandarin duck. 

  Grabbing Ji Man’s hand, Zhu Yurun somewhat proudly said, “Oh, right. I do have a skill. I can paint. It can be considered my one talent. Dad said that if I don’t have even one talent, my future husband would look down on me.” 

  With her head lowered and her attention focused on embroidering, Ji Man absent-mindedly responded, “En. What can you paint?” 

  Zhu Yurun happily took out a scroll and opened it. “Look, I know how to paint him!” 

  Ji Man froze in shock for a moment. The man in the painting was wearing a robe that was embroidered with green bamboo. His somewhat long and narrow eyes, which had been paired with a smiling expression, looked somewhat dissolute. 

  He looked pretty ordinary. It seemed like this painting had captured some of the person’s personality. Actually, this person looked somewhat familiar to her. 

  “Your painting is pretty good. Who is he?” 

  With a red face, Miss Zhu stamped her feet and said, “It’s him! The one I told you about. The one that’s really, really good-looking!” 

  What? 

  Ji Man stared at the painting for several seconds. Her eyelids twitched as she asked, “So you’re saying…… this is your baby’s father?” 

  Zhu Yurun’s eyes were glimmering with stars as she nodded. Her fingers carefully stroked the face on her painting, and she quietly said, “I’ve never seen anyone that’s better looking than him. Even when he’s furrowing his brow, he still looks mesmerizing.” 

  Ji Man shivered and almost poked herself with the embroidery needle. 

  Sure enough, a woman in love really couldn’t be reasoned with. Although the man in the painting looked decent enough, it really wasn’t to the level of really, really good-looking. That face shouldn’t have been enough to turn someone into a love-struck idiot, right? 

  Or, perhaps, Miss Zhu’s painting skills weren’t good enough, so she hadn’t fully captured this man’s magnificent beauty? 

  Ji Man narrowed her eyes and moved closer to the painting. Even if she mentally Photoshopped this image into something more attractive, she didn’t have any strong feelings, except one. Familiar. 

  Where had she seen this person before? 

  — 

  Even after she returned to the marquis’s estate, Ji Man was still contemplating this question. However, when she entered the western courtyard, she found out that Marquis Moyu still had a guest over, but they weren’t inside anymore. Instead, they were playing chess under a covered corridor. 

  Ning Yuxuan was holding onto Haohao with one hand, and his other hand was holding a white chess piece. He was leaning against the red pillar behind himself and smiling as if he had a well-thought out strategy. 

  In contrast, the person across from him had a slightly furrowed brow and was silently holding a black chess piece. 

  Hearing the sound of footsteps, Ning Yuxuan turned his head to the side to look. When he saw that it was Ji Man, the smile on his face completely faded away, and he turned his head back. The person across from him was too focused on playing chess and hadn’t even bothered raising his head to look that way. 

  Haohao opened his mouth and sweetly called out, “Teacher.” 

  Taking advantage of this moment, Ji Man hurriedly came over and stretched her arms out so that she could take Haohao from Ning Yuxuan. 

  Ning Yuxuan held onto Haohao, who was slightly squirming. “Teacher Ji, aren’t you busy with getting married? How can you have the free time to teach Haohao?” 

  Ji Man stopped at the chessboard and properly saluted. “Marquis, this one has time to give Haohao lessons. The betrothal gifts and other items have already been prepared.” 

  Ning Yuxuan sneered. “You’re really going to marry her?!” 

  Ji Man pursed her lips and said, “This one has already stated that this one haven’t sold myself into lifetime servitude. This one has the freedom to marry whoever this one wants.” 

  Marquis Moyu was so angry that he laughed. He tossed the white chess piece that he had been holding into a puddle of water. With a stiff expression, he turned his head away. 

  Even though Qian Yingchen had been engrossed in the game, he finally raised his head and was astonished by the sight of Marquis Moyu’s drastic mood change. He looked at Ji Man and asked, “Is this the heir’s teacher?” 

  Ji Man paused before turning her head to look at him. As soon as she saw his face, the answer to the question that had stumped her earlier finally came to her. “Sir Qian!” 

  Back then, she had happened to meet this person by chance. Qian Yingchen was Qian Lianxue’s younger brother and Marquis Moyu’s friend. Ji Man still remembered that back then, he had been the one who welcome her into Tonghua Poetry Association. It was only that later, because of Qian Lianxue’s actions, he had been demoted to Xu Province. She hadn’t expected to see him again in the capital. 

  But, this face…… A lot of thoughts went through Ji Man’s mind after she had looked at his face for only a few moments. 

  Was the destiny in this world really that rubbish? She had been bothered by why the portrait that Zhu Yurun had drawn had looked so familiar to her. The answer was simply because she had seen this face before. Admittedly, the face in the portrait had been drawn with simpler lines. 

  So, the man that Zhu Yurun had forced herself onto was Qian Yingchen? Ji Man looked at him deeply. This was really too…… 

  Seeing that Ji Man was looking at him with such a strange look, Qian Yingchen couldn’t help touching his own face. “Teacher Ji, you actually recognize this one?” 

  “This one has been looking forward to meeting a famous person like you, Sir Qian.” Ji Man uneasily laughed. Wanting to confirm again, she swept her gaze across his face as she said, “This one heard that Sir Qian was in Xu Province. Why……?” 

  Qian Yingchen smiled and said, “This one was transferred back to the capital half a year ago. Teacher Ji, where are you from? Why do you have this information about Yingchen?” 

  Ji Man silently retorted; not only do I know this about you, I’m also going to marry your woman and be a father to your child. Ji Man returned his smile and said, “This one is from Zhangjun. This one has just heard of your famous reputation and happened to hear some news about you. That’s all.” 

  As someone that had been the manager of Tonghua Poetry Association, it wasn’t surprising that Qian Yingchen would have fans. 

  While the two of them were happily chatting away, Ning Yuxuan wasn’t in a good mood. With an unhappy expression, he said, “Yingchen, let’s stop our game here and go inside to drink some tea.”