BXBX NOVEL Chapter 59 - Barbecue, wine, and winter (2)
Right now, she wasn’t an unmarried girl. She was already married to Marquis Moyu. Although she was only a concubine, it wouldn’t be appropriate for her to interact with a strange man, right?
Although she didn’t have a clear understanding of this era’s rules, her intuition told her that the sooner she left, the better.
“Sangyu, do you remember my older brother?” While biting on a meat skewer, Errong said, “You even met him once when you were both very young at a palace banquet. Afterwards, you even said that my older brother’s face resembled a piece of white jade more than Marquis Moyu’s.”
That palace banquet had occurred ten years ago, but Nie Sangyu had still remembered it and mentioned it to Ning Errong later on when they became friends. However, Ji Man didn’t have the slightly impression of this meeting. Looking at Ning Mingjie’s blank expression, he probably didn’t remember that meeting either.
“We could be considered relatives. Let’s all eat meat skewers together.” Ning Errong magnanimously patted a stool next to herself and Ning Mingjie naturally sat down. It would have been unnecessarily tiring to keep standing.
Ji Man looked at her hands and said with a smile, “How about letting the servants grill the food for you? My hands are too dirty and I should go back to wash them.”
Ning Mingjie understood that she was doing this to avoid arousing suspicion. Just as he was about to nod his head in agreement, Ning Errong casually said, “It’s such a long walk back. I’ll have Baizhi bring over water for you! Dearest older sister, grill two more skewers for me. The ones grilled by you are the tastiest.”
Ji Man didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This girl simply didn’t have any understanding about avoiding actions that might arouse suspicion. She was treating them as a group of carefree people that hadn’t reached adulthood yet.
But seeing Errong acting cutely spoiled like this, she really couldn’t continue to insist on leaving. She could only have Muxu stand near them, so that they could be considered under the public’s eyes. Then, she continued grilling meat for this little ancestor.
“They’ve all been saying that you had changed a lot. It’s true.” While Ning Errong ate, her little mouth didn’t stop talking, “In the past, you only cared about my cousin and wouldn’t have had the leisurely mood to make something like this.”
Ji Man silently smiled. As she finished grilling each batch of meat and vegetables, she would place them onto small plates and hand them over to the two siblings.
Ning Mingjie had already eaten dinner and wasn’t too hungry, but the gluttonous bug in his stomach had been lured out. He took the small plates and wasn’t polite. He even sent the servants to bring over fine wine.
The cold wind whistled by and the courtyard naturally wasn’t as warm as inside. But, Ning Errong was sticking her tongue out to cool down from eating the spicy food and wasn’t hiding her hands inside her sleeves anymore. Ning Mingjie actually felt very satisfied to feel the cold wind while he was drink wine and eating grilled meat. Nie Sangyu’s idea of cutting the meat into small pieces actually made the meat much tastier than when the entire slab of meat was grilled.
And so, after Ning Mingjie had eaten and drank enough to be satisfied, he felt that Nie Sangyu was actually a very good woman. At the very least, the meat that she had grilled was very tasty.
With this one incident, the plot quietly changed. Ning Mingjie didn’t go to the garden and coincidentally meet the female lead. Instead, the first thing that crashed into his eyes was a pair of slender white hands that efficiently turned over grilled meat.
—
While Ji Man peacefully stayed in her courtyard during the next two days, Mu Shuiqing got over the worse of her cold and was no longer feverish. Today, she was able to get out of her bed and could be considered to have gotten past the most difficult point in her recovery.
—
No one in the household mentioned the matter of Nie Sangyu grilling meat with Marquis Jingwen’s two children. So much so that when Ning Errong mentioned this matter to old madame, old madame had been tempted and wanted her to cook this food for her to try.
But, Ji Man didn’t recommend for old madame to eat this type of food. After all, it wasn’t good for older people to eat oily foods.
After eating this type of food only one time, old madame would occasionally continue thinking about eating grilled meat, until she gave in and had the kitchen servants grill some meat for her.
—
Originally, Ji Man hadn’t been close to Ning Mingjie. But now, whenever he saw her, he would always faintly smile at her. Ji Man felt that this man was too easily won over. It had only taken one meal of grilled meat for him to treat her familiarly.
Miss Shui had also come to the residence to report this month’s revenue and expenses. She had also brought good news. Palace servants had come to the store and said they wanted a supply for the palace. This was monumentally good news.
Ji Man made a resolute decision. She wrote down the method to make cold cream and taught it to Miss Shui. She wanted her to secretly teach the palace servants how to manufacture cold cream and handed Miss Shui the entire responsibility. With this change, the production volume would increase and it would also make it easier for cold cream to be exported out of the capital and be sold throughout the country.
Muxu saw the large pile of banknotes that Miss Shui had brought and deeply inhaled, “Master!”
The profits from one month of business would be enough for them to not have to worry about food and clothes for several years.
“The financial prospects of following me, it’s pretty good isn’t it?” Ji Man brightly smiled. She was extremely satisfied. She stretched her hand out, took a banknote worth fifty silver teals from the pile, and generously gave it to Muxu. “Go and buy yourself two good outfits. Your master will set aside money for your dowry. I guarantee that you’ll have a good life by following me.”
Holding the banknote, Muxu didn’t know how to respond for a long time until her eyes suddenly turned red.
“Hey! Everything is fine. Don’t cry. Otherwise, I’ll take back the banknote.” Ji Man showed a fierce expression to scare her. But, Muxu unexpectedly kneeled down to kowtow her. “This servant will definitely remember Master’s benevolence. And won’t... betray you again.”
Ji Man didn’t carefully think over Muxu’s words as she expressed her loyalty. While smiling, she helped Muxu stand up and said, “Look at you. It’s just fifty silver taels. There’s no need for you to be so touched. I heard that Doctor Li’s mother is very sick. If you want to visit her, how about I give you the day off so you can go see her?”
“It’s.... his mother. Why does this have anything to do with this servant? Why would this servant visit her?!” Muxu was so anxious that she stamped her feet. Her face turned red and she ran out of the courtyard.
Ji Man found her response amusing. How could she not know about the young girl’s feelings?
After Ji Man stored away the rest of the banknotes into her wardrobe, she took a deep breath. She felt that her good days weren’t far away!
Translator Ramblings: What do you think Muxu meant by, “betray you again”? Ji Man is one of my favorite characters, but I think she suffers from overconfidence when it comes to the characters that were originally mentioned in the novel.