Chapter 210 – The long-awaited disaster finally strikes (1)
Ji Man twitched her lips. If you didn’t paint well, you didn’t paint well. Why crumpled up the painting and not allow anyone else to see? What a waste of ink and paper. Still, seeing how gloomy he looked today as if his period had arrived, she decided that going along with his mood would be the better course of action.
Ning Yuxuan glanced at the infatuated Gancao, who was standing by Mingjie. His lips twitched, but he didn’t say anything else.
The rain had stopped, so the group of people walked around the residence while they waited until it was time for dinner. Their stroll took them from the garden to the back of the residence.
Ning Mingjie reached into his robe to take out his handkerchief, but he couldn’t find it. His handkerchief had disappeared. Ning Mingjie raised his eyebrows and stopped walking to turn his head back to look.
Marquis Moyu asked, “What’s wrong?”
Ning Mingjie shook his head. It was only a handkerchief. Besides, even if he went back to look for it now, he didn’t know where he had dropped it.
He turned his head back and resumed walking. At the front, Sangyu was straightening her back to support her big belly. She turned her head slightly and whispered a few words to Ning Yuxuan. Her eyes were curved into smiling crescents, and her face was lit with the gentle, warm glow of maternal radiance.
For a brief moment, Ning Mingjie thought that it would wonderful if his future wife could be exactly like Nie Sangyu. Someone that could write poems with him on rainy days, lean over to gently wipe away the raindrops from his forehead for him, and make him feel as if his heartstrings were being tugged when she gently looked at him.
Unfortunately, the world only had one woman that was like this, and it would be difficult to find another woman that was exactly like her. Ning Mingjie quietly chuckled. An evil, mischievous spirit must be infecting him. Otherwise, why would he desire something that he could never obtain? Back when Nie Sangyu hadn’t been favored, he would tell himself that his feelings for her were just sympathy.
But now, Nie Sangyu was pregnant and receiving his cousin’s affections. So, why couldn’t he stop thinking about her?
His steps became slower and slower. In the end, he finally stopped walking. Ning Mingjie pursed his lips and said, “I lost something. I need to go back to look for it. You two can continue taking your stroll without me.”
Ji Man and Ning Yuxuan halted their steps too.
In a quiet voice, Ganao asked, “What was it? This servant can go and search for it for you.”
Ning Mingjie waved his hand to gesture his refusal, then he turned around and started striding back to the garden.
Ji Man didn’t take Ning Mingjie’s departure to heart. She still had to continue her work of sorting out Marquis Moyu’s misconceptions. “Everyone is saying that this servant is pregnant with twins, but pregnancy conditions differ from woman to woman. I think I’m only pregnant with one baby, and I just have more amniotic fluid than average.”
Marquis Moyu listened in confusion. He naturally had no idea about these womanly matters. But, he understood the key point of her speech. She was saying that the size of a woman’s belly wasn’t entirely dependent on number of months she had been pregnant, right?
He lightly coughed. His heart no longer felt as tensed as before. Actually, he wasn’t that lacking in self-confidence. If he was compared to Mingjie, there wasn’t any aspect that he would lose to him, right? Nie Sangyu’s life was pretty good. Why would she cheat on him for no reason? It’s not as if she was tired of living.
So, really, it was a bit laughable to suspect her words. Although her pregnancy was unexpected, he had already decided to allow her to give birth to this baby. Everything else was inconsequential.
Ning Yuxuan smiled and stretched his hand out to support Nie Sangyu. “You should eat more. You look too thin. Giving birth will be a really grueling experience.”
Ji Man nodded.
After they had finished their stroll around the residence, they headed to the main courtyard for dinner.
When they entered the room, Ning Mingjie was already sitting at the dining table. He clearly hadn’t found the item he had lost; his expression didn’t look good. The other concubines were also attending the dinner, with the ordinary concubines standing by the side of the table to add food to the individual bowls from the center dishes. Surprisingly, Wen Wan had also come and was obediently standing by Marquis Moyu’s seat.
Old Madame was in excellent spirits when Qian Lianxue suddenly said, “The weather looked good today, so I went outside to walk around and found a handkerchief when I was in the garden. I wonder who it belongs to?”
Ji Man’s heart skipped a beat. She looked at the item that Qian Lianxue was holding up. It was a handkerchief embroidered with a snow-capped mountain design. It must have belonged to someone in her courtyard.
Marquis Moyu also glanced at the item. Feeling confused, he looked at Mingjie with raised eyebrows.
Ji Man finally remembered that time when she had tried to give him a piece of jade to thank him for saving Gancao. He had refused the jade and only took the handkerchief she had used to giftwrap the jade in.
Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal. It was just a handkerchief used to wrap a present. However, looking at Ning Mingjie’s current expression, it really was a difficult task to not misunderstand that something improper was going on between them.
He stood up and held his hand out towards Qian Lianxue. “Thank you for your trouble. This one had carelessly lost it.”
Qian Lianxue nodded. Just as Qian Lianxue was about to hand the handkerchief over to him, Qi Siling casually took it from her hand. With a grin, she said, “This handkerchief has such an elaborate pattern. Young Master, where did you get it? It has such a unique design. Siling liked it at first sight. You wouldn’t mind lending it to Siling, so that Siling can copy the design and embroider a copy of my own, right?”
Ning Mingjie dimly put his hand back down. Looking at Qi Siling, he said, “There are probably many handkerchiefs with this design in Madam’s courtyard. Why do you insist on taking mine?”
Old Madame’s expression slightly changed. She looked at Nie Sangyu.
Ji Man pursed her lips and said, “I gave that to Young Master for saving Gancao.”
People normally gave gold and silver or other valuables to express their thanks. It was inevitable that giving a handkerchief as a gift would make people think there was more to the story. Even Ji Man felt it was easy for the average person to misunderstand, much less the people sitting at this table that were used to thinking deeply.
