Chapter 267 – Perhaps, there was still something left (2)
“My lord, every single time in the past, you didn’t believe Wan-er. Are you going to not believe Wan-er this time either?” Tears fell from Wen Wan’s eyes. “Back then, didn’t you say that it wasn’t important if I gave birth to a son? It only mattered that the child was the one that I had given birth to. Since you had said those words, why would I go through the trouble of switching the two babies?”
“Moreover, after giving birth, I didn’t even have the strength to open my eyes to look. How could I have the strength to change my baby for Liu Hanyun’s? My lord, you were the one that choose Midwife Yang and brought her into the estate…”
Ji Man clapped her hands. “Speaking of that midwife, I’ve already sent people to bring her over. But, she probably won’t get here until tomorrow. My lord, if you want to find out the truth, there’s no harm in waiting another day, right?”
Liu Hanyun was still calmly holding Yun-er, but once Wen Wan heard these words, she looked at Nie Sangyu in utter shock.
Ning Yuxuan finally spoke, but his voice sounded extremely exhausted. “Alright. Since you can find that midwife, then we’ll discuss this matter tomorrow. You can all leave.”
“My lord…” Wen Wan tearfully called out.
“Leave!” Marquis Moyu was truly furious. He even flung the small table, which had been used to play the Chinese chess, in their direction. The group of women was so scared that the color faded from their faces.
Dragging Liu Hanyun along with her, Ji Man ran away the quickest. They went past the doorway and disappeared like fleeing rabbits.
Xi-er had been left behind with the old monk. Every step that Liu Hanyun took, she would turn her head back to look. In her arms, Yun-er wouldn’t stop crying. It felt as if a dense mass of dark clouds had formed above the estate.
A few words by an old monk had been enough to dredge up the old water in the estate’s pond.
After Ji Man comforted Liu Hanyun, she went back to her room and had a wonderful night of dreamless sleep.
—
Wen Wan was so anxious that she couldn’t stay still. Overcome with worry, she kept pacing back and forth, but she didn’t know what to do.
In the woodshed, Muxu was also unable to sleep the entire night.
—
The next morning, Ji Man went to handle Muxu’s matter first in high spirits.
If a woman violated one of the seven reasons for divorce, then the matter would normally be settled by her husband divorcing her. But, Muxu had put a green hat on the marquis, and the matter absolutely couldn’t be simply settled with divorce. Ji Man didn’t let past feelings influence her decision. After the servants tied up Li Zixiu and Muxu up, they were brought to a lake that was outside of the capital, Tianhu Lake, along with a swaddled bundle, to be drowned.
“What a heartless person. She’s not even willing to let off a baby.”
“Yeah, that baby is so young. What evil could it had possibly done?”
One after another, the nearby people were talking about this, but Ji Man pretended to not hear anything.
Muxu’s hands were tied to the back of the carriage, and she was being dragged forward by it. Her voice was already hoarse, and she shouted out one word, “Master.”
“En?” Ji Man poked her head out to look at her.
“Can’t you let off Fu-er?” As Muxu staggered forward, she looked at her master with a pleading gaze.
When a person was about to die and he or she had lost all hope of obtaining anything else, a person’s greed would be pulled back to show his or her kind-hearted side.
Ji Man shook her head. “It’s the marquis’s order. There’s no way to defy it.”
If this matter had been given to Wen Wan to handle, she would definitely cry and implore the marquis to let off these three people and let this family of three changed their names and live on somewhere else.
However, Ji Man felt that she was a more vicious person in comparison. Muxu was a person that would only have a conscience right before she was about to die. If she were to kind-heartedly let her off, Muxu would definitely seek revenge against her in the future.
After Muxu and Li Zixiu were tied to stones, Ji Man walked over to them and stuffed the swaddled bundle into Li Zixiu’s arms.
Some of the surrounding people were cursing that the adulterers for being shameless. There were even more people shouting that Nie Sangyu was a malicious woman. It was only Li Zixiu, who looked at Nie Sangyu with an extremely grateful gaze when she had put the swaddled bundle into his arms.
Ji Man waved her hand. “Drown them.”
The nearby servants pushed the family of three into the lake. Muxu let out a mournful cry, but she soon sunk deep into the lake with the fifty-kilogram stone that had been tied to her.
Ji Man knew that the female lead wouldn’t have been so heartless. This was why she herself was fated to be the secondary female character. She was capable of anything. She was the secondary female character that wasn’t beholden to any pressure.
After Ji Man returned to the estate, there was still Wen Wan and Liu Hanyun’s matter to be resolved. However, Ji Man felt that she didn’t need to do anything herself. She just needed to safely deliver Midwife Yang to Marquis Moyu.
However, while the person sent to fetch Midwife Yang had come back, Midwife Yang hadn’t been brought back. Instead, the person was currently kneeling for his failure. “This servant followed master’s directions to look for Midwife Yang, but she wasn’t there.”
Ji Man had already done all that she could to protect the sole witness, but in the end she hadn’t been able to successfully protect her. Ji Man shrugged. It couldn’t be helped. She wasn’t an all-powerful god, only a woman in the inner court.
Since Midwife Yang had disappeared, Wen Wan felt much more relaxed. She insisted that she didn’t know anything while Liu Hanyun looked at Marquis Moyu with an eager gaze.
Two women. One woman had once been the woman he had loved the most. The other woman had saved his life, and he had said he would always protect her. Ji Man was very happy that she could be here with melon seeds to watch this show.
However, in the end, there wasn’t any marvelous highlights or a wonderful show to watch. Marquis Moyu directly used the excuse that the midwife had made a mistake to give Xi-er back to Liu Hanyun. Yun-er didn’t need be raised by Nie Sangyu and would be sent to Qiangwei Courtyard for Wen Wan to take care of.
Holding Yun-er, Wen Wan forced herself to smile as she said, “It’s good that this misunderstand has been resolved. As long as your heart has me, it’s not important if my baby is a boy or girl.
Ning Yuxuan closed his eyes and faintly said, “En.”
Perhaps, there was still something left.
Translator Ramblings: I missed this the first time I read this novel, but I don’t think Fu-er was actually in the swaddled bundle. It’s why Ji Man was the one holding “Fu-er” instead of having a servant do it, why she waited to put the bundle into Li Zixiu’s arms, and why he gratefully looked at her in that moment. During this chapter, the author kept using the words “swaddled bundle” instead of baby, child, or Fu-er like normally.
Also, in chapter 135, Ji Man thought, “No matter what, a child was innocent. Back when she used to watch palace dramas, she always despised the women that would harm children the most.”
What do you guys think? I have a hard time believing Ji Man is capable of ordering someone to kill a baby.
