Title: The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir
Chapter: 040 out of 513 – A small-minded and shortsighted female lead (1)
While Ji Man was counting the banknotes that Miss Shui had recently delivered, she had Muxu give Miss Shui the newly finished inventory while she was here. During the past month, cold cream had become extremely popular throughout the capital. The demand had already exceeded the supply. There was a limit to Ji Man and Muxu’s production speed. Therefore, the price of the cold cream was constantly increasing. The price of a small box of cold cream had increased to twenty silver taels. This was an amount that an ordinary family would spend in half a year.
Miss Shui was a skillful businessperson. Once she received the inventory, she first delivered the cold cream to the families that they couldn’t afford to offend. Then, she sold the cold cream in accordance to list of orders. She had heard that there was a black market for cold cream. Speculation had caused a big box of cold cream to be sold at a price of one or two gold taels.
Since cold cream was a best seller, Miss Shui wanted Ji Man to increase the available inventory. However, Ji Man continued to only give her a hundred boxes per month under the logic that rarity would keep the price high.
After Miss Shui left, Muxu couldn’t resist asking, “Master, this is such a profitable item. How about we hire some people to make it?”
Ji Man shook her head, “Increasing it will cause misfortune. Don’t be greedy.”
But, looking at the pile of money, Ji Man was very happy. When she was walking, her head was held high and her back was straight. A woman that was financial independent had true independence and ample self-confidence.
And so, when old madame’s face was stretched taut and Wen Wan’s eyes were red, Ji Man was the only person in the main courtyard, who indifferently looked at the bashfully sitting down Mu Shuiqing.
Today, when Mu Shuiqing was serving old madame by adding food to her bowl, she inexplicably vomited because of the smell of fish. Old madame’s first reaction was anger, but she suddenly thought of something and hurriedly ordered the servants to summon the doctors.
A few senior doctors examined her pulse for a long time before they finally determined that Mu Shuiqing was one month pregnant. Counting the days, the conception must have occurred during the time that Wen Wan had gone to the temple for a fertility charm.
This was tantamount to slapping Wen Wan’s face. She couldn’t cry and she wasn’t able to smile. She locked herself in her room for a long time before she finally came out of her room with red eyes and returned to the main courtyard.
Marquis Moyu had originally gone to the palace for the day. When he heard the news, he hurriedly returned. From his expression, it wasn’t clear if he was happy or not about the news. When he came into the room, he immediately walked to Wen Wan’s side and turned to salute old madame.
It took a long time before old madame finally apathetically said, “It could be considered good news that our family will have a future descendant now.” It was very clear that even though she wanted a grandson, the person giving birth to the grandson was more important.
All in all, it was still Marquis Moyu’s child. It was one thing for his first child’s mother to be a concubine, but this concubine had a rather unclean background.
It would have been socially unacceptable to bring a hostess from a brothel home as a concubine, but the crown prince had taken in Mu Shuiqing first and had her trained for two years. She happened to be nineteen year old when she was sent into the marquis’s household.
Although she was only a hostess, she was a hostess that the crown prince had intentionally added to the marquis’s household. She was left here as the crown prince’s representative, so Marquis Moyu naturally had to acknowledge that her status was higher than the other concubines’.
But, acknowledging was one thing. He had planned on letting her stay as a concubine forever. Who would have expected that she would be the first woman to become pregnant in the marquis’s household?”
It would have been strange for old madame to be happy. She was longing for Mu Shuiqing to give birth to a daughter that could be sent far away.
Ji Man stood by the side as a bystander. She carefully looked at the expressions on everyone’s faces. Ning Yuxuan’s gaze never moved away from Wen Wan’s body. He hadn’t even glanced on Mu Shuiqing when he came in. It seemed that he didn’t care that much about her pregnancy either.
“Wan-er, make arrangements. Once a woman is pregnant, she can’t be so casual with her health. Arrange for two more female servants to serve at her side. She also needs to be more careful with the food that she eats.” Old Madam ordered.
Wen Wan hurriedly stood up. With her head lowered, she said, “Understood.”
Looking at Wen Wan’s expression that showed a slight amount of resentfulness and grievance, Ning Yuxuan inwardly sighed. After Wen Wan finished making arrangements, he led Wen Wan back to Qiangwei Courtyard as everyone started to leave the room.
Ji Man looked at Mu Shuiqing’s slightly pale face and couldn’t help rejoicing in this disaster. Mu Shuiqing would have definitely thought that her life would change after she became pregnant, but she didn’t understand that Ning Yuxuan had stopped caring about her a long time ago. From the time he entered and left the room, he had only looked at Wen Wan.
“Be careful when you’re walking.” Ji Man looked at Mu Shuiqing, who was exaggeratedly being supported by two servant girls while walking. She said with a smile, “It seems that no one cherishes this baby, but you should still be more protective of it.”
“What did you say?” Mu Shuiqing gritted her teeth. She was so angry that her hands were shaking. “Who doesn’t cherish my baby?”
Ji Man shrugged. She didn’t believe that Mu Shuiqing couldn’t see the truth. But, it was immoral to provoke pregnant women, so she wouldn’t say anymore. She turned around and walked her own path.
Mu Shuiqing stood in place for a long time. No one looked at her as they passed by. Liu Hanyun walked past her without looking sideways. Qian Lianxue also indifferently walked past her.
However, the last person that came out, Qi Siling, stopped in front of her and said, “It was a really bad move for you to offend Madam at this juncture.”
Mu Shuiqing expression was very ugly as she slowly returned to her own courtyard. She was so angry that she didn’t even have the appetite to eat dinner.
—
In Qiangwei Courtyard, Wen Wan had already silently cried for an hour and Ning Yuxuan didn’t have any ideas left. He had tried every method to coax her, but Wen Wan continued to cry.
He asked, “Do you hate me? You were the one wanted me to favor Qing-er.”
“You’re actually turning around and blaming me?” Wen Wan’s childish temper started and she sobbed, “Another woman is pregnant with your child before me, and you won’t allow me to cry?”
Ning Yuxuan was speechless, but he couldn’t help feeling bad when he heard her crying. Feeling restless, he stood up and walked outside.
