Chapter 98 (2/2)

”Do you really know what pain is?” Ning Yuxuan's smile didn't reach his eyes. ”If you provoke the crown prince, it won't be the simple pain of me holding your waist. Nie Sangyu, I thought you're clever.”

Ji Man smiled as she clenched her teeth. ”The crown prince is also very clever. He won't do anything untoward to this servant. My lord, you don't have to worry.”

Ning Yuxuan coldly harrumphed. His heart still felt bursts of irritability. If he had known this would happen, he would have gone against the emperor's order and brought Wen Wan instead. At the very least, he wouldn't be feeling so troubled right now.

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This place was the boundary line for Li Province. Trembling with fear, Li Province's provincial governor explained about the place he had prepared for this large group of people to stay. In front of the emperor, he kowtowed for a long time and said that Li Province hadn't been able to collect taxes for several years in a row because the farmland had been poor. Thus, they weren't able to construct a temporary imperial residence.

Unexpectedly, the emperor was in a very good mood and didn't blame him. Instead, he sent the group of eunuchs and court ladies to farming families to do manual labor such as working the farmland and cleaning gravestones. Then, he led his family to a large residence that been offered up as tribute by a wealthy merchant.

The emperor gathered the group of people to the main courtyard and said, ”We've lived in the palace for so long. It's rare for us to come out and have a chance to experience something like this. Starting from today, no one is separated by ranks. Everyone has the same rank. While we're staying here during the next few days, we won't observe any ceremonial rules. We'll simply be headed by an old master and madam and live like the common people. What do you all think about this idea?”

The emperor had said these words. Would anyone dare to have a dissenting opinion?

With a smile on his face, the crown prince said, ”Father, your idea is very good. This son will be the first to follow.”

n.o.ble Consort Nie glanced at the third prince, and the latter sighed before stepping forward and saying, ”It's worth it to try out living unrestrained while we're at this place of natural beauty. Father's idea is feasible.”

The emperor was smiling as he looked at the third prince and said, ”You should probably like this type of unfettered lifestyle the most.”

n.o.ble Consort Nie hurriedly said, ”Jue-er has a natural and unconstrained temperament, but he knows how to follow etiquette.”

Zhao Jue stayed silent.

Standing by the side, Ji Man secretly looked at him. There was a jade flute tucked in his belt at his back and he was wearing the long robes of a scholar. He appeared especially refined. This type of person wasn't suitable to be part of the imperial family. He should live freely like Li Bai* by drinking lots of wine and composing numerous poems while away from worldly affairs,

* (T/N: Li Bai is the famous poet that Ji Man plagiarized from at the end of .)

Unfortunately, he was n.o.ble Consort Nie's only son and she wouldn't let him off to live the carefree life that he wanted. She guessed that his future path would be competing with the crown prince to see who would win the t.i.tle of emperor.

After the courtyards were a.s.signed, Marquis Moyu was summoned by the emperor to discuss something. Gancao and Dengxin had been sent away with the court ladies. Ji Man could only roll up her sleeves and clean up the courtyard by herself.

Li Province didn't have snow in the winter. Although it was very cold, it only took a little bit of moving around for her body to warm up. With no else around, Ji Man didn't need to wear a properly long skirt. She tied the bottom of her skirt to her waist for ease of movement before she started to boil water and clean the rooms.

Translator Ramblings: It feels like there's a missing scene that should have happened before this chapter. Until the beginning of this chapter, Ji Man has only been grudgingly tolerating Ning Yuxuan's presence and telling him to go away in varying degrees of politeness, so it seems out-of-place that she's suddenly trying to get him to like her. What do you guys think?

If you want read a tiny spoiler about a later scene that I think should have been in this chapter, look in the comments below.