Chapter 259 (2/2)

Ji Man stroked her chin as she contemplated. Normally, if the male lead liked someone and that person told him to favor another woman, shouldn't the male lead be very unhappy and storm off after a throwing a tantrum? As it turned out, Marquis Moyu still didn't like her then? No, that seemed wrong too. There were definitely times when she thought that he was behaving very affectionate towards her. Those moments had just felt too surreal.

Lowering her head, she drew circles in the snow with her foot. How long will the road to revolution be?

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Ning Mingjie had already left the marquis's estate without anyone noticing. The next time that Ji Man saw him again, it was at palace banquet that happened two days later.

Ning Yuxuan had specially ordered two formal outfits in matching dark purple. They looked like outfits that were meant to be worn together by a couple.

When Ji Man received the formal dress, it was accompanied by a message that told her to dress herself up properly. She would be going to the palace banquet with Ning Yuxuan.

In ancient times, there was no such thing as couples outfits. It was probably because there would be a lot of people at the palace banquet. In order to avoid your wife accidentally being led away by someone else, people from the same families would wear the same color.

Regarding this banquet, only the main wives were allowed to attend with their husbands. And so, the rest of the women in the harem were very unhappy.

On the day of banquet, right after Ning Yuxuan and Ji Man left the estate, a huge ruckus started. Of course, that part of the story will be told later.

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The combination of Ji Man's excellent posture and the purple dress with accessories that she was wearing made the other guests feel that she had an impeccable demeanor. No matter who she saw, she would greet them with a faint smile, even if she absolutely had no idea who they were.

The first prince had already been let out of house arrest. After the confinement period to reflect on his past errors had ended, he no longer had a crown prince's impressive aura anymore, but there was still a smile on his lips. When he saw Nie Sangyu from far away, he even smiled at her too.

Ji Man didn't have the slightest good impression towards him. She immediately turned her head away in response and ended up seeing her older cousin.

Recently, the third prince was riding on the crest of success. The emperor had bestowed him a princess from a va.s.sal state to be his princess consort, and the imperial n.o.ble consort was doing everything she could to help her son. Ji Man estimated that it wouldn't take long before the third prince easily gained the t.i.tle of crown prince.

The third prince smiled and said, ”Seeing that younger cousin's life is going smoothly, I can let go of my worries.”

Ji Man returned his smile. It was the same type of smile that she would show a customer.

Seeing so many princes and princesses coming and going, Ji Man couldn't distinguish who was who. However, there was one person that was very conspicuous because he was sitting in a wooden wheelchair. A golden hair accessory held up his hair, and he was wearing a blue-green robe that was embroidered with serpents that had four claws.

Following her gaze, Ning Yuxuan lightly said, ”That's the second prince. There's no need for you to pay extra attention to him.”

Translator Ramblings: In the previous chapter, I was thinking that it's difficult for Ji Man and Ning Yuxuan to protect Liu Hanyun, because she doesn't tell them when she's being bullied. But, maybe the reason that Liu Hanyun doesn't say anything is because,” It wasn't that bad. Back when this concubine was a servant girl myself, my winters were like this too.” She's been a servant girl much longer than she's been a concubine. As Ji Man noted earlier, even after Liu Hanyun became a concubine, she still pretty much lived like a servant. Her accepted standard of living is much lower than Ji Man's. Liu Hanyun didn't find it noteworthy when Qi Siling made her wash her stained dress as punishment.

Liu Hanyun seems to be a foil to Muxu. They both started off as a servant, but unlike Muxu, who desperately wants to climb up, Liu Hanyun was content with where she was. Muxu remembers every wrong to done to her, but Liu Hanyun views it as, suffering being a type of blessing.

What do you guys think?