Chapter: 114 out of 513 – These pesky feelings (1)
Hearing these words, Ji Man raised her head in surprise. Unfortunately, she had forgotten that the bed curtains had been put down. No matter how hard she tried to look, she wouldn’t be able to see the third prince’s expression.
Although his voice sounded as if he was truly outraged on her behalf, Ji Man felt suspicious about his choice in words. If she were actually upset, these words would be enough to make her resent the crown prince. But, she wasn’t upset. She felt as if the third prince wanted her to blame the crown prince for Ning Yuxuan’s actions.
She remembered that Nie Qingyun and Ning Yuxuan had both said that the third prince was a carefree person that was interested in traveling the world instead of politics. Thus, Noble Conosort Nie was very worried about him.
Based on the third prince’s actions in sending his travel notes to the emperor, solving the problem of the drought in Li Province, and these words that he had just said, Ji Man felt that this person wasn’t as withdrawn from worldly affairs as he pretended to be. At least half of his mind was interested in the mortal world’s struggles.
But, perhaps, she was overthinking things. Everyone in this room was her relative. The third prince was probably just casually saying these words without any hidden motives.
“If the marquis becomes interested in Miss Jinse, then Sangyu naturally has nothing to say.” She thought of a softer way to express her thoughts. “But, the marquis had said he wouldn’t bring Miss Jinse back to the capital.”
“You’re so naive. Do you really believe his words?” Noble Consort Nie repeatedly shook her head. “If that woman became pregnant, would Marquis Moyu be willing to allow her to wander outside in poverty?”
At the mention of pregnancy, Ji Man finally thought about something that hadn’t occurred to her previously. Wasn’t it a little too difficult to become pregnant with Ning Yuxuan’s child? In the past six years, she wasn’t the only unable to become pregnant. The other concubines had the same problem too. Mu Shuiqing was the only that had gotten pregnant, and there had been no news of pregnancy after her.
Since it wasn’t easy to become pregnant with Ning Yuxuan’s child, Man felt that Noble Consort Nie’s worries were unnecessary. But, in order to assure her, she could only gently say, “Sangyu will be more watchful.”
“You’re a clever child now. Aunty doesn’t need to say anymore. Just remember to take care of your health. This consort will have Pengshu deliver more medicine to you tonight.”
“Thank you aunty.”
During this conversation, Nie Qingyun had stood silently by the side. After Noble Consort Nie and the third prince had finished speaking and left the room, he closed the door. He asked with a serious expression, “Sangyu, who do you think tried to harm you?”
Still separated from the rest of the room by the bed curtains, Ji Man said, “Older brother, you don’t need to ask this question. I’ll be more careful in the future. I won’t give other people another opportunity to harm me again.”
“You don’t know even know who tried to harm you. How will you know who to be guarded against?” Ning Qingyun frowned. “Your hands don’t even have the strength to truss up a chicken. If something like this happens again and a person like Mingjie isn’t around to save you, what will you do?”
His every word showed sincere concern. Ji Man’s heart softened. Nie Qingyun did his duty as an older brother too conscientiously. It made her feel somewhat bad about hiding so many things from him.
Nonetheless, she had to hide this from him. It would only be detrimental if she told him the crown prince was behind this.
Ji Man clutched her head. In a rare show of cutely spoiled behavior, she said, “My head hurts. Older brother, how about you go with Errong to make me chicken soup? I remember that there’s a kitchen on this boat.”
A sick person’s requests had the highest priority, and Sangyu was a woman after all. He couldn’t depend on her to know useful information. Nie Qingyun sighed, stood up, and said, “If you want to drink chicken soup, I’ll go prepare it. Errong can stay here to watch over you.”
“No!” Ji Man hurriedly said, “I like the mushrooms that Errong makes. I want to have that with the chicken soup made by older brother. You have to go there together to cook for me! I don’t care about anything else! I’m sick!”
She was clearly trying to create another opportunity to push the two of them togther. Nie Qingyun didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He could only turn his head and say to Ning Errong, “Junzhu, my younger sister is being silly. Would you be willing to go with this one to the kitchen?”
Naturally, Nie Qingyun couldn’t let her personally cook. He had planned on just letting her stand to the side and watch.
However, Errong felt slightly panicky. Cook mushrooms? Cook what mushrooms? She had only learned how to cook soup from Sangyu last time. She didn’t know how to cook mushrooms, ah.
But, her beloved person was standing right in front of her and quietly asking her to go with him. She couldn’t refuse. With a blushing face, Ning Errong nodded. She cast Sangyu a troubled glance before ordering Baizhi to stay here to care for her, then she followed Nie Qingyun out of the room.
Since ancient times, the noblemen had stayed away from the kitchen. Thus, Nie Qingyun didn’t actually know how to cook either. He just told the cook how Nie Sangyu liked her food, then he stood by the side to watch.
Seeing that they were only going to do this, Ning Errong stopped worring. She obediently stood by Nie Qingyun’s side. She looked like a shy maiden as she snuck a glance at him from time to time.
“Junzhu, thank you for taking care of Sangyu.” Nie Qingyun felt that the continued silent was slightly awkward, so he found a topic to talk about.
However, he was a person that was slow-witted when it came to romance, and the girl next to became unhappy when she heard these words.
Feeling wronged, Errong flattened her lips. “Sangyu is my best friend. It’s only right that I would take care of her. Sir Ning, thanking me makes it seem like I’m an outsider.”
Nie Qingyun was too doting towards Sangyu, even she would occasionally feel jealousy. However, thinking about the fact that they were siblings, Errong relaxed her heart. When she married him in the future, he would probably cherish her just as much.