Marquis Moyu was stunned. He hadn't expected this answer. "A dog?"
"Yup, it was a dog this servant had during childhood. This servant raised it for four years." Ji Man straightened her clothes and sat up. Her eyes were already sober and clear. "This servant really liked that dog. Unfortunately, he ended up running away with a female dog."
Ning Yuxuan raised his eyebrows. "Is it worth crying over a dog? And, you also kept calling his name while dreaming."
Moreover, this name sounded too much like a person's name*.
* (T/N: Xu Xi means dignified/calm hope.)
With a serious expression, Ji Man nodded. "This servant raised it for four years. Even if this servant found out that it wasn't worth those years of care, it's still worth it to cry over those past years of stupidity and foolishness. After crying, this servant won't keep longing for him to come back."
Ning Yuxuan leaned to one side and deeply looked at her face. "Nie Sangyu, do you think I'm an idiot?"
Ji Man raised her head and smiled. "My lord, if you have the ability, go and find a person named Xu Xi. See if he has any connections with Sangyu. You can't possibly judge Sangyu guilty of infidelity just because this servant called out a name twice and cried while dreaming, right?"
Marquis Moyu pursed his lips and coldly harrumphed. This woman was certainly bold. Did she think he couldn't do anything against her just because he didn't have evidence?
Although... there truly wasn't anything he could do to her with the current information.
Taking a deep breath, Ning Yuxuan decided that it would be the best if he kept farther away from her. Otherwise, he would just end up feeling angry.
--
Because of what happened in the afternoon, he went to sleep in the room next Nie Sangyu's room in the evening.
As for Ji Man, she led Ning Errong to her room and prepared to teach a theory class.
"Errong..." Ji Man began her heartfelt and sincere speech.
Ning Errong yawned. She pulled her hand out of Nie Sangyu's hand. "Whatever you want to say, just say it."
Ji Man looked at her with hidden bitterness. "Do you think I'm going to eat you or something? I want to tell you how to conduct yourself as a wife, how to deal with your husband and mother-in-law, as well as other things you should pay attention to."
"En?" Ning Errong became interested. She hurriedly poured a cup of tea and pushed into Nie Sangyu's hand. "Tell me, tell me."
Ji Man spread out a fine writing paper and drew three circles on it. In a serious tone, she said, "From the time you marry, your family will be like a tripod. One leg is you, another leg is your mother-in-law, and the last leg is your husband."
Errong nodded. Her face showed a little bit of a young woman's bashfulness.
"First of all, you can't always go along with what your husband wants. Although the rules say obedience to your husband after marriage and you should listen to him about the important matters, you should still have your own viewpoint about the minor things. You should handle matters properly and skillfully. Moreover, sometimes you should refuse his sexual advances. No matter how good a piece of meat is, if you just put it into his mouth of your own initiative, he won't cherish it. Do you understand? This is what's meant by the saying, you need loosen the reins in order to grasp them better."
Ji Man drew a squiggly line between two circles to indicate the relationship between a wife and a husband.
Errong's face was thoroughly red from embarrassment. She tried stammering something twice, but wasn't able to say anything. In the end, she hesitantly nodded.
Ji Man explained with a smile, "As long as a family has a mother-in-law, you'll have to work hard to get good results. Do you know why Old Madame doesn't like Wen Wan?"
"She's not the person that Old Madame selected to be her daughter-in-law," Errong said.
"That's one of the reasons. The other reason is that she had committed too many taboos."
Ji Man pushed up her nonexistent glasses on her nose. With her back straight, she said, "Old Madame had suffered bitter hardships in order to raise the marquis into adulthood. If Wen Wan wants to be a good daughter-in-law, then she can't let Old Madame feel as if she's stealing her son from her. The way she treats Old Madame has to be better than the way she treats the marquis. Moreover, she absolutely can't act intimate in front of Old Madame. A woman's jealous heart doesn't distinguish between age, especially the feelings a mother feels towards a son that she had raised from childhood. The moment that Old Madame feels abandoned because the the love between them is strong, Wen Wan, as her daughter-in-law, can't expect to have any good days."
Errong suddenly understood. "So, it was like that. But, there are aspects where Wen Wan is doing a good job. Isn't Old Madame still deliberately making life difficult for her?"
"She's making life difficult for her because she's committed taboos at the beginning. Since Wen Wan already had to swallow down her anger, she should just tolerate it and stay silent for a while longer. You can't argue right or wrong with someone that's in older generation than you. Even if you win the argument, nothing good will come of it." Ji Man continued, "If Wen Wan truly loves the marquis, she should treat Old Madame as if she's her own biological mother. She should treat it as if she's paying off a debt of gratitude. How difficult could it be to just endure it for a while?"
Errong tilted her chin as she looked up and thought of Nie Clan's matriarch. She had heard that she also wasn't an easy woman to get along with. She should spend more time learning how to deal with her future mother-in-law.
"There's also another very important point that's the essence of getting along well with your mother-in-law. You have to let her feel that you're treating her son very well," Ji Man said. "Sang... I used to do a very good job in this aspect. Other than causing a disturbance over significant issues, I would send the marquis soups and other drinks every day and personally embroidered all of his clothes. But, the marquis never appreciated my efforts. Old Madame was especially fond of me because I was so caring towards the marquis, but he never acknowledged my efforts. Do you understand?"
Errong's eyes brightened and she forcefully nodded, "I understand!"
After a pause, she added, "Can you write this out for me?"
Ji Man shook her head, "You have to understand this type of thing thoroughly and intuitively. If I write this down and someone else sees it, it'll only be a source of catastrophe."
"Oh." Errong reached her hand out and took the rice paper that was on the table. Her mouth began to mumble the words that Nie Sangyu had recently said.
Ji Man was lost in her thoughts for a while before she finally said, "Errong, help me apologize to your older brother on your way back."
"Ah?" Ning Errong widened her eyes. "No way! Did you slap my older brother?"
Ji Man dryly coughed. "I didn't. He took off his mask today and I looked at him for a little bit longer than I should have. He seemed really angry because of this."
"..."
Ning Errong gaped and her entire body froze.
Ji Man stretched her hand out and poked her. "There's no need to be so alarmed. It's not like your older brother is a virginal maiden that can't be seen by other people."
"No..." Ning Errong slowly closed her mouth and her expression returned to normal. "My older brother didn't wear a mask when he was a child. But later on, other people always stared him at, whether he was attending a banquet or walking outside on the streets. He felt bothered by this, so he had a mask made. He hadn't taken off his mask in a long time."
Ji Man nodded. If a man was too beautiful, it truly wasn't a good thing. Fortunately, he was born with a high social status. Otherwise, who knows what kind of place he would have been sold to?
"Still, it doesn't make sense that he would angry just be you looked at him for a bit too long," Ning Errong said in a curious voice. "Do you want me to ask him what happened?"
Ji Man nodded and said, "That sounds good. All in all, we're relatives by marriage, it would the best if there aren't any misunderstandings between us."
And so, the little junzhu, who was filled to the capacity with knowledge about how a married woman should conduct herself, pushed open Ning Mingjie's door on her way back to her room.
Ning Mingjie's expression still wasn't very good, even his mask couldn't conceal this fact.
Ning Errong said with a bright smile, "Older brother, Sangyu asked me to come here to apologize on her behalf. You're too good-looking, so her gaze lingered for a bit. It wasn't deliberate."
He looked at his younger sister for a long time before finally lifting the corners of his mouth and saying, "Alright."
"Then, I'll be going back to my room." Holding the rice paper, Ning Errong happily returned to her room.
---
There were twists and turns in the river and also a gentle wind in the evening. It had been decided that the two boats wouldn't dock for the night. Instead, they would follow the steady river channel down south.
---
Ning Mingjie blankly stood in the doorway for a long time. He felt a slightly headache.
For an inexplicable reason, he kept dreaming about Wen Wan during the past two days. He didn't know why. He didn't have any improper feelings towards her. Instead, it was Nie Sangyu that he thought about when he opened his eyes every day...
There was a voice that kept reminded him; this is wrong, the person is wrong. It made his entire self feel somewhat irritable.
What was right? What was wrong? He had always followed his conscience when doing things. Who had the right to say he was doing something right or wrong?
He coldly harrumphed, brushed away the voice in his head, closed the doors, and went to sleep.
---
The next day, the boats arrived at a simple, destitute-looking city. The city walls were only made of packed loess. When the boats were docked, a court lady came to inform everyone to change into their plainest clothing and address the emperor as "Old Master" and the noble consort as "Madam". They were going to stay in this simple city for a few days.
Ji Man felt that this emperor's interests were quite extensive. He had eaten enough of the expensive meat and fish during the journey and knew to try different flavors and types of food.
"Master, how about this outfit?" Gancao held up a white dress with a simple design. It was probably the type of clothing that would be worn by the common people, but the material was slightly better than sackcloth.
"En."
After Ji Man nodded, Gancao and Dengxin helped her change into the new outfit and combed her hair into an ordinary married woman's hairstyle with only one wooden hairpin.
After she was finished dressing up, Gancao and Dengxin didn't speak for a long time.
"What's wrong?" Ji Man looked at them. The expressions in their eyes seemed strange. "Does this look weird?"
Dengxin spoke, "Master, do you want to wear a veil?"
They were told to dress ordinarily. Wouldn't it seem out of place to wear a veil? Ji Man turned around to look at herself in the mirror.
The young woman in the mirror looked very lovely. Although she was dressed plainly and she wasn't wearing makeup, her lips were brilliantly red and her eyes were beautiful. It made Ji Man think of Pan Jinlian.
(T/N: Pan Jinlian was a beautiful heroine in the novel The Plum in the Golden Vase. While she's considered one of the most infamous villainesses in classical Chinese books because she cheated on her husband, she's seen as a controversial literary figure in modern times. There were mitigating reasons for her affair.)
She wasn't referring to Pan Jinlian's lack of moral integrity. She meant it reminded her of beauty hidden under simplicity. It would increase a person's desire to peel away her layer of simplicity to carefully love her dearly. To put it in more academic terms, it was the beauty that came from suppressing desire.
Ji Man's lips twitched. Nie Sangyu's face truly had a touch of inviting disaster. How come she hadn't noticed this before? It seemed as if Nie Sangyu was becoming more and more beautiful.
Ji Man took the veil and compared the difference between wearing it and not wearing it. "It'll be better if I walk with my head lowered. Wearing a veil would be more noticeable."
The two servant girls felt apprehensive. When their master was wearing glamorous clothing along with everyone else, their master's beauty wasn't conspicuous. However, after she changed into simple clothing and wasn't wearing any makeup, she was probably going to attract unwanted attention and criticism when she joined the group of people that included the emperor's relatives.
They heard Marquis Moyu's impatient voice from outside, "Are you ready yet?"
"Ready." Ji Man sighed, lifted up her skirt, and opened the doors.
The person in the doorway raised his eyes to look at her.
Ji Man lightly smiled and winked at him. "My lord, does this servant look pretty?"
Ning Yuxuan was slightly dazed. Feeling as if he had been put into a difficult position, he turned his gaze away and said, "Too conspicuous."
"Eh?" Ji Man lowered her head and looked at her dress. There wasn't any decorative embroidery on it. Then, she felt her hair and only touched the wooden hairpin. "What part is conspicuous?"
"Face." Ning Yuxuan passed by her and entered the room. He found her veiled hat and placed it on her.
Ji Man innocently blinked. Her phoenix eyes sparkled like water in the sunlight. Covering the lower half of her face was the same as not covering her fact at all. In fact, it only made her face more conspicuous.
Marquis Moyu stared at her for a long time. Seeing that this wasn't a better option, he took off the veiled hat. "Let's go, just follow behind me."
"Understood." Ji Man obediently agreed, lowered her head, and followed him off the boat.