The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir

Jinse stood by his side and watched him paint the outline of a woman’s beautiful, thick hair and eyelashes. She bashfully asked, “My lord, are you painting this servant?”

Marquis Moyu’s brush paused. He carefully looked at the silhouette on the paper and pursed his lips.

The outline did sort of resemble Jinse, and also Mu Shuiqing. It looked even closer to Wen Wan. He placed the brush down and chuckled. “The beauty in a painting truly can’t be compared to the beauty in real life. Don’t go to sleep too late.”

After saying this, he turned around and started heading towards the door.

Startled, Jinse asked, “My lord? Where are you going?”

After these words came out, she realized that this wasn’t a question she could ask. Jinse hurriedly lowered her head and retreated to the side.

Marquis Moyu’s steps hadn’t halted. He directly headed over to Nie Sangyu’s room.

—

The sky had gradually darkened, but the food box delivered by the kitchen servants was still warm. Ji Man was sitting at a table. She took out a small plate and sampled the food. The flavor was pretty good.

By her side, Gancao quietly asked, “Master, why didn’t you give the food you prepared to the marquis?”

Ji Man raised her eyebrows. “Who created a rule that I have to give the marquis food that I made? Why can’t I eat it myself?”

Dengxin nodded in agreement. “Yeah, the marquis is with that vixen. He’s not showing any care towards our master. Why should our master send him food personally made by her?”

The person that was pushing the door from the outside paused.

Although Dengxin’s words weren’t what she had meant, Ji Man didn’t feel like correcting her. Although these two servant girls were very lively and cute, she didn’t know how loyal they were. She couldn’t tell them that she had cooked this food for Ning Mingjie.

“It’s not early anymore. You two should go back and rest,” Ji Man said.

The two servant girls tidied the room, supported Nie Sangyu to her bed, and put down the bed curtains before saluting and withdrawing from the room.

Right after they stepped out of the room, they saw Marquis Moyu standing outside. Gancao and Dengxin were both very shocked. They wanted to call out to announce his presence, but Ning Yuxuan stopped them, “I’ll go inside by myself.”

Dengxin thought of her recent words. Not knowing how much he had heard and scared that he would punish her, she hastily pulled Gancao with her as she left.

Ning Yuxuan quietly entered the room, closed the door, and cast a glance at the bed with the lowered curtains. Then, he sat down at the table and tried one of small dishes. His gloomy expression drifted away like feathers.

—

Ji Man lied in bed for a while. Guessing that it was about time, she turned over and got up to open the windows to see if Ning Mingjie had come.

However, as soon as she opened the bed curtains, she saw a person sitting in the outer room. He was currently quietly putting down the chopsticks.

“You – ”Ji Man was frightened to the point that her face turned white. Her entire body stretched taut. She was afraid that a thief had come into her room. Anyone would feel scared seeing such a scene in the middle of the night after waking up.

Ning Yuxuan turned his head, saw her scared expression, and lightly said, “It’s me.”

Ji Man relaxed and almost starting cursing at him. My god, even a mouse would make a sound when it was stealing food. Who knows how long he had been silently sitting here eating? He must have intentionally done this to scare her. She should have pretended that she didn’t recognize him and taken this opportunity to throw a vase at him!

Ning Yuxuan’s mood seemed to have improved. His lips were curved and he looked at her in disapproval. “Isn’t it a waste to leave food here and not eat it?”

Ji Man paused. Then, she hurriedly draped a robe over herself and left the bed to go look. He really ate an entire food box’s worth of food? There were only a couple of empty plates and leftovers from the two vegetarian dishes. There wasn’t even a shred of meat left.

Ji Man gritted her teeth and took a deep breath before asking with a slight smile, “My lord, are you full now?”

Sneakily eating someone else’s food wasn’t exactly an honorable thing. Marquis Moyu dryly coughed twice, then he turned his head away before saying, “I was a bit hungry, so it tasted pretty good.”

Was he actually implying that her cooking wasn’t tasty? Ji Man thought; she really had to set up anti-theft measures next time. She couldn’t believe that the food she had prepared for Ning Mingjie to thank him had been stolen by this person!

She angrily returned to her bed and forced her voice to be calm as she said, “This servant is tired and will be sleeping first. My lord, feel free to leave.”

It was so rare for him to see her looking so obviously unhappy. Ning Yuxuan stood up and walked to the bed. After considering for a moment, he took off his outer clothing, lied down on the bed, and wrapped his arm around her waist.

Ji Man rolled away from him and faced the wall as she curled up into a ball like she was a hedgehog that was showing her spikes.

Was she angry? Marquis Moyu raised his eyebrows and found her behavior somewhat amusing. Just as he was about to say a few words to tease her, he heard her quietly saying, “We’ll be returning to the capital soon. My lord, what are you planning to do with Miss Jinse?”

He had thought that she wouldn’t bring up this topic. “Do you want me to bring Jinse back home?”

Ji Man shook her head, “Miss Jinse’s status isn’t appropriate. Besides, if you take her back, Madam will definitely be unhappy.”

A light flashed through Marquis Moyu’s eyes as he thought of Wen Wan. He had left her for such a long period of time. Had she become slightly more sensible in this time? Sangyu’s words were correct. If he brought Jinse back, Wen Wan definitely wouldn’t be happy.

Wen Wan couldn’t be the only woman in his life. And yet, she stubbornly insisted on wanting his entire heart. This was really troublesome for him. He hoped that she could slowly accept reality and not make his life difficult.