Chapter 7
Title: The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir
Chapter: 007 out of 513 – A chicken-stealing concubine
Chapter 007 – A chicken-stealing concubine
After the wedding night event, Ning Yuxuan gently kissed Wen Wan’s lips. He awkwardly and seriously said, “You’re my person.”
Wen Wan’s cheeks turned red. She glared at him for a moment before she said, “Don’t think that I can’t do anything to you just because you’re a marquis. If you fall in love with another person in the future, I’ll leave!”
Marquis Moyu chuckled. He grabbed her hand and placed it on his chest. “I have you. How could I fall in love with another person? In this entire residence, you’re the only person in my heart. Do you believe me?”
Wen Wan cast an admonishing glance at him. Then, she obediently lied down in his embrace. There were so many women in the marquis’s residence. Starting from tomorrow, she had to become a person that was worth of being the marquis’s wife. Although her family background wasn’t good, she wasn’t afraid. It would be fine as long as Yuxuan’s heart belonged to her.
“Go to sleep.” Ning Yuxuan kissed her forehead.
Wen Wan nodded. Just as she was about to close her eyes, she suddenly heard a racket coming from outside.
“Fire!”
Jolted by surprise, Marquis Moyu turned over and sat up. He put on clothes and opened the doors. “What happened?”
Guibai glanced in the direction of the kitchen and quietly said, “To respond to the marquis, the kitchen caught on fire. The servants are all working to put out the fire, but the place is far from Qiang Wei Courtyard. You can continue to sleep peacefully.”
Kitchen? Ning Yuxuan furrowed his eyebrows, “Everything had been fine before. Why did it catch on fire? Send people to investigate. Don’t bother the new madam with this matter. It’s the wedding night.”
“Understood.” Guibai sent a servant boy to ask about the situation.
—
Muxu had truly been sleeping very well when Liu Mama woke her up to help with putting out the fire. Liu Mama had originally been deeply asleep and didn’t pay attention to where Ji Man had gone. After she woke up Muxu, they left the confinement courtyard. This courtyard was the closest to the kitchen.
Somehow the dry kindle in the kitchen had caught on fire and a spark from this fire had landed on a large, nearby oil container. This situation had almost led to a catastrophe. The servants had used sand to extinguish the fire and examined the kitchen’s every corner. But, the kitchen’s chef, Aunty Li, said that she was missing a plucked chicken and two lotus leaves. The spices had also been moved around and the leftover rice in the wooden bucket was also missing.
Who had been awake in the middle of the night and had gone to the kitchen to steal food? And had also caused the kitchen to catch on fire? The residence’s steward immediately sent people to investigate. All the servants in the various courtyards were woken up and their sleeping places were all searched. But, they weren’t able to find the missing chicken.
After half a night of disturbance, the steward decided to wait until tomorrow morning and leave the matter for the new madam to deal with. For now, he dismissed the servants so they could go back to sleep.
Exhausted, Muxu returned the confinement courtyard. After she closed the doors, she saw her master sitting on her bed with glittering eyes.
Startled, she retreated backwards out of habit. “Was master woken up by the noise?”
Ji Man sly shook her head. Seeing that Muxu had closed the doors, she curved her fingers towards her to gesture at her, “Come here.”
Muxu slowly walked over. She carefully looked her over, “Master?”
Ji Man asked, “Are you hungry?”
Muxu looked at her in surprised for moment. She didn’t expect that she would suddenly ask this question. “N-Not hungry.”
Although her mouth said these words, how could she not be hungry? Staying in the confinement courtyard, she didn’t have enough to eat every day. Her stomach growled and revealed her lie.
Ji Man sighed. This young girl’s life had been rather pitiful as Nie Sangyu’s servant. Right now, she resembled a chicken that had been splashed with water.
Ji Man stretched her hand out and took out the item she had hidden in the bed. She gestured for Muxu to be quiet, then she pulled her towards the wooden table in the center of the room.
The item was wrapped with two large lotus leaves. The fragrant scent floated out as soon as the leaves were open.
Muxu’s eyes were wide open from surprise. “R-Roasted chicken?”
Master had been the one that stole the kitchen’s missing chicken!
“This isn’t roasted chicken. It’s lotus leaf chicken.” In an extremely pleased and triumphant tone, Ji Man said, “First, I cleaned the chicken. Then, I rubbed salt on the chicken, stuffed spices and cooked rice into the chicken’s cavity, wrapped it in lotus leaves, and covered it in mud. It was done after I threw it in a fire for a while!”
(T/N: Below is a picture of Beggar’s chicken.)
Muxu was speechless. She was Nie Sangyu’s dowry servant girl. How come she didn’t know that her master had this skill?
Muxu did her best to swallow her saliva and whispered, “Master, stealing things… There will be a punishment.”
Ji Man took out the commonly used eating utensils from a cabinet and untied the string wrapped around the chicken’s stomach. She rolled her eyes and said, “How will they know that the chicken was stolen by me? Anyways, I’m Marquis Moyu’s concubine. Even if they find out that I stole a chicken to eat, he’s the one who’s reputation will be damaged if other people know about this news. So, even if he knows, he won’t publicly blame me.”
The smell of the rice mixed with the spices and the chicken smelled really fragrant. Muxu glanced at Ji Man several times. She felt that her master had suddenly become much smarter.
However, she was also very hungry. After hesitating for a long time, she finally mustered up her courage and opened her mouth to say, “Master, could you… leave behind the bones for this servant. This servant won’t eat the meat. Just the bones would be fine…”
Feeling sad after hearing the girl’s words, Ji Man poured some of the rice into a bowl and split the chicken in half. She pushed the remaining half of the chicken and rice in front of Muxu. “You’re a person, not a dog. Why would you gnaw at bones? I couldn’t possible finish an entire chicken by myself. We can each have half. Eat it quickly so that other people won’t find out.”
Muxu’s eyes widen. Feeling happy, she still carefully looked at her and asked, “I can eat all of it?”
Ji Man showed a serious expression and said, “If you don’t want to eat it, next time, I’ll only bring half a chicken back and let you stay hungry!”