Chapter 6: Nie Sangyu's Wish

Clover was so frightened that she quickly sat on the edge of the bed in the outer room, holding a lotus leaf, and ate the chicken and rice bit by bit, while glancing back at her.

Ji Man ate ravenously, with no manners at all, with rice grains on her face and a chicken leg in her hand, looking like a bandit. Sensing Clover's gaze, she looked up fiercely and said, "Just eat your food!"

Clover trembled and quickly turned away, not daring to look again. She couldn't tell if it was her imagination, but she felt that her mistress was much gentler now than before, but when she got angry, she was just the same as before.

After finishing the chicken and rice, Ji Man felt a bit satisfied with life, so she left the mess for Clover to clean up and went back to sleep.

On the first night in this strange world, Ji Man unsurprisingly dreamed of Nie Sangyu.

The pitiful and hateful woman floated in her dream with a pale face, saying softly, "You are here to fulfill my wish, complete my wish, and send me on to reincarnation. Then you can go back."

Ji Man wanted to kick her, the foolish woman had brought this upon herself, and now she wanted Ji Man to change the outcome?

"What's in it for me if I help you?" Ji Man asked.

Nie Sangyu looked at her blankly and said, "If you don't help me, you won't be able to go back."

Ji Man: "..."

In other words, she was brought here to work for free, and if she didn't achieve the goal, she couldn't return to her modern life and would have to stay here?

Taking a deep breath, Ji Man felt that she couldn't argue with ghosts, she could only suppress her temper and ask, "What is your wish?"

Nie Sangyu didn't say a word, and then her figure gradually faded away.

She left?

Ji Man was dumbfounded. Wasn't she going to tell her what her wish was? How was she supposed to fulfill it?

The next day, Ji Man sat at the table with dark circles under her eyes. Clover brought in a bowl of porridge and a plate of pickles from outside, closed the door, and whispered, "Mistress, Marquis Hou ordered you to continue your penance in the meditation room for a month, so you don't need to go and greet the new lady."

Ji Man nodded. It was easier not to greet her. She still hadn't figured out who was trying to harm her at the wedding. She would definitely be the one at a disadvantage if she didn't know anything.

"Is this breakfast?" She looked down at the small bowl of porridge, barely enough to fill a tooth gap. Fortunately, she had stolen a chicken yesterday.

Clover looked ashamed and lowered her head. "They said I was late today, so there's only this much left... Mistress, please make do with it."

Ji Man wasn't hungry, so she waved her hand and said, "You eat it. I ate too much yesterday. I'm not doing anything in the room, so I won't be hungry for a while."

Clover looked at the pile of things in the corner and whispered, "Mistress, you still have embroidery to finish. It's tiring, so you should eat first. I'll wait in the kitchen at noon and bring you more."

Embroidery? Ji Man was puzzled. "What embroidery?"

"Marquis Hou ordered you to embroider two hundred handkerchiefs for the people in the mansion during your penance. He said there are no idle people in the mansion."

Ji Man suddenly remembered. This Nie Sangyu had no other skills, but she was a master at embroidery, and her work was praised by the emperor. It seemed that Marquis Hou was exploiting her, squeezing out her labor.

"How many have I embroidered now?"

"None, Mistress. You said last time that no one in the mansion needed the handkerchiefs you embroidered, so they have been left untouched..."

Ji Man rolled her eyes. What would happen if she didn't embroider?

"Liu Mama said that if you don't embroider handkerchiefs, you will only have breakfast and lunch, and no dinner."

In the first month, Nie Sangyu refused to embroider handkerchiefs and ate poorly, crying all day and starving herself to the point of being skin and bones.

Ji Man thought it was ridiculous to refuse to embroider just to earn a dinner.

But now the problem was that she didn't know how to embroider.

Seeing her staring at the frame and embroidery stand in the corner, Clover brought them over. There were also two hundred clean handkerchiefs in the linen bag, without any patterns. There was a pile of colored threads and a needle cushion with many needles on it.

Ji Man tried to pick up the embroidery needle, and Clover helped her put the handkerchief in the frame. She looked at Ji Man strangely and asked, "Mistress, are you going to embroider?"

Ji Man was still thinking about how to embroider, but her hand suddenly trembled, and then she skillfully dropped the first stitch onto the handkerchief, creating a perfect mandarin duck head. Her hand was still her own, and she could still control it. But Ji Man found that this hand seemed to have a natural instinct for embroidery.

Or perhaps, Nie Sangyu was still in her body, and this body still had an innate response to embroidery.

The stubborn Nie Sangyu, who would rather starve than embroider, was now willing to help her embroider? Ji Man found it somewhat unbelievable, but it was just as well. Embroidering handkerchiefs would ensure she wouldn't go hungry!