Chapter 31
Chapter 31—Can’t You See that I, This Old Lady, am Busy?!
Yu Ge hurriedly knelt on the ground. “This slave pays respect to the Sixth Princess. May Your Highness the Princess flourish for ten thousand years, ten thousand years…”
Li Mingxiang couldn’t bear to see Yu Ge kneel on the ice-cold floor and hurriedly helped him back up again. However, Yu Ge did not acknowledge her actions, and once again knelt back onto the ground. This time, he lowered his head to the ground and did not rise.
Li Mingxiang turned around, shooting Mo Qingli an unsatisfied expression. “Elder Sister Li…”
Cough, cough… Mo Qingli choked on her wine. Faced with Li Mingxiang’s annoyed expression, she could only hurriedly wave her hand. “No need to be so courteous. You may rise. Rise!”
Li Mingxiang helped Yu Ge up, her good mood restored. “Come, come, she told you to rise. Don’t kneel anymore. The ground is cold, if you catch a cold it’ll be troublesome.”
Mo Qingli fiercely downed another glass of wine. In this world, relationships were ultimately all fake. There was no true affection!!!
Yu Ge, confronted with Li Mingxiang’s forceful requests, sat at Li Mingxiang’s side. Li Mingxiang continuously poured wine in his cup or placed food into his bowl. “Here, eat some. You should eat more, look how skinny you are!”
“Thank you, young lady,” Yu Ge’s defenses were no match for Li Mingxiang’s offensive strike. His face flushed a faint red shade, stirring Li Mingxiang’s heart into a frenzy.
Mo Qingli felt that her presence was unnecessary. She stood up. “Li Mingxiang, I’m leaving first.”
“Oh,” Li Mingxiang said, barely acknowledging her. She poured Yu Ge another cup of wine. “Here, cheers again!”
Three black lines appeared over Mo Qingli’s head.
referring to the black lines that appear when a character is full of awkwardness
Just earlier, who had been the one begging to drag her here?
The moment she saw a beauty, Mo Qingli was tossed to the side.
Mo Qingli grabbed the wine cup from the table and left. She had noticed, of course, that Li Mingxiang really was semi-serious towards this Yu Ge. This was a rare opportunity for Yu Ge to visit the Central Plains as well.
In that case, maybe it was better for Li Mingxiang to enjoy herself now!
After leaving the two to themselves, Mo Qingli followed the railings of the building, her eyes flickering here and there every so often. As she saw the men and women entrenched in luxury and excess, the corners of her mouth raised into a faint smile.
Jade Emperor, are human emotions the six emotions and seven desires that you spoke of? Now that I’ve fully comprehended them, can I finally fly up to the land of the immortals?
“Really… you never explained anything when you kicked me here!” Mo Qingli muttered to herself.
Just as she finished speaking, she heard a loud “bang!”
Mo Qingli withdrew her head — did that old bastard hear her again? Is he here to smite me with lightning?!
After waiting for a moment, she realized that there was no following flash of lightning or subsequent thunder.
Instead, she heard the sound of a woman cursing. “I, this old lady, saw that your looks were pretty decent. All that money I spent was in order to sleep with you. So why the fuck are you pretending to be so noble and virtuous now?”
Afterwards, a man groaned.
There was the sound of clothing being ripped. “This old lady will make you feel good!”
“Don’t want,” the man’s voice cried out, chock full of emotion.
Mo Qingli initially planned to kick open the door, only to realize that this matter was completely unrelated to her. She wasn’t a saint, so there wasn’t a need to involve herself with every situation she encountered.
“Do you still think of yourself so highly? Aren’t you just a consort thrown away by the Fourth Princess? Why are you pretending to be so pure! Hurry up and get over here,” the woman’s voice demanded, her voice sharp and grating.
The Fourth Princess? Mo Qinghan?
How did her consort end up mixed up in this kind of place?!
Mo Qingli opened the door, brimming with curiosity.
“Who the fuck doesn’t value their life, daring to interrupt this old lady’s business!” that woman angrily yelled at Mo Qingli.
The man pressed below her gazed at Mo Qingli with eyes brimming with tears. Within his eyes seemed to be a glimmer of hope.
Sponsored Content
The woman seemed reluctant to get off of the man. In order to ensure that the money she had spent was worth it, she had specially purchased a bottle of aphrodisiac. Since she had recently drank a glass, it now felt as if her entire body was full of fire, in need of immediate relief.
The woman angrily rebuked Mo Qingli: “Can’t you see that I, this old lady, am busy? Scram!”
Mo Qingli coldly glanced at the woman. “Let go of him, then scram.”
There was no warmth in her tone. Her cold gaze caused the woman to unconsciously shiver.
However, the woman was emboldened by the knowledge that today was the Empress’s birthday banquet. Any person of note would be at the palace.
The person in front of her at most would be from a rich merchant family.
However, what this woman didn’t know was that the Empress’s birthday banquet had long finished. She had overestimated her cleverness, and thus would soon find herself paying the price.
Mo Qingli didn’t bother wasting any words on replying to her. The whole situation with Feng Chenling had left her gloomy and depressed. Now that the woman in front of her was practically delivering herself as a punching bag¹, what happened subsequently couldn’t be blamed on her.
In the flash of an eye, Mo Qingli whirled in front of the woman. Afterwards, she reached out to grab the woman by the neck. She opened the window with one hand, and directly threw the woman out the window with the other.
There was the sound of someone screaming, before there was a loud “bang!”. Then, there ceased to be any noise.
“It’s finally quiet,” Mo Qingli said. She dusted off her hands, then walked to the table, pouring herself a glass of tea. She had drank too much earlier, and the scorching sensation in her throat was an uncomfortable presence.
The man momentarily froze in astonishment, before remembering to tidy himself up. He walked to her and knelt onto the floor. “Thank you, Sixth Princess, for saving my life.”
“Oh?” Mo Qingli raised an eyebrow, surprised. “You recognize me?”
The man lowered his face, making his expression inscrutable. “This slave was present during the Full Moon Festival, so was fortunate enough to see the Sixth Princess’s brave beauty. However, this slave sat at the very back of the room. It makes sense that the Sixth Princess would not remember me.”
“Oh,” Mo Qingli said. She downed another cup. “I heard you are Mo Qinghan’s consort.”
The man’s shoulders trembled. After a long moment, he finally restrained them. Slowly, he said, “Yes. This slave was the Fourth Princess’s Seventh Consort. This slave is called Ye Luoze.”
“A week ago, this slave was driven away from the Fourth Princess’s residence. From there, I found myself in this place.”
Sponsored Content
Mo Qinghan was obsessed with good-looking men. She would even drive out a man as handsome as this? That really was too hard to image.
Perhaps knowing what Mo Qingli was thinking, Ye Luoze continued, “I heard that the Fourth Princess found her true love. That’s why she no longer needs us!”
Mo Qingli spat out the tea she was drinking.
Real love? This kind of disgusting talk was luckily something only Mo Qinghan would say.
Was she referring to Feng Chenling?
“Why don’t you rise?” Mo Qingli said, eyeing the frail-looking Ye Luoze. She added, “The floor’s cold. Don’t catch a cold.”
Ye Luoze looked up, surprised, and then quickly lowered his head. He rose, but, having kneeled for too long, lost his balance and tumbled onto Mo Qingli.
Mo Qingli failed to react in time. The two of them collided with each other, Mo Qingli still on the chair, and then fell together to the floor. Mo Qingli, having fallen with the chair, felt a sharp pain on her back.
Ye Luoze hurriedly rose, then reached out to help Mo Qingli up. Mo Qingli saved her hand, refusing his help.
“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, Sixth Princess! I… I didn’t do it on purpose.” Ye Luoze sounded like a young child who had done something wrong, continuously giving apologies.
Mo Qingli slowly sat up, rubbing the sore area on her back. Quietly, she cursed, “Mo Qinghan really is an unlucky force! As long as I encounter something that has to do with her, my luck will be terrible.”
“I’m sorry, Sixth Princess. I was wrong, I’m sorry, so sorry…” Ye Luoze knelt down again, banging his hand against the floor.
“That’s enough,” Mo Qingli waved her hand, a gloomy feeling passing over her. She sat down on another chair. “Hurry up and rise. Don’t kneel too long and crash into me again.”
Ye Luozo awkwardly stood up again, with an air of being wronged over him.
Mo Qingli rested her forehead on her palm. She had almost forgotten that this was a matriarchal society. The men here were weak and frail.
Immediately, her expression became gentler. “I didn’t mean it like that. I was just afraid you would fall again.”
“Yes, I understand,” the man said, pinching his palm.
Sponsored Content
Mo Qingli felt her head aching, regretting bringing it up at all. The two of them fell into an awkward silence.
After a long moment, Mo Qingli finally spoke. “Even if Mo Qinghan threw you out, she should have provided you with some compensation?! How did you end up here?”
Ye Luoze’s pupils darkened. “Yes, the Fourth Princess gave us a good deal of money for travelling fees. However… before I even travelled that far, I was swindled out of my money. I was even kidnapped by a few women to this kind of place.”
“Today was my first time receiving a customer. The patron here said that if I wanted to eat I would need to receive customers. Otherwise, we would all starve to death.”
Other than his pupils darkening, Ye Luoze’s appeared to be calm and collected. It was as if he was telling a story about someone else.
Mo Qingli felt her stomach sour at the words. She poured another glass of tea, handing it to Ye Luoze. “Here, sit down and drink some.”
Ye Luoze took the tea and murmured, “This slave is exceeding his rank.”
Afterwards, he sat across from Mo Qingli.
He hadn’t eaten or drank anything for the entire day, and had been starved to point of having no energy. Earlier, when he had stood up, it really took all of his energy to stay standing up. Now that he had something to drink, some of his energy returned. Thus, without any reservations, he began drinking the tea she had offered.
Mo Qingli smiled — this was the first man she had ever met in this world that didn’t seem to be posturing after knowing her status.
She pushed the pastries on the table towards him. “Why don’t you eat these!”
“Thank you, Princess,” Ye Luoxi reached out to grab a pastry. Before he even finished chewing the first one, he had reached out for another one, stuffing it in his face.
“Take your time.” As she watched him wolf down the food, Mo Qingli couldn’t help but speak. She surreptitiously passed him a glass of water.
Lots of typos in this chapter… author writes [这世道，有异x/g，没人x/g啊！！！]. I have no idea what she’s trying to say (异性格??) so I lowkey guessed. I’m guessing she’s accusing LMX of treating her impartially like a stranger, not being heterosexual lol
There’s another part where MQL mentions that it’s a good opportunity for Yu Ge to [会中原]/return to the “Central Plains” (part of China around/below Yellow River) and I was like ???, author-san, why is he going there. Maybe it’s a sexual innuendo?
okay turned matron –> patron if that makes sense (?). sorry if it doesn’t
¹The expression is here is basically “pressing yourself against the muzzle of a gun”. Obv since they don’t know what guns are I didn’t translate it literally.