Higher Level Wife - 177 - To Morning Court

Chapter 177: To Morning Court

Author: White Pear Flower

Raws: https://book.qidian.com/info/2386994/

Translated by Gumihou

Proofread by Pill Bug

Gumihou: I wonder, if I change things without notes, would anyone even notice?

“Madam… Madam…”

Jian Feng’s voice broke through Fu Qiuning’s thoughts. Seeing her mistress blink at her, the beautiful maid said warily, “What is Madam thinking? To be so lost in thoughts?”

“Nothing,” Fu Qiuning shrugged. “Just some past events. Breakfast would be ready soon, yes? I shall wake the master.”

Then, she turned and left.

Jin Fengju was still sound asleep in the bedroom. Fu Qiuning called him twice from a distance, but the man did not move. When she pushed at him, he merely grunted and rolled over. She wondered what she should do next. [1]

Finally, she decided to speak the magic words, “Lord Husband, you have morning court.”

Jin Fengju suddenly sprang out of bed. He looked around in a daze for a moment, muttering, “Court? Yes, morning court. I have morning court today.”

He started rushing about in the room, “Hurry, where are my clothes? My heavens, ah. I have morning court. I still haven’t rested enough, ah!”

Yu Jie had already thoughtfully laid out everything for him and all Fu Qiuning had to do was say, “Lord Husband, your toiletries are here. I shall see to breakfast. Ah, Yu Jie is here with the hot water.” [2]

Then, she turned around and left the chaos behind her, nodding to a hovering Jin Ming, who had his master’s uniform in hand. Fu Qiuning looked at him, then at the clothes.

“Second Madam Ying allowed these clothes to be taken out?” she asked.

“Y-yes, in fact, she did not cry or make trouble about it,” he said cheerfully.

Fu Qiuning was appalled.

This was out of character for someone like Jiang Wanying. Privately, she lit a candle for Jin Fengju’s future. Then, after some thought, she extinguished that candle and lit one for herself instead. Who cares what happened to him? What is more important is what would happen to her!

Breakfast was quickly brought in by the maids and Fu Qiuning watched as Jin Fengju stuffed his face with two rice dumplings, a bowl of porridge and some fried youtiao. Oh well, it looked like someone either has a very good head for drinking or that sobering pill that Yu Jie insisted on preparing was akin to a miracle drug.

She had to marvel at the amount he ate. Just how much money was needed to raise this person…?

Jin Ming had the foresight to call for a sedan chair for his master. After putting on his official clothes, Jin Fengju ran out to the courtyard and settled himself into the chair, finally able to catch his breath as the others did the running instead.

As soon as he left Elegant Mansion’s gate, he encountered the two Feng sisters and Concubine Mei coming towards Elegant Mansion. Although he felt anxious about being late, he was forced to stop out of politeness and leaned out of the sedan chair to smile and say, “What are the young misses and madam concubine doing coming so early today?”

Feng Zhenzhu and Feng Mingzhu took one look at him and both lowered their heads. When the two beauties with lowered heads and lashes stood side by side, there was an inexplicable feeling of something pitiful yet amorous. However, Jin Fengju was feeling too anxious about making it to work on time to appreciate the view. Instead, he was busy thinking: What are they doing here so early? Usually, neither Qiuning nor I would be awake at this time.

Concubine Mei smiled, “Nothing much, we went to bed early yesterday and woke up early with nothing to do today. So, the young ladies and I decided to take a small stroll in the garden. We saw smoke rising from the distance, recalling that the maid informed us about how the Master would be going to court today and thought that Madam would be awake at this time. So, we came over for a little visit.”

Jin Fengju nodded, “So, it is like this. Qiuning is indeed available for guests. Madam Concubine and the young ladies may go in. I need to go to court and cannot stay.”

“Of course, the Young Marquis must have countless matters to attend to, now that the Emperor has personally come to the estate to summon you to court. What immense favour! This speaks volumes of how much the Emperor must value the Young Marquis.” Concubine Mei’s eyes curved with mirth and joy as she continued to praise and flatter Jin Fengju with a few more words before finally letting him go on his way.

After he left, she turned to Feng Zhenzhu and Feng Mingzhu and sighed, “Just think, Second Madam Ning is truly blessed. A great and talented man like the Young Marquis is truly hard to find in this entire world, and yet, she managed to marry him.”

Feng Zhenzhu and Feng Mingzhu could not help the blush on their cheeks as they lowered their lashes wordlessly. Concubine Mei looked at them as a thought entered her heart.

In all fairness, she understood that it was not at all reasonable for herself and the two Feng family ladies to continue to reside within the Duke of Jing’s estate, considering their identities. [3] Though the servants may not speak excessively to their faces, but she was all too aware of what was being discussed behind their backs. On the other hand, if one of the three girls could become the Young Marquis’ concubine or even a secondary wife, things would be different.

[3] After all, it is only a matter of time before an outstanding person like the Young Marquis chose a new woman for his harem, so why not one of the Feng girls? Aside from their age, all three were great beauties in their own right. If there was anything lacking about the Second Madam Ning, it was her looks. Moreover, since the household power was still under Second Madam Ying, her authority to speak up and make decisions was clearly limited.

[3] Not to mention, though she technically had the twins under her name, they were of murky bloodline and she had no children of her own to secure her position in the inner court. If their side were to promise loyalty to Second Madam Ning, surely she would look favourably upon them and welcome their support? After all, rather than having some wild woman from outside or a maid or cousin from the Jiang side, having one of the Feng girls marry the Young Marquis as a concubine would be a boon for her.

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Fu Qiuning was a little surprised to receive these early morning guests. Still, she invited them in and took the initiative to serve them breakfast since it was unlikely that they had any yet. A small kitchen had been set up to serve the people at Yong Cui Garden, but it was unlikely that they had gotten around to serving breakfast so early in the morning.

The reason why Elegant Mansion even had food at that time was because Jin Fengju had to attend court and therefore special arrangements were made. As the hostess, Fu Qiuning strongly insisted that Concubine Mei and the ladies stayed for breakfast and the three were quickly persuaded to stay.

Warmed by Fu Qiuning’s insistent invitation, the ladies no longer hesitated and felt as though they were as intimate as sisters with Fu Qiuning. [3] Look how wonderfully friendly and affable she was! Clearly, this woman wants to maintain a good relationship with them for whatever future conflict.

After breakfast, Fu Qiuning watched as Jin Changfeng and Jin Zhenyi led their younger brother and sister to school. She personally accompanied them to the gate, saying things like, [4] “Be careful on your way and don’t carelessly trip on rocks. Brother Yi, you should make sure to watch that temper of yours and put more effort into your studies instead of playing around too much.”

Jin Zhenyi pursed his lips. This woman would nag at them every morning, she was even more of a nag than his own mother. He had no idea how Jin Changfeng and Jin Changjiao tolerated this woman. Even so, there was a disturbance in his heart about this woman’s behaviour. [5] Wasn’t she just a fake mother? Why was she doing it? Him aside, even those twins did not actually belong to her. Was she so desperate to have her own children that she would accept just anyone into her home?

[5] First, it was those two cheap seeds. Now, she even welcomed the children of her enemy with smiles. It made him feel uncomfortable. Sure enough, this kind of woman is too insidious! He must be careful…

Once the children had left, Concubine Mei smiled and said, “Although it is said that Concubine Xu brought misfortune upon herself and deserved to be banished to the village, I pity those two children. Though they are partly involved in the matter, given their age, what could they know? All children are innocent and carefree at heart. They merely learn what they have been taught by adults. Now that their mother is gone, I cannot imagine what their future would be like.

In the end, by having them stay with you, the Young Marquis proved to be the most thoughtful of fathers. Why, I was just speaking to our young misses the other day, how we fear that you would be troubled by children who were suddenly thrust upon you. However, I can see that Second Madam treats them very well. That Brother Yi, I heard tales about how wild he could be, but he appears quite docile under your care. Amitabha, it is truly the children’s luck to come to your courtyard.”

Fu Qiuning smiled [6] stiffly, “Please don’t say that, Madam Concubine, I am just doing what I should for the children. [6]”

Gumihou: Well, more of the same. I think… the author has not quite matured as a writer and tended to revert to the usual tropes when stumped for ideas. The inconsistencies were not as bad with The Feast even though it was written before this one. Then again, The Feast was meant to be a light-hearted comedic, almost crack-ish, novel populated by stereotypes. This story is meant to be more in-depth and serious experiment. Sadly, the author dropped the ball after Chapter 85 (very aptly named Catalyst).

Author White Pear Flower may have suffered a minor breakdown after 20 chapters of attempting to make JFJ look good, but failed. In the end, instead of seeing her experiment through, she decided to make FQN blind, deaf and dumb to the Scum ML faults.

Only, she doesn’t have to do that.

The effort that goes into whitewashing could better be used to strip the glitter off JFJ and let the readers see him in his naked awfulness and understand him better. That he’s a product of his entitled birth, a flawed individual with too much talent and saddled with too many expectations on his shoulders.

Personally, I’m more interested in the older brother.

Like, what kind of person is he to be okay to have the title of ‘Heir’ passed over him and have it given to his younger brother?

In The Feast, the half-brothers’ relationship was rocky, but understandable. The familial relationship was more logical too. The ML was the son of the official wife, but the half-brother was the son of the ‘beloved sweetheart’, so it makes sense for the other son to be jealous.

However, full blood brothers? Elder brother getting passed over for the title and never giving it another thought? Not to mention, JFJ’s father’s generation where one son is literally named ‘jade’ and the other ‘stone’. What the heck?

Tsk, tsk, this is what we, in the writing community, call ‘unnecessary details’. The story could have two children in JFJ’s generation instead of the unnecessary ‘Eldest son’ who did absolutely… nothing, but was made into the ‘heir’ of a dukedom later. After that, all he did was make one or two cameo appearances only to run away to make his brother look good. He did not even make an appearance during the emperor’s impromptu visit. That was how insignificant he was.

[1] Deleted 150 words of asinine lovey dovey scenes

[2] Deleted 160 words more asinine lovey dovey scenes

[3] Adjusted the scene so that it is not so slanted towards ‘this woman is, like, so, so delusional, lolz~’ to ‘realistic thought process for a character of that era and status’

With these thoughts in mind, Madam Mei couldn’t help but look at Feng Mingzhu and Feng Zhenzhu, secretly thinking that even a young man like Jin Fengju might be attracted to our young ladies with their exceptional beauty. However, Lady Ning, on the surface, appeared amiable and kind, but she was a scheming person. Passing through this hurdle might not be easy.

But on second thought, Madam Mei realized that it wasn’t a big deal. Men like Jin Fengju, who had three wives and concubines, were not uncommon. Although Fu Qiuning had Jin Cangfeng and Jin Cangjiao under her, they were not her biological children…So, Madam Mei and the Feng sisters, who had secretly made up their minds, didn’t think they were doing anything wrong

The original for your comparison. Seriously, it just went on and on, unsubtly ‘hinting’ at how short-sighted and delusional Concubine Mei was compared to Saint Qiuning.

[4] Remove Saint Qiuning

[5] Realistic sad kid thoughts and actions. Instead of ‘oh my, these feelings in my heart~ what is this doki doki??!’ go with, ‘ugh, is she nuts?’ Like, come on.

However, there was a strange feeling in his heart. In his mind, only a mother would do such things, and even if Fu Qiuning did them, it would be for show. But she did them so naturally, often when there was no one else around, as if her heart truly cared for the two of them as siblings, rather than just trying to give the impression of being a virtuous stepmother.

This feeling made Jin Zhenyi uncomfortable, but at times, he also found it heartwarming. The six-year-old boy was completely confused by this conflicting turmoil in his heart. So, he could only put on a more disdainful appearance on the surface, so that others wouldn’t suspect that he had developed a slight sense of closeness to this stepmother who had harmed his own mother.

[6] Deleted over 100 words of butt wiping, can’t remember whose butt. All assholes look the same to Gumi now.

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