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Since there was no one else in their vicinity, Ruan Xi stopped deliberately weakening her temperament.
Her gaze wandered in a vivacious and nimble manner.
The manifestation of a person’s temperament, grace, and charm was not limited to their conduct and bearing, for it also included their gaze.
The idiom ‘bringing a painted dragon to life by dotting in the pupils of its eyes’ explicated the importance of the gaze perfectly. The previous Ruan Xi was good-looking with her smooth and fair skin which likened her to a person carved out of exquisite jade, but her eyes were devoid of romantic charm and her temperament was ordinary at best.
However, now that she had dropped her façade, the exquisitely carved jade of a person came alive; her splendour radiated all around and she was an unparalleled beauty.
Natural and at ease, she steeped some tea for Wen gongzi and offered it to him with both hands.
“Wen gongzi, please use the tea.”
Accepting the teacup, Wen gongzi took a sip as he chuckled softly, “Not pretending anymore?”
Ruan Xi immediately understood the meaning in his words and she said smilingly, “My pretence or lack thereof cannot conceal past Wen gongzi, no treatment is as good as frankness and sincerity.”
Sure enough, it had not been her misconception, Wen gongzi had genuinely seen through her disguise.
But she did not search for Wen gongzi in the original owner’s memories.
Undoubtedly, the original owner had no cognition of Wen gongzi.
But Wen gongzi did not seem unfamiliar with her, which gave rise to a trace of suspicion in Ruan Xi’s heart.
Wen gongzi was wearing a cultured smile as he spoke mildly with his clear and bright voice, “Si niang is intelligent.”
He was admitting to the fact that he had seen through Ruan Xi’s façade in an indirect manner.
This form of address

Ruan Xi looked towards Wen gongzi in surprise, revealing the sense of oddness she felt on her face.
In warm tones, Wen gongzi explained: “You are my fiancĂ©e; calling you Ruan si xiaojie is too polite and estranging, calling you by your maiden name seems overly intimate, so I compromised by calling you si niang.”
Ruan Xi expressed that she understood.
Observing that she had accepted this form of address very calmly, Wen gongzi’s smile reached the bottom of his eyes. Then, he asked with palpable concern:
“Si niang, is your body feeling better?”
In response, Ruan Xi reiterated the old physician’s diagnosis.
“I have recovered by seven to eight parts. Mother invited a physician to take my pulse this afternoon, and he said that my vitality was harmed so it requires careful nursing.”
Ruan Xuan felt that her quick recovery after her transmigration was probably related to her golden finger in some way.
However, Ruan Xi did not believe the old physician’s words fully because she felt like she was in decent health, and she was not experiencing any symptoms of weakness that was characteristic of an injured vitality.
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Her vitality was harmed?
Wen gongzi wrinkled his eyebrows together because he had already harboured some doubts regarding the cold that bore down menacingly on his fiancée for some time.
It was just that he lacked evidence.
Presently, Ruan si niang’s cheeks were rosy and her complexion looked rather decent, so he had assumed that the cold hadn’t affected her badly. But contrary to his belief, her vitality had been harmed.
It seems like the news that his men had covertly gathered was true; his fiancée nearly failed to endure past a small and insignificant cold.
So that’s why Ruan si niang chose to hide her own inadequacies by keeping quiet.
Wen gongzi laughed bitterly. He seemed to be the indirect ‘main cause of the disaster’ too.
In what seemed to be inadvertent on Ruan Xi’s part, she continued to say: “Owing to Wen gongzi’s blessing, the quality of the meals I have been receiving for the past two days have increased significantly, with all three of my meals having three meats and one vegetable, in addition to a nourishing chicken soup.”
Her legitimate mother probably didn’t expect that she would tell Wen gongzi, right?
Upon hearing that, the smile on Wen gongzi’s face disappeared. It was common knowledge that the diet of a person who had just recovered from their illness could neither be greasy nor strongly flavoured. He did not believe that the main chefs in an Earl’s Residence were unaware of this, and it was more likely that someone had incited it.
“I will ask someone to send some vitality nourishing medicinal herbs tomorrow.
“Si niang, do you need me to do anything else?”
Evidently, Wen gongzi had already guessed that Ruan Xi was revealing her situation to him on purpose.
She seemed well-off on the surface but she was bogged down in crises in reality.
When Ruan Xi saw Wen gongzi being so upfront, her smile became radiant and enchanting like fresh flowers bursting forth, so beautiful that it was hard to take it in, all at once.
“I would like to ask Wen gongzi to send me a training Mama.”
She still had to stay in the Earl Chengyi Residence for two years, give or take a few. For Ruan Xi, who was accustomed to maintaining her health through her diet, having to face greasy and drugged food every day could essentially be considered as torture.
Furthermore, she did not know what she had to face later down the road, so Ruan Xi could only repair the metaphorical house before it rained again.
When Wen gongzi heard Ruan Xi’s request, a smear of admiration flashed past his handsome face.
This certainly was a good idea.
The Wen Family had a high social status, its rules and regulations were strict. Therefore, sending a training Mama to teach his fiancée social etiquette and protocol conformed with the different grades of courtesy.
“Sure.”
Wen gongzi agreed to it without any burdens.
Thus, Ruan Xi could finally set her mind at ease. The brilliance of her smile became even brighter. “Many thanks, Wen gongzi.”
With the Wen Family’s training Mama around, her legitimate mother would also learn to have scruples.
Wen gongzi shook his head and said with remorse: “These are things that are supposed to be done. If I had not agreed to this marriage, si niang would not be pushed into the public eye either.”
His fiancĂ©e was bereft of her biological mother’s protection, she endured silently and concealed herself, never fighting nor vying, which was a way of survival for illegitimate daughters in a wealthy residence.
When their marriage had been settled, she was pushed to where the wind and waves were the highest, and that was his blame to take.
Ruan Xi smiled. That was not for certain; the original owner was the thorn in the heart of the reborn transmigrator Ruan san niang.
While Wen gongzi was handsome and gentle, and looked at her with an extremely focused gaze, Ruan Xi did not sense any affections from him. Rather, she only felt a hint of kindness and the lack of rejection, by which she meant that he was not against having a fiancée like her.
His personality was similar to the Wen gongzi described in the book.
Ruan Xi was absolutely assured.
Simply put, Wen gongzi was a person with thin sentiment, he would never wrong himself or simply make do with his situation. Since he had promised to marry her, perhaps there was some inside story that she was unaware of.
Ruan Xi felt that this was quite good. It could not be more normal for men to have three wives and four concubines in the ancient era. She had to marry sooner or later and she was better off marrying Wen gongzi.
Wen gongzi was handsome in appearance and had a good family background, but the most important aspect was that he was clean-living and honest, which made him one of the best men she could pick in ten thousand miles.
It did not matter if there were no feelings involved, Ruan Xi did not have the capital to be picky.
“Wen gongzi is a dragon and phoenix among men, whereas I’m the lucky individual who was struck by a meat pie, I couldn’t express my happiness fast enough.”
Ruan Xi smiled cleverly as she gave him a line of compliment.
Wen gongzi was amused into laughter by her antics. His fiancée was truly entertaining; she said she was happy with her mouth but the depths of her eyes were utterly calm.
“I am very happy as well. Meeting si niang today has increased my conviction that my choice was correct.”
Ruan Xi grasped the profound meaning in his words instantaneously.
The pair exchanged glances and smiled out of sheer tacit understanding, as if they had reached some kind of consensus.
As Ruan san niang watched the pair converse merrily from the distance, she clenched her hands unconsciously.
Although she was not privy to her fourth sister’s expressions since her back was facing her,  Ruan san niang could clearly perceive Wen Ting Zhou’s gentle and attentive gaze that was brimming with smiles, and she gnawed and tore into her own heart in a fit of jealousy.
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Having reached a common understanding with Ruan Xi, Wen gongzi took his leave in a cheerful mood.
After Ruan Yu Wen sent him away, he turned his head to regard Ruan Ning and his tone was lukewarm as he said:
“Ning’er, your attitude just now has disappointed da ge greatly.”
Ruan san niang went silent.
She did not want to be like this either, but she could not control her own emotions, nor curb her own jealousy.
She admitted that her own state of mind had collapsed when she saw Wen Ting Zhou looking at her fourth sister with a gentle smile.
Her fourth sister had lived a great life in her previous incarnation since the affections that Qi Yue An harboured for her fourth sister was bone-deep, whereas she was dragged down to the grave by the old Emperor. And in this lifetime, Wen Ting Zhou also had his heart set on her fourth sister.
Why was si mei’s life so good? Ruan san niang bit her lips.
Ruan Yu Wen patted his younger sister’s shoulder in understanding as he consoled her: “Every person has a jealous heart, but you can transform your jealousy into your motivation to work hard. Do not allow your jealousy to pull the wool over your eyes.
“Da ge frequently raises the wick of an oil lamp to read at night, but my position on the list in Qingshan Academy is only considered as middling. Conversely, there are other people who can rank highly on the list and gain the praise of the teachers after studying arbitrarily. Da ge has been jealous before, and found it unfair, but no matter how jealous you are, you can’t become the other person either. If your talents aren’t enough, use your effort to make up for it, since taking the imperial examinations also requires luck.
“The number of intelligent people in this world are countless, but why do they only flower briefly like the broad-leaved epiphyllum? Because they didn’t have enough luck, and their life wasn’t good enough.”
Picture of a broad-leaved epiphyllum
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Ruan san niang’s eyes widened. She never expected that her older brother would say such words to her.
Her older brother spoke correctly. Although her older brother was not spectacular during his academy days, his luck was decent and he would always get on the list for the imperial civil examinations.
His fortune was nothing to scoff at either; she had paved the road for him in the early stages and he cooperated with Qi Yue An later, so his road in officialdom had been smooth and easy.
Whereas she was the only one who clearly dealt with a good hand of cards but chose to smash it into smithereens.
Thankfully, she was blessed with luck because she had a chance to start over.
The Heavens definitely gave her a chance at rebirth to allow her to correct her mistakes.
She was the true daughter of the Heavens.
Ruan san niang became confident all of a sudden.