Chapter 208 “Rather jump off a bridge than to dance” (Part two)
Du Wei was left wordless at the outlandish lie, but seeing the foxy look in her eyes, a trace of anger started to develope inside of him: “Madam Marquise, I believe the truth would be better in this situation….. We both know what that was about.”
Under the moon’s radiant glow, the Marquise showed a hint of playfulness in her eyes as she fiddled with her hair: “Your dukeship…. Can it be that in your eyes I’m a woman without appeal? Or, do you thinking a woman of my age is not good enough for your noble status?”
Finally unable to keep a straight face, Du Wei smiled bitterly: “You jest. With your stunning looks, how can you not be appealing? Though I am young, but even for I when I first met you, I was awed by your radiating beauty. It just that I feel your move earlier is beyond my expectations…. For a goddess like entity like yourself, I really need to ask myself what part of me is good enough to make you tend to me.”
“Duke, you are underestimating yourself.” The Marquise suddenly took a step back, her eyes staring intently at Du Wei’s: “At the tender age of 14, you are already titled a Duke, an esteemed magician, and a council member of the magic academy. Looking back a hundred years in the empire’s history, there is none in the nobility that could match up to your amazing feats! Besides, you are still young, so there are plenty of great things you are yet to do in the coming future.”
Du Wei kept up his composure to utter laugh: “Madam, your exaggerated compliments are making me feel a little ashamed.”
“Oh contraire, i feel this is still far from enough.” Madam Marquise charmingly smiles as her hand gently brushes against the flowers. Slowly, she came so close that Du Wei could faintly feel her breath: “In my opinion, your achievements will be far more than what I can possible foresee.”
Du Wei was somewhat perplexed at her comment. Carefully, he then took a step backward: “Oh?”
“Du Wei.” The Marquise suddenly changed her formal manner of greeting to a more personal form. Whispering her words beside his ear: “From a year ago where you saved my life, it only took you half a year to soar from a unflavored child of a noble family. Isn’t these points enough to explain the problem?”
After a pause, she whispers, “Also… The sort of moves I did tonight is already different from my usual ways…. But at the time, i had to do something.”
Du Wei chuckles a laugh as he stared intently at the Mrs. Lister.
“You are a very smart person so I think you should understand the meaning of why I sent my sister to the Northwest.” A hint of sadness crossed her eyes: “Though my sister appears to be patient and gentle on the surface, but she is a very persistent person at heart. Since small she has been arrogant and despised the young lords of the capital. However, as a woman born under the Lister household, it’s never up to us to choose our own fate. When I was young, I had no way to resist when my father forced me to marry, and now…..”
Her tone mellows out pieces of sadness in her voice:
“I can’t bear to let her make the same mistake as I did. Although for the family, she will still have to marry the best candidate that could bring the greatest benefit to the family. However, I never forced her. Luckily you appeared and solved one of my biggest dilemmas. Whether it is your status or identity, it can be said you are the most ideal candidate. More importantly, Angel is very fond of you. While at home, she would always mention the tales of your adventures, hence the reason the reason I brought her to the Northwest….. I originally thought with Angel’s charm, there would be few in this world that could resist her…. But unexpectedly, you……”
At this point, Mrs. Lister wryly shakes her head.
Unlike her, Du Wei’s face became at ease: “This kind of thing cannot be forced…… And besides, when did it become the norm for the older one to kiss me when the younger one fails?”
After a while of silence between the two, it was the Marquise whom broke the awkwardness: “Du Wei, what do you of me?”
Du Wei became stunned.
Instead of stopping, the Madam continues to speak without stopping: “I’ve been under strict education since I was small from my father, therefore, I could never relax my guard for even a second. Though I could not claim to have extraordinary talents, but in my eyes, these so called reputable scholars really can’t catch my interest. Also, I may have married early on in my life, but I never loved my husband despite the wealth and prominent status he brought me. Through my hands, I’ve expanded the family business to the point where it’s already double the size of my father’s times……”
Du Wei didn’t really understand the meaning of her explanation, so he just shut up and listened.
“I’m already 31 years old now.” At this point, the marquise’s face flashed a hint of worry, but that was quickly cracked away with a smile that surpassed even the flowers in the garden in terms of beauty. With a touch of self-pity in her tone, this truly indescribable beauty softly said: “
“Fortunately the Gods favored my family lineage and gave my people an excellent face. And despite my age, the god of time has been merciful enough to not take my youth. Although I’m already nearing 30 years old, I’m still certain I won’t lose out to any of woman of this world.”
Du Wei instinctively gasped a breath: “Indeed, you are truly a rare beauty that could not be matched.”
What he said just now is all true. No matter the angel he looked at it from, every gesture coming out of this impeccable beauty carries with it a boundless charm that superseded every woman he’s met (excluding Nicole). It’s true Angel would not lose out to her elder sister in terms of beauty, but she is still too wet behind the ears to be a match for the Madam’s elegance and sophisticated style. What’s more, despite her age being already over 30, there isn’t a single trace of time on her face. Back when Du Wei first met this woman, he really did mistake her for a young girl only.
Truly worthy of being the dream lover of numerous nobleman’s in the empire.
Hearing Du Wei’s admittance, she gently turns her head sideways with a bit of fluster on her cheeks as he looked at him: “So, Du Wei, would a man like you be tempted by me?”
“……” Du Wei subconsciously replied despite being frozen with shock: “what?”
“I said, would a man like you be tempted by me?” After she asked with those soothing soft words, the Marquise’s body was already slowly swinging towards Du Wei.
Managing a smile, he said: “Madam, you jest.”
“What if I’m not kidding?” The distance between the two were already close enough to the point where their nose can be called touching. Not sure why, while looking at this stunning beauty before him where his hands can already caress, a part of his mind was beginning to fall into temptation. This side of his mind was realized when his hand won’t listen to him when he wanted to push her away. Now, at such close distance, he can finally get a clear look at all her features. From the eyes to the vague female scent, he was absorbing everything……
“I can guarantee I’ll be any man’s perfect wife.” The Marquise’s soft gentle voice wafted around his ear like a reverberating echo: “I understand what should be known and what should not be known…. And if a man wants me to not know something, I’ll pretend not to know…..”
Du Wei can only feel his throat going dry and his heart beat accelerating. Fortunately, his mind remains intact. Taking a deep breath, he only managed to recompose himself by secretly pinching his body: “Madam, what are you trying to say to me?”
“Marriage.” The word that came out of her mouth nearly made him jump from freight!
“I, Lan Lister, am proposing to your Dukeship.” This is clearly not a joke because despite her laugh being so charming, her eyes were clear and her voice was very serious!
“I want to be your wife, Du Wei.”
This time around, the pause in dialogue lasted for a very long time. Panting like how a cat had its tail stepped on, he could no longer hide the shock on his face.
To tell you the truth, even if she told Du Wei she was a world traveler like him, it is unlikely he would be reacting in such an extreme manner!
“Ma-marriage?!” Du Wei felt like he was dreaming: “You’re asking me to marry you?”
“Yes.” Mrs. Lister nods: “I am asking you to marry me.”
Du Wei wanted to laugh, but looking at her serious eyes, a sense of dread appeared in his heart: “are you serious?”
“In the 30 years of my life, I’ve never been so serious.” This beauty gently nods her head.
He could no longer laugh because he is fully aware of how serious the problem at hand is now!
Reject?
Are you fucking kidding? The most sought after beauty of the nobility circle is asking him for marriage. If he dare refuse, the amount of spit flying his way from her followers would likely be enough to drown him!
Say their age is too different? But Du Wei is well aware that while she is already 30 years old, he is in fact much older if he put into account of his true age!
Say she is too old? But no matter how he looked at her, she is simply a stunning beauty that looked no more than 18 years old!
Say her origin is not good enough? Are you kidding? The amount of wealth she has is enough to bury him alive ten folds and more!
Say she already married once? If he really did say such a thing, even he will look down at himself for flaunting the chastity excuse.
Also, the other party is apparently very serious in their attitude and commitment. From any standpoint, Du Wei must use the upmost respect in his answer. That is the very bottom line!
In addition, this Marquise is not some ordinary person!
Hesitating for a moment, Du Wei’s attitude also became serious. Coughing loudly to clear his voice, his eyes became steady as he faced the woman before him: “Frankly, I’m really surprised…… And, to be able to get such favor from a noble lady like yourself is a great honor!”
“So, are accepting? Or deny?”
This problem should not be answered with “Yes” or “no”, so Du Wei thought for a moment before politely saying: “Madam…… I already have a woman I like.”
Out of Du Wei’s expectation, the Marquise gave a light smile in return: “I know, it’s that beautiful magician girl, right?”
“Yes, it’s her.” Du Wei lets out a breather: “She is my favored girl.”
“But what if I tell you I don’t mind?” the Marquise blinks her eyes: “With your position and identity, I cannot expect you to be bound by only one wife. Although the imperial law only permits one formal wife, but I don’t think you should be bound by this act. In fact…. If you agree to my proposal, I won’t mind if you continue to pursue your love life…. You see? I said that I’m an intelligent woman. If there are some things you a man don’t want me to know, I’ll cleverly pretend I don’t know.”
After say all that, this woman cleverly backed up because she knew this is not the time to force an answer out of Du Wei. With some space between the two, Du Wei is finally able to breath.
“Please consider my request.” Her tone sounds nothing like someone talking about marriage, instead, it sounded more like some business deal: “I’ll be the best wife out there. Besides that…… I will also give up my last name for you and marry into your household. In the future, the Lister family will hence forth support you without reservation and become your most loyal supporter!”
With that, this beauty elegantly made a parting gesture and quietly floated away. Leaving behind her is the tulip garden and our Du Wei in his preoccupied state…..
Damn it, it was just a dance…… If I had known, I would have rather jumped a river than to dance!
(Note: the last line is supposed to rhyme because the word jump and dance in chinese sounds very similar. Wished I could have done better because this chapter was so poetic but once translated, all the poetic words become scrambled.)
If you like this translation then please turn off your adblockers, it really helps.
Thank you!
First!! XD
Dang, too late lol. Next time definitely!! ???
Also, thanks!!! 🙂
I doubt you’ll ever manage to beat Belkar to the punch.
*gasp* a non-believer!! Drown him with first!
XD
Thanks for the chapter.
I hope this doesn’t turn out o be a harem.
I hope it does, for starter’s I don’t the like magician girl, I liked Angel from the start .and the way this story is going she is going , she is going to get hurt and do something really stupid.
Dont wory he is gona regect her and only have two wifes in the end
shhh, no spoilers now.
Please oh please do reveal this one spoiler! Please tell me Vivian isn’t one of the wives!!!
Go jump into a rivrt
To tell the truth I stoped reading the translation a long time ago and come here time to time to revele spoilers hahahhah
She is , in fact both sisters marry him
If that really happens, I swear I’ll go kill a Xuanhuan character. You couldn’t pick a worse ending (with regards to who he ends up with).
Why is it you are against her ,i dont understand?
I’ll keep this short, as I’ve made this statement several times now.
1. She is a one dimensional character (her only standout characteristic is her naivete).
2. She has no agency (the only thing we’ve seen her do of her own will, is say she wants to marry Du Wei, and that was done while piss drunk).
3. She offers no possibilities for story development (there are only two ways she could drive the story, the first being by becoming a damsel-in-distress, and the second being by, because of her naivete, revealing some secret about Du Wei. Both options are unoriginal, un-intriguing and cliched).
4. Her romance feels completely forced. (There is no steady development of feelings and mutual interest between the two. There are no scenes you can point to and say, ‘here, here and here they started being interested, liking, and loving one another’. The only comments we get on this is that Du Wei thought she was cute after their first meeting, and then during the university arc when he considered her his property, and finally now when he says he wants to love her, and none of these transitions feel natural and justified).
5. The supposed ‘pure love’ Du Wei feels for Vivian is a complete farce, he simply feels that she is his property. (The author has made a lot of effort on making this very clear for us. I can’t even count how many times he has said that Du Wei already considers Vivian his property. His love for her isn’t the pure, romantic, love everyone typifies it as. It is more akin to how someone loves a very expensive trophy or vase that no one but them are allowed to touch. It’s a possessive, jealous love.)
Now regarding point 5. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing from a narrative point-of-view, but I find it irritating that people keep saying that he just loves her (i.e. a pure love) when their other arguments are countered. He doesn’t have a pure love for her, I contend he doesn’t actually feel such a love at all. It appears to be more of a perverse, obsessive, possessive, jealous love that he is trying to sugar coat to both the readers, other characters, and himself as something which it is not.
who else loves him follows him does he take with him?
You should be, from the moment he got that devil eyes. lol
if no harem walk away ……………….
thank you
Does the Marquise really have no problem hurting her sister. She was a loyal wife but never loved him. What’s her end game?
she wants her family to prosper thats the whole point of the last few chapters
What are the chances that if du wei do agree, and she switch the bride on the wedding day?
No. That would hurt the relationship between Roland and Lister. Plus Du Wei is not excited about this proposal already. It would give him an excuse to get out of this arrangement. I think Lan Lister would use her position to bring Angel in. It seems polygamy is allowed in their culture.
Wait, what?! Did she just propose him? And she didn’t mind concubine?!
Holly! That’s bold move! Her little angel-like unable to sway DuWei so she use herself?! The marquise is one ruthless woman!
Now, this make me want to go ahead and Google translate the rest of the chapters…. Must. Resist. Google. Translate.
Thank you for the chapter.
Please marry her duwei.
Gracias muchas gracias
if he chooses vivian in the end then ill be very dissapointed smh
Indeed. If Vivian ends up being the one, or even one of the ones, that he gets together with, I’m really going to be disappointed. In both Du Wei and the author.
I would say yes to harem and hot older woman!
Political wise, this is a dangerous move, the Marquise has not only the money, but an army composed of veteran and boundless resources and huge network connection, the very moment Du Wei and she got married will raised a huge red flag on Prince Son’s radar!
But to say no, Du Wei will lose the Lister support. Plus Du Wei will gain the Lister’s assets because the Marquis specifically said that she will marry into his name. It’s too much to give up.
Well well, on the back heel again for our dear Du Wei
Just wanted to say that the plural of man is men so nobleman becomes noblemen and not nobleman’s. Thanks for the chapter!!!
Prance across a river or advance across a river. Instead of jump a river
Let’s be honest we all want for him to say yes, but we all know hes going to say no and chose a little boring girl when the most “logical” will be to get the “older”, more mature woman since he is already an old guy himself … oh well,this “loli” “things” all started from the JP culture where apparently having sexual desires and whatnot towards little girls as old men is acceptable and not anything wrong , it’s all about the”cuteness” ( LOL) so i don’t even bother anymore . Sure, chose the little innocent child because thats more desirable right? … sigh …
You have to thank the fatso legion they are buyers of used panties and lovers of little sisters(incest and pedophilia nice coctail).
Seriusly the whole loli stuff only became popular recently and like an infección you find them everywere
Wtf you talking about? Between a 8th level mage and the wealthiest bussiness woman is not the same as between a young girl and a mature woman. They are both very useful apart from their vagina.
Erm looks like we found a ped.. i mean a loli lover ,how i know ? is because you didn’t get the point L M A O, if a 10y old is the strongest in the world has the most badass power and wealth its Alright by your standings to have sexual desires and sexual harass her when you are a grown ass man , it’s ok right? “cuz she is powerful ” not because she is an innocent child , fk the “woman” who is mentality right and knows whats going on on the world . The child literally doesn’t even know whats a wife or what the meaning of sleeping together as a wife means and you want a 30+ year old dude to get with her ? eh? suree bro , keep that straith face with me saying that pedo shit here , l m a o , gtfo weirdo
Sooooo are we heading towards the harem already or will du wei make us wait some more ? Oo
It’s Du Wei. He’s too damn useless when it comes to matters of the fairer sex to even get together with Vivian (which I hope he doesn’t) – someone he has complete control over – how the hell do you think he’s going to get together with anyone else, much less a number of them. And it’s not for lack of skill, but for lack of trying, and for lack of will (which is far worse).
Wow didnt see that coming…..well kinda thought it after she kissed him…..but it was still a wild development……he’d be a fool to reject her…..smart cunning beautiful and would appear to be genuinely loyal to him and his matters……she beats the pants off of the tripping stuttering naive hymn known as vivian
I though she was going to use the relationship (in the minds of the public) between them to make him get together with Angel, but this works for me as well. As long as it isn’t Vivian, I’m happy.
Thanks for the chapter.
Time to use devils eyes
Decisions, decisions. Thanks for the chapter
The problem is Duwei hates being manipulated, if by any chance he says no it would be most because of that than little Vivian, well leaving that aside, inb4 chapter 350 is actually a four some, calling it.
He should just use his devil eyes.
Thanks for the translation
mmmm… marry Angel to Duwie’s brother to solve the problem. They can be family even tho they are not married.
Nah, just take her as his second wife, or concubine until he can make polygamy legal.
Ohhhhh yah!! He got the devil eyes. Almost forgot about it.
Thanks xD
Whoa… An intelligent wife surely a benefit, what’s more, she permitted Du Wei to have Vivian.. Hmmm…. No no no… Du Wei belongs to Vivian..
I misread her word as “become my wife” instead and going huh for couple of seconds. I kinda want to see her POV though. On another note, is Medusa stay here or at his research lab? She asked Vivian to teach her magic but it never mentioned what happen after.
Medusa is likely to make her reveal at some crucial moment.
Why not marry powerfull mature woman? Naaa just keep with the flow and be an undercovered pedophile who likes little girls, you know what? Im going to enter the deep web and look on the market a little asían child hmmmm yum yum! Thats the fashion 😉
Wtf is wrong with you
His problem is the pedophilic shit that is going on lately with asian novels coming from the JP culture , thats his problem which aperently its totaly normal for you , fkin pedo
My problem is that i dont wach anime, read manga or light novels potraying relations with kids(so i have to read old mangas or seinen genre). I think is fuked up trying to “normalize” this with an idealistic relation of power with an impuber. so as my unknown friend up here says, that shit going on is muy problem.
Damn this woman is sly as fuck. But it is the correct way to rope in a powerful duke. I bet aside from wanting to continue being nobles there is some other problem that made having a connection to a powerful person is needed. Probably the family forcing the women to marry people they dont like? Got pressured by other powerful people?
Poor little sister when she know of the kiss of love tho. The siscon brother will fly into a rage.
thank you! this’ll be the first harem… he probably choose to marry both. I think duwei the most being truth MC here. Unlike how some other MC who can’t even say outright who he like.
but you see, I don’t think angel and his brother will agree with madam marrying duwei.. they’ll think that duwei marrying for their wealth..
I also like madam more than angel.. angel is more of one thinks that other males not worthy of her. at least madam is not the jealous type..
Meatbun delivery~
Thank you for the chapter ( ?w?)
Welp.. i guess she won the dance round..
i think he gets with her and her sister and probs medusa cuz of the prophecy. i do not see this lan woman working out.