In the blazing summer heat, cicadas droned on and on.
Li Qu sat at her desk grinding ink and lifting her brush, with Hongguo beside her fanning her, and an ice basin placed not far away.
After writing down the list of things she wanted, Li Qu blew the paper dry and handed it to Hongguo. “You don’t need to attend me here. Go prepare everything I’ve asked for.”
After Hongguo withdrew with the list, Li Qu spread out a fresh sheet of paper.
First, she needed to figure out why Zhou Jin had kept her around.
Only by knowing the reason could she solve the problem.
She wrote two words on the paper: “The reason.”
Then she drew a circle around it.
The circle represented Zhou Jin.
To know the reason, she would inevitably have to understand what had happened to Zhou Jin, understand his thoughts, understand the man himself.
As far as she could tell, her knowledge of Zhou Jin was limited to the Zhou family’s endless praise—distinguished and handsome, aloof and noble of character; immensely talented, famous from a young age.
And then there were the maids’ baseless speculations: impotent, a lover of men, and so on.
Setting down her brush, she stared at the circle.
What remained was what she had seen with her own eyes.
Haughty and untouchable, killing without blinking, lecherous and indulgent, his authority deeply entrenched in the Zhou residence.
When everything was mixed together and summarized, it came out nearly blank.
She didn’t understand him at all.
She put down her brush, rose, and had Cuiguo tidy the desk, then went to lie down for a short rest.
Step by step—someday she would get to the bottom of her enemy.
In a daze, Li Qu seemed to return to her previous life, to her warm and loving home. Then she seemed to return to the moment she was born in this life, when she first opened her eyes—a round-faced old woman saw that she was a girl, and the joy in her eyes instantly turned to a cold gleam.
“Another girl! Drown her—save a mouth to feed!”
A catastrophic transmigration opening.
The stench of urine flooding her nose and mouth, the suffocating pressure on her chest—instantly jolted her awake.
She sat bolt upright on the couch, and because she moved too quickly, a warm rush poured out below her belly.
“You’re awake, Madam?” Nanny Xu asked with a smile, wringing out a cloth to wipe Li Qu’s face.
Li Qu wiped her face briefly, then went to the washroom and changed her cotton pad filled with plant ash.
Unless one was the mistress of the household or a legitimate young lady—someone of high standing with an endless supply of pure cotton pads—a concubine or favored concubine like herself was allotted only pads of cotton mixed with plant ash.
As for what the maids used, she couldn’t even imagine.
Of course, she had money—she could use whatever she pleased.
Li Qu did have silver, but she was currently trapped here, and unless absolutely necessary, she didn’t want to touch her bank account.
She worried that Xiao Cong was watching her bank account records to track her down.
She had cash on hand, but none of it was on her person.
Even if she wanted to spend it, she couldn’t.
Just as Li Qu came out of the washroom, Nanny Xu came up to her again. “Everything you asked for earlier has been prepared, Madam.”
“Including the tools you left in the side chamber of Shou’an Hall. I took the liberty of asking at Shou’an Hall, and they’ve all been moved over.”
“They’re all in the side room next door.”
Li Qu looked at Nanny Xu seriously for the first time. “Really?”
“This way, Madam.”
Li Qu went to the side room and, sure enough, saw all the equipment she had used to make skin toner, rouge, and lipstick—everything had been moved over.
She looked at Nanny Xu and gave her a thumbs-up. “I give you full marks.”
This set of tools was no simple matter—the distillation flask in particular had taken Xiao Cong great effort to obtain.
It was the foundation she had planned to use to make her start in Wan County.
Seeing the smile on Li Qu’s face, Nanny Xu instantly felt she had done the right thing, and pressed her advantage while the iron was hot.
“Concubine, weren’t you planning to visit Shou’an Hall? I took the liberty of preparing some fabric for you. Later, you might embroider a round fan for the Old Madam—she loves your double-sided embroidery.”
“A forehead band would work too. Among the gifts Third Master sent this morning was an emerald gemstone. Set it into the forehead band, and when the Old Madam wears it out, you’ll have face as well.”
Li Qu accepted Nanny Xu’s suggestion: “I’ll start embroidering tomorrow.”
Today, she had a face mask to make first.
If she had no trusted confidants, she could cultivate her own.
This skincare craft was something she had memorized by force from the books in the Prince of Yan’s residence library after confirming her relationship with Xiao Cong, leveraging his influence.
Ever since leaving Li Village—that cannibalistic, closed-off, backward place—she had hungered thirstily for every piece of knowledge that could help her survive in this world.
Ways for a woman to stand on her own were few and far between.
Working as a makeup artist was one of the few trades where a woman could earn money without selling herself into servitude.
How to make a woman beautiful, how to maintain a woman’s beauty, and how to conceal someone’s beauty—she had memorized it all.
She still remembered how the young noble ladies of the Prince of Yan’s residence had mocked her for walking the path of lowly flattery, and how Xiao Cong had teased her that she didn’t need to learn it since she was already beautiful.
How can a sparrow understand the ambitions of a swan?
She could choose not to eat this bowl of rice.
But she wanted the ability to eat it if she wished.
By dinnertime, Li Qu’s hands still hadn’t stopped.
Nanny Xu couldn’t help urging her, “Concubine, irregular meals harm the spleen and stomach.”
A concubine without family background or connections absolutely needed a healthy body.
Otherwise, when the Master wanted to be close to you, your stomach would ache, your teeth would hurt, your lumbar disc would act up…
“Almost done. Don’t rush me.” Li Qu didn’t even lift her head.
Nanny Xu waited a while longer.
Seeing the puddle of greenish-black stuff in the mortar Li Qu was grinding, she couldn’t help frowning. “This isn’t something to eat, is it?”
That afternoon, the concubine had requested quite a lot of medicinal and food ingredients.
“No, it’s not. Please prepare some brushes, ink, paper, and an inkstone for me, Nanny.”
While Nanny Xu went to gather the items, Li Qu’s face mask was already jarred.
She then took up the brush and wrote out a prescription, one for internal use and one for external application.
Once everything was done, she rose and stretched her muscles. “Sitting too long harms the spine.”
Nanny Xu was puzzled. “Concubine, what is all this for?”
“It’s for gifts.” Li Qu pointed at the small rouge jars she had made earlier. “Open one and look, Nanny. It should have set by now. The two blue jars are for you.”
“I noticed you usually wear dark clothing, so I blended all yours in dignified light shades.”
Nanny Xu was overwhelmed by the unexpected favor. “F-for me, your servant?”
“Everyone gets some. The two red jars are for Hongguo, the two green jars for Cuiguo—quality guaranteed, no worse than the goods at Immortal Treasure Pavilion.”
The two senior maids were also deeply flattered.
“I see four servant girls in the courtyard—those four jars go to them.”
“This pair goes to the Eldest Young Miss, this pair to the Second Young Miss, this pair to the Third Young Miss.”
“All the rest go to Second Madam—tell her to pick whichever she likes.”
“Whatever plain purple jars Second Madam leaves behind go to Concubine Xun, the Barbie pink jars to Concubine Zheng, and the golden yellow jars to Concubine Hu.”
Nanny Xu asked, “But what if Second Madam picks the plain purple ones, the B-Barbie pink ones, or the yellow ones?”
“Second Madam likes azure. The four jars of azure are prepared for her—she’ll understand at a glance and won’t pick those three other colors.”
“There’s a difference between the rouge for the Madam and the young lady?”
“Of course.”
The married ones are colored and scented; the unmarried ones are colored but unscented.
A big difference indeed.
There were two jars of the colored and scented kind, originally intended for the cousin staying at Shou’an Hall.
After much deliberation, Li Qu tucked them into her own sleeve, deciding she wasn’t going to offer a warm face only to be met with a cold backside.
“I’m hungry. I’m off to eat,” Li Qu said, heading out.
Hongguo stepped forward and said to Nanny Xu, “Let this servant deliver the items.”
Nanny Xu nodded. “There’s a lot to carry. If you’re unsure, ask rather than get it wrong. Don’t mix anything up and ruin the Concubine’s affairs.”
She could see it—this was the Concubine returning the courtesy.
It was also a diplomatic signal sent out from Fanghua Court.
The Third Household finally had a new mistress added to it.