Chu Lian had taken a class on traditional Chinese medicine back when she was in university, so she could recognise a few types of herbs. She wasn’t too good at it until she read a few wilderness survival books later on and became somewhat familiar with the basics. Now that she was browsing through a medicine hall, she understood quite a bit. Chu Lian even picked up one or two types of herbs and took a sniff to check their quality, but that was the limit of her abilities.
Right across the street from Hengsheng Medicine Hall was the most famous jewellery store in the capital, Jinshi Pavilion.
At this moment, there were a few young ladies standing at a counter in Jinshi Pavilion, chattering away. Their eyes were lit up with excitement as they looked at the accessories a female manager was showing to them, probably so they could try them on.
These ladies weren’t strangers to Chu Lian; they were a few legitimate daughters of House Ying.
They had originally come out with two of their older brothers escorting them, but when they had reached Jinshi Pavilion, the two young masters had found excuses to leave, not wanting to accompany their sisters to jewellery shop.
Now, only the young girls were left in the store, discussing their accessories happily.
Fifth Miss Su took a liking to a lustrous, transparent green jade bangle.
Although the quality of the jade wasn’t the best, it won in its vibrant colour. Its hue alternated between green and blue, like the image of a flowing river. During this hot summer, it was especially cool and refreshing.
When worn on her slender, fair wrist, it brought out the colour of her skin.
She couldn’t resist asking the female manager, “Manager, how much is this bangle?”
The manager smiled and replied, “This jade bangle does match your fair and slender wrist very well, miss. What a good eye you have!”
As she said so, she brought out an exquisite wooden box from under the counter and opened it. There was a matching pair of jade earrings in the box, shaped like teardrops and extremely beautiful.
“Miss, if these earrings are to your liking, why don’t you have these earrings for free together with the bangle? Then this madam will simply accept fifty taels for it. What do you think?”
Fifty taels…
Although that wasn’t considered much, it was a little expensive for young noble ladies like them, who only received a small monthly allowance.
The legitimate daughters of House Ying only received eight taels of silver for their monthly allowance. A single jade bangle from Jinshi Pavilion actually cost half a year’s worth of their allowance…
Miss Su had brought sixty taels out today, but those sixty taels were the result of half a year’s worth of saving. It was still too much for her to hand them all over for a single bangle. She was still thinking of buying another set of accessories for her mother.
The corners of Miss Su’s lips tugged downwards and she set down the bangle. Her eyes carried a trace of unwillingness as she said, “Manager, I’ll look at something else.”
The manager seemed to notice her difficulty. However, she didn’t say anything more. Without any change in expression, she brought out cheaper accessories for her to choose from.
While holding a golden hairpin inlaid with jade and pearls, Miss Yuan chuckled, “Fifth Sister, you’ve brought more than fifty taels out today. Are you so miserly that you can’t even bear to buy a single jade bangle?”
Eighth Miss Yuan’s words made Miss Su flush.
Miss Su pressed her lips together, but didn’t say anything in reply. She lowered her head to look at the new set of ornaments, pretending she didn’t hear anything.
Miss Yuan chuckled again and passed the golden hairpin in her hands to the manager, boldly saying, “Manager, pack up this hairpin for me.”
The manager hadn’t expected this young lady to be so generous. Her smile seeped into her eyes as she brought an exquisite box over to place the hairpin in. “This young lady has a good eye, too. This golden hairpin has three emeralds on it, each of them the same size. The style of the flowers on top of it is good, too; only two flowers, simple yet elegant. It matches perfectly with the pink dress you’re wearing today, miss. This hairpin is the handiwork of our Master Liu. This madam will set the price low at a hundred and fifty taels, just for you, miss.”
When the manager had been complimenting her, Miss Yuan had her nose so high in the air she was about to start floating away in pride. She had good taste, to have picked such a beautiful hairpin. It was so much better than that silly bangle that Fifth Miss Su had picked. However, when she heard what the price was, Miss Yuan’s expression froze in place.
What? A hundred and fifty taels?! Why didn’t the manager simply steal the money from her? It was just a golden hairpin!
Miss Yuan had seen that this golden hairpin would definitely be more expensive than Miss Su’s jade bangle, but she thought that it would cost a hundred taels at maximum. She had begged for a hundred taels from her mother so she could go shopping today, and in addition to that, she had also brought thirty or so taels from her own savings.
Even a young lady of a first-ranked noble house would bring out only a little more than a hundred taels at most. How could she, of the declining House Ying, take out even more than them?
If they had been shopping at Jinshi Jewellery next door, the hundred and thirty taels she had brought would be more than enough. However, this was the high-class Jinshi Pavilion that they were perusing.
She had originally thought of showing up Miss Su and shaming her. In the Ying Estate, it was only this unmarried Fifth Miss who continued to be at loggerheads with her, the Eighth Miss. She was going to make Miss Su eat dirt today in public so that she would fight her less in the future. However, she hadn’t thought that she would be digging a hole for herself as well.
She only carried a hundred and thirty-something taels on her right now…
Miss Yuan’s expression turned ugly. Due to her conflicting emotions and present embarrassment, her face went red, then white. She opened her mouth and met with the manager’s eager gaze. Though she wanted to withdraw her previous claims, the words were stuck in her throat and wouldn’t come out.
Miss Yuan’s panicked gaze darted around the shop. Her personal maidservant’s expression was even uglier; she looked like she was about to cry from her anxiety. She even tugged at her master’s sleeve carefully.
If Eighth Miss really bought a golden hairpin for a hundred and fifty taels, Second Madam would surely scold her up and down. Most of the madam’s own accessories and ornaments cost less than a hundred taels.
Eighth Miss would simply get a reprimand and a lecture, but as her personal maidservant, she could be dragged out of the estate and sold.
Fifth Miss and Ninth Miss weren’t dumb; in a few moments, they quickly noticed the dilemma that Eighth Miss was in.
Ninth Miss Fu smirked and began to provoke her. “Ah, Eighth Sister hasn’t said anything. You can’t possibly be feeling embarrassed because you didn’t bring enough money, right? Well, if you didn’t bring enough, it’s understandable. We’re all unmarried ladies here, so it’s normal that we don’t have much money to spend. It’s fine if we don’t buy this and get something cheaper. The manager won’t laugh at us.”
The manager served the wives and daughters of nobles and important officials every day. She was good at observing other people’s expressions. Although she was disdainful of the group of girls before her, she didn’t show it on her face. She simply nodded and played along.
However, Miss Yuan felt even more keenly that she couldn’t get out of the trap she had sprung on herself. She was used to acting high and mighty. Before Chu Lian had gotten married, she had always been competing with Chu Lian in every aspect of their lives. Though Chu Lian was now married and no longer in the Ying Estate, there was still the main branch and the third branch to contend with. The master of the second branch, Chu Qizheng, had no achievements to speak of, so the ladies of the second branch had always kept their heads a little lower when the other branches were around.
This was also why Second Madam had given her a hundred taels to spend upon finding out that she was going shopping with the sisters of the main and third branches.
As tough as life was inside the estate, they couldn’t lose face out in public.
Miss Yuan’s chest was heaving up and down from the frustration brought about by Ninth Miss’s words. However, the fact of the matter was, she just didn’t have enough money, so she couldn’t get off this high horse once she had gotten on. She could only bite her lip until it bled and grind her teeth into dust. Miss Yuan raised her head and was about to admit that she hadn’t brought enough taels, when she spotted a familiar figure out of the corner of her eyes.
Miss Yuan was a little surprised, but the cogs in her mind quickly turned and she thought of a way to escape her troublesome situation.
The effects were instant. The colour in her face returned, and now that she had a solution, she immediately swallowed the words she had been about to say and recovered. Fifth Miss and Ninth Miss couldn’t figure out why her expression had suddenly changed so quickly, like she’d been flipping through a book and gone from the climax to the resolution.
Miss Yuan didn’t mention the golden hairpin. Strangely enough, she took a step to the side and grabbed Fifth Miss Su’s arm, acting like they were a pair of true sisters from the same branch as if the past minute hadn’t ever happened. “Fifth Sister, Ninth Sister, look across the street! Isn’t that Sixth Sister? What a coincidence! We just bumped into her the moment we got a chance to go out.” Miss Yuan pointed over to Hengsheng Medicine Hall.
It just so happened that Chu Lian had turned around and led her two maidservants out of the medicine hall. One of the maidservants bent down to whisper into her ear, and Chu Lian seemed to be listening intently and nodding.
Since she was out in the open, Miss Su and Miss Fu could recognise her clearly. Wasn’t that Chu Lian, who must be enjoying a life of luxury after marrying into House Jing’an?
They watched as Chu Lian led her two maidservants across Zhuque Avenue. Weren’t they heading this way and coming into Jinshi Pavilion?
None of the staff had bothered to wait on them in Hengsheng Medicine Hall, and Chu Lian hadn’t seen any precious medicinal ingredients on display on the counters, so she gave up. Furthermore, she wasn’t too sure on what Countess Jing’an’s condition was. Medicine wasn’t always good for the body, so it was better not to give her mother-in-law something to be ingested.
After listening to Wenqing’s recommendation, Chu Lian decided to head into Jinshi Pavilion for a look.
When she reached the center of Zhuque Avenue, she looked up at Jinshi Pavilion and spotted some familiar figures.
If not for the fact that the people inside had already seen her, she would have definitely turned right around and ran the other way. Associating with the ladies of her maiden family, especially with that half-sister of hers around, was never a good thing.
Chu Lian couldn’t resist looking up to the sky and wondering if her luck was that bad today. She had met with a bunch of unlucky events already, and now here was one more.
Chu Lian pressed her lips and asked Wenqing, “Is it possible to run away now?”
Wenqing saw that the three luxuriously dressed ladies were walking their way, clearly about to welcome their Third Young Madam, so she could only heartlessly shatter Chu Lian’s dream. “We can’t, Third Young Madam. They’re on their way to welcome you.”
“Wenqing, don’t you know martial arts? Can’t you fly into the air, walk on the walls, and take me away? I really don’t want to meet those people.”
Wenqing had a difficult expression as she replied, “Third Young Madam, have you been reading too many stories? Even the Dragon and Tiger Guards can’t fly and walk on walls, let alone this servant and Wenlan.”
Chu Lian could only hang her head and sigh in distress. She was resigned to her fate.
In a pitiful voice, Chu Lian said, “Then you’ll have to protect me later, or else I’ll get bullied by those people.”
Wenqing was speechless. She had already gone out with Chu Lian a few times before. Even if Third Young Madam was a physically weak, young lady, had she ever really been bullied by anyone they met? It was always Third Young Madam who angered her opponents until they could choke to death on their rage. She pressed her lips together, no longer willing to reply. She became even quieter than Wenlan.
Chu Lian could only harrumph, acting disappointed. “You girls are becoming more and more boring.”
In the time it took for their conversation to end, they had already reached the main entrance of Jinshi Pavilion and the other three misses had already come out to welcome them.
Fifth Miss was in the front with a slight smile. It made her round face look a little more innocent.
“What a coincidence, Sixth Sister! Who could have thought that we’d meet here on Zhuque Avenue?”
Miss Yuan stood behind Miss Su, eyeing Chu Lian up and down. Chu Lian was only wearing a plain, light blue dress with a simple jade hairpin in her hair. She didn’t even have a single bangle on her wrist. This poor appearance looked even shabbier than when she had been living in the Ying Estate!