Consort of a Thousand Faces

But now, even though she had both eyes closed like before, her state of mind would never be the same.

 

The people around her had changed. Instead of Lü Liu, it is now Pei Qianhao.

 

Pei Qianhao was looked at her calm appearance with a contemplative expression. She looked familiar with using both hands to raise the wooden basin up in a half squat. Could it be that she did this often? Seeing how well she controls her balance, perhaps she really can endure for two hours.

 

Pei Qianhao kept his eyes on her as time passed gradually, only realising that an hour had passed when he heard the clock tolling.

 

Su Xi-er’s eyes were still closed, her breathing was steady, and she only had a little bit of sweat on her forehead.

 

Pei Qianhao stood up from the wooden chair, walked over to her, and reached for the wooden basin. “You have endured it; this prince will allow you to go out, but it must be tomorrow, not today.”

 

He placed the basin on the table after speaking, turning to leave the room.

 

Su Xi-er stood up, her whole body stiff and tight. She slowly walked to the side of the wooden chair and stretched her hands out to slowly massage her calves

 

I haven’t practised doing a half squat for such a long time. With how little conditioning I’ve done with this body, it really can’t endure such an exercise.

 

Su Xi-er stared at the table while continuing to massage her thighs.

 

I will be able to leave the posthouse openly and honestly tomorrow. However, I will still need to wear makeup to look ugly; maybe I will just dot moles on my face.

 

After that, Su Xi-er ate some food, washed up, and went to bed. During that period, no one asked her to go to Pei Qianhao again. Once she got up in the morning however, Su Xi-er’s thighs were painfully sore.

 

This body isn’t very strong. I must put more effort into training it if even a half squat was enough to cause this.

 

Looking at the sun outside and realising that she had overslept, Su Xi-er immediately got up and dressed. She quickly washed up and ate a bit of breakfast before heading to the entrance of the posthouse, an imperial guard calling out to her as she approached.

 

“Prince Hao instructed you to leave early and return early. Here is a bag of silvers, take it.” The imperial guard pushed the bag of silvers into her hands as he spoke.

 

Pei Qianhao instructing someone to pass her money made her remember what he had said, “What good is strolling around without silver?” 

 

“Leave early and return early.” The imperial guard reminded before he turned to walk away.

 

Su Xi-er tied the bag of silvers around her waist and walked through the front door, facing no resistance from the guards at the gate.

 

The posthouse was on a quiet street, allowing Su Xi-er to stretch out her arms as she took a deep breath, the pink dress she wore fluttering in the wind as she did so.

 

She was planning to go to the capital city’s number one rouge store to put on ugly makeup instead of putting wall ashes on her face again.

 

In fact, Su Xi-er wished that she had ordinary looks so that she could avoid trouble.

 

The shop wasn’t far from the posthouse, only being two streets away. As there were not many pedestrians at this time of day, she quickly headed towards the rouge store.

 

After walking for a while, Su Xi-er saw rouge store’s signboard which was plated with a gold sigil. Just as she was about to walk in, a wooden horse carriage stopped in front of the rouge store, allowing a woman clad in a dark blue dress to dismount.

 

Su Xi-er took a closer look. She is… Ning Anlian’s head palace maid, Piao Xu. What is she doing at the rouge store? The imperial palace has all types of rouge, so why did she leave the palace and come here?

 

Su Xi-er walked into the rouge store and pretended to be browsing the products while listening in on Piao Xu’s conversation with the manager. What she heard however, only served to confuse her even more.

 

“This rouge is not fragrant; it’s not what I want. I want the type that will smell nice from the inside out.”