Consort of a Thousand Faces

Miss Qing, having yet to come back to her senses, blurted out her real name without thinking.“Ye Qingzhu.”

 

Right after she said that, she hollered, “Why did I tell you my name?!”

 

“Ye Qingzhu. A pretty good name.”

 

Ye Qingzhu snorted coldly. “Don’t cotton up to me. It doesn’t work on me. My position is much higher than yours in the imperial palace, thus, you must respectfully call me Miss Qing like all the other palace maids.”

 

Su Xi-er nodded and didn’t bicker with her. “Yes, Miss Qing. Since you already know that the Chinese bodice was brought over by Imperial Bodyguard Wu under Prince Hao’s order, you can leave now, right?”

 

Ye Qingzhu’s eyes were filled with doubt. She looked at the red Chinese bodice quietly and said in disbelief, “Ever since Prince Hao was bestowed his title and constructed his residence, Big Brother Wu and I have always been in the Prince Hao Residence. Although the Beauty Palace exists, Prince Hao has always kept his distance from women. How is it be possible for him to secretly hide a Chinese bodice?”

 

Every single one of her softly spoken words entered Su Xi-er’s ears. She was completely stunned when she heard what she said.

 

Is that for real? Prince Hao keeps his distance from woman. If that’s the case, why did he establish the Beauty Palace? Purely to ruin his own reputation?

 

Ye Qingzhu shook her head repeatedly. Finally, she looked at Su Xi-er. “It’s too strange. All the strange things are gathered around you. Why on earth is that? You’re merely a lowly palace maid.”

 

“Miss Qing, it’s better for you to go and ask Prince Hao if you have any doubts. I am a lowly palace maid, and don’t dare to ask Prince Hao for the reason. Since he has instructed, I will just follow.”

 

Ye Qingzhu pursed her lips tightly. “Since that’s the case, I won’t make things difficult for you anymore. Mend it properly. I will go and ask Big Brother Wu.” She then turned around and walked out of the room.

 

Su Xi-er continued to mend the Chinese bodice. From what I know of Prince Hao, he would absolutely not have a secret stash of Chinese bodices, but he still somehow had this sent over for me to mend. This action was also beyond my expectations.

 

With no further interruptions, Su Xi-er finished mending the Chinese bodice very quickly.

 

She kept the needle and thread box as well, as the red Chinese bodice, properly before placing them into the wardrobe. Then, Su Xi-er took out the culms and used another piece of coarse grey cloth to start squeezing the juice out of them.

 

She blended the extract into the plaster powder from the wall to create a mixture of itching powder. This type of grass could cause much itchiness.

 

It took an hour in total to manufacture the itching powder. Finally, Su Xi-er used the coarse grey cloth to wrap the itching powder properly before storing it in the fragrance sachet at her waist.

 

The Empress Dowager had bestowed the fragrance sachet to her, and forbidden her from removing it. This had inadvertently helped her a great deal.

 

Su Xi-er then tidied up the remnants of her work that had been left on the wooden table. Once she took care of everything, she noticed that there were already red spots on her arms. She wasn’t careful when she had been making the itching powder just now.

 

Walking over to the wardrobe, Su Xi-er took the white porcelain bottle inside it and poured some of the medicinal powder on her arm. In an instant, the red spots on her arm had subsided greatly.

 

This time, she used the medicine given by Situ Li. There was still another bottle that was given by Prince Hao. She realised that although they were both light green medicinal powder, there was a difference in the efficacy.

 

For Situ Li’s bottle, the powder blended into the skin rapidly and it focused on removing scars, as well as red spots on the body. As for Prince Hao’s bottle, not only did it blend into the skin expeditiously, it also had the effect of making the body fragrant.

 

Once her arms no longer itched, Su Xi-er placed the white porcelain bottle back into the cupboard.

 

Just as she wanted to rest, the sound of knocking and Wu Ling’s voice could be heard from outside the room.

 

“Are you done mending?” Wu Ling didn’t mention the words ‘Chinese bodice,’ As a fully grown man, he wasn’t able to say those words out loud.

 

Su Xi-er replied, “I have finished sewing. This servant will send it out to you after I’m done wrapping it.”

 

“No need, I’ll come in and get it.” Wu Ling stepped into the room.

 

Su Xi-er used a grey cloth to wrap the red Chinese bodice, as well as the needle and thread box, and passed it to Wu Ling.

 

Wu Ling couldn’t stand the awkward feeling and quickly took the package before turning around to leave.

 

“Imperial Bodyguard Wu, can you tell this servant why Prince Hao sent the Chinese bodice over?”

 

Wu Ling paused in his tracks. “I don’t know. You can ask Prince Hao personally.” He then left hastily.

 

Prince Hao’s thoughts can’t be guessed. I have followed Prince Hao for many years. How can it be possible for Prince Hao to have the hobby of hiding Chinese bodices? But it’s really not easy to elucidate the matter today. Don’t tell me that he wants to give the Chinese bodice to Su Xi-er?

 

He felt that when it came to Su Xi-er, everything would cease to make sense!