Flowery Hair: A Maidservant

Chapter 33 The Poetry Gathering Incident 2

With the Phoenix Mountain Poetry Festival approaching, Meng Shu was traveling with the Second Miss for the first time and made sure to do a lot of preparation beforehand.

First, one needs to understand the young ladies of official families in Lin'an, from their backgrounds and personalities to the situation in their private quarters, as well as the marriage relationships among the various aristocratic families in Lin'an.

You can hear a lot of gossip from the old women in the mansion, especially from Steward Cao. Ever since she treated Meng Shu as one of her own, she has always been responsive to Meng Shu's requests.

When it was Meng Shu's turn to be on night duty, Rui Zhu pulled her along to choose clothes for her mistress to wear for the next day's outing.

"Miss has never worn this cloud-mist silk outer garment on a formal occasion. If you wear it out, you will surely outshine all the beauties." Ruizhu prepared a purple narrow-sleeved waist-cinching gauze shirt and a lotus-root-colored long skirt with green patterns, and carefully took out the cloud-mist silk outer garment from the top shelf.

"I heard there's a lotus pond in Phoenix Manor where the lotus flowers are in full bloom. This outfit is perfect for the occasion, but the cloud-mist silk outer garment is unnecessary. Our young lady isn't going to steal the spotlight."

The Qin family has been a family of farmers and scholars for generations. Only this generation of the family head has reached the rank of Assistant Magistrate of the Fifth Rank. He is a pragmatic official and has never liked excessive ornamentation.

Considering the occasion of the poetry gathering, Meng Shu thought that her clothes would be conventional, but she could put more effort into her jewelry.

So she picked out two new styles from the dressing case in front of the mirror, styles that Yongbaolou had not yet released: a pair of gold wire bracelets inlaid with hibiscus jade and gemstones, and a small filigree hairpin with a golden sparrow holding pearls, its wings fluttering, light and agile, especially the extremely precious pink sea pearl held in the sparrow's beak.

In addition, the second young lady was very fond of the purple jade hibiscus earrings that the eldest son had brought from the capital.

Ruizhu was now completely convinced by Meng Shu. After listening to her explanation, she felt that the cloud-mist silk was too elaborate, so she put it back. She even obediently took a sachet made by Meng Shu and put it in the wardrobe for use as incense.

The next morning, the second young lady looked in the mirror and was indeed very satisfied when Meng Shu styled her hair into two buns with a drooping style and inserted a gold sparrow hairpin with filigree and pearls into her hair.

"Meng Shu's hair-combing skills are excellent. Ruizhu, you should learn from her."

Ruizhu stuck out her tongue behind her back. She had experienced the second young lady's sharp tongue many times before. This time, she and Meng Shu went together, while Mengzhu stayed behind at Yunyi Courtyard.

When the young lady arrived, it was nearly the end of Chen Shi (7-9 AM). She was wearing a bright red brocade robe with butterflies and flowers, and a dark silver embroidered lotus-green moon skirt. Meng Shu frowned slightly, feeling that this air of wealth and luxury was a bit too much for her.

Moreover, it's only been a short time since the Great Heat, aren't you afraid of getting heatstroke dressed like this?

The straightforward second young lady seemed to have heard Meng Shu's thoughts and was simply the best mouth substitute, "Eldest sister's outfit is inappropriate. Why don't you change into a gauze dress? There certainly aren't any ice basins for cooling off at the Qin family estate."

The young lady blushed and said with a forced smile, "There's no time to spare. With a maid fanning us, let's go now."

Green Willow lagged behind, slowly fanning herself.

Seeing this, the second young lady stopped trying to persuade her and simply had Ruizhu take two ice basins and put them on the carriage.

By the time they reached the foot of Phoenix Mountain, more than half an hour had passed. When Meng Shu got out of the carriage, she saw several carriages already parked outside the Qin Family Manor. The Third Miss Qin, who was waiting at the gate to greet her, was taken aback when she saw Meng Shu and secretly sighed that the pretty maid in front of her was indeed quite beautiful.

He quickly came to his senses and warmly welcomed the second young lady into the room. When he saw the eldest young lady also getting off the carriage, there was no awkward silence. He simply nodded slightly to her.

Unlike ordinary merchant families, the Tang family could not be considered true merchants. In the early days, the Tang family was affiliated with the Marquis's mansion. Although the head of the family did not hold an official position, he had a great talent for business and accumulated a fortune in just over ten years.

By the time of the eldest son and the second daughter of the Tang family, the eldest son was intelligent from a young age and devoted himself to the imperial examinations. He had already passed the provincial examination at a young age and ranked first. He would participate in the metropolitan examination the following spring. Therefore, in Lin'an, the real official families were very warm and friendly to the Tang family.

There's another reason why Miss Qin is so affectionate towards Miss Qin. Qin Tongzhi is in charge of the people's livelihood in various places in Lin'an Prefecture and County. The Tang family has indeed contributed a lot. It can be said that if the Tang family's business hadn't flourished all over Lin'an, Qin Tongzhi wouldn't have been promoted to the fifth rank so quickly.

The group followed Miss Qin San into the manor, and the young ladies sitting in the flower hall hurriedly stood up.

The second young lady wasn't very familiar with the other young ladies of her age in Lin'an, but her outfits were always the most outstanding, subtly setting trends for the girls. Therefore, she was always the most dazzling one when attending various banquets.

Meng Shu stood behind the second young lady, watching her socialize with the other young ladies. Often, someone would offer a few words of praise, and the second young lady would respond with dignified gentleness, only to then seriously offend someone.

such as.

Just then, a young lady came over and struck up a conversation, saying, "Wan'er, this peacock hairpin on your head is truly ingenious. I never knew that besides purple and black, pearls could also be pink. The bird on this hairpin is also exquisitely crafted; you can tell it's extraordinary at a glance."

The second young lady smiled and nodded. "Pink pearls are indeed rare. It's normal that you haven't seen one before. I've only seen one once, in my mother's jewelry box."

The young woman looked embarrassed and speechless. Wasn't this tantamount to publicly admitting her ignorance...?

Two young ladies from the magistrate's family also came this time. The older one of them came to the rescue: "The styles are indeed novel, but has Yongbao Silver Shop come up with new designs again? After the poetry gathering, could Sister Wan'er take us to Yongbao Shop for a stroll?"

The second young lady remained seated dignified, surrounded by a circle of girls staring at the sparrow hairpin on her head, but she showed no anger. The eldest young lady and the eldest young lady of the magistrate's family were best friends; both were the eldest daughters of their respective households and both were born out of wedlock, so they had always felt a sense of sympathy for each other and thus had an excellent relationship.

So the young lady took the initiative to explain: "This hairpin was indeed delivered to the manor by Manager Gong a few days ago. Pink pearls are extremely rare, and only about ten have been collected this year."

The young ladies around her were even more envious, and then they heard the second young lady say, "Jewelry is just an object and not worth mentioning. Bijun has always liked lotus flowers, and the lotus flower hairpin she wears is quite nice."

Bi Jun is the maiden name of Miss Qin.

Meng Shugang thought that what the second young lady said this time was unusually pleasing to the ear, but before she could be happy for long, she realized that she had been thinking too much.

The second young lady looked around and said, "The style of jewelry you're wearing is indeed a bit out of fashion. You could go to Yongbaolou and browse around. We can find some good pearls there later..."

Amidst the speechless yet expectant gazes of the crowd, the second young lady continued: "I will send someone to inform Manager Gong that we will send out invitations in advance so that you can choose your favorites first."

Meng Shu couldn't help herself again, propping her forehead up and stealing a glance at the young ladies present. Fortunately, everyone knew the Second Miss's temperament, so none of them were truly angry. Perhaps some were, but they wouldn't be so shrewd as to show it on their faces.

Miss Qin, as the hostess, had to step in to smooth things over. "Wan'er is joking. Sea pearls are extremely precious. We probably couldn't even buy one with our entire year's monthly allowance. The lotus flowers in the lake are blooming beautifully. Tea, fruit, and writing materials have been prepared in the pavilion. Let's go over there now. Today, we'll see who can win first place at the poetry gathering later."

The second young lady didn't say anything more, got up and followed the third young lady Qin outside.

She genuinely felt that most of the people present had worn-out jewelry, so after returning home, she wrote a letter to Manager Gong, listing the names of several young ladies and requesting that Manager Gong give them a discount if they went to choose jewelry.

It must be said that the second young lady is actually very kind, but she just doesn't know how to express it properly. Meng Shu felt that following such a master wasn't bad, it was just a bit mentally exhausting.

The group strolled around the garden in twos and threes, and then went to the pavilion on the lake to cool off. The lotus flowers on the lake swayed in the wind, and the scenery was indeed beautiful.

Miss Qin suggested that everyone write a short poem on the theme of lotus flowers, which would then be judged by Mr. Lin.

As soon as the topic was presented, the young ladies either frowned, were pleased, or pondered. After about an incense stick's time, they all prepared to pick up their pens. Miss Tang sat with the eldest daughter of Magistrate Song and they were talking. Meng Shu, who had been paying attention, glanced at them.

One glance revealed something amiss: when did the young lady acquire a jade pendant hanging from her waist?