The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 2: The Hundred Birds Dress

   The Story of Yanxi Palace《延禧攻略》Yanxi Gonglue

   The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 2: The Hundred Birds Dress

   Three hours ago.

   “First comb to the head, no need to worry about wealth and prosperity.”

   “Second comb to the head, no sickness and no worries.”

   “Third comb to the head, many sons and longevity.”

   “Combing again to the end, raising the case again ...”

   “That's enough.” Wei Yingluo interrupted and said, “AJin Gugu, do I look like I can charm someone now?”

   On the table rested a gilt bronze mirror, the brightly shining surface of which illuminated the two men in the room.

   Wei Yingluo is dressed in a big red dress, the snow is light powder for the wind, the haze is rouge for the sun and especially a little vermilion on her lips, she is so gorgeous that any son would be overjoyed to have such a bride.

   Only, who would have a bride like her, with three layers of twine tied around the outside of her wedding dress?

   Rather than marry, it was more like she was to be sunk in a pond and sacrificed to the dragon king in the water in exchange for a peaceful and bountiful harvest for a clan and a village.

   “AJin Gugu...” Wei Yingluo said faintly, “Tell me more about the inside of the palace.”

   “It's already this time, why are you still asking this?” The middle-aged woman standing behind her sighed and combed her hair while persuading her, “Isn't it good to marry in peace? I have asked around for you, the groom's family is average but he is a sincere man, if I had a choice back then, I would rather marry a man like this, rather than to become a maid and waste my time and grow old, until I leave the palace and have only seen His Majesty once.

   Wei Yingluo was silent for a moment and asked gently, “What kind of a man is His Majesty?”

   “I don't know.” AJin said with a helpless smile, “From beginning to end I was on my knees, only seeing His Majesty's dragon boots, not daring to look up at his dragon face.”

   “The eyes have not seen but the ears have heard, right?” Wei Yingluo said, “AJin Gugu, how did the people inside the palace describe him? Do you remember?”

   AJin thought about it and laughed, “People who can't control their mouths don't even get to see His Majesty's dragon boots, well, don't frown, watch out for wrinkles, let me tell you something I saw with my own eyes.”

   “You say.” Wei Yingluo immediately looked like she was listening and said, “I'm listening.”

   “It was about four years ago that a Noble Lady died.” AJin said slowly, “over a dress ...”

   As she spoke, the red tiles and bricks of the Forbidden City gradually emerged in front of Wei Yingluo, three layers inside and three layers outside, like this rope on her body, holding her firmly in a cage called the harem.

   The women who come and go, the ones who fall like geese, the ones who close the moon and shy away from the flowers, each with their own characteristics, each with their own beauty, are all famous flowers everywhere but now they are all competing for their beauty in one place.

   Yet there is a time when a flower blooms and a time when it fails.

   “Ah!”

   The shout of alarm drew a crowd of onlookers, among whom was AJin.

   Squeezing into the crowd, AJin couldn't help but cover her mouth with her hands and let out a small shriek.

   Ahead is a well where the court ladies used to come from time to time to fetch water for their respective Zhuzi to wash their faces.

   And now when I poked my head into the well, what met my eyes was the floating body of a woman.

   “... her face was so swollen and white with the water of the well that she was no longer recognizable in her original form.” AJin said in a deep voice, “But I recognized the dress she was wearing, it was a Hundred Birds of Prey dress, so the one who was dead as Noble Lady Yun of the Orchids Gardens Pavilion.”

   It was a festive day, with the sound of firecrackers and congratulations coming from outside but Wei Yingluo felt a little cold.

   A chill dragged through AJin's voice and through the woman in the well, invading the marrow of her limbs.

   Wei Yingluo gulped and said, “Why did she throw herself into the well?”

   “It was because of the dress she had on.” AJin murmured, “That dress was so beautiful, I still remember her walking in the Royal Gardens in it, flowing so brightly that I couldn't tell if the sunlight was all gathered on her or if it was the light scattered off her ...”

   After a pause, AJin said with a lost laugh: “But when His Majesty saw it, he went into a rage and scolded her in front of everyone.”

   This answer was somewhat unexpected to Wei Yingluo, who flinched and asked, “His Majesty doesn't like pretty women?”

   “There is no man under heaven who does not like a beautiful woman.” AJin shook her head, “His Majesty liked her, otherwise he wouldn't have promoted this commoner born Han girl to Noble Lady twice but she was too greedy, wanted too much and did too much.”

   “But it's just a dress ...” Wei Yingluo doesn't quite understand.

   “It was this dress that His Majesty did not like.” AJin said in a quiet voice, “It was an expensive dress made in the Tang dynasty to imitate the dress of Princess Anle and took a long time to make; the palace was so frugal that even Her Highness Empress would not let anyone make such a dress, so His Majesty scolded her for flattering the emperor with her fancy dress and cut her from her position on the spot and relegated her to the palace.”

   “So, that's how it is ...” Wei Yingluo murmured, gaining an initial understanding of that unseen, exalted saint.

   That supreme Son of Heaven, who loves beautiful women and is wary of them.

   He doesn't seem to particularly care about a woman's family origins, so even Han born commoner court maids can be promoted to Noble Lady by him, or maybe he actually prefers such women who have no backstage, are clean and have only him in mind, not the family interests behind them.

   It wasn't that he hated the hundred birds dress, it was that he hated what lurked behind it, like…Ambition.

   “One wrong step in the palace and all is lost. To this day, I don't know if Noble Lady Yun threw herself into the well because she was reprimanded by His Majesty, or if someone used it as an excuse to send her off.” AJin again said, “So, Yingluo, marry well and stop thinking about the palace and your sister ...”

   “AJin Gugu...” Wei Yingluo suddenly spoke to interrupt her, then slowly turned back to her, her pupils were eerie, as if they were two deep wells, just a glance caused AJin to shiver and in a trance, it seemed like she was back six years ago, standing by the well, the cold and corporeal air wafting outwards from its mouth, as white as snow.

   Wei Yingluo's gaze at this moment is so like that well.

   “That thing I begged you to do earlier, did you, do it?” Wei Yingluo asked, staring at her.

   Intimidated by her gaze, AJin couldn't help but nod.

   “That's good.” Wei Yingluo smiled faintly and collected that terrifying aura from her body, turning back into a dainty bride in the blink of an eye.

   She seemed to understand why the Wei family was so against Wei Yingluo entering the palace that she regretted doing that for Wei Yingluo, if such a woman was allowed to enter the palace ...

   “AJin Gugu...” Wei Yingluo said, “You're not sorry you did that for me, are you?”

   “No, no.” AJin denied it but after a few moments of stammering, she couldn't resist a final word of advice, “But if you do that, you'll never be able to go home again ...”

   Without waiting for her to finish her sentence, the door of the room was suddenly pushed open with a creak and Wei Qingtai pushed the door and said: “The auspicious time is coming, is everything ready?”

   “Your Lordship.” AJin looked back at him, wanting to say something.

   “Ready to go.” Wei Yingluo suddenly spoke, cutting off what she wanted to say next.

   Inside the bronze mirror, the bound bride rose with difficulty and as she turned, her lips were close to AJin's ear, whispering: “I have put all those things my mother left for me and my sister in the wedding cake box for Little Qiao to take back and eat.”

   Little Qiao is AJin's goddaughter and her lifeblood.

   “Miss ...” AJin froze at her words.

   “It is a pity that I will not see Little Qiao on the day of her marriage, for I do not know when I will return.” Wei Yingluo smiled lightly and said, “I wish her a good marriage, free of illness and worry and many children and long life.

   The two Wei Sister keepsakes were left by their deceased mother, in addition to those taken from them, a pair of jasper bracelets, a Qilin collar, a pair of onyx peony earrings and two hairpins made of pure gold.

   “Miss ...” AJin's face was touched.

   She is not greedy for riches; she is just worried about her goddaughter's future.

   AJin's years in the palace were wasted and the Zhuzi she once followed was an unpopular girl who couldn't afford to reward her men, so AJin didn't save much money in the palace. When she left the palace and returned to her family, she found that the marriage she had arranged as a child had been annulled and the man had married someone else before she could leave the palace and the child was now as tall as her knee ...

   After a few years, she found an orphaned daughter to love and all her efforts were devoted to her, wanting her to be well fed, well clothed and well married.

   “To be honest, I envy Little Qiao.” Wei Yingluo dropped her head and said in a softer and softer voice, “If my mother were still alive, if my sister were still alive, she would have protected me the way you protected Little Qiao, instead of tying me up and making me cry on the palanquin ...”

   At the end of the sentence, a string of teardrops drops down and shatters on the floor with a drop.

   AJin sighed deeply, knowing that she had been touched but not knowing whether it was the tear or Wei Yingluo's words that had touched her.

   And so, there was no regret in doing that for Wei Yingluo.

   “Miss...” The maid brought over a wooden tray and AJin took the red cover placed on the tray and gently placed it over Wei Yingluo's crown, saying, if she had a deep meaning, “Don't cry, you ... You will get what you want.

   With these words of hers, under the red cover, the vermilion lips curved upwards, as if victory was in the air.

   “The auspicious time has arrived, rise the palanquin!”

   An hour later, the wedding procession passed through Changping Street, surrounded by teahouses, where people dropped their melon seeds and tea and leaned over the railings to look down, watching the long line of big red bridal processions slowly marching forward amid the crackling of firecrackers.

   Dang.

   Dang.

   Dang.

   The pedestrian closer to the palanquin couldn't help but wonder, “What's that noise? It's a thud ...”

   It was not his illusion, for the man beside him, at his reminder, also spoke: “What, you heard it too? I heard it too, the strange thumping sound that seemed to ... Is it coming from the palanquin?”

   It seemed that the more bizarre the matter, the more attention it attracted, so more and more pedestrians crowded over and a few daring punks went so far as to cross the crowd and reach out to push open the door of the palanquin.

   “What are you doing?” Wei Qingtai was so angry that he turned blue and brought his servants over to chase them away, saying, “Go away, go away, where did you come from, you dare to intrude even into the bride's palanquin, do you believe I will take you to the official?”

   Dang.

   Dang.

   Dang.

   Strange noises kept sounding behind him and Wei Qingtai could not resist turning back to the man in the palanquin and lowering his voice to say, “What the hell are you doing?”

   The strange thud paused for a moment, followed by a loud sound that far surpassed the previous one--THUD!

   The door of the palanquin was suddenly slammed open from the inside and a bride, bound in five pieces, fell out of it.

   “Ah!”

   “Blood, so much blood!”

   “Mum, there's so much blood coming out of her head.”

   Blood, as a matter of course.

   Wei Yingluo slowly raised her head, blood flowing down her forehead, staining her pink face. She was tied up and her hands were cut behind her back, so naturally she could only hit the door with her forehead.

   Even if my head is broken and I am not human, I will not regret it.

   It's about time.

   Wei Yingluo has been silently counting the time since she got into the sedan chair, half an hour after the sedan chair has gone, there is Hong Yan Street outside, one hour after the sedan chair has gone, there is Chang Ping Street outside ...

   At this hour, at this place, AJin should have brought the man.

   His eyes roamed the crowd, finally settling on one direction.

   And just as her eyes darted around, the bystanders never stopped talking about her.

   “Oops, look, why is she still tied up with rope?”

   “What a sin, how can you treat your daughter like that?”

   “This isn't marrying a daughter, it's not selling one, is it?”

   “What selling your daughter, don't talk nonsense there, it's just that the palanquin was too upside down and bumped the bride's head.” Wei Qingtai, with a blue face, tried desperately to calm the situation while waving his hand at the groom's official and said, “What are you still looking at there? Why don't you hurry up and help the people up?”

   The groom, who had a red embroidered ball on his chest, turned off his horse and was about to pull Wei Yingluo to her feet when she turned back to him and shouted, “Do you know that I, the Wei family, am the Internal Affairs Ministry Bond Servant? Servant, I'm on the list of court maids! If you forcibly marry a maid to be chosen, not only will you be killed but your whole family will be killed with you!”

   The groom was so shocked that he almost immediately let go of his hand, allowing Wei Yingluo to fall back to the ground again and instead of helping her again, he took two steps back as if avoiding snakes and scorpions and looked to Wei Qingtai in a panic and said, “What's going on here, didn't you say she had been removed?”

   Wei Qingtai gave Wei Yingluo a hard stare before racking his brains to explain, “Look at her madness, of course she was removed ...”

   A soft laugh came from behind him, followed by Wei Yingluo's soft voice saying, “Lord the Banner Commander, do I look, to you, like a madwoman?”

   The Banner Commander?

   Wei Qingtai was startled to see the crowd in front of him part to either side and the Pale-Yellow Banner Commander, who was in charge of the Draft Selection, striding forward.

   “Wei Qingtai!” He looked frosty and pointed at Wei Yingluo and said, “What's going on here?”

  

   The Story of Yanxi Palace《延禧攻略》CHAPTERS