Chapter 2: Peach Blossoms Blazing, Flowers Reborn

A-Wu sat before her dressing mirror, earnestly and lovingly combing her jet-black, lustrous hair.

Zi Shan, who had just entered with the washing water, couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. She turned to Zi Yan, who was attending in the room, and asked, "She's still combing? I've already fetched water three times."

Zi Yan hurriedly made a shushing gesture toward Zi Shan.

Everyone in this house knew that ever since the Sixth Young Lady recovered from her illness the other day, she had developed a strange eccentricity. She spent her days simply sitting before the dressing mirror in a daze. Because the Old Madam pitied her frail constitution and had exempted her from the morning and evening greetings for a while, she was even willing to sit before the mirror all day long. Although she was still as taciturn as before, Zi Yan, who attended her closely, could sense a difference.

For instance, the former Sixth Young Lady had been the softest of kind souls. Whenever a maid acted out a little, she wouldn't only refrain from scolding them, but would instead take the initiative as the mistress to humble herself and apologize to the maid. Judging by what Zi Shan just said, had it been before her illness, the Sixth Young Lady would definitely have come to apologize long ago and rushed to wash her face, rather than letting Zi Shan fetch water so many times.

Looking at her now, when Zi Shan stepped forward to persuade the Sixth Young Lady to wash her face, she merely reached out with her fingertips to stir the basin, testing the water temperature, before immediately knitting her brows and withdrawing her hand.

Zi Shan carried the basin back, turned her back to exchange a look with Zi Yan, and the two walked out of the room together. Once they reached the shadow of the side wall, Zi Shan couldn't suppress her anger. "What is the Young Lady doing? If she has any dissatisfaction, she should just say it plainly. Why go through the trouble of exhausting people like this?"

Zi Yan pressed down on her hand, signaling Zi Shan to lower her voice.

Zi Shan shook off Zi Yan's hand and curled her lip toward the eastern wing where the Sixth Young Lady resided. "Who does she think she is, so noble? Does she think that just because she's recovered from an illness, she can compete with the Fifth Young Lady? She forgets that the Fifth Young Lady is the daughter of the legitimate master of the First Branch and is a famous talented lady in our capital. Even the Fifth Young Lady isn't as picky as she is."

Zi Yan let out an "oh!" "You little brat, how can you speak like that? Although our Third Master is of concubine descent, the Sixth Young Lady is, after all, the apple of the eyes of Third Master and Third Madam. Even if our Madam can't control others, the people in this house are all under her hand. I see that now that the Sixth Young Lady has recovered, her way of doing things has changed. You can no longer serve her with such carelessness as before."

Zi Shan gave a dismissive "tch" and didn't care. "What do you mean 'her way of doing things has changed'? Isn't she just trying to mimic the Fifth Young Lady's mannerisms? It's laughable—it's like that 'Dong Shi imitating a beauty' thing... what was it called? I forgot. How did Young Master Lun describe the Sixth Young Lady last time?" Zi Shan curled her lip in a mocking smile.

Zi Yan, however, didn't find it funny at all. "You, you're just being stubborn. In the past, you would have dared to say those words directly to the Young Lady's face. Why are you dragging me out to gossip today instead?"

Hearing this, Zi Shan felt a bit sheepish. "I'll go fetch the water."

"Hey, wait. You've fetched it so many times and the Young Lady is still unsatisfied. Why don't you stop being lazy and bring the hot water kettle in so you can dilute the water in the room? That way you won't have to keep running back and forth," Zi Yan said, hurriedly chasing after Zi Shan.

While Zi Shan and Zi Yan were out whispering, A-Wu was still combing her hair in the room, looking at herself in the mirror as if she could never see enough. She truly didn't know how a person could be born so beautiful; she could look at this face for a lifetime and never tire of it. Although she was only a six or seven-year-old girl, the foundation of her face already showed glimpses of future peerless beauty.

If it weren't for this face, she would truly rather die again than have her soul inhabit a body in such a family with such a lowly status.

In her past life, her origins were extremely noble. Her mother was the current Grand Princess, and the Emperor was her biological uncle who had always doted on her. Unfortunately, her fate was thin and her blessings were shallow; she had been sickly since childhood. Even though medicinal tonics flowed into her stomach like running water, it was of no use.

As for her appearance, although it wasn't bad, it couldn't withstand years of chronic illness. No matter how good the hair-washing floral water was, or how vibrant the rouge and creams were, they could not fix her thinning hair and sallow skin.

Because of that face, even though she held the title of Princess Kangning bestowed by her uncle the Emperor and was renowned for her talent, she could never compare to her second elder cousin, who possessed nothing but a beautiful face. No matter how hard she worked or how well-behaved she was, everyone still preferred her second elder cousin, Gu Xihui, one of the "Twin Beauties of the Capital."

Back then, when A-Wu and Gu Xihui both fell in love with the capital's number one scholar—the second son of Tang Jinshan, the Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion and Junior Preceptor to the Crown Prince—the great scholar Tang chose the useless Gu Xihui at first sight.

In the end, as the noble Princess Kangning, she was unable to marry due to her weak health. With no one seeking her hand, she struggled on until her early twenties before passing away.

A-Wu never expected that she would now live again by borrowing the body of the Sixth Young Lady of the Third Branch of the Duke of Anguo's Rong Estate.

Thus, A-Wu was no longer A-Wu, but the Sixth Young Lady of the Rong Estate, Rong Xuan, with the childhood name Wu You.

A-Wu was truly unfamiliar with this Sixth Young Lady; in her previous life, she had never even heard of her. She had only pieced together that she was the legitimate daughter of the Duke of Anguo's concubine-born son, Third Master Rong. Third Master Rong had two sons and one daughter, with Rong Wu You being the youngest. As for the Fifth Young Lady mentioned by Zi Shan, the talented lady of the capital, Rong Wan, A-Wu was quite familiar with her; she was the other half of the "Twin Beauties of the Capital" who stood alongside Gu Xihui.

A-Wu gazed at her reflection. Although she was only six or seven, that future world-toppling radiance could not be hidden even by a tender, childish face. It seemed that once she grew up, she would be no less than Gu Xihui. A-Wu couldn't understand how such a person had seemingly never been heard of in the entire capital.

It wasn't until Zi Yan entered the room that A-Wu snapped out of it, remembering the lack of discipline among the maids in this house. Although she was the daughter of a concubine-born son, she was still a proper mistress of the Duke of Anguo's manor. These maids were trained so crudely; she didn't know what the previous Rong Wu You was thinking. To think her name was Wu You (meaning "No Worries"), but in A-Wu's view, "Many Worries" would have been more appropriate.

By A-Wu's nature, she should have punished these people long ago, swiftly dismissing several of them and replacing them with new ones. However, over the past few days, A-Wu had vaguely realized that her predecessor was an extremely weak and easily bullied "good person." If A-Wu acted willfully, she feared a Taoist priest would show up at her door within days to perform an exorcism.

"Where have you been? I can't even get a sip of water without anyone attending to me," A-Wu complained.

Zi Yan was privately annoyed at herself for forgetting this detail. Ever since the Sixth Young Lady recovered from her illness, she no longer allowed young maids to enter the room at will; all the internal service was handled by Zi Yan and Zi Shan.

Zi Yan quickly lowered her head and bowed. "This servant was wrong. I will go pour water for the Young Lady immediately."

"Bring some mint water," A-Wu added, no longer pursuing the previous fault. This Zi Yan was a sensible person, she just needed a bit of a reprimand. A-Wu thought that since she couldn't truly drive her away, she would just have to make do and manage her herself. If she truly proved to be unteachable, she would find another way to get rid of her.

This time, Zi Shan entered with a copper kettle and diluted the water in a porcelain basin decorated with a pattern of butterflies playing among peonies. A-Wu tested it and sighed helplessly in her heart. Maids from small households truly lacked cleverness; if you didn't say it explicitly, they wouldn't understand for three or five days.

"Fetch another basin of cool water, find a sky-blue porcelain basin to put it in. This hot water needs to be even hotter. From now on, bring the water into the room to dilute it like this, otherwise, it will pick up too much dust on the way. Furthermore, the cool water for washing the face is most important; from now on, use water from the well in the East Courtyard. How can the well water from the West Courtyard, used for washing clothes and vegetables, be used to wash one's face?"

If one were to ask how A-Wu knew this, it was entirely because the structures and rules of the great families in the capital were all quite similar. Generally, there were two wells, East and West, each serving its purpose. The Duke of Anguo's manor was likely no exception.

Just as A-Wu expected, the Duke of Anguo's manor did indeed have an East and West well. The water from the West Courtyard was used for washing clothes and vegetables, while the water from the East Courtyard was used for brewing tea.

Only then did Zi Shan realize that despite fetching water so many times, she had failed to grasp her mistress's intentions.

Zi Shan patiently went to fetch another basin of cool water, but because she was feeling stifled with resentment, she deliberately fetched water from the West Courtyard well. After much fussing, she finally picked out a sky-blue porcelain basin with a single embossed white plum blossom to hold the water.

A-Wu stirred the water again with her fingertips and frowned. "This is water from the West Courtyard. If you are going to be so hypocritical toward your mistress, you'd better return to your Matriarch soon to leave, lest you commit a great error later and implicate your whole family."

Zi Shan was startled, thinking the Sixth Young Lady was truly uncanny. With the same well water, how could she tell just by a single touch that it was from the West Courtyard?

"This servant was muddled and made a mistake. This servant will go fetch it again immediately." Zi Shan dared not be hypocritical again and hurriedly went to fetch new water.

As for A-Wu, how could she truly distinguish between East Courtyard water and West Courtyard water? She had simply spotted Zi Shan's unruly nature and was bluffing her.

By the time Zi Shan returned with the new water, A-Wu spoke leisurely, "Take a few drops of that rose dew sent by Madam and add it to the hot water. Bring the cleansing bean powder."

Zi Yan obeyed, but her heart grew increasingly puzzled. The Sixth Young Lady had only received one bottle of that rose dew from the Western Regions, and she had always been stingy with its use. Why was she using it in her washing water today?

On Zi Shan's side, she served A-Wu by placing white cotton cloth over her chest and rolling up her sleeves, while two small maids stood by holding towels and a rinsing basin. Only then did A-Wu lean down, first using the hot water and the cleansing bean powder to clean her face, and then using the cool water to rinse, before finishing.

Once the task was done, Zi Yan brought over some jade hairpin powder.

A-Wu sniffed it. "Where did this powder come from?"

"It was obtained from the Fifth Young Lady's place yesterday. I heard from Qin Yin that it is this year's new batch." To get this box of powder, Zi Yan had to ask a great favor, simply because the Sixth Young Lady complained that the powder in her own room was bought from outside and mixed with lead powder.

A-Wu toyed with a bit with her fingertips, rubbing the powder between her index finger and thumb. The powder was good, but it didn't adhere well to the skin. When applied, it looked fine from a distance, but up close, one could see it flaking off. The Rong Fifth Young Lady A-Wu had seen was not someone who used such powder.

"Don't tell me the maids in the Fifth Young Lady's room gave you her personal powder to coax you." A-Wu flicked the powder off her fingertips in distaste. "I am still young and do not need to wear powder." A-Wu looked happily at this face, which possessed a radiance that truly lived up to the phrase "the beauty is marred by the very rouge meant to enhance it."

A-Wu then stood up to inspect the Sixth Young Lady's wardrobe. There weren't many clothes, mostly semi-old daily skirts, and very few outfits for meeting guests.

A-Wu spotted a purple top with dark gold embroidery of intertwining chrysanthemum patterns and gold-trimmed chrysanthemum leaves. It looked familiar. After looking down for a moment, she remembered: when the Fifth Young Lady came to visit her the other day, wasn't she wearing a similar *beizi*? Another jade-green skirt with purple plum blossoms embroidered on the collar was also a style the Fifth Young Lady had worn.

A bad premonition rose in A-Wu's heart. Even if they were sisters, they weren't twins; there was no reason to have identical dresses. She didn't know if the previous Sixth Young Lady was truly foolish or just pretending to be; with such looks, why would she need to imitate that mediocre "talented lady" Rong Wan at every turn?