freenovelworld Chapter 354 Showing Goodwill
Chapter 354 Showing Goodwill
When the carriage arrived at the palace gate, the housekeeper nanny who was guarding the gate came forward, bowed respectfully to Qin Huiyin and her sister, and led them into the main gate.
The servant and the coachman entered the palace through the side door and parked the carriage in the stable.
Tang Luwu walked behind Qin Huiyin and quietly looked at the palace garden.
Although Gong Qianyue's father was only a prefect, there was a marquis in the Gong family's ancestor, but this marquisate was not hereditary and fell into decline in their generation.
The current head of the palace is the eldest son of the family, who is the Minister of Personnel and a fourth-rank official. This garden was passed down from his ancestors, who once held a noble title, so it is many times larger than the residence of an ordinary fourth-rank official.
It was Tang Luwu's first time visiting such a high-ranking official's residence, and she was a little nervous. She didn't dare to look any further, and followed Qin Huiyin and the old nanny in front to the backyard.
This garden is tranquil and elegant, yet it exudes an air of luxury. For example, the fish in the lotus pond alone are worth ten years' worth of living expenses for an average person. And the garden boasts a wide variety of precious flowers, none of which are ordinary; all are rare species. These flowers require skilled gardeners to care for them, and the annual maintenance costs are considerable.
Before they even approached Qianyue Garden, they heard the voices of several women chatting and laughing. As the two sisters stepped through the archway, pairs of eyes looked over at them, sizing them up.
Today, Qin Huiyin and Tang Luwu were dressed to the nines. In a garden filled with a variety of flowers, Qin Huiyin's beauty completely overshadowed the others. Tang Luwu was certainly not bad looking either; after all, her elder brother and younger brother were both renowned for their handsomeness. Since they were born of the same mother and had followed Qin Huiyin's beauty regimen for so many years, her skin was so tender you could squeeze water out of it. Now, after some extra dressing, while she might not be as gorgeous as a peony or as charming as a rose, she was still as elegant and pleasant as a lily.
Surprise flashed in everyone's eyes.
A group of elegantly dressed noble ladies were actually outshined by two country-born girls, and they felt complicated for a moment.
Preparations for a noble ladies' party like this would start several days in advance. It was imperative that the ladies wore fashionable clothes and the latest jewelry so as not to be outdone by others.
These noble ladies thought they were dressed perfectly, but compared with the two new women, they were charming but also vulgar.
"Sister Qin, Sister Tang, I'm so glad you're finally here." Gong Qianyue greeted them with a smile. "I was mistaken just now and thought I saw a fairy descending to earth. Now I rubbed my eyes and took a closer look. It turns out that the fairy is a fairy, but she's not from the mortal world. She's a fairy from our world."
"Sister Gong, please stop talking like that. In front of so many beautiful sisters, we are like a blade of grass in the garden, barely able to lift our heads."
When Gong Qianyue took the initiative to pull Qin Huiyin's hand, she did not refuse, but instead held the other's hand generously.
"Sister, we haven't seen each other for over a year, right?" Qin Huiyin leaned closer and exclaimed, "How come your skin is so tender?"
"This is all thanks to the beauty cream you gave me. It's really useful!" Gong Qianyue said, turning back to the other noble lady, "This is the amazing sister I often tell you about. Her shop is very famous, and many people go there just to eat her delicious food. And those beauty creams of hers, the ones I gave you before were bought from her, didn't you say they were very useful too?"
"After seeing you today, I can see that you are indeed a wonderful person, a real beauty," the noble lady said, covering her mouth. "Come and have a cup of tea, and then let us take a good look at your makeup. I won't let you go until I pull out all the hair from your body today."
Seeing that everyone was so easy to talk to, Tang Luwu gradually relaxed and let them look at her openly. Then she introduced to them the makeup designed for her by Qin Huiyin.
"This is our first visit, and we don't know what to give. Sister has no shortage of good things, so we can only give you some common things for women." Qin Huiyin said, and said to Zhilan and Tang Luwu's maid Minghui behind her, "Bring everything I asked you to bring!"
The two maids each held a large box. They placed the large box on the table and opened it, revealing a series of smaller boxes inside.
Zhilan opened the first small box, which contained various small bottles of different colors.
"Ladies, this is perfume. It's newly concocted by our lady and isn't available on the market yet. There are twelve scents in total, each one is unique. Please feel free to choose."
"Let me try." Chang Xiaohuan, the daughter of another minister of the Ministry of Personnel, took out a red bottle.
Without waiting for her to open it, Zhilan demonstrated it to her, pressed it a few times, and sprayed it out.
"You don't even have to pour it out before using it," Chang Xiaohuan marveled. "Such a unique design! Even before we even consider the aroma, this ingenuity alone already surpasses other brands."
"Who made me so clumsy? No matter how I poured the perfume, it always spilled all over the floor, which made me so angry. Then I thought, I seem to have seen bottles with this function in the outside world before. Why not use such a bottle to hold the perfume and spray it directly when I want to use it? I asked many craftsmen to try, and finally I figured it out."
"My sister is really a smart and thoughtful person." The woman that Gong Qianyue specially introduced was called Zhu Hongxiu. She was the daughter of the Minister of Personnel and also the daughter of Gong Qianyue's uncle's immediate superior.
Besides the three of them, there were five other women in the garden. Three of the remaining five women were daughters of the Gong family: Gong Qianmiao, the third daughter of the first wife; Gong Qianyi, the fifth cousin of the third wife; and Gong Qianshu, the sixth daughter of the first wife. Gong Qianyue was the legitimate daughter of the second wife, ranking fourth in the entire Gong family tree.
Of course, the eldest and second daughters of the Gong family have already married.
As for the last two noble ladies, they don’t have a strong presence and don’t like to stand out, so their family’s official positions should not be high.
Gong Qianyue introduced the remaining two people to Qin Huiyin and Tang Luwu. One of them was Wang Nianfu, the daughter of a doctor in the Ministry of Personnel, and the other was Wen Ruxu, the daughter of a deputy director of the Ministry of Personnel.
Qin Huiyin discovered that only the daughters of officials from the Ministry of Personnel were invited to today's flower-viewing banquet, which should be considered a small internal gathering among them. It can be seen that these daughters of officials also stick together for warmth.
These noble ladies smiled, but their eyes flickered, clearly observing and mentally evaluating them. Before they appeared, Gong Qianyue must have already explained the sisters' backgrounds. Today's banquet was Gong Qianyue's gesture of goodwill towards her, so no matter what these noble ladies thought, they would definitely keep up the facade.