Story of Yanxi Palace

Chapter 2 Hundred-Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix Skirt

Three hours ago.

"A comb through the head, no need to worry about wealth and honour."

"A second comb through the head, no worries about sickness."

"A third comb through the head, many children and a long life."

"A fourth comb through the end, to lift the case to eyebrow level ..."(means mutual respect in a marriage )

"Enough." Wei Yingluo interrupted, "Auntie Jin, ”Can I have someone who truly loves me to stay with me for life?”

On the table lay a gilded bronze mirror, reflecting the two people in the room brightly.

Wei Yingluo was dressed in a bright red wedding gown, with a touch of red color on her lips, so dazzling that anyone who got such a bride would be overjoyed.

Yet, who would have a bride like her, with three layers of clothing on the outside and three layers of clothing on the inside, tied with a hemp rope?

Rather than getting married, it was more like sacrificing her to the Dragon King in the water, in exchange for peace and prosperity for the whole family and village.

"Auntie Jin," Wei Yingluo said softly, "tell me more about the palace."

It's so late, why do you still ask these questions?” The middle-aged woman sighed as she combed Wei Yingluo's hair while persuading her, “What's wrong with getting married peacefully? I have inquired about the groom's family, although their background is normal, he is an honest man. If I had the choice back then, I would rather marry a man like him than enter the palace and become a court lady, wasting away my years, ageing my looks, and only seeing the Emperor once when I left the palace.”

Wei Yingluo was silent for a moment before asking softly, “What kind of man is the Emperor?”

“I don't know.” Jin smiled helplessly, “I was always kneeling, only seeing the Emperor's dragon boots without daring to raise my head to have a look at his dragon face.”

“You may not have seen his face, but have you heard something about him?” Wei Yingluo asked, “Jin Auntie, how do the people in the palace describe him? Do you remember?”

Wei Yingluo immediately adopted a listening posture, "I'm listening."

"It was probably about four years ago when a noble lady died because of a skirt..." Jin said slowly.

Along with her words, the red tiles and green bricks of the Forbidden City gradually appeared in front of Wei Yingluo, with three layers inside and three layers outside, just like the rope on her body, firmly fixing her in a prison called the Imperial Harem.

The women coming and going, either sinking fish and dropping wild geese, or closing the moon and blushing flowers, each had its own characteristics and each had its own beauty. Wherever they were, they were all beautiful. Now they gather together, compete with each other in beauty, but who calls the whole garden spring, only the Emperor can appreciate the flowers.

However, flowers have their own time to flourish and wither.

"Ahhhh!!"

A loud scream attracted the crowd, including Jin.

Squeezing into the crowd, Jin couldn't help covering her mouth with her hands, emitting a small scream.

In front of them was a well. Palace maids often came here to fetch water for their masters to wash their faces.

When they peered into the well, they unexpectedly saw a floating corpse of a woman.

"...Her face was swollen and pale due to being soaked in the well water, so that she was unrecognizable.” Jin said in a low voice, “But I recognized her dress. It was a “Hundred-Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix” skirt. It was the Yun Noble Lady from Orchid Garden who died."

It was a festive day, with firecrackers and congratulatory cheers coming from outside, but Wei Yingluo felt a chill.

A coldness crept through Jin's voice, through the woman in the well, into her limbs and bones.

Wei Yingluo swallowed hard: "Why did she jump in the well?"

"It was because of her dress," murmured Jin. "It was so beautiful, I can still remember how she looked walking in the royal garden, her dress shimmering with a light so bright it was hard to tell if it was the sun or the light radiating from her...”

She trailed off and chuckled sadly: "But when the emperor saw it, he flew into a rage and berated her in front of everyone, so much that she couldn't even lift her head."

This answer was beyond Wei Yingluo's expectations. She paused, and asked, "Does the Emperor not like pretty ladies?"

"No man in the world doesn't like pretty ladies," Jin shook his head. "The Emperor likes her; otherwise, he wouldn't have favored her twice and raised this common-born Han girl to be a noble lady. It's just that she was too greedy and wanted too much, and did too much."

"But it was only a dress..." Wei Yingluo was a bit confused.

"That's what the Emperor didn't like," Jin said in a low voice. "That was a 'Hundred-Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix' dress modeled after Princess Anle of the Tang Dynasty. It was expensive and took a long time to make. Even the Empress Dowager wouldn't let anyone make such a dress in the palace. So the Emperor scolded her for dressing flamboyantly to please him and immediately stripped her of her status and demoted her to a palace maid."

"Oh, I see..." Wei Yingluo murmured, and she now had a very initial understanding of the all-powerful Emperor.

The almighty emperor, fond of beautiful women, yet wary of them as well. He does not seem to care about their background, so even a commoner born palace maid can be elevated to a noble by him. Or perhaps he prefers those without any background, innocent and pure, with only him in their heart, not the interests of their family.

He didn't despise the phoenix-embroidered skirt, but what was hidden behind it, such as...ambition.

"One wrong step in the palace, and devastation will follow -- until this day, I still don't know if the Yun Noble Lady was so despondent that she jumped into the well due to being reprimanded by the emperor, or if someone took this as an excuse to send her away." Jin advised again, "So, Yingluo, just marry properly, don't think about the palace or your elder sister..."

"Aunt Jin," Wei Yingluo suddenly interrupted her, then slowly turned her head, her eyes deep and profound, like two deep wells. Just one look, and Jin shivered. In a trance, it seemed she was back to six years ago, standing by a well with a cold, chilling and deathly aura wafting from the well. Everything was as white as snow.

Wei Yingluo's gaze at the moment was like that of a well.

"Did you do what I asked you to do?" Wei Yingluo stared at her and asked.

Overwhelmed by her gaze, Jin involuntarily nodded.

"That's good." Wei Yingluo smiled faintly and suppressed the terrifying aura on her body, turning back into a tender bride in the blink of an eye.

A chill ran down the spine of Jin. She seemed to understand why the Wei family was so opposed to Wei Yingluo entering the palace that they even regretted doing the deed for her. If such a woman entered the palace…

"Aunt Jin." Wei Yingluo suddenly said, "Did you regret doing that for me?"

"No, no." Jin hurriedly denied it, then hesitated for a moment before finally giving her a piece of advice, "But once you do this, you may never be able to go home again..."

Suddenly, the door creaked open, and Wei Qingtai pushed it open, saying, "It's almost time. Are you ready?"

“Master.” Jin turned around, wanting to say something, but stopped.

“Yes, we are.” Wei Yuelong suddenly spoke, cutting off what Jin was about to say.

In the mirror, the bride, who was tightly bound with five ribbons, struggled to stand up. As she turned around, her lips almost touched Jin's ear and she whispered, “I've put all the things my mother left me and my elder sister in the cake box. Let Sister Qiao take them back and eat them.”

Sister Qiao was Jin's adopted daughter and her lifeline.

“Miss…” Jin was stunned upon hearing this.

“Alas, I don't know when I can come back. I'm afraid I won't see my sister Qiao's wedding day.” Wei Yingluo smiled softly and said, "I wish her a good husband and a healthy, happy and long life with many children in advance here."

Apart from the things snatched away by others, the only things left by Wei Yingluo's deceased mother were a pair of jade bracelets, a necklace, a pair of marble peony earrings, and two golden hairpins.

"Miss..." Jin was moved.

She was not greedy for wealth and honour, but worried about her daughter's future.

The years in the palace passed, and the master she once followed was not favored. He had no ability to reward his subordinates, so he could not save much money in the palace. When she returned to her mother's house after leaving the palace, she found that the marriage she had set in her childhood had been aborted. The man waited for her to leave the palace, but he had already married someone else. Now the children are as tall as her knees...

Rather than marry away to be a concubine, it's better to be alone and free. Several years later, she adopted a poor orphan girl, pouring all her effort and money into her, wanting her to eat well, dress well, and have a good marriage. “To be honest, I envy Sister Qiao," Wei Yingluo bowed her head, her voice getting softer and softer. "If my mother and sister were still here, they would protect me like you protect Sister Qiao, rather than binding me up and sending me away in a bridal sedan chair, crying..."

Her words had just finished when a string of tears fell, dropping to the ground with a tap.

Jin sighed deeply. She knew she was moved, though she couldn't tell if it was the tear, or Wei Yingluo's words.

Therefore, she didn't regret doing that for Wei Yingluo.

The maid walked up with a wooden tray, and Miss Wei picked up the red lid from the tray and gently placed it on top of Wei Yingluo's phoenix crown, as if to say meaningfully, "Don't cry, you... will get what you wish for."

With her words, a faint smile curved on the lips beneath the red lid.

"It's a good time, let's go!"

An hour later, the wedding procession passed by Changping Street, with teahouses lined up on both sides. The people in the teahouses dropped their tea and leaned over the railing to watch the long red welcoming line slowly move forward amid the sound of firecrackers.

Bang .

Bang .

Bang .

The people who were close to the bridal sedan were puzzled and asked, "What's that sound? Bang, Bang, Bang ..."

It was not his hallucination, because the people around him, after his reminder, also spoke out: "What, you heard it too? I heard the weird sound, it seemed... came from the bridal sedan?"

Seemingly, the more bizarre things are, the more attention they attract, so more and more people crowded around. A few bold hooligans even went beyond the crowd and reached out to push the sedan door.

"What are you doing?" Wei Qingtai's face flushed with anger and brought the servants over to drive them away, "Leave, leave, where did these rascals come from, even dared to break into the bridal sedan, believe it or not, I'll take you to the official?"

Bang .

Bang .

Bang.

Weird sound kept ringing behind him, Wei Qingtai couldn't help but turn his head back, and said to the people in the sedan in a low voice: "What the hell are you doing?"

The door suddenly burst open, and a tightly bound bride tumbled out, blood streaming down her forehead.

“Ah!”

“Blood, so much blood!”

“Mom, she has so much blood on her head.”

Blood, of course.

Wei Yingluo slowly raised her head, the blood continuing to flow down her rosy cheeks. That loud thud was her banging the door open. But with her body bound and her hands tied behind her back, she had no choice but to use her forehead.

No matter how much blood she spilled, she was neither human nor ghost, and she had no regrets.

Time is almost up.

Ever since Wei Yingluo got into the sedan chair, she silently counted time. After half an hour, they arrived at Hongyan Street. After another hour, they arrived at Changping Street...

It's time, they should have arrived.

Her eyes scanned the crowd and finally stopped at a direction. Meanwhile, people around her kept commenting.

"Oh my, why is she tied up with ropes?"

"What a sin, how can one treat your daughter like this?"

"This isn't a marriage, could it be a sale of a daughter?"

Wei Qingtai's face was as dark as iron, while he was desperately trying to calm down the situation, he waved his hand to the groom, "What are you still looking at? Hurry up and get her back up!"

The groom official, wearing a red embroidered ball on his chest, hurriedly turned over and dismounted, and was about to pull Wei Yingluo up, only to see her turn her head back and sternly shouted at him: "Do you know that I am on the list of maidens for selection! If you forcefully marry the selected palace maid, not only will you kill yourself, but your whole family will be beheaded!"

The groom was scared, and almost immediately let go of his hand, letting Wei Yingluo fall back to the ground again. He did not help her again, but retreated two steps like avoiding snakes and scorpions, looking nervously at Wei Qingtai: "What's going on? Didn't you say that she was disqualified?"

Wei Qingtai glared fiercely at Wei Yingluo, then racked his brains to explain: "You see her acting so strangely, of course she was disqualified..."

A light laughter was heard from behind, followed by Wei Yingluo's gentle voice: "Sir Official, do you think I look like a madman?"

Sir Official?

Wei Qingtai was taken aback, only to see the crowd in front splitting to the sides, and the official from the Yellow Flag Department who was in charge of the selection of palace maids walking over with big strides.

"Wei Qingtai!" His face was as frosty as ice, and he pointed at Wei Yingluo, "What is going on here?"