NoGift

Chapter 117: hairpin ceremony

IN XING, when girls turned 15, they often undergo a coming of age ceremony.  A hairpin ceremony was held to symbolize their entry to adulthood.  A hairpin would be pinned on the girl's beautifully arranged hair and that would signal that she was now ready to be a wife to a man.  Not many could afford a grand hairpin ceremony.  Mostly, only girls from distinguished families could have one.

There were two steps to the hairpin ceremony.  The girl's hair would be gathered up onto the top of her head into a bun, then the hairpin would be inserted into her hair.

Inside the Fenghua Palace, the Empress was standing in front of an eight treasure style couch.  The seventh princess was wearing a very elegant robe and was standing below her.  On the sides, there were noble married women and their daughters attending the ceremony.  Among them was Aurum.  She was sitting beside Madame Lin.

Since she arrived with Madame Lin earlier, she already gathered a lot of attention.  Despite wearing simple clothing, it couldn't lessen her beauty.  Among the girls of the same age attending the ceremony, Aurum was still the most beautiful and eye-catching.  Even the mature women could not hold a candle to her.  Which, of course, caused a lot of dissatisfaction. 

Aurum had been receiving a lot of hateful looks since earlier.  She didn't mind.  She already expected as much.  Girls at this age were more prone to envy and jealousy.  Especially those that were narrow minded.  They would automatically hate those who were better than them.  And since Aurum was better than them in all aspects - beauty, wealth, status, fame - she was the perfect target of their envy and hate.

Aurum could only sigh in her heart.  Beauty was really a sin.  She ignored those hateful looks and just continued to watch the ceremony in front.

The seventh princess was kneeling on the red suede carpet and saluting the Empress with her hands together.  Her hair was already put into a bun.  Then the matron in charge of the ceremony took out the hairpin from a box being held by a palace maid.  It was a beautiful golden butterfly hairpin with exquisitely carved plum blossom petals.  The matron took the hairpin from the box and inserted it on the seventh princess' hair.

And that concluded the hairpin ceremony.

Aurum couldn't truly understand the need for so much fanfare.  All this just for them to watch an old lady putting a hairpin on a teenage girl's hair?  It's a bit over the top in her opinion.  Good thing Albion didn't have a ceremony like this.  Usually they just held party for their 18th birthday.  That's definitely much better than this.

After the ceremony ended, the noble married ladies went to the Empress to say goodbye together with their daughters.  With their fawning attitude, it's obvious that they wanted to get the Empress' favor.  Not surprising, since the Emperor didn't really have any particular favorite concubine.  So in this harem, the Empress still reigned supreme.

Aurum thought that either the Emperor still had some use for the Empress that's why he chose that way to deal with the harem or he just didn't care about his women.  Based on her brother's description of the Emperor, Aurum couldn't help but feel that it was the latter.

Soon, it was her and Madame Lin's turn to bid farewell to the Empress.

"Your Majesty," the both of them respectfully greeted.

"Thank you for attending's Zi-er's hairpin ceremony," the Empress said referring to the seventh princess.

"It's our honor to be here.  It's just right to give our blessing to the seventh princess," Madame Lin said.

"This Empress hasn't seen Madame Lin much lately.  This Empress has missed our conversation.  You should come to the palace and visit this Empress more often."

Madame Lin smiled.  "Thank you, Your Majesty.  I'll do just that.  Our conversations has always been quite invigorating."

Aurum almost rolled her eyes at all this fakeness.  So even Madame Lin could fake a smile if she needed to.

Then the Empress turned to her.  "This Empress hasn't seen you for a few days and you seem to look even more beautiful."

Aurum acted like she was shy.  "Your Majesty..."

"What's this, are you still shy?" the Empress said amusedly.  "This Empress has prepared a special banquet for Zi-er's.  All the young people from good families are invited.  This Empress knows that you haven't been able to interact with a lot of people your age since you came here in Xing.  You should go and make some friends."

Madame Lin looked worriedly at Aurum.  She already heard about the rumors that the Empress wanted to match Aurum with the fifth prince.  But she also knew that Aurum was already engaged with a prince from Albion.  If that wasn't the case, she would really be tempted to match the girl with her son.  Not because of her exorbitant wealth but simply because Madame Lin liked the sweet girl.  So she didn't want her to be entrenched in any of the Empress' schemes.  Especially since her brother entrusted her to Madame Lin.

Aurum, of course, noticed Madame Lin's worried gaze.  So she smiled at her, reassuring her that she would be alright.  Then she looked at the Empress.  "I would love to.  Thank you for the invitation, Your Majesty."

The Empress seemed to be very satisfied with her answer.  Then she called the sixth princess over.  "Min-er, go and accompany Lady Aurum to the banquet."

"Yes, Mother."  The sixth princess smiled at Aurum.  "Come, let's go Lady Aurum."

Aurum had no choice but to follow the sixth princess out of Fenghua Palace.

"Lady Aurum truly looks exceptional," the sixth princess opened while they were walking.  "I, for one, love your dress.  It's quite... original."

Aurum didn't miss the mockery in the princess' voice.  She knew how simple her dress looked, but so what?  "Thank you, Your Highness.  I think a dress of this design would suit you.  It would definitely highlight your beauty.  Do you want me to tell you where I bought it?"

The smile on the princess' face seemed to be a bit stiff.  If she wore the same dress that Aurum was wearing now, it would definitely not highlight her beauty.  In fact, it would bring the opposite effect.  "That's very kind of you."

Aurum told her the name of the store and she almost laughed when she saw the princess' constipated expression.  For the sake of fun, Aurum tried to read her thoughts.  Just to see if the princess was cursing her right now inside her head.

Li Min gritted her teeth in anger.  If she could, she really wanted slap this girl senseless.  From the moment they met, she always make her feel that she was nothing but a jumping clown in her eyes.  Then she remembered what her imperial mother told her and some of her anger subsided.

[That's right.  Act all high and mighty all you want.  At the end of this day, you'll be disgraced in front of everyone.  And then you'll have no choice but to marry that cut sleeve brother of mine.  Let's just see if you could still laugh after that.]

Aurum almost tripped.  She knew what cut sleeve meant.  It's a famous euphemism in this country.  She didn't know at what fact she should be more surprised.  That the Empress was really planning something for her or that the girly looking fifth prince was indeed gay?