At noon the next day, Youmeng leaned on the beauty couch in the dormitory, Gu Yu squatted beside her, and took the newly picked phoenix flowers to make a elixir to dye her armor.[1]

Lixia ran in happily and said, "Princess, look at what good things I have brought back to you!"

"Is it the night pearl of the East China Sea or the numbing of the Western Regions? Is it so novel?" Youmeng smiled and didn't look up at her, but only focused on Guyu applying the prepared Kodan pigment on her nails, and wrapped it one by one for her with bamboo leaves.[2]

"Two newly cultivated golden cauldrons from the gardeners in Chunhuiyuan in the palace opened this morning." As he said that, Lixia put the potted orchid in his arms on the red sandalwood table in front of the window, "The emperor has given you a pot of the prince and the princess, one pot of each one, and I specially used it for the princess to enjoy."

Youmeng turned around and saw that it was a golden orchid with three lotus-shaped petals. The flower was dignified and graceful, which looked very beautiful against the blue sky and white clouds outside the window.

"The Golden Lotus Cauldron is a rare treasure among spring orchids. It means rich and powerful golden fragrance, and it is a good omen. Princess." Gu Yu also liked it very much and said to Youmeng with a smile.

"I don't want to be a pampered because of sewing, even if no one is in it." Youmeng picked up two lines of poetry and looked out of the spirit without realizing it. "The orchid blooms so fresh and refined, which reminds me of an old friend who I haven't seen for many years." [3]

"Oh? Who is old friend?" Gu Yu took away the things that made Kodan and asked with interest.

Youmeng's lips bent slightly, and some beautiful old past events are retrieved from the deep sea of ​​memory...

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More than ten years ago, when Youmeng was still a child, she visited a wealthy family. She had just remembered it, and time had passed, and she no longer remembered what that family was called, but she only vaguely remembered that it was a scholarly family.

She had a ten times stronger desire to explore than her children of the same age. She curiously opened the door. In the colorful courtyard, she saw a little girl of her age, with snow-white skin and delicate and beautiful. Her hands were wrapping around one side to braid her hair, wearing a light blue gauze dress. Youmeng saw her neckline with a unique little white flower embroidered at a glance.

Later, they stood together to admire the bonsai on the windowsill. Youmeng pointed to the fragrant white flowers and asked, "What kind of flower is this? It's the same as the one on your collar."

"It's an orchid." At that time, she was already breathing like a orchid and blurted out the poem, "The orchid is so fragrant, and it is fragrant. If you don't pick it, you will be wearing it, so why should you hurt the orchid..."[4]

In Youmeng's memory, it was a girl with orchid fragrance all over her body.

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In the afternoon, Youji came out of Chongming Palace and passed through the corridor leading to the palace. Originally, his trajectory would not have passed by here, but he remembered that he heard from the school today that many famous flowers had bloomed in the flowerbed in Chunhui Garden, so he wanted to go there and relax.

Under the soft light, Lanpu showed a faint tone. After wandering around here, Guji couldn't help but stop because he saw a girl in a white palace maid's skirt curled up on the stone steps outside the bed, with a book spread on her knees, holding her head with one hand, and was lowering her head and intoxicated by the ink fragrance among the books.

Her skin was fair and she had a breathable and transparent under the sun. The breeze blew a little at the hair on her temples. She gently hooked her fingers without any trouble for external things.

———————

Notes:

[1] Kodan: In ancient times, women dyed their nails red with flowers, which was a pure and natural method of nail art.

[2] Naozidai: The thrush material used for women is exquisitely made and produced in Persia.

[3] The poem comes from Kangxi's "Ode to the Orchid".

[4] The poem comes from Han Yu's "Youlan Cao".
Chapter completed!