Princess In The Palace

7. His Growing Feelings

Chapter 7.

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Recap: In the previous chapter, First Prince revealed that he wanted to paint Yì Rán and went on to casually ask about her backgrounds. Second Prince went strolling around the Phoenix Garden and encountered Concubine Huā, who was a newly-chosen concubine. Empress Yáng, found out about First Prince's activities with Yì Rán and commanded her servant to keep an eye on them.

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Today was another day they agreed to meet again, after many times before. Yì Rán still did not know the reason First Prince chose her out of so many other people. However, she was excited to see the beautiful strokes of ink on the silk and she was indeed able to recognise herself from the outlines of the painting. The eyes, the nose, the lips, the jaws, the ears, the neck.

Today was special, though. The moment she stepped into the premises of the palace, still admiring the structure despite having been here for a few times, escorted by Xiǎo Wěi, they were headed not to the garden but to another area. She silently followed, realising that she was brought into an empty room, and just left there alone. Unsure of what to do, Yì Rán stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, clutching her hands togethers and her eyes darted around the dimly-lit room.

There was a porcelain vase with intricate paintings of kois on it placed on a low table at the corner of the room. There was a painting held up on another table across the room, on it was an exquisite painting of mountains and trees, with characters that seemed to radiate poetic feels written at the lower side of it. Before she was able to scrutinize another piece of artwork, the backdoor opened and two palace servants entered, one of them carrying layers of clothes and the other one had boxes of jewellery in her hands.

"First Prince had ordered us to help Young Miss with changing. Please do come behind the partition."

They both headed behind the wooden partition. She was dumbfounded for a moment, but obeyed and headed behind the partitions. The servants helped her strip down everything, including her last white layer of robe, that she felt hesitant to let go and now conscious. In place of hers, they slipped on a white robe made of silk that was smooth to touch of her skin. It was followed by many other layers of garments until the last one, or the outermost one. It was a soft pink layer with white linings. There were two tassels sewn onto the embroidered patches of cloth at the front side of the garment, situated at the both the upper chest. She looked down on her feet and saw the gorgeous golden embroideries on the garment lining. It was the most beautiful outfit she had ever seen and worn in her whole life.

Then she was asked to sit on the cushion before the low table, while both the servants stood at both her left and right, pulled up her long hair into a high style, her fringe was gently placed at the side of her face before it was pulled up to join the rest of her hair. Her hair was neatly styled, with half of it combed and left down. Then they picked out the most gorgeous hair decorations she had ever seen and pinned them into her hair, fastening it in place.

Lastly, they patted white pearl powder on her face, tinted her cheeks with a slight touch of rouge, painted her eyebrows, drew a plum flower motif on her forehead and to top it all off, her lips were tinted slightly with a red sheet of lipstick.

"Miss, please come this way." She was not given a chance to look at herself in the mirror, but immediately escorted away once she was done. She could only admire the fine smooth silk wrapping her body and the long white silk shawl that was draped around her back and arms and they fluttered as she walked. It felt almost magical to her, to be able to dress in such fine dresses that usually only the Imperial Family members could.