Purple Tulips

Red Tulips - Chapter FIVE 🌷

Lixue passed her days by leisurely. These past few days were spent on working in the morning then spending her free time wandering around the estate aimlessly and visiting the gardens. Her favorite place was still the tulip garden. Noticing that no one was visiting the place, she spent most of her afternoons in the pavilion there enjoying the cool breeze coming from the mountains in the south. When she felt like it, she also worked in the afternoons when the clouds block most of the sun's rays.

Aside from visiting the gardens, Lixue also gained more information and gossip from her roommates and fellow servants. There were eight of them in the room, four of which were gardeners like her. Her other roommates were part of the kitchen staff and they were also the ones with more gossips to share. The gossips were mostly about nobles varying from which minor house offended which ducal house or which noble lady was arranged to marry which lord and so on.

Lixue also learned that Viscount Fang, twenty-one summers in age, succeeded the house when he was sixteen when his father passed away due to an illness. Viscount Fang was also greatly favored by the emperor due to his great achievement as a strategist in the war with the neighboring kingdom two years ago. 

It was rumored that the emperor wanted to elevate the viscount's status but Viscount Fang did not want it at all. But due to his accomplishments and the emperor's favor, he became one of the most eligible bachelors in the Hua Mu kingdom. 

Moreover, even at his age, he still did not have even a single concubine in his harem. That was why many young noble ladies were working hard and trying all possible means to gain his attention and hopefully become the first wife of the viscount.

Wanting his good friend and strategist to settle down already, the emperor gave the viscount an imperial edict for the viscount to organize a flower-viewing party a week from now and invite all the noble ladies in the kingdom. With much reluctance and resentment, the viscount had no choice but to receive the imperial edict and organize a flower-viewing party with the help of his late mother's sister who was married to a duke.

And because of the upcoming flower-viewing party, Lixue's leisurely days had come to an end. She and her fellow gardeners became so busy taking care of the flowers that were going to be displayed. 

Different types of flowers were chosen, from peonies to chrysanthemums, plum blossom, tulips, and many more. Proper handling and care comparable to what was given to babies were dedicated to the flowering plants so as to not embarrass the viscount.

In a blink of time, a week passed and the day of the flower-viewing party came.

The people in the capital watched as carriages from all over the kingdom filled and lined the streets towards Viscount Fang's mansion. It looked like a parade and a contest at the same time, with the commoners betting on whose noble's carriage was the most grand or elegant or which noble miss would be able to catch the viscount's elusive heart.

Meanwhile, at the viscount's mansion, the viscount's personal servants were busy welcoming the guests and leading them to their assigned mini-gazebos in the garden. The garden in which the event would be held was in the center of the viscount's estate. It was the common garden and not one of the gardens of the different courtyards in the estate.