The Fourth Lady novel Chapter 37

After receiving the hairpin from Qingyan, Xiaocui smiled all the way back to her room. In the room, all the other servant girls made an envious look when they saw the hairpin in her hand. Originally, she didn't want to tell Chai Yiyun about this, but she knew that in this yard, there were also other spies of hers.

If she didn't tell her, then the one with an unfortunate end would definitely be her. After all, in Chai Yiyun's eyes, she was only a pawn. And a useless pawn would only be discarded.

Xiaocui glanced at the hairpin and quietly said to herself: Miss, you shouldn't blame me, I'm only doing this because I have no other choice.

Just as Xiaocui stored the hairpin into her sleeve, she saw Chai Yiyun's maid, Juyue standing at the door talking to another girl. Soon after, that girl called Xiaocui over.

When Juyue saw Xiaocui, she spoke in a distasteful tone, "Xiaocui, you have to know, your master now isn't the fourth miss."

Listening to Juyue's words, Xiaocui lowered her head and promptly replied, "Yes, Xiaocui's master now is madam. Xiaocui was just about to go report this matter to madam."

Juyue glanced at her in contempt before taking her to leave with her.

When Xiaocui saw Chai Yiyun, Chai Yiyun was in the middle of grooming. Seeing Xiaocui, she smiled, "I heard that girl gave you a hairpin, is this true?"

When Xiaocui heard this, she immediately presented the hairpin to Chai Yiyun, "This is the hairpin the miss gave me."

Chai Yiyun, seeing that the hairpin was made from a material she'd never seen before, picked it up and played with it in her hand, "Xiaocui, what kind of accessory do you think a servant like you should wear?"

Xiaocui understood that this was Chai Yiyun implying that she wanted the hairpin for herself. She promptly replied in a soft voice, "If madam likes it, then madam can have it."

Satisfied with what she heard, Chai Yiyun nodded her head and glanced to Meixue. Meixue brought out a bag of silver shards and handed it to her, "Take this money as payment for the hairpin."

Xiaocui smiled as she received the moneybag from Meixue, "Thank you very much, Madam."

Chai Yiyun asked about a few trivial matters, before letting Juyue send her away.

This whole time, Chai Yiyun had been staring at the hairpin in hand. In that moment, she just felt that this hairpin suited Su Qingwen more. Soon after, she let Lanzhi send this hairpin to Su Qingwen.

When Su Qingwen saw the hairpin, she loved it to bits and even told Juxiang that she was going to wear hairpin tomorrow.

Everything was going just as Qingyan predicted.

--------------------------------

Early next morning, Qingyan was already waiting at the dressing table for Baizhi to come fix her hair. But seeing her reflection, she couldn't help but to think of the image of that person drawing her eyebrows for her.

That line, 'finishing her makeup, she lowered her head and asked her husband, whether her eyebrows were drawn in fashion*', vaguely resounded in her mind.

(*TN: This is a line from a Tang dynasty poem. The context of the poem is referring to the morning after the wedding as the bride ask her husband whether her makeup will be to her in-laws' liking.)

As she thought of this, Qingyan's lips curled into a smile.

When Baizhi entered, she saw Qingyan sitting in front of the mirror alone smiling to herself. Seeing Qingyan like that, Baizhi laughed, "Miss, did something good happen?"

Hearing Baizhi say that, she turned to her, "You've become quite bold, even daring to tease me."