Chapter 2 White Lotus's Extraordinary Talent

In the spring of the twenty-second year of Fengtian, at the Bai Mansion in Luoyang

The morning light at dawn, like the finest gold dust, gently seeped into Qinglian Pavilion through the pear wood carved window lattice.

A young maid named Cuizhu carried a copper basin filled with warm water and tiptoed into the room. She first peeked her head into the room, her round eyes scanning the surroundings warily to make sure she hadn't disturbed anyone inside, before she tiptoed in.

She carefully placed the copper basin on the rosewood washbasin stand, held her breath, and cautiously lifted a corner of the misty gauze curtain to peek inside.

Beneath the embroidered quilt, Bai Lian, the eldest daughter of the Bai family, was still fast asleep. She lay on her side, her hair slightly disheveled, with a few strands of glossy black hair scattered on the pillow, making her face appear as white as jade.

Cui Zhu felt slightly relieved and let out a soft sigh of relief before slowly gathering the gauze curtains on both sides with delicate gilded hooks. She then knelt on the footstool, leaning slightly forward, her arms crossed over the edge of the bed, her chin resting on her arms, intently examining the scene.

She could never get tired of looking at her! Cuizhu thought to herself, every time she gazed at her mistress's sleeping face, it was as if she were seeing it for the first time, so captivating.

Look at her skin, so delicate and smooth, like fresh snow in early winter, or like the finest white jade, radiating a warm glow.

And those eyelashes! Whose eyelashes can grow so thick and long, and each one is so clearly defined?

Her lips were perfectly shaped, naturally red without any makeup, with an alluring color.

Even a few unruly strands of hair clinging to her cheeks added a touch of languidness and tenderness to her appearance.

Cuizhu was almost mesmerized, her eyes filled with amazement and admiration, as if she were examining a rare treasure. She dared not breathe, afraid that even the slightest breath might disturb this ultimate beauty.

"A beautiful person like Miss should be cherished and kept in a golden house. How could she... how could she have encountered such misfortune?" Cuizhu thought to herself, but then her thoughts were replaced by a small sense of relief. "But it's good this way. Otherwise, how could I possibly serve such a divine person?"

In Cuizhu's simple and pure world, seeing Miss's angelic sleeping face first thing every morning is the best reward she can give herself for a hard day's work.

Bai Lian was actually somewhat awake when Cui Zhu lifted the gauze curtain, but she was drowsy in the spring and really craved the warmth of the quilt, so she didn't want to wake up immediately.

Only when she felt that burning gaze lingering on her face did she reluctantly open her eyes.

The moment she opened her eyes, she was met with a round, white face right in front of her, topped with a pair of slightly messy double buns, and a pair of bright black eyes staring intently at her without blinking.

Bai Lian's grumpiness from being disturbed in her sleep vanished at this scene, leaving her both amused and exasperated.

"Cui~~~ Zhu! What are you up to now!" she called out weakly, drawing out her voice.

The maid, who had been lost in her own world, was startled by the sound and immediately knelt down like a frightened rabbit.

She raised her eyes, which instantly filled with tears, and replied in a trembling voice, almost breathlessly, "Miss, I'm sorry... I couldn't help myself when I saw your face, I couldn't help but look at you a few more times... I was wrong..."

After saying that, she curled her lips, as if she had completely given up struggling, and lowered her head in despair, looking as if she was resigned to her fate.

After a long silence from the other end, Cuizhu timidly looked up again.

On the bed, nestled within a quilt draped with intricate floral patterns, sat a figure as exquisite as a doll, one slender hand supporting her cheek as she gazed at her with a half-smile.

"Cuizhu," Bailian's voice carried the languidness of early morning, with a hint of teasing, "tell me honestly, do you not like men?"

"Ahhh, Miss! What are you saying now?!" Cui Zhu's face instantly turned bright red, like a ripe shrimp, so ashamed she wanted to disappear.

She subconsciously reached out and gently pushed the brocade quilt. "Miss, how could I... how could I not like... men..." The last word "men" was so soft it was like a mosquito's hum.

Bai Lian looked at the round face in front of her, which was flushed red, and suppressed the corners of her lips that were about to turn up. Then she slowly lifted the brocade quilt and sat on the edge of the bed.

She glanced at him and said in a feigned helpless tone, "Well, I was thinking that if you really dare to have any improper thoughts about me, I'll just have to send you to serve Brother Ziyuan."

Upon hearing "Ziyuan," Cuizhu's eyes lit up instantly. Bai Ziyuan, the eldest young master of the Bai family, a famous and handsome young man in Luoyang!

But just as she was looking on with longing, she was stopped by the speechless look Bai Lian gave her. She snapped back to her senses and quickly turned around to busy herself, trying to cover up her embarrassment: "Miss, Miss, I was wrong! I'll help you change and wash up right away!" She quickly went to get the clothes folded on the incense burner.

When she gets busy, she's like a spinning top being pulled. Bai Lian propped her head up and watched the little maid's flustered back with great interest, feeling happy for a long time.

This girl is as innocent as a blank sheet of paper, and all her emotions are written on her face, which adds a lot of fun to her otherwise rather mundane life of recuperation.

-

To be honest, Bai Lian's current life of sleeping in until she naturally wakes up every day and doing nothing is "thanks" to the sudden and extremely dangerous illness she suffered more than a year ago.

The illness came on suddenly and violently, causing her to have a high fever for several days, and she was said to have been on the verge of death several times.

When she struggled to wake from her long, unconscious sleep, her mind was completely blank. She didn't know where she was, didn't remember her parents or relatives, and even her own name, Bai Lian, was something her mother had told her with tears in her eyes.

This serious illness wiped out a large part of her life, leaving her with only an empty body and some vague instincts.

Bai Lian's father, Bai Moyuan, was the prime minister of the current dynasty, a man of great power and influence, yet he had tears in his eyes when he stood by her sickbed.

He comforted her, saying that the high fever over the past few days had damaged her mind, and that it was a blessing from her ancestors that she was still alive. He added that amnesia could not be rushed and that she needed to recuperate slowly; she would eventually remember.

From then on, Bai Lian became the most cherished person in the Bai family and a true "homebody".

Even though she was well past the age of marriage, her parents never reminded her about marriage, appearing completely unburdened and simply telling her to rest and recuperate.

This unusual tolerance occasionally made Bai Lian feel a little doubtful, but the confusion brought about by amnesia and the unfamiliarity with her surroundings made her choose to accept the status quo.

"Since I'm here, I might as well make the best of it," Bai Lian thought to herself.

However, she was not entirely idle during her convalescence.

The father believed that learning might stimulate memory recovery. Therefore, Bai Lian's most important task every day was to listen attentively in class, hoping to help her rediscover the world.

Initially, the maid Qingmei was the one who attended to her at her bedside and was responsible for "teaching" her.

Qingmei is quiet and serious, but she is extremely meticulous and thorough in her work.

To help the young lady regain her memory, she would sit solemnly by the bedside every day with a book in hand, reading aloud to Bai Lian one by one the history of the dynasty, folk customs, poems and songs, even biographies of emperors and generals and the long genealogy of the Bai family... These books, which could fill a whole carriage, were enough to fill a whole carriage.

She read meticulously, with clear and distinct pronunciation, without interruption, and without adding any personal opinions, as if she were completing a solemn task.

He didn't really care whether the pale-faced lady on the bed had actually listened or understood these difficult and obscure sentences.

Later, Bai Moyuan also noticed that Qingmei seemed a bit too serious and rigid, and he was afraid that it would put pressure on his daughter and be detrimental to her physical and mental recovery. So he asked Steward Wang to choose another lively and clever maid to serve the young lady together.

Butler Wang carefully selected Cuizhu, Qingmei's younger sister, who was described as "lively and cheerful" in his eyes.

However, from the moment Cuizhu and Bailian first met, a strange feeling and doubt began to rise in Bailian's heart.

The maid's gaze toward him was exceptionally ardent, focused, and even bordering on infatuation.

At first, Bai Lian thought it was just a hallucination caused by her weakness after her illness.

For several days in a row, whether she was eating, taking medicine, taking a walk, or even just gazing out the window, she could keenly sense that gaze following her like a shadow, clinging tightly to her...

Occasionally, she could even catch a glimpse of the glistening moisture on the lips of the person who was looking at her…

Although being admired is not a bad thing, Bai Lian knew that she was quite beautiful, but the undisguised and enthusiastic gazes day after day made her feel somewhat at a loss, and occasionally she would even feel a chill down her spine.

Left with no other choice, she could only concentrate intently on Qingmei's flat, emotionless recitation, trying to shield herself from that direct gaze.

Unexpectedly, this forced focus produced an unforeseen effect.

Within a few weeks, she discovered that she had memorized everything Qingmei had taught her. Not only was the content that she needed to remember easy to grasp, but she had also inadvertently mastered some of the supplementary information, such as the origins of obscure place names, secrets of the previous dynasty's court, and strange tales circulating among the people. It was as if this knowledge had been dormant deep in her mind, only to be awakened by Qingmei's voice.

In this way, Bai Lian not only successfully recovered her "forgotten" past and common sense, but also unexpectedly learned a lot of obscure knowledge that others had never heard of.

Cuizhu felt that her young mistress's breadth of knowledge and depth of understanding were probably even greater than those of the Grand Tutor in the palace who specialized in scholarship.

Seeing that her young mistress was exceptionally intelligent, Qingmei realized there was nothing new to learn and felt that her mission was successfully completed. She then reported back to Master Bai.

Bai Moyuan was overjoyed upon hearing the news. On the one hand, he was amazed by his daughter's extraordinary talent, and on the other hand, he felt that Qingmei had made an indispensable contribution. So he transferred the steady and reliable Qingmei to serve in the First Madam's room, which was considered a promotion.

However, deep down, he still stubbornly believed that his daughter's ability to regain her "memory" and spirit so quickly was mostly due to Cuizhu's "lively and caring" companionship.

Thus, poor Bai Lian, having lost Qing Mei as a "shield from which to block her view," had no choice but to continue to bear alone the relentless and ever-growing passion of her "number one admirer"...

Until one day, she happened to see Cuizhu under the garden corridor, following her handsome and renowned elder brother Bai Ziyuan with the same focused, almost starry eyes. Only then did the heavy weight in her heart, wondering if Cuizhu had ulterior motives, finally fall to the ground with a thud.

It turns out that this girl was simply someone who was born to appreciate all things beautiful.

And I just happened to be one of the best on her "appreciation list".

Having figured this out, Bai Lian could only find Cui Zhu's infatuated gaze amusing and helpless.

"What do you usually call this type of person? A sasaeng fan?" A new term suddenly popped into Bai Lian's mind, and she was very surprised. Where did she see this in a book?