Chapter 8 Title: The whole mansion servants are trying to hold back their laughter: The eldest daughter's trick is a bit wild

At the hour of Mao, the sun had just rolled over the green tiles of the east courtyard. As Liu entered Tinglan Courtyard for the fourth time, she clutched a box of tribute pearl powder between her fingers. The box was gilded with a winding branch pattern, and the pearl powder inside was finer than the spring snow on West Lake, enough for the Shangshu Mansion's daughter to apply on her face for six months. She had calculated that Chen Weiwan was fond of beauty, and used this as bait, her glare daringly daring towards the rosewood box at the head of the bed—locked within was a red gold hairpin, and the nine dazzling pearls on the hairpin were enough to dazzle anyone.

"Wanwan, your aunt has brought you some celestial dew!" Liu, swaying in the strains of Kunqu opera, stepped through the Moon Gate. The maid's hand holding the box swung, and the pearl powder formed a silver mist in the morning light, making the lead powder on her face look like cheap wall paint. "Look at this South China Sea pearl powder. Pair it with your mother's red gold hairpin. I guarantee everyone at the banquet will praise you as the Chang'e of the Moon!"

Chen Weiwan was squatting in the corridor feeding the parrot corn. When she turned around after hearing this, her pupils were as bright as two handfuls of stars. "Wow! Auntie treats me better than my own mother!" The moment she rushed over, the beeswax bracelet on Liu's sleeve was almost pulled off. Her fingertips rubbed a crescent mark on the pearl powder box. "It's just that this powder is too expensive. With my plain face, I look like a beggar wearing a golden crown."

Liu was secretly delighted. The fish finally took the bait! She patted the back of Shen Weiwan's hand. There was still mud stains between her nails from rubbing her hands last time. "Silly girl, good things should be revealed. Your mother's hairpin is gathering dust. Why don't you..."

"Ah!" Shen Weiwan's leap startled the parrot. Liu's hand trembled, spilling half a box of pearl powder onto the bluestone slabs, like spilling a bowl of broken silver. "I dreamed of mother last night!" She suddenly leaned close to Liu's ear, her voice lower than a mosquito's buzz. "Mother said the red gold hairpin is the apple of her eye. Anyone who touches it—" Her voice suddenly rose, startling the sparrows in the corridor and making them fly up. "First, you have to go through the 'Five Grains Cleansing Ceremony'! Otherwise, you'll be struck by lightning!"

Liu's eyelids twitched like a sparrow, and the pain from rubbing her hands the last three times shot up from her palms to her crown. She stared at the chipped earthenware basin in the hallway. Inside, millet mixed with black beans, half a basin of fine Yellow River sand floated on top, each grain like a pumice stone. The jade hairpin at her temple swayed, nearly plunging into her bun.

"Look, Auntie!" Shen Weiwan pulled her towards the pottery basin, her moon-white skirt sweeping across the moss, splashing a few mud stars. "This time, the 'five grains' have been added with tribute sand from the Yellow River. Rubbing them can remove thirty years of bad luck, and can also smooth out the bags of wealth on your hands!" She picked up a handful of grains mixed with sand and gravel, and stuffed them into Liu's sleeve without saying a word. The cold touch mixed with the sand made Liu's knuckles turn white.

The women sweeping the floor around them propped their brooms up like screens, and the boy watering the flowers hid behind a Taihu rock, only half of his raincoat showing. Chuntao stood beside the pottery basin, pinching her waist, holding a branch as a banner, her mouth twitching as if she were performing a shamanic dance.

"Auntie, rub it hard!" Shen Weiwan raised her innocent face, her voice so loud that it could shatter the icicles on the eaves. "Nanny said I have to rub it three hundred times, otherwise it's not sincere! Look at how precious this sand is. Rub it until it bubbles to show your filial piety!"

"One—two—three—" Chuntao counted with drawn-out syllables, deliberately twisting the "three" three times. A muffled laugh echoed from behind the rockery, followed by the sound of the housekeeper twisting meat. Liu's hands spun furiously in the muddy water, river sand mixed with grains of rice like sandpaper. The mud splashed onto her woven gold skirt, creating crooked plum blossom prints. A few drops clung to her brow, like a crawling mudworm.

"Ninety-nine! One hundred!" Chuntao's branches clanged against the pottery basin, making it clang. Liu's palms were as red as cooked shrimp, gravel wedging into the grooves, making her grimace in pain. Her expression twisted from loving to constipated, her mouth twitching so hard it could tie a donkey, like a clown on stage.

"Two hundred and ninety-eight! Two hundred and ninety-nine! Three hundred!" Before Chun Tao finished speaking, Liu suddenly pulled back her hand. Her palm turned purple, densely packed with red marks, and stained with a few stubborn grains of river sand. She pointed at Shen Weiwan and screamed, spitting three feet away: "Little bitch! How dare you mix river sand in it!"

Shen Weiwan was so frightened that she fell to the ground. Her eyes instantly turned red, but her crying voice was so loud that it spread throughout the courtyard: "Auntie, why are you angry again? Look, your hands are all rubbed raw! For my mother's hairpin, you are really greater than my own mother!"

These words exploded like a burst of laughter, and the servants hiding everywhere could no longer hold it in. The boy sweeping the yard doubled over with laughter, and was still hiccuping as the housekeeper twisted his ear and dragged him away. The old housekeeper turned around and coughed, but his shoulders shook like dead leaves in the autumn wind; even the bacon drying in the sun on the porch trembled.

"Quick, get the golden wound medicine!" Chen Weiwan pointed at Chuntao and yelled, "Give Auntie the best—" Chuntao stifled a laugh as she pulled out the oilcloth bag, which still contained the same dark mugwort paste. Liu looked at the ointment, her whole body shaking with anger. She raised her hand and blew the bag away, sending the beaded hem of her skirt swishing across the earthenware basin, splashing mud all over her skirt. Her gilded hairpin was completely tilted like a hat, and the jade pendant on her hairpin swung like she was mourning.

Shen Weiwan looked at her staggering back, and the smile on her lips gradually cooled. Chuntao came over and stared at the river sand in her palm: "Miss, is adding river sand too much this time?"

"Cruel?" Shen Weiwan kicked the pottery basin, making the river sand rustle. "Compared to her using my dowry to support a mistress, this little pain is just scratching her itch." She used a branch to poke the bottom of the basin. "Next time, add walnut shells and see if she dares to stretch her claws again."

Chun Tao shuddered. "Wouldn't Second Madam's hands be rubbed like a washboard?"

"It's better to rub it into an iron sand palm." Shen Weiwan thought of her past life when Liu used her money to bribe the accountant, and her eyes turned cold, "So that she won't be thinking about things that don't belong to her every day."

As he was speaking, the old housekeeper approached on crutches and coughed twice: "The second lady smashed three jewelry boxes in the yard and said she would go to the old lady to complain."

Chen Weiwan raised her eyebrows, her fingertips circling the silver hairpin: "Complain? It's a good opportunity to let the old lady see how her beloved second daughter-in-law treats her own niece like a washboard just to support her hairpin."

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