Chapter 21: A Lipstick and a Wedding (Part 1)

Perhaps driven by a desire to share hidden gossip, Chu Wang inexplicably gained the favor of Miss Miya, the leader of the "Cantonese Clique" and "Hong Kong Clique." Consequently, Chu Wang was inexplicably interrogated by Zhenzhen, the leader of the rival "Shanghai Clique." More than once, Xue Zhenzhen would suddenly appear on her way to Yau Ma Tei after tennis lessons on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, at ballet class on weekends, or even in bed after a shower, asking her sternly, "When did you become so close to that blue-eyed guy?"

Or, they might say, "You're from Shanghai, you're from our side. How could you be collaborating with the enemy and betraying your country by joining the Hong Kong clique?" Huh? Aren't they the Shaoxing clique? How did they become the Shanghai clique?

Or: "If you stop now, I will accept you without any grudges."

Even: "You have infiltrated the enemy and can get more information about them!"

Chu Wang believed that if Miss Xue did not become an excellent spy in the future, it would be a great waste of her talent.

Yunyan, always bullied by Xue Zhenzhen, unexpectedly joined the Miya Alliance with her literary club mates. Sometimes, when she was bored, she jokingly referred to Miya, Yunyan, and herself as the "Fengtian Triangle Alliance," with Xue Zhenzhen as the nefarious Zhili warlord. The conflict between the two factions, represented by Miss Miya and Xue Zhenzhen, intensified, arguably more intense than the Zhili-Fengtian War and the Beijing coup. Chu Wang, who had been watching the fray from the sidelines, was suddenly caught between the two faction leaders, thrusting himself into the forefront of the conflict.

During this period, her sewing skills also improved by leaps and bounds. When Ma Ling modified her wedding dress for the second time, Chu Wang was already able to help Mr. Saumier a lot.

Mr. Saumier and Mrs. Nguyen thought she must have a harder time than others at school, given her young age, and so insisted on giving her special treatment at the tailor shop. Every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after school, she'd occasionally enjoy Mr. Saumier's macarons, baked snails, and other desserts or meals, or Mrs. Nguyen's beef rice noodles and shrimp spring rolls. So, even though she struggled to survive in school, she found her life in Yau Ma Tei quite enjoyable.

The Spring Festival in the 14th year of the Republic of China came particularly early. As a place that accommodates both Chinese and Western cultures, Christmas, New Year's Day and the Spring Festival are crowded together. Starting from a week before Christmas, the people of Hong Kong began a fairly long holiday. However, this was the busiest winter for Lin Yu.

Xue Zhenzhen was free to return home for the holidays, but the two Lin sisters, left in Hong Kong for the New Year, received only a letter from their father. The letter made no mention of the fighting in Peking, merely urging the two girls to listen to their aunt and study hard. At the end of the letter, it mentioned that their eldest brother, Zitong, had, at Si Ying's suggestion, relinquished his admission to Peking University and planned to enroll at the Whampoa Military Academy in the spring.

Mrs. Qiao was very puzzled by Lin Yu's behavior, while Lin Chuwang felt that Si Ying and his father were very wise.

After learning how to knit scarves under Qiao Maling's guidance, Lin Chuwang knitted two simple, bright red scarves and sent them to Yau Ma Tei as New Year's gifts for Mrs. Ruan and Mr. Saumur. Mrs. Ruan and Mr. Saumur were delighted to receive the gifts and spent another two afternoons patiently teaching Lin Chuwang how to transform old clothes into the unisex spring vests that are so popular in Paris. Lin Chuwang made many gifts for everyone in the Qiao Mansion—as New Year's gifts. Mrs. Qiao was so happy that she took everyone to the photo studio to take a New Year photo; Michelle secretly made a rag doll and gave it to Lin Chuwang; Ma Ling heard that she had made a lot of contributions to her wedding dress, so she hugged her and kissed her again and again, and said that if she didn't grow taller before the wedding, she must let her be her flower girl (Lin Chuwang hoped in his heart that he could grow taller quickly); when Xue Zhenzhen came back from Shanghai, she heard that Lin Chuwang made a small vest for her, so she generously brought her back a box of strawberry-flavored donuts and gave it to Lin Chuwang (she was the only one among the crowd to receive Miss Xue's gift, and Lin Chuwang was really flattered); even Yun Yan gave a poem for the first time, and Lin Chuwang thanked her and hugged her sister, although in the end she didn't understand what the poem meant.

After the spring, a small incident in Yau Ma Tei made Mr. Saumur express his admiration for Lin Chuwang.

Mrs. Nguyen's New Year's gift was a CD-shaped coral lipstick from her husband. She was so delighted that she kept it in her pocket wherever she went, showing it off to everyone she met—but unfortunately, it broke while she was showing it off. A woman's lipstick isn't just meant to look good on her lips, but also to look good in public. A broken lipstick isn't just unsightly, it's also difficult to apply.

Mrs. Ruan sadly brought the lipstick's remains to Yau Ma Tei, where Mr. Saumur expressed his deepest condolences. Lin Chuwang, looking at the shattered lipstick, felt a pity. After consulting Mrs. Ruan, she fetched a large iron spoon, a candle, and a thumb-sized, delicate copper box containing gold thread from the tailor's shop and placed them before Mrs. Ruan and Mr. Saumur. She placed the lipstick paste in the iron spoon, melted it in the candlelight, and then poured it into the copper box to cool. From then on, it became a box of rouge that was even more charming and beautiful to apply.

Mrs. Ruan looked at the box of rouge and asked in great confusion, "It first turned into a pool of water, and then solidified into this shape. Can it still be the same as before?"

"There's no difference," Chu Wang explained patiently, "Lipstick mainly contains colorants, olive oil, palm wax, beeswax, and lanolin. Apart from a little fragrance, there are no volatile ingredients and it won't change in nature."

No matter how Lin Chuwang explained, Mrs. Ruan refused to use the box of rouge again. Mr. Saumur watched Chuwang frantically, his hands and feet trembling, his mouth sputtering a bunch of unpronounced French academic terms, and smiled without saying a word. So, the next day, he had his assistant bring a set of bottles and jars he'd found somewhere, and he set up a small space behind the tailor shop as a chemistry lab.

Chu Wang stared at the pile of alcohol lamps and distillation bottles with shining eyes. With Mr. Saumur's tacit approval, she gave Mrs. Ruan a chemistry experiment lesson on the spot.

She first heated castor oil and olive oil in a water bath, then added a small amount of hot beeswax and beeswax. She then mixed a little red dye and a touch of azure crimson, and placed it in the lipstick container that Mr. Saumur had prepared. After it formed, she handed it to Mr. Saumur and Mrs. Ruan, silently reciting cd999 in her mind, but explained, "Red lipstick."

Then the pigment was changed to dried cochineal, thinking of CPB12. After the lipstick was formed, it was handed to Mrs. Ruan again: "Retro brick red."

In the surprised eyes of the two, she said "Oh", then she remembered that there was no such thing as retro. Now it is ancient.

Thinking of YSL12, she had another idea. She melted about 80% oil, a small amount of fat and wax, a small amount of fine mica powder, and coral color. This time, it was a small tube of liquid. When she handed it to Mrs. Ruan, she smiled and said, "It's called lip gloss. It's more moisturizing than lipstick and has a shimmer."

When Mr. Saumier gave Mrs. Ruan three lipsticks made by Chu Wang one by one to try, Lin Chu Wang melted Mrs. Ruan's box of rouge again and poured it into Mr. Saumier's lipstick mold. After cooling, it was fixed on the original iron lipstick holder of the CD.

When handing it to Mrs. Ruan, Lin Chuwang smiled and said, "Look, is it still the same one?"

Mrs. Ruan, clutching a pile of lipsticks, beamed with joy. After that day, Mr. Saumier and Lin Chuwang would often find time to experiment with various lipsticks, later adding more elaborate metal molds and a variety of fragrances. Mrs. Ruan, ever the beauty-conscious woman, had inexplicably become their guinea pig, but she was chuckling with delight.

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Ten days after the Spring Festival, Qiao Maling's wedding was approaching. Hong Kong had experienced a brief cold front, and the gentle spring weather was gradually arriving. Lin Chuwang's fashionable vest came in handy.

Lin Yu was still too busy with the recent Eastern Expedition and the passing of Marshal Sun, and his friends and family expressed their understanding. Many relatives from the Xue family in Shanghai came to the wedding, which was very lively, and Lin Zitong, who lived in Guangzhou, attended the wedding as a representative of the male members of the Qiao family's natal family.

The night before the wedding, there was a gathering. According to tradition, the bride's family invited everyone from the groom's family to dinner. The Huang family was a prosperous one. Besides Huang Xing, who was doing business in Vietnam, most of his relatives were in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. As a result, over eighty members of the groom's family attended the wedding.

On Qiao Maling's side, besides the sparsely populated Shaoxing Lin clan and thirty Shanghai Xue and Qiao clansmen, there was also a relative from her godfather Xie, who had to come over for show. This gathering, which was strictly off-limits to the bride and any female relatives over fifteen, numbered over a hundred people—too many to fit into the Qiao Mansion's small garden. Suddenly, one of the uninformed relatives said, "Isn't that the bride's aunt supposed to have the largest garden in Hong Kong?"

The Xie family had a close relationship with Mrs. Ge, so the gathering location was inexplicably decided. For the first time in their lives, the girls had the opportunity to participate in a family garden wedding party and visit their aunt's garden.

Although Hong Kong's fashion is relatively open, many relatives are from Guangzhou and Shanghai. Therefore, on the day of the party, the female family members could only stay in Mrs. Ge's huge villa to eat desserts, drink tea and chat.

The three little girls, having napped in the afternoon, crossed Earl Street, led by their respective maids, and it took them fifteen minutes to reach the entrance of the Ge Mansion. As they entered the marble doorposts, which were carved with figures from Norse mythology, a young woman smiled and asked, "Are you the three young ladies of the Xue and Lin families? Don't worry, I'll take them to meet the ladies."

The girl was wearing a bright yellow silk cheongsam, which wrapped her beautiful figure. A pair of thick-soled wooden clogs hung under her slender and well-proportioned calves, and a red rope with a bell tied around her ankle made a pleasant tinkling sound when she walked, like the girl's laughter - of course, the girl was also quite beautiful.

Yun Yan was just about to ask whose family this young lady was from, as she was not only graceful and elegant, but also well-mannered, not inferior to Sister Ma Ling; Xue Zhenzhen immediately stopped her with a glare.

The young woman led the three of them up the wooden staircase to the second floor, where a spacious hall faced a floor-to-ceiling window spanning over ten meters, offering a sweeping view of the entire garden. The hall was bustling with women chatting and laughing in groups of three or four. Through another door, a smaller hall emerged. The furnishings were even more exquisite, but only a woman, no longer in her prime, sat alone, her back quite alluring. She was wearing a black velvet cheongsam dress; this austere black could only be worn by someone with a distinctive white background. With her back to them, her slender arms cascaded from the monotony of black, swaying ever so slightly.

The girl knocked on the open door and called out softly, "Madam, the girls are brought to you."

The woman responded with a simple wave of her hand. Three of her equally pale, frail fingers were lightly painted with scarlet nail polish, and then she retreated. Lin Chuwang then realized that she had been painting her nails with her back to them. For a moment, she couldn't help but think of Mrs. Wang in "Fortress Besieged," with her "red lips and ten red nails."

At this moment, Yun Yan and Chu Wang were both shocked - this charming and beautiful girl who could even rival Qiao Maling was actually just a maid of Mrs. Ge!

The author has something to say: I will write about the wedding in more detail because there are important characters to be portrayed. I will add a progress bar after the wedding.

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In fact, Mrs. Lin should be called Mrs. Qiao and Mrs. Lin should be called Mrs. Ge, but for the sake of convenience in distinguishing them, the ancient names such as Lin are used.

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Regarding Lin Chuwang's opinion on Si Yansang, you can refer to the following: If you are a fan of Zhang Shaoshuai, and after traveling back in time, you are suddenly told that Zhang Shaoshuai is your fiancé, even though you know that to him, you will become one of Yu Fengzhi or Miss Zhao Si, I am afraid that no one would refuse in the context of that era. ← Probably like this

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I really didn't say exactly who the male lead is. There will be many other high-quality men appearing later, and it's even possible that Zhang Shaoshuai himself is within my fantasy range? So what's with that person criticizing the male lead...