She looked at herself in the bronze mirror repeatedly, thinking to herself, "Sure enough, with such beautiful jewelry, she looks just like a girl from Shengjing, a noble lady."
Cuizhen lovingly touched the pearls, which were of good quality. Such fine things were something that had never been seen in the town before.
But—
She squeezed the bracelet tightly.
When An Yuan'er arrived, she clearly saw that An Yuan'er was wearing a bracelet that was more valuable than this little flower bracelet.
This little flower bracelet is made of dried flowers and has only one large pearl, while the other bracelets have beautiful gemstones.
She pouted, somewhat dissatisfied: "This city girl is so stingy. She keeps all the good things to herself. She's obviously just pretending to be helpful."
Because of excessive force, the dried flowers on the small flower bracelet were flattened by Cuizhen, and many petals fell off.
Cuizhen forcefully ripped off the large pearl from the chain and threw the small flower bracelet away in disgust.
*
Although An Yuan'er was covered with her own blanket at night, she still couldn't fall asleep, whether because she was unfamiliar with the bed or because she could always hear the frogs croaking in the fields.
"Knock knock knock!"
In the darkness, she could hear soft footsteps approaching her. An Yuan'er pricked up her ears and listened carefully.
"Who could it be so late?" An Yuan'er remained silent, pretending to be asleep.
The visitor pushed open the door and walked in with practiced ease.
Cuizhen opened the cabinet. During the day, she saw An Yuan'er put all the packages in the cabinet.
While searching, Cuizhen found the package.
Upon opening it, she found all sorts of beautiful jewelry, jade pendants, and some things she had never seen before.
It was said to be a perfumed balm that only young ladies in the city could afford, applied to their bodies.
Cuizhen looked at An Yuan'er on the bed and saw that she was sleeping soundly with her eyes closed.
She muttered to herself, "You're a noble lady, you have all sorts of good things. As for me, I've been doing farm work with my brother since I was little, and I have nothing. You can't possibly use all of this, so consider it me helping you out."
Cuizhen convinced herself and, under the moonlight, spent a long time browsing through An Yuan'er's bundle, picking out five or six pieces of jewelry she liked and stuffing them into her pocket.
She hurriedly did everything, putting the package back untouched.
She thought to herself: She has so much jewelry, she wouldn't even notice if a few pieces were missing.
Just as she was about to leave, she remembered something. She reopened the package, found the perfume balm she had never seen before, and used a wooden hairpin to scrape off a large spoonful of it, putting it into the box she carried with her.
After doing all this, Cuizhen nervously glanced at An Yuan'er again, and seeing that she was still fast asleep with her eyes closed, she breathed a sigh of relief.
She tiptoed and quietly closed the door before leaving.
After she left, An Yuan'er, who had been pretending to be asleep, suddenly opened her eyes.
Deep disappointment was written all over her face. Uncle Yan and Aunt Yan were both upright people; they would never accept her father's gift. And her brother was also a gentleman. Why was Cuizhen acting this way?
During the meal, she thought it was normal for Cuizhen to be childish and like to fight for food, so she didn't take it too seriously.
She stared blankly at the ceiling, wondering whether she should expose the truth tomorrow.
She could indeed disregard the jewelry; what she cared about was that, regardless of family background, certain good qualities should be cultivated from a young age.
Before she could decide, she faintly heard voices talking near the door. An Yuan'er pricked up her ears to listen...
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