Chapter 354: Goodwill
When the carriage arrived at the palace gate, the housekeeper nanny guarding the gate came forward, bowed respectfully to Qin Huiyin and her sister, and led them into the main gate.
The servant and the coachman entered the palace through the side door and parked the carriage in the stable.
Tang Luwu walked behind Qin Huiyin and quietly looked at the palace gardens.
Although Gong Qianyue's father was only a prefect, there was a marquis in the Gong family's ancestor. However, this marquisate was not hereditary, and it declined by their generation.
The current head of the palace is the master of the first house, who is the Minister of Personnel and a fourth-rank official. This garden was handed down from ancestors, after all, they once had a title, so it is many times larger than the residence of an ordinary fourth-rank official.
It was Tang Luwu's first time to visit such a high-ranking official's residence, so she was a little nervous. She didn't dare to look any more, and followed Qin Huiyin and the old nanny in front to the backyard.
This garden is quiet and peaceful, yet it exudes luxury. For example, one fish in the lotus pond is worth ten years of living expenses for an average person. There are also various precious flowers in the garden, none of which are ordinary, but all are rare species. These flowers need to be taken care of by skilled gardeners, and the annual maintenance fee is not small.
Before they even got close to Qianyue Garden, they heard the voices of several women talking and laughing. When the two sisters stepped into the archway, pairs of eyes looked over and sized them up.
Today, Qin Huiyin and Tang Luwu are dressed up. In the garden full of flowers, Qin Huiyin's beauty completely overwhelms the others. Tang Luwu's appearance is certainly not bad either, after all, his elder brother and younger brother are both famous handsome men. Since they are from the same mother, and have been following Qin Huiyin's beauty care for so many years, her skin is so tender that you can squeeze out water. Now that she has dressed up specially, although she is not as gorgeous as a peony or as charming as a rose, she is also as elegant and pleasant as a lily.
There was a look of surprise in everyone's eyes.
A group of elegantly dressed noble ladies were outshined by two country-born girls, and they felt complicated for a moment.
For a noble ladies' party like this, preparations would start several days in advance. It was important to wear fashionable clothes and the latest jewelry so as not to be outdone by others.
These noble ladies thought that their attire was perfect, but when compared with the two new women, they were charming but vulgar.
"Sister Qin, Sister Tang, I've finally got you here." Gong Qianyue came over with a smile. "I was mistaken just now and thought I saw a fairy descending to the earth. I rubbed my eyes and took a closer look. It turns out that the fairy is a fairy, but she is not from the earth. She is a fairy from our world."
"Sister Gong, please stop talking like that. In front of so many beautiful sisters, we are like a blade of grass in the garden, unable to even lift our heads."
When Gong Qianyue took the initiative to pull Qin Huiyin's hand, she did not refuse, but instead held the other's hand generously.
"Sister, we haven't seen each other for more than a year, right?" Qin Huiyin came closer and exclaimed, "How come your skin is so tender?"
"This is all thanks to the beauty cream you gave me. It's really useful!" Gong Qianyue said, turning back to another noble lady, "This is the amazing sister I often mentioned to you. The store she opened is very famous, and many people go there just to eat her delicious food. And her beauty creams, the ones I gave you before were bought from her store, didn't you say they were also very useful?"
"After seeing you today, I can see that you are indeed a wonderful person, and a great beauty." The noble lady covered her mouth and said, "Come and have a cup of tea, and then let us take a good look at the makeup on your face. I will not let you go until I pull out all the hair from your body today."
Seeing that everyone was so easy to talk to, Tang Luwu gradually relaxed and allowed them to look at her openly. Then she introduced to them the makeup designed for her by Qin Huiyin.
"This is our first visit, and we don't know what to give. Sister has no shortage of good things, so we can only give her some common things for women to show our ugliness." Qin Huiyin said to Zhilan and Tang Luwu's maid Minghui behind her, "Bring all the things I asked you to bring!"
The two maids each held a large box. They put the large box on the table and opened it, revealing a series of small boxes inside.
Zhilan opened the first small box, which contained various small bottles of different colors.
"Ladies, this is perfume. It is newly prepared by our lady and is not available on the market. There are twelve scents in total, each one is unique. Please feel free to choose."
"Let me try." Chang Xiaohuan, the daughter of another vice minister of the Ministry of Personnel, took a red bottle.
Without waiting for her to open it, Zhilan demonstrated it to her, pressed it a few times, and sprayed it out.
"You don't need to pour this thing out before using it." Chang Xiaohuan was surprised. "Such a unique design, even without tasting the aroma, this ingenuity alone has already surpassed other brands."
"Who made me clumsy? No matter how I poured the perfume, it always spilled all over the floor, which made me very angry. Then I thought, I seem to have seen bottles with this function in the outside world before, why not use such bottles to hold the perfume and spray it directly when I need it? I asked many craftsmen to try, and finally I figured it out."
"My sister is really a smart and thoughtful person." The woman that Gong Qianyue specially introduced was called Zhu Hongxiu. She was the daughter of the Minister of Personnel and also the daughter of Gong Qianyue's uncle's immediate superior.
In addition to the three of them, there were five other women in the garden. Among the remaining five women, three were from the Gong family, including Gong Qianmiao, the third daughter of the first house, Gong Qianyi, the fifth cousin of the third house, and Gong Qianshu, the sixth concubine of the first house. Gong Qianyue was the legitimate daughter of the second house, and ranked fourth in the entire Gong family tree.
Of course, the eldest and second daughters of the Gong family have already married.
As for the last two noble ladies, they don’t have a strong sense of presence and don’t like to stand out, so their family’s official positions should not be high.
Gong Qianyue introduced the remaining two people to Qin Huiyin and Tang Luwu. One of them was Wang Nianfu, the daughter of a doctor in the Ministry of Personnel, and the other was Wen Ruxu, the daughter of a deputy director of the Ministry of Personnel.
Qin Huiyin discovered that only the daughters of officials from the Ministry of Personnel were invited to today's flower-viewing banquet, so it should be considered a small internal gathering among them. It can be seen that these daughters of officials also stick together for warmth.
These ladies smiled, but their eyes moved quickly, obviously observing them and evaluating them in their hearts. Before they appeared, Gong Qianyue must have explained the origins of these sisters in advance. Today's banquet was Gong Qianyue's show of goodwill to her, so no matter what these ladies thought in their hearts, they would definitely keep up the superficial work.
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