Entering the palace at 14

  Yang Lan soaked in the medicinal broth, Biyue washed her hair for her, and Biyun kept adding hot water for her. It's really extravagant to say that ancient young ladies' lives are luxurious, even taking a bath requires a group of people to serve!

  After taking a bath, Yang Lan lay on a soft couch covered with fine cotton cloth. Bi Yun took out a box of fragrant ointment and applied it all over her body. This ointment was called Qi Bai Gao, made from seven kinds of medicinal herbs with the word "white" in their names, which had the effect of whitening, moisturizing and smoothing the skin.

  Qībái gāo has been recorded and is said to have also been a secret recipe used by imperial concubines, with excellent results.

  It is said that during the Yuan Dynasty, when Zhang Guifei entered the palace, she was deeply favored by Emperor Yuan. However, as time passed, she gradually fell out of favor and was relegated to a deep palace, rarely seeing the emperor's face. One day, while touring the gardens, Emperor Yuan saw a woman with skin as white as snow and a beautiful complexion walking lightly in the forest. He hastily summoned her to his presence and examined her closely, only to discover that it was Zhang Guifei, whom he had not seen for a long time. At this moment, Zhang Guifei had cleverly applied makeup, her face radiant with joy, her skin as smooth as jade, and her beauty surpassing that of the heavenly gods. Emperor Yuan was stunned, and then asked her about the secret to her beauty. Zhang Guifei explained that she used seven flavors to whiten her skin, and a rare herb called "white" which she crushed into powder, mixed with other ingredients, and applied to her face in a porcelain container, achieving a whitening and nourishing effect. Emperor Yuan was overjoyed and ordered all the concubines to follow this method to maintain their beauty and whiten their skin from then on. Zhang Guifei once again gained Emperor Yuan's favor, and the recipe was included in the "Imperial Pharmacy Formula" and passed down through the ages, named "Seven White Ointment".

  These seven white creams are also the favorites of the imperial concubines, and this is a secret recipe left by the empress dowager for her mother to nourish her skin. This is something that only the imperial physicians can grasp, and it's not easy to get the recipe out. In Great Chu, only my mother has this face.

  Her mother doted on her and carefully raised her, applying a layer of seven-white cream to her face and body. By the time she got married, her skin was naturally smooth and delicate, with a rosy glow, like a flower!

  This box of Seven White Cream is worth almost ten taels of silver, and she uses up a box every month. It can be seen that her life is quite luxurious, and she feels that she has become corrupt, haha!

  She was sitting with her feet tucked under her, staring blankly ahead as she waited for Biyue to towel-dry her hair and apply rose hair oil to nourish it. In ancient times, people placed great importance on their hair, using various internal and external methods to nourish it, making it as black and shiny as silk, extremely beautiful.

  The most famous one is Osmanthus fragrans hair oil, but she doesn't like the taste of Osmanthus, so she used rose instead, but the formula is the same.

  "Miss's hair is really good! It's black and shiny, especially thick, it's the best! I saw that Third Miss's hair was dry and yellowish, and the smell of hair oil was very strong, you could smell it from far away, I think she must be using osmanthus hair oil to nourish her hair!"

  Yang Lan smiled casually, "Actually, just applying hair oil doesn't work. Eating more black sesame and He Shou Wu for long-term nourishment can make it better. She's still young, so there's still time to nourish herself, but even if I say this, she won't believe me."

  "Miss says it's true! I think Third Miss is also quite improper, always arguing with you, really not interesting at all!"

  Biyun scolded after applying the seven white creams on Yang Lan, "You little hoof, how dare you start making up stories about your master, just showing off your tolerance! Sooner or later, that mouth of yours will get you into trouble!" She scolded, pointing at Bimonth's nose.

  Green Moon hastily stuck out her tongue and begged for mercy, "Good sister, I was just joking, I won't dare again, you mustn't tell Mother, or I'll be punished!"

  Yang Lan just listened quietly beside him and didn't interrupt, it's better for the servants to follow the rules, being too arrogant would only cause trouble for their master.

  After drying her hair, Yang Lan felt drowsy and drank a bowl of hot almond milk before crawling onto the kang and covering herself with a large red auspicious character Suzhou silk quilt. She yawned repeatedly as she fell asleep, but not before reminding them, "Get out the clothes I'm going to wear tomorrow, iron them well, don't be late!"

  "Biqiuni replied with a sound, 'Don't worry, Master! I won't mess up your affairs. The gift for the Empress Dowager is also ready. You can rest assured and go to sleep now!'"

  "En!" Yang Lan drowsily responded with a murmur and fell asleep.

  The next day, at the crack of dawn, she got up at 5 o'clock and put on her casual clothes to practice a set of boxing in the courtyard. After that, she practiced Wudangquan again, and only when she was hot all over did she go back to the house to wash up. Because ancient medicine was not very advanced, even a cold could be fatal, so Yang Lan had always been careful about her health since childhood. Learning martial arts was also for this purpose. Nothing is better than having a healthy body, and in ancient times, women's physical health was also one of the standards for marrying a daughter-in-law.

  Good health represents the ability to have offspring, which was very important in ancient times. No family would marry a sickly girl as their daughter-in-law. If one's body is not good enough, any mother would hesitate to let her son marry such a person.

  After washing up, Yang Lan began to dress and make herself up under the service of the maids, and the aunties also brought up breakfast.

  Breakfast was also extremely sumptuous, with jade bamboo shoots, fragrant rice porridge, cloud-like ham, pickled quail eggs, and sweet potato cakes. The aroma of hot sugar-coated millet cakes wafted through the air, accompanied by crispy fried dough sticks, a steamer basket of buns, several small dishes of various sauces on the side, and a bowl of bird's nest porridge.

  Yang Lan ate several buns, a few pieces of yam cake and millet cake, a bowl of bird's nest congee and a few slices of ham. After eating her fill, she closed her eyes happily and said: "You've just eaten these, right? Take them down and eat again when they're cold, I'll go see Mother."

  Lin's aunt smiled and thanked her, "Thank you, Master! Biyue, hurry up and eat, then attend to Master's change of clothes. What are you waiting for? Let your sister Biyun have a few more bites, she has to go to the palace with Master today, who knows where they'll be having their next meal!"

  Bixue was startled and quickly pulled over a small stool to sit down and eat, after a short while the maids finished eating, Bixue hastily rinsed her mouth and came over to serve Yanglan.

  "Master, what color are you wearing today? Do you want something red?" Biyue took a cummerbund with a ruby from the Jingdezhen porcelain decorated jewelry box and placed it on Yang Lan's head to try it out.

  Yang Lan looked and said, "Wear that small hairpin with a dot of jade."

  Biyun finished eating and brought over a set of ironed clothes for her to try on. Yang Lan glanced at them, nodded, and changed into the new outfit. Today was a day she had to enter the palace, so she couldn't wear anything too plain, it wouldn't be auspicious!

  The upper body is a pink peony-embroidered standing collar jacket, with a narrow sleeve apron covered in dark red Shu brocade with gold thread, paired with an ivory-colored hundred-pleat skirt, the hem of which has several white jade orchids embroidered on it, and at the waist hangs a bean-green colored silk tassel that falls down just right, perfectly balancing out the bright color of the dark red.

  Lin's aunt smiled and nodded as she watched from the side, thinking that although the young master was still young, his eyes were not bad. The bright red color of the haitang flower was too gaudy, and if it wasn't matched well, it would look tacky. But paired with this bean-green colored satin, it immediately looked lovely and charming, yet still auspicious.

  Around her neck hung a golden necklace with coral and jade pendants, she had done up her hair in double buns, tied with red silk tassels at the ends of which dangled pale pink pearls, on her head was a small hairpin with a few sprigs of kingfisher feathers stuck in at an angle, not too much jewelry but just right, neither showy nor too plain.

  She put on a pair of silver-red satin embroidered shoes with small pearl beads, and wore a bean-green-colored small-clustered flower rolled fox fur-edged brocade cloak. After dressing up neatly, she went to pay her respects to the old lady first, then headed to the palace.

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