Embroidered patterns of gold, violet and red
🪷
The morning of the Embroidery exam had finally dawned upon the group of trainee concubines and after two weeks of lessons and they had all gathered at the same pavilion they had their first round of lessons in order to take part in the exam.
The 120 trainee concubines all stood outside the pavilion, hushed whispers floated around the place as they giggled, groaned and gossiped amongst each other. Some had brought their textbooks with them in order to refresh their memory or cram in the last drop of study time before the exam began.
Lianhua stood beside Jeifan, a small notebook in her hand and they were skimming through notes written in black ink on the pages - neat yet flowing calligraphy that seemed to dance on the pages in front of them.
During the first few weeks, Lianhua had compiled some notes using a notebook she had from her collection that she bought with from the brothel, and using the textbook on Embroidery as well as Madam Feng's lessons, she wrote down every major detail needed in that notebook in order to get the best amount of knowledge and skills necessary to pass the exam.
"Your notes are very impressive Lianhua." Jeifan mused, admiring the calligraphy on the pages of the notebook. Lianhua smiled. "Thanks, it's been very helpful when studying on the move. I should use this method more often."
"You should. Could I, perhaps, copy your idea? I might be able to use a similar method to help retain information when I don't have access to the textbooks." Jeifan asked, a little sheepish, yet hopeful. Lianhua beamed, "Of course, feel free to come by my chambers and pick up a spare notebook. I have loads."
"Where did you even get this book from? Paper is pretty expensive." Jeifan questioned. Lianhua looked unfazed by this question.
"I have a large stash of notebooks from the brothel I took with me when I was chosen to be a concubine. There were gifts from clients. All I told them was I like writing poetry and stories and next minute they all come back with notebooks for me. These clients were quite wealthy so they were able to afford these books. It also does help since I'm literate."
They read through the small notebook, taking in all the notes that Lianhua had made.
"What type of embroidery do you think you'll get?" Jeifan asked with wonder. Lianhua tapped her chin.
"I'm hoping for the Dual Koi. I went to the koi pond a while back and although there was a mishap, I felt inspired."
"Huh? What mishap?"
"I…..saw a really weird reflection in the pond and stumbled over a bridge. I fell into the pond." Lianhua replied sheepishly. There was no way that she was telling Jeifan about what happened afterwards though. Lao Hak's name was being kept out of her mouth and out of Jeifan's mind.
"What was the reflection? That must have been kind of odd." Jeifan sounded concerned and curious as to what could have caused Lianhua to stumble into a koi pond.
"I saw a woman." Lianhua replied quietly.
"It was probably just your reflection." Jeifan answered sceptically. Lianhua shook her head. "No. It wasn't. The woman had dark green hair. And deep blue eyes…." Lianhua lowered her voice down, not wanting to draw attention. Jeifan looked quite alarmed.
"Green hair?" She whispered in an urgent tone.
"Yeah. Do you know anyone with dark green hair?" Lianhua asked, hoping to gain at least some semblance of an answer.
"Not really. Dark green hair is kinda rare on anyone these days, I mean sure there could be a handful of people with that hair colour, but I don't know anyone within the Inner Palace that has dark green hair. Maybe you mistook it for black hair while looking at the pond." Jeifan suggested. Lianhua frowned, unsure of what to make of the whole situation.
"Maybe? I thought it was a trick of the light, but I still got spooked and fell backwards into the koi pond…*sigh*.... Nevermind, let's focus on the exam."
🪷
Inside the exam hall, 120 young women between the ages of 19 and 25 all took their seats for their very first concubine exam. Each low table was laden with a scroll, a polished wooden mahogany case with coloured thread and three different sized metal needles - all sharp and could pierce the skin like a pinprick, a large piece of linen cloth, a charcoal pencil for sketching and round bamboo embroidery hoop. Lianhua looked around for somewhere to put her small notebook and saw that several other women were giving their books to a eunuch present. He was holding a bamboo weaved basket with a wooden token attached. Lianhua approached and popped her notebook inside the basket and the eunuch gave her a nod.
Jeifan saw Lianhua and waved to her from her table. "Good luck." She called. Lianhua smiled back.
"You too."
"Well…..this is an odd surprise." A snicker behind her made her suddenly annoyed. She turned around and saw Yuan Sui seated at the table next to hers.
'Oh joy. I have "little miss fake sunshine" seated next to me for this exam. Woopie.'
Lianhua thought with dry sarcasm. She hoped her face didn't give her thoughts away.
"I suppose. Though, don't you want to sit next to a friend instead of me?
Sui gave her side-eyed glance, her lips drawn into a thin line. She narrowed her eyes and made a huffing noise.
"I didn't have a choice. This is my assigned seat." She chewed back, sticking her nose up in the air.
"Fair enough." Lianhua shrugged and took her seat. She didn't have the energy to deal with any hindrances today. She needed to focus on the exam ahead.
Madam Feng entered the room, rigid and stern-faced as usual, yet her manner seemed calm despite her stoney expression.
"Good morning ladies."
"Good morning Madam Feng." The concubine trainees all chorused in reply.
Madam Feng swept her gaze across all the attendees and spoke again with proud authority.
"Welcome to your first official exam of the second stage of the Concubine Trials. You have worked hard this last month to learn and perfect your embroidery skills from the method, to the patterns to the technique and the type of thread and needles used. You all have a scroll of paper on your table and on those scrolls, is the name of the pattern that you have been assigned. You have 3 hours to complete your embroidery. When the last of these three incense sticks have burned completely, the exam will be finished and you will present your work to me for judging. Those who have shown exceptional work in their embroidery will pass the exam and gain the first concubine rank. Any questions?"
The room was silent.
Madam Feng took this as a no and lit the incense sticks at the same time, whilst calling out.
"You may begin."
The trainees all unfurled their scrolls and many had begun their embroidery. Bai Lianhua unfurled her scroll and saw the name of the embroidery.
Founder's Triad.
Bai Lianhua stared bug-eyed at the opened scroll, gobsmacked. The name of the embroidery stuck out at her in swirling ink. She blinked a few times to ensure she was not hallucinating, but the ink didn't change form. It was the same name. There was simply no way she managed to get the most detailed, difficult and time-swallowing embroidery ever conceived. Surely someone had perhaps switched her scroll with theirs so they could get an easier pattern? But no one knew what pattern they were getting, it was all randomised. Madam Feng may have switched them, but that was it.
'Well….this is a bit awkward. There goes my original plan. Hopefully, I'll be able to complete this.'
Lianhua heard Sui's giggle beside her and wondered if she had switched the scrolls whilst she wasn't looking. They did enter the pavilion before Madam Feng so it was possible for Yuan Sui, being the ambitious type of woman, could have spotted the prime opportunity to switch the scrolls around to give herself an advantage whilst bringing Lianhua down and causing her to fail.
Since Yuan Sui was of noble blood and her upbringing reflected her overall haughty and ambitious personality whilst Lianhua was a humble courtesan, it was plausible that she had found an opportunity to rise up the ranks. Her behaviour just a few minutes ago could explain the reason why Lianhua ended up with the Founders' Triad embroidery - but this was all just conjecture.
Resigning to her fate, Lianhua folded up the scroll and put the parchment down beside her and picked the cloth and embroidery hoop, attaching the cloth to the hoop and fastening it with the metal lock so the cloth wouldn't slide out of the hoop or rip. She had to make sure the fabric cloth was stretchy enough to fill the gap over the hoop, yet tight enough to not rip. Racking her brain for the basic design, Lianhua spotted the charcoal pencil and picked it up. She made sure it was sharp enough for clear sketching, but blunt enough to not pierce the fabric and sketched out a rough outline to follow in faint black chalk.
After a few minutes of rough sketching, Lianhua, satisfied with her work, picked up her needle from the box she had been provided and using the fine red thread, she began in the middle of the fabric cloth, deciding that embroidering the maple-red one eyed fox was the quickest route to take. The fox didn't take much time to embroider itself, however, like the rest of the embroidery, the fox had details that took time to thread. However, the fox wasn't the most time consuming and most difficult part of the embroidery.
Oh no.
That honour went to the peacock and the long.
Those two were the most detailed parts of the embroidery and due to the amount of thread needed for both parts, it was the reason why it took so long for anyone doing this embroidery to complete it fully. Lianhua could not afford to slack off as she was on a time crunch.
Three hours to do the hardest and most detailed embroidery in Feiyu's history sounded like a joke - no one could complete an embroidery like that in three hours.
Yet, determination burned in Lianhua's heart and it spurred her on.
Lianhua was incredibly focused on her work, not wanting to waste any precious minutes by dwindling and determined to honour the sacred image of the most renowned piece of artwork in Feiyu's entire 400+ years of history. She had no intention in bringing sacrilege to the image of the Crimson Rain Sought Flower, the Golden Dragon Sovereign and the Auspicious Obsidian Moon by doing a poor job of an embroidery and bringing shame to Yingtao had worked hard to help her train her speed and technique so if she was to fail, all of that effort would get tossed away.
Bai Lianhua shuddered at the thought of letting Yingtao down, not when she worked so hard to support her in her first stage training. She decided to not spare her wandering thoughts another precious minute, so she knuckled down and after embroidering for ½ of the first hour, Lianhua had finished the maple-red fox.
She recalled from what she had read that the maple-red fox had a different number of tails depending on depiction. Legends and myths that circulated around the minds of people in the eastern Rising Flame-Sun empire, popularised the notion of the spirit fox, despite the wider Zodiac Continent originating the notion itself. According to both variations of the legend, the minimum number a fox spirit could have was one tail, however a fox spirit was rumoured to have a maximum of nine tails, each tail representing its age - one tail equaled anywhere between one and one-hundred years and nine tails would be equal to nine-hundred-plus years.
The maple-red fox depicted on the embroidery was a three-tailed fox spirit that was widely considered and accepted by the people of Feiyu, and perhaps in other kingdoms and countries, to represent an immortal fox spirit known as the huxian. In Feiyu's culture and religion, the huxian represented the Supreme Ghost King, known as Crimson Rain, who was said to be mischievous and curious towards humans, a wicked and sharp-tongued shapeshifting monster in the eyes of the divine and a fiercely protective and humourous ruler in the eyes of many of his ghostly subjects and his lost beloved. The huxian's three tails all represented the three recorded times Crimson Rain had lived and died. The number of deaths he had suffered from before his supposed reincarnation or resurrection was only an estimate but in the eyes of mythologists, scholars and religious practitioners such as cultivators and exorcists, three was a special number as it repented the three stages of a person's existence:
Birth
Marriage
Death
The numerical of three was also considered a bad number depending on the culture and religion as Lianhua recalled from a book she had read when doing research on the Founders' Triad. In Feiyu, the number three can also mean "to split", "to separate" or "to part ways", which makes it a bad number as well, but most people within the country, and perhaps in other nations, had a habit to avoid the negative connotations that are associated with the number three and instead focus on the positive connotations.
Lianhua fixed up the last of the red threads, trimming them before she replaced the thread back into the box and bought out the gold and earthly-brown threads in order to embroider the long. She sketched out the basic outline of the great divine creature with the charcoal pencil before threading both the brown thread and the gold thread that had been provided through her needle and twisting the two threads together into a knot for a simple yet effective way to hold it in place.
The top half of the famous embroidery was occupied by the majestic long, simply referred to as "Golden Dragon", who was believed to be the pure embodiment of wisdom, protection and divine strength, and there were many legends and mystical stories surrounding the great long. According to most of Feiyu's legends, Golden Dragon was the primaeval, pure elemental form of a foreign god who had visited the once barren lands that Feiyu's capital now proudly stands on, and blessed the infertile lands with golden light and fine-tuned the earth so that plants could grow. Golden Dragon is regarded as one the three major founders of Feiyu and many of the common folk believe the deity possessed untold wisdom and knowledge of a multitude of intellectual topics such as war strategy, arts, history, language, martial arts, weapons forging, geology, agriculture, literature, economics and infrastructure to name a few.
Golden Dragon's pure elemental form that is depicted on the Founders' Triad embroidery happens to share its image on many artworks, flags, armour, weapons and tapestries, and said form consisted of having deep earthly-brown scales twinged with gold, sharp claws of obsidian and eyes like molten sunlight, speckled with gold. The shaggy mane was of a lighter earthy-brown that shone an autumn hue under the light of the sun and even its twisting tree-branch like antlers or horns were the colour of pure hardened gold that some say would glint like shiny treasures under the sun's glowing rays of light.
The majestic creature of ancient wisdom and untold fortune was truly a divine persona of immense power and possessed many names: Yanwang Dijun within the three Zodiac Realms, the Prime Adeptus; Rex Lapis, the Geo Archon or simply Lord Morax in its home nation of Liyue, or in Feiyu by its full name; Golden Dragon Sovereign.
Golden Dragon, unlike his ghostly counterparts, Crimson Rain and Obsidian Moon, was different and usually took a more defensive approach to protecting and guiding humanity, doing so from afar and only really getting involved in human affairs if absolutely necessary, whilst both Ghosts preferred offensive measures to ensure humanity's protection.
According to such legends and far-flung tales surrounding Golden Dragon, it has existed for many millennia, and even once thought to have dwelt amongst its mortal and illuminated subjects for six thousand years, gifting its adpeti followers and disciples the power of elemental manipulation and sub-space creation, gave humanity the gift of coinage and economical trade, taught the Almighty Narukami Ogosho martial arts, would often participate in academic debates with the Gods of Wisdom and Knowledge, is widely regarded and worshipped as the God of Contracts and is labelled as "living history."
Lianhua hummed quietly to herself as she finished filling in the long's body, before weaving thin gold thread into small diamond shapes on the long's scaly body, embroidering its autumn-coloured mane and molten-gold eyes with sharp and precise wrist flicks. She quickly glanced up to see that the second incense stick was at the halfway point of burning. Her eyes popped open.
'The second incense stick is halfway through the burning phase??? I better pick up the pace.'
Lianhua had finally finished the details on the long and was about to pick up her charcoal pencil to sketch out the outline for the peacock, when she noticed something off. Her charcoal pencil was missing from the table. Confused, Lianhua scanned the table for it, hoping she had only misplaced it, but she realised that the pencil wasn't to be seen. She decided to check under the table to see if the pencil had rolled off somewhere but as she looked around, her stomach filled with a sense of dread.
Her charcoal pencil was nowhere to be seen.
'Oh no. How am I supposed to sketch a faint outline of the final part of the embroidery without it? The embroidery will look terribly wonky if I don't do the outline!!'
Lianhua had to think critically and quickly, since she only had one full incense stick and Âľ left of the second one to finish the embroidery and make it look presentable enough to pass this exam.
'Okay, time to knuckle down.'
Lianhua was about to lean over to grab the midnight blue thread spool from her box when she noticed that the spool of midnight blue thread was also missing from her embroidery box. Much to her combined shock, anger and dismay.
'ARE YOU KIDDING ME??????' Lianhua internally fumed, feeling frustrated. 'How am I supposed to finish this damned embroidery properly if I don't have the CORRECT SPOOL OF THREAD???!!!'
Lianhua felt a flurry of emotions well up inside her chest, making it quite difficult for her to breathe, but she forced such unnecessary feelings down into the pit of her stomach. There was no time for getting angry over a missing spool of thread. She had to remain calm.
'Hey, Lianhua, are you okay?'
A voice, on the one hand soft and filled with kindness, yet on the other hand held a slight air of superiority, as if this voice belonged to a person of high social status caught Lianhua's attention and she froze, bewildered. Time seemed to slow down around her and the air around her work station had become trapped in some sort of bubble. Whilst everything else slowed down to almost a halt, she was still able to move around as normal, which confused her even more.
"Hello?" she softly called out.
'Hi. it's okay, I'm not here to hurt you in any way. I can see you're struggling a little with this exam. Don't panic, just take a deep breath, Lianhua. You're doing great.'
Lianhua was speechless as she listened to this voice that seemed to be emanating from the bubble around her. Frozen on her knees and flabbergasted by the current predicament, Lianhua listened for that voice again, yet instead she received another voice.
'He's right, you have done well thus far. Panicking will only slow you down. Sometimes when faced with an issue that seems unsolvable, you can improvise.'
This second voice sounded feminine, but there was a distinct hoarseness to that voice, as if their vocal chords had been damaged in some way. Lianhua took a deep breath, allowing air to fill her lungs before she exhaled sharply, and nodded in agreement to these invisible voices.
'They're right. Just wing it. No need for the charcoal. Do the outline in that deep violet thread and fill in the gaps afterwards.'
Time sped up again to its original state and Lianhua, with her newfound confidence, picked up the violet spool of thread to begin the final part of the embroidery.
|🪷|
"Alright, that's time. The exam is finished. Please put down your hoops and needles and keep your hands off the table." Madam Feng called out. The final incense stick had burnt out which signalled the end of the exam.
Lianhua exhaled in relief, her fingertips tingling as she placed her embroidery hoop don on the mahogany table, the embroidery etched in the fabric complete at last. She stretched her hands out, lacing them together as she did so and she heard a faint click which signalled her bones snapping back into place, which surprised her a little.
"Oof, my fingers did not agree with that embroidery." Lianhua muttered, shaking her hand to rid herself of those spasming cramps that threatened to creep into her veins.
Madam Feng clapped her hands to capture the trainees' attention and all eyes fell on her. "Okay, ladies, now that you have completed the exam, I want everyone to line up in a row along that wall so I can examine each of your embroideries."
All of the young women present scrambled up from their work stations, grabbing their embroidery hoops as they went and they all headed to the wall to line up, jostling each other in order to fit along the wall. Lianhua managed to squeeze into the line, with just one person blocking her from Lady Sui. She double checked her embroidery to make sure that all the details were in place and the threads would not loosen up and she inwardly smiled.
'I think I did pretty well on this. But I'm not an expert.'
Madam Feng was making her way across the line, her verbal critiques making the others tremble in apprehension. Lianhua spotted Jeifan on the other end of the line, near the end and Jeifan noticed, waving to her with a bright yet nervous lopsided grin. Lianhua couldn't help herself and returned the same lopsided grin.
Madam Feng passed Yuan Sui as she stood proudly, a smug expression plastered on her neatly painted face, and her chest puffed out in pride. Madam Feng peered at the noblewoman and stopped in front of her.
"Let me see." she instructed. Sui held out her embroidery and Lianhua withheld a gasp of shock.
Sui had somehow managed to claim the Dual Koi fish embroidery that Lianhua was hoping to get, and in Lianhua's eyes, that embroidery was exceptionally well done.
The koi fish were done in bright orange and red threads with golden-yellow and blue threads tightly packed together to represent the water. There were also shades of green threads embroidered in the shape of lily pads floating on the embroidered water and the whole embroidery looked beautiful.
'Ah dang it. She's really good. Must be because she's a young woman born from a high bred noble family and she had to be trained so rigorously in the arts to achieve…..something…..probably for marriage and status.'
Lianhua clicked her tongue quietly, a little peeved. She knew that there was no way she was ever going to have the best embroidery, despite her embroidery being that of the most famous one of all. It wasn't even about having the most famous embroidery at all, it was about skill, precision and speed that made an embroidery beautiful to look at and display. Any mistakes found and the embroidery a lady had created would become practically useless.
Lady Sui eyed Lianhua's embroidery from across where she stood and let slip a smirk.
"Oh my. I wonder what ugly embroidery the courtesan had to make? I bet it's so unsightly that Madam Feng won't even spare it a glance and fail you on the spot."
Lianhua frowned at such a remark and kept her mouth shut. She really wanted to slap some sense into Lady Sui but considering their abysmally wide gap in status, it would be in her best interest and preservation to keep both her hands and her scathing thoughts to herself.
"Lady Sui, please keep such comments inside one's head. It's unbecoming of one to speak so ill of another in such a ghastly manner." Madam Feng reprimanded quite casually, some had dissolved into giggles upon hearing Lady Sui being told off for opening her mouth and speaking so loosely.
"Please learn that until you ascend to a higher rank in the Concubine Trials, you are of equal standing with all the others here. Do not slip up so easily." Madam Feng reminded the arrogant woman and shame-faced, Lady Sui bit her tongue.
Just as Madam Feng was passing by to examine the rest of the embroideries, a voice, flirtatious and teasing, spoke up near the door to the pavilion.
"Oh? Really? Having heard such a remark coming from someone like you, I'm curious to know what type of embroidery she did."
Madam Feng whipped her head around so fast, it almost looked blurry and she straightened up like a bean pole.
"Your Highness!? What brings you here?" She asked, fixing her skirt. The other women in the room all started making noises of excitement as His Highness entered with casual and calm footsteps. Lianhua catches sight of the Prince and internally groans in annoyance.
'Really? Him again?'
The Prince, with his beautiful deep, long midnight-blue hair and that mischievous, lopsided smirk plastered on his face, sauntered into the exam room, hands behind his back and robes swishing about with his movements. He caught sight of Lianhua and immediately perked up.
"My, my it's Lianhua. How have you been?" he asked, his voice simpering. Lianhua was hesitant to answer so she just gave him her best, "real" smile she could possibly muster in a situation like this, hoping it would be enough for him to leave her alone.
Unfortunately, this Prince seemed unconvinced.
"Is that a fake smile or a real smile? Y'know I can never truly tell with women. They can be quite the cunning creatures." he mused, his voice practically dripping with silky smooth humour. This made all the ladies swoon again, whilst Lianhua had to hold back some bile that had built up in her throat.
'Why do men like him think it's appropriate to flirt with women who aren't interested in them?'
That hoarse female voice spoke up again inside Lianhua's head, her tone monotonous and annoyed.
'I bet you've witnessed quite a lot of men displaying this behaviour in your old life?' Lianhua's mind asked.
'Oh you have no idea. I was on the receiving end of this type of behaviour multiple times throughout my life. It still gives me the heeby-jeebies to this day.'
Whilst Lianhua was engaged in a silent mind conversation with herself and those mysterious voices, she had noticed that Lady Sui had stepped forward just slightly and took the opportunity to lay out herself wide open.
"Your Highness, come take a look at my embroidery, it's ten times better than her's." She boasted, pointing to her circular bamboo hoop, the same one Madam Feng had just examined. The Prince gave Lady Sui an indescribable look and frowned, almost disappointedly.
"No thanks." he quipped mercilessly and turned back to face Lianhua, ignoring the hilariously shocked face Sui had suddenly made due to the outright rejection "Show me your embroidery Miss Lianhua, I wish to judge it for myself. he held out his hand for Lianhua to pass her embroidery to him, but Lianhua paused, unsure of what to make of the situation.
Madam Feng did not like the sound of that and meekly protested as she came to stand next to him. "Your Highness, we're still in the examination chamber, perhaps this isn't the best time?" She tried to regain control, but the Prince straightened out and half-turned his head over his shoulder, giving Madam Feng a side eyed glance.
"On the contrary Madam Feng, this is the perfect time." he turned to face the Matron.
"All these young, beautiful women are competing to earn His Majesty's favour and climb the ranks. As a member of the Imperial family, I must do my duty to ensure that all of his concubines know where they stand. If I judge the quality of these ladies' embroidery, then I know who is more suitable for the first rank. As a matter of fact, it was my cousin, on behalf of His Majesty, who sent me to judge the exam results."
Lianhua felt a pang of pain in her temples, as if someone was shouting in her mind.
She ignored it.
So, His Highness was a member of the Imperial family and related to the Emperor in some way. She wasn't sure if the Prince in front of her was the Emperor's son or one of the Imperial Cousins as it was hard to tell at this time.
The Prince turned to face Lianhua.
"Show me your embroidery." He instructed since Madam Feng had ceased to protest against him. Lianhua, despite the yelling in her head, held up her thankfully finished embroidery and the Prince scrutinised it with narrowed eyes, his lips pursed together.
"This is exceptional work." He praised her after a moment of tense silence. Sui and the other women, including Lianhua, all looked genuinely shocked over this praise.
"Huh? It is? I feel like I rushed near the end." Lianhua replied. She was used to being praised for her work as she had been taught by her mother and the other senior courtesans back at the brothel, yet due to the difficult nature of the embroidery she had been given for the exam, she had felt as if it wasn't good enough for the expert eyes of Madam Feng nor the Prince.
"No, it's impeccable work Miss Lianhua. Truly excellent stitching and needlework and I love the colours. The stitching used on maple red fox looks very clean and the silver butterfly embroidery is simply breathtaking." The Prince glowed with what Lianhua believed to be a form of pride, his eyes glimmering with excitement as he scrutinised her work. He gingerly caressed the soft threading and continued to admire the embroidery.
"I must say, I am truly impressed with your embroidery Lianhua, you have such a talented eye, right down to the small details from the butterflies to the diamond shapes in the long's scales and claws," he paused, eyes narrowing.
Lianhua felt a lump form in her throat.
'Oh no, he must have found a fault in the threading. And here he was, praising me.'
"Are those….crescent moons on the peacock tail?"
The Prince asked, almost stunned. Lianhua nodded. "The Peacock represents the Auspicious Obsidian Moon so I thought it would be appropriate to use moon symbols."
"You're right, the Peacock is one of the Obsidian Moon's many forms. The crescent moons are a wonderful addition. This is actually the first time a concubine has been able to embroider the Founders Triad in full in under three hours. I'm very pleased with your work. You should be proud of yourself."
"Um….thank you, Your Highness." Lianhua cordially replied, bowing in grace. The Prince gazed back at her, his eyes sparkling. "How docile." he commented lightly with a chuckle. He was still holding her embroidery and examining it as his lips curled into a smirk. Lianhua had to refrain from grimacing.
'Ugh. He's so icky!'
The voices inside of Lianhua's head started whispering again, hushed and echoing in her ear drums, making her blood pulse. She tried to make out what these sudden voices were telling her, and hoped her face didn't give her inner emotions away. Amidst the duet, she heard a name.
Yèxing.
Who was Yèxing?
Lianhua wasn't sure who or what that name was referring to, and the voices were getting louder - or at least only one voice was. The female voice had piped up, loudly exclaiming the identity of the person in the same room as her.
"The man in front of you is Xue Yèxing. He's a member of the Imperial Family. He's a notorious flirt, a ladies' man if you like. I would be careful when interacting with him."
'H-how do you know that?' Lianhua silently asked the female voice in her head, very confused. There was no way a simple voice could have known who this man was at all. Right?
The female voice spoke again.
"I happen to know the identities of all the main members of the Feiyu Imperial family and that one is Xue Yèxing. His name is spoken widely by many women who have fallen for his charm and wit but he's a pathetic wet towel when it comes to politics. Steer clear of him if you can, don't fall for his good looks and witty humour. He's kind of a coward behind that mask."
'I had a feeling he was wearing some sort of emotional or personality mask to hide his true ambitions. How can you tell these sorts of things right off the bat?'
"I….have a lot of personal experience when it comes to dealing with nobles like him, from spoiled brats to actually decent people who are just doing their jobs. It's a skill you pick up the longer you're around a certain group of people. Trust me Lianhua, the longer you're here, the more experience you will gain. Use your knowledge of dealing with particular situations and people to your advantage."
"And make allies too. People who share the same values and morals as you will find themselves drawn to you."
The male voice interjected sweetly.
"Keep your head down, stay focused and you'll pass the trials with flying colours. If the Emperor doesn't choose you by the end of your season, you get to go home."
Lianhua mulled over these new thoughts, those voices' advice played over and over again inside her head.
She surmised that it would be best to keep her head down, study hand and pray that the Emperor does not choose her as another one of his consorts.
He has enough of those as it is.
Lianhua noticed Madam Feng scrutinising her work with narrowed, sharp eyes, her fingers firm around the bamboo hoop.
"I must say…..this is exceptional work. To think that this sort of embroidery could be accomplished in just under 3 incense hours is remarkable. Although, why is Obsidian Moon's peacock form embroidered in violet thread instead of midnight-blue thread?" Madam Feng asked, her voice sounding perplexed. Lianhua figured they would reach this topic of conversation during the presentation.
"Oh, that? It's a simple explanation really. The spool of midnight-blue I was supposed to use went missing along with my charcoal pencil. At first I thought I had just misplaced my pencil and chalked it up to forgetfulness but when I went to grab the spool of thread needed and saw it wasn't there in the embroidery box, I looked around wondering where it had disappeared to but when I couldn't find it, I realized it had gone missing completely so the unfortunate situation forced me to use another colour. Violet is one of Obsidian Moon's main colours - the Lunar Ghost is usually associated with the colour violet due to his heritage so I figured I could use that colour and pray I haven't offended anyone."
Madam Feng was even more perplexed but this situation and even Xue Yèxing, who had gone silent the moment Madam Feng took charge once again, was displaying some surprise over this.
"I can assure you no one is offended by the dramatic and unfortunate colour change of the embroidery thread, my lady." Xue Yèxing answered confidently. Madam Feng also nodded.
"It's not against the rules to change the colour of the embroidery thread, especially when one colour is unavailable. Though I deem it odd that the midnight-blue spool of thread was missing to begin with. Every box came with the required thread needed for each distributed embroidery pattern" She explained.
"Which is precisely why I found it odd. The violet spool of thread was either a decorative piece or a backup." Lianhua shrugged nonchalantly, crossing her arms over her chest. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Lady Sui fidget a little, playing with the cuff of her flowing sleeve as if it had become the most mesmerising thing she had ever seen. Which set several alarm bells off in Lianhua's head.
'Strange. Her behaviour changed.' She mused.
Madam Feng turned around and recognised the table where Lianhua had been sitting and strode over to examine her workstation - much without prompt.
She saw the lacquer wooden box, sitting open still, untouched and several stray threads of different lengths and colours pushed off to one side of the desk. Overall, Lianhua's desk was quite neat and tidy but when Madam Feng peered into the open box to see whether Lianhua's story held up, she did notice that the midnight-blue thread spool was not there in its place.
"You're right. It's not in the box you were given." Madam Feng mused loudly so all the others in the pavilion hall could hear. Lady Sui fidgeted even, tapping her foot. "Well…we don't know if it was actually taken by someone else or she's framing someone by taking the spool of thread herself and hiding it." Lady Sui suggested coyly, trying to keep any suspicious gazes off of her.
Madam Feng looked unconvinced and pointed to the table next to Lianhua's workstation.
"Miss Bai. Who was seated next to you during the exam?"
Lianhua made no hesitation in answering. "Lady Sui. She made a point to tell me that was her assigned seat before the exam proceeded."
Lady Sui huffed a little. "Just because I sat next to you, doesn't mean I'm the culprit." She conjectured defiantly.
Madam Feng waltzed over to the empty workstation and reached to open the box of embroidery supplies that was sat atop of the wood. She lifted the lid and peeked into the box and she let out a hum.
"Oh." she spoke, surprised. "There seems to be two charcoal pencils in this box and a spool of midnight blue thread in this box."
The other concubines in training all gasped audibly and others started whispering about sabotage. Lady Sui spluttered, which coming from her, sounded foreign and undignified for a lady of her status and heritage. "I played no such part in this!" she loudly protested, throwing Lianhua and darkened glare.
However, as she was protesting her supposed innocence in this, a meek voice, trembling with fear, spoke up.
"Madam Feng?" the voice, which belonged to another concubine, caused Madam Feng to turn in the direction from nowhere the voice was. The concubine in question, as Lianhua noted as she leaned to see where they were standing, was a short young woman with short dark hair, clipped with pins in the shape of lilies. She also wore a light blue and pink hanfu that had wide sleeves to hide her arms and hands. She stiffened greatly as a whole line of eyes all squared down on her from either side.
"Yes?" Madam Feng spoke, urging a reply with her steely tone. The concubine gulped before she timidly replied.
"Lady Sui was the one…to take both the tread spool…and the charcoal pencil…" She answered and a wave of shocked gasps rippled through the others. Lady Sui bit back a banshee screech.
"Excuse me!?!" She demanded as she tried to stomp her way to the trembling concubine but Xue Yèxing, still present in the room, legitimately blocked Lady Sui's path and gave the shy concubine a serene smile.
"Pray tell how did you know?"
The concubine pointed to her desk, conveniently next to Lady Sui's. "I saw her reach over to take them from the box on the other desk and then….put the stolen items into her own box….but I couldn't say anything."
Lady Sui's perfectly painted face turned bright red, the red of her lipstick the same shade as her cheeks as she fought to "defend herslef"
"You have no proof!" She barked.
"I saw you too. I saw you take the items." Another concubine, much braver than the timid one, spoke up with a glare.
"Yeah." another agreed.
"That makes you a thief and cheater." Another concubine declared with a pointed finger. Several other eyewitnesses also spoke up and Madam Feng nodded as the evidence came in.
"I see. Well, since we have several eye witness statements and since the stolen items were found in your assigned box Lady Sui, it means I have no other choice to issue a punishment. We don't condone thievery or lies here in the palace and I can greatly assure you that any future Empress would not stoop so low to enact this type of behaviour. You shall stay behind after I conclude the gradings so I may issue your punishment." Madam Feng announced, leaving Lady Sui fuming.
🪷
Lianhua was basking in the afternoon sun, holding her grade for Embroidery Exam, the red stamp expressing her outstanding pass mark pressed hard into the parchment. She smiled to herself as she gazed at her very first top grade she achieved and had decided to take a stroll back to the lodgings to tell Yingtao the good news.
She wondered what type of punishment Lady Sui had been struck with but did not dwell on that subject for very long, not wanting the image of that absurdly arrogant woman to besmirch her mind and good mood.
She did even know that there was a pair of inquisitive eyes watching her leave.
🪷