Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace

If they were the crown prince’s brothers, then that would mean they were also Yui Mei’s (provisionary) brothers.

She was not interested in committing incest.

Furthermore, if the emperor’s children were called princes, then the emperor’s brothers were also princes.

They would also possibly come, so she began to think that it was truly a bother.

Moreover, with the way Libin said it, even if she was assaulted and a child was born, it probably would not be acknowledged.

Rather than that, they would be thrown into the nunnery.

For her to fall into the same predicament as their mother and daughter – she would absolutely not let that happen.

‘Do not go near the princes during the Cherry Blossom Viewing Banquet, alrighty, I’ll keep it in mind!’

After burning that warning into her brain, the next thing she was bothered about was the origin of the hairpin.

“Who prepared this hairpin?”

Libin shrugged his shoulders at Yui Mei’s query.

“I did. The crown prince wanted to buy it for you, but him sending a hairpin to a court lady would cause misunderstandings.”

Yui Mei also didn’t want to raise rumors that she was a court lady involved with the crown prince.

‘But did Libin-sama choose this hairpin himself?’

When she scrutinized it again, it was not ostentatious, but it was not plain, either; it was a cute but elegant hairpin.

If Libin chose this, then he had great tastes.

With that clever way of choosing gifts, if he was not a eunuch then he would certainly be popular.

There were doubts about him being a eunuch, but for now, she set them aside.

And so, it was now clear to her that Libin was the one who gave it to her.

Then the next question would be how to use this hairpin.

“I have never used this kind of thing, though.”

At any rate, it was not an accessory that was readily available in her previous life.

Yui Mei did not know what to do with the hairpin, and was just idly swinging it.

“….Can’t be helped then, hand it over.”

Libin took the hairpin from Yui Mei’s hand, then he removed the kerchief, and he arbitrarily fixed her hair and inserted the hairpin.

“It’s like this, as expected, I was right in choosing the red flower.”

After arranging her hair, Libin took a step back and checked the result.

She already thought about this before, but he was a man skilled at fiddling with hair, arranging it in such a short time.

And apparently, Libin did choose the hairpin himself.

‘How should I say this, he’s a person with no slip-ups.’

Anyway, Yui Mei also wanted for herself to see how it was after it was done.

“I wanted to see it! Is there a mirror somewhere?”

“There’s a mirror here.”

When Yui Mei tried to look for a place that could reflect her appearance, he handed her a small hand-mirror.

Rather, bringing a mirror everywhere, there should be a limit to how prepared he was.

Anyhow, she hurriedly peered into the mirror.

‘Ah, I look cute!’

The red flower was set off by her hair, giving her a gorgeous ambience.

Yui Mei smiled as she looked at her appearance in the mirror from various angles.

She did not have any intention of dressing up to be chosen by the princes, but she would also feel happy when she looked good.

While looking at Yui Mei circling around as she looked in the mirror, Libin softly mumbled.

“…Unexpectedly, you also have a feminine side to you, huh.”

Fortunately, these words were not heard by Yui Mei who was in high-spirits.

Afterward.

All the court ladies became very busy as the Cherry Blossom Viewing Banquet approached.

Of course, Yui Mei was not an exception.

She polished the interior of the Inner Palace until it was sparkling, and she took out the tables and chairs that would be placed in the garden and polished them too.

In short, only polishing jobs were awaiting her.

The kitchen staff Mei Na was also occupied with working on the pre-made foods.

There was a refrigerator using ice in the Inner Palace, but its capacity was not huge.

That was why the dishes that would require fresh ingredients were to be made on the day itself early in the morning. However, foods that could be preserved were already prepared a few days prior.

That was why the kitchen lights were still lit late into the night.

In this manner, all the court ladies involved in the preparation run around until became completely exhausted, and the day of the Cherry Blossom Viewing Banquet finally arrived.

Yui Mei was inside her room fighting in front of the slightly warped mirror she had borrowed from the storage room.

“Hmmm, so difficult.”

Her opponent was the hairpin she got from Libin.

Even if she did not plan to dress up especially, she wanted to do something about her hair, so she had been trying to arrange it through trial and error, but it wasn’t going well.

‘Will I get used to this at this rate?’

Yui Mei was about to give up on the hairpin because it was too troublesome, and she was overwhelmed.

“Ah Mei, are you there?”

Right at that time, Mei Na came to visit.

“What is it? I am currently preoccupied though…”

Yui Mei poked her head out to receive her, and Mei Na heaved a sigh when she saw Yui Mei’s hair in a jumble.

“I was worried so I decided to take a look, and there you are. Yui Mei, don’t tell me you plan to go to the banquet with your bare face.”

“Eh, I plan to go as is, though?”

It couldn’t be helped since she didn’t have any cosmetics.

Mei Na’s eyes widened in disbelief at Yui Mei who had those thoughts.

“There’s no way that would be okay!”

Afterward, she took her shoes off and entered the room, then she seated Yui Mei in front of the mirror. She put the box she was carrying on the floor, and when she opened the lid, there was a make-up kit inside.

“Alright, be still!”

Mei Na pressed Yui Mei down as she said that, then she started to put face powder on her.

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T/L Thoughts: I KNOW that hairpin was not special in any way to Libin, but I couldn’t help but squeal when he arranged her hair. Lol. It’s the second hairpin from him. I hope they get to the romance part sooooonnnn. And do you have any suggestions on wording how to heave a sigh? Haha.. These characters loved to sigh a lot ;D

Also, even if I didn’t put honorifics when she was talking to Libin because, well, it was Ancient China, I still added it to her inner monologue (if the raws did, since she didn’t use them in some cases), since she’s a former Japanese anyway, so it would make sense if she addressed the higher-ups with honorifics. This was the answer I came up after contemplating how to tl the honorifics thing.. hehe.. thanks to S4TY4 for commenting on this, it helped me realized I had to clarify it here, too ? Thank you so much for reading!! I appreciate everyone’s comments, and please feel free to point it out if I missed some typos/ grammatical errors btw ?

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