Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace

‘No, no, no, wait a moment!’

“No, thank you, but you don’t have to go out of your way, I’ll go buy some things on my own after we reached the inn.”

Yui Mei politely declined, but the crown prince just smiled.

“I haven’t given you any housewarming gift after you moved to your own room, even though Libin was prepared and he also bought you some things.”

Indeed, Libin gave her a small shelf as requested, and she also got a hairpin from him.

Speaking of small things – he also bought her candies.

But there’s no need for the crown prince to compete with him, though.

However, the crown prince beamed, refusing to back down.

As a result, it was decided that they would ‘go shopping first after reaching the town’.

‘Eh, seriously?’

Didn’t matter whether it’s Libin or Li Yong, just stop the crown prince already.

Shopping with him would be bad for her heart.

Unfortunately, Li Yong was outside, riding on horseback.

Afterward, the carriage travelled on smoothly and they reached the city where the inn they’re going to stay was located soon enough, just as scheduled.

In this country, inn towns were located at a standardized distance from the town roads, but this inn town had a remarkably larger scale compared to the others.

“Oh, it’s really bustling, huh.”

Yui Mei peered at the cityscape of the main street from the window of their carriage.

“Oh right, I have a rule I wanted you to keep, Yui Mei.”

The crown prince then said.

“What might this be?”

The crown prince grinned at Yui Mei’s question.

Yui Mei already learned during this short journey that he had something up his sleeve behind those smiles.

“I’m just ‘Ming’ here, do you understand?”

The crown prince’s name was Ming Xian, so he got that Ming from there.

In short, he was hinting that she shouldn’t call him ‘Crown Prince’.

“…Ahm, Lord Ming?”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

Even if the crown prince was alright with it, others wouldn’t be.

Yui Mei asked Li Yong, who had been sticking to the side of the carriage since they entered the town, through the small window.

“Ahm, that’s what he said, but is it really okay?”

They were at the same eye level since Yui Mei was riding in the carriage. Li Yong lightly shrugged.

“…Just go along with his hobby.”

His tone was oozing with helplessness.

Maybe the crown prince’s attendants had to put up with a lot of unreasonable demands.

As they conversed, the carriage finally stopped in front of a building.

The building stood out from the rest, probably because of the western-style elements mixed in the exterior design, rather than its impressive style.

“…Is it here?”

Yui Mei’s jaw dropped as she looked up to the building after alighting from the carriage.

It was clearly different from the kind of shops she planned to go to.

“They also handle imported goods here, so I think you can find rare items here.”

The crown prince didn’t mind that one bit, and he immediately entered.

Li Yong left the horse, then he walked beside Yui Mei as they followed after the crown prince.

“…Cr, er, Lord Ming’s well-acquainted with this.”

Yui Mie looked up to Li Yong and said that, and he raised his brow as he looked down back at her.

“In the first place, he’s not the kind of person that liked being confined inside the palace. Perhaps his pent-up frustrations accumulated since he couldn’t go anywhere these days.”

So that’s how it was. The crown prince was originally a proactive person.

However, he had been holed up inside that palace recently .

‘Don’t tell me it’s because of covering up for me?’

Cold sweat ran down Yui Mei’s back when she recalled how she had been in the care of Libin.

Nevertheless, they were already here, so Yui Mei decided to focus on shopping.

Even if Yui Mei wasn’t girly, she still loved shopping.

Most of the goods sold in the Inner Palace consisted of ornaments and decorations, and only few of them had practical use, so she wasn’t interested in them. But if there were cute items for everyday use, she would like to buy them.

She looked around the shop with that thought, when something caught her eye.

‘Ah, there’s a hairpin!’

She found something that looked like a modern hairpin for the first time.

Moreover, it had differently-sized artificial flowers, so it was really cute.

They would probably hold her hair longer compared to the hairpins here, since Yui Mei always tied her hair up when cleaning.

And so, she chose a set with small decorative flowers, but the crown prince insisted and gave her a set with large flowers, too.

After that, she also got a comb and hand towels. She looked for the undergarments called yufu, but since this shop handled imported goods, only western-style clothes were available here.

They were something new in this country, but for Yui Mei, they were nostalgic clothes.

Moreover, every single one of them had a premium feel, so they were definitely high quality goods, so she had no choice but to turn a blind eye.

Furthermore –

“Yui Mei’s hair is a rare beauty.”

The crown prince gave her some powdered shampoo for her hair.

When she told him she was looking for cloth, he also gave her silk.

She never had the luxury of wearing silk panties even in her past life, though.

Afterward, they finished shopping and left the shop with the goods in their arms. They then rode the carriage once again, and headed towards the inn they would stay in for tonight.

When they finally arrived, it was a commoner’s inn.

‘So it isn’t the official’s inn.’

There were two types of inns in this country – one for government officials, and one for the commoners. Officials were part of the privileged class, so of course their inns would be better. Just like the modern Japanese hotels, there were several facilities so a person could stay even if he’s alone.

Compared to that, you had to cook your own food in ordinary commoner’s inns.

Cheaper inns would also have rooms for rent only.

When Yui Mei left the borderlands, the inn they stopped in didn’t even let them use kitchen tools.

Therefore, they had to pack a lot of ingredients and daily necessities and tools on their journey, so it somehow became something akin to moving house.

Because of the small amount of baggage they brought with them, Yui Mei thought they would be staying in an official’s inn.

Regardless, the inn that the crown prince chose was excuding an air of luxury, so maybe they targeted those well-to-do commoners.

—–

T/N: Shout out to Gregory, thank you for being my Patreon! ? <>

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