Disgraced Consort - Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Mistakenly Made a Consort (7)

As Xi Yan stand by the door, a maiden follows the scent and stop before her.  “What is your perfume made of?  It smells like nothing I have smelled before.”

Xi Yan is still wearing her veil, unlike the others who took them off after entering the hall.  Even though wearing it makes it hard to breathe, but her breath that lingers inside the veil give her a feeling of warmth.  The veil also help to cover to occasional emptiness in her eyes.

At that question, she lowers her head slightly and answers, “I am not using any perfume.  It must be the scent of plum blossoms outside this hall.”

Outside the hall are countless plum blossom trees.  As a result, the scent are spread everywhere.

“But this is not the scent of plum blossom.”  The girl frowns as she shake her head.  Another girl who is standing beside her pulls her sleeves and says with a deriding smile, “She is not willing to tell you what her perfume is made of.  Perhaps that perfume will help her enters the emperor’s eyes later, how could she possibly tell you?”

Xi Yan’s face underneath the veil did not change.  But the girl, after hearing the instigating words, pouts and no longer acknowledge Xi Yan.

“Yan Er—-“ a voice calls out for her.  Xi Yan turns around and sees Mu Yan entering the hall.  She has already removed her veil, her face is pink with a tinge of red.  “That is your natural scent, one you have obtained since birth, how can common perfumes compares to you?”

When Mu Yan said that, her voice was not low.  All the other ladies are affronted.  Who would believe that a person would have her own natural scent ever since she was from her mother’s womb?

The scent smells like flowers, yet at the same time, not really.

“Aiya, isn’t this Mu Jiejie.” Without waiting for Xi Yan to reply, the Grand Tutor’s daughter, pull Mu Yan in.  “I have been pondering over the needlework pattern you gave me last time for a few days now, and I still have not gotten the general gists of it.  Can you give me some pointers?”

The term ‘Jie Jie’ is not on the basis of age, but on the basis of Mu Yan’s father’s high position in the court.  The other maidens also starts circling her, trying to please her.

Even though they are envious of Mu Yan’s appearance, they also know that buttering up to someone who is almost certain to be selected is something wise.

Xi Yan quietly leaves the cluster and head over to the side of the hall.  Over there, she sees a young lady who did not bother to come up, merely sitting by the window while elegantly watching the plum blossom outside.

She has no idea who that girl is, but she too has no particular eye-catching hair accessories.  It was merely two petals of plum blossom.  But her face is really delicate and fragile.  Xi Yan was watching the girl’s face when a eunuch enters.

“Calling—– The daughter of Xiang Qin Wang, Nalan Xi Yan.  The daughter of High Official, Mu Yan.”

Xi Yan turns around and as she heads out of the hall, she knows those ladies’ eyes are filled with surprise.  Even though her father is no longer there, but the word Xiang Qin Wang is still a well-known name within the empire.

For the time being, maintaining the family’s position is a thing she should do.

Because last night, when a physician from the palace came by, he said her second brother can no longer walk.   The hereditary title of Qin Wang is a mere empty title for her second brother who can no longer command an army.

She walks step by step.  There is no regret in her, nor there is any grudge.

The situation revolving her father and her brother’s death has always been suspicious to her.

Even though her father led the troops to suppress the Xue Lian Group’s attack, Tan Xun City has always been heavily guarded.  How did Xue Lian Group manage to infiltrate the city and carry out the attack on the first place?

Besides, her father’s servants who fortunately survived the attack said her father only went to Tai Yuan building on an official’s invitation.  But unfortunately, that official also died during the massacre, so no one really knows the truth.

She keeps her suspicions buried deep inside her.

The road she is about to take and how she should take, is something she is very clear of.