Chapter 6
The Jade Pendant’s Missing?
Previously, when Eldest Miss was asleep, the doctor had come over to take her pulse. He said that her throat was rather damaged so she needed to take care to recuperate well, and that she would need at least three to five days to recover.
Yu Youyao covered her little mouth and blinked at Chun Xiao, not saying a word.
Although Chun Xiao found it strange, she was happy that Eldest Miss was fine, so she did not think too much about it.
Noticing that her young mistress’s face was flushed and her hair was even drenched in sweat, she hurriedly reached out to touch her forehead, only heaving a sigh of relief when she found that her temperature was normal.
“Young Mistress, you’ve perspired a lot, your body must be feeling uncomfortable. There’s hot water in the kitchen. I’ll ask someone to prepare a bath.”
Chun Xiao quickly walked out of the room and saw that the maidservants on duty outside were talking to each other. She pulled a long face and said, “The young mistress was drenched in sweat in her sleep. You girls don’t even know how to keep watch properly, and choose to add fuel to the fire instead. Is this how you’re supposed to behave? Don’t think that you can relax just because the young mistress is awake. Hot sweat is not good for the body. The young mistress is still weak right now. How can her body withstand it?”
The young servant girls were so frightened that their faces turned ashen, and they knelt down to apologize for their mistake.
“Why are you still here? Hurry up and go into the house to help Eldest Miss make her bed and prepare for her bath.”
Eldest Miss was still young, and Nanny Liu helped around in keeping the place organized. Since there was no stern, heavy-handed nanny in the house to manage them, these servant girls had developed a tendency to be indolent and lazy.
The few of them lowered their heads and answered “yes” while trembling, then hurriedly entered the inner room.
They heated some hot water on the stove and kept it warm in the pot. A few older servants swiftly carried the hot water into the bathroom and poured it into the tub.
Chun Xiao took out a thumb-sized glass bottle and poured some green medicinal dew into it.
There was a faint fragrance in the air, containing notes of bitterness from the medicinal herbs. It was extremely refreshing and fragrant. This medicinal dew was sent over by the Xie Residence of Quanzhou. It was a secret recipe passed down from their ancestors and was specially for nourishing the body. Eldest Miss’s body had been strong since she was young, and she rarely fell sick. It was the effect of this medicinal bath.
Eldest Miss had been taking these baths since she was young.
Thick mist emerged from the huge bathtub.
Yu Youyao removed her singlet and entered the bathtub made of camphor wood. Not long after, she was leaning against the wall of the tub, with her eyelids lowered as she drifted off to sleep.
Carrying a copper kettle that was half her height, Chun Xiao tested the temperature of the water and slowly added more hot water into the bathtub.
After soaking for about half an hour, Chun Xiao was worried that Eldest Miss would catch a cold, so she called out softly, “Young Mistress, wake up.”
Yu Youyao opened her eyes in confusion and allowed Chun Xiao to help her up.
Chun Xiao took a large towel and wrapped Yu Youyao up. She then wiped her body dry and helped her to put on the fresh set of clothes.
But the clothes that used to fit her perfectly seemed to be a little loose on her now. Chun Xiao was stunned. She looked at her young mistress carefully, realizing that she had lost so much weight.
Chun Xiao stroked Yu Youyao’s wet hair gently and felt her heart ache. “Young Mistress, it’s been tough on you.”
When Yu Youyao returned to the inner room, a young maidservant picked up the clothes left on the stool in the bathing room. Instantly, an indescribable stench hit her nose, like the smell of something sour and rotten.
It almost caused her to vomit.
This set of clothing could no longer be worn anymore.
In the inner room, Chun Xiao twisted Yu Youyao’s hair with a towel until it was half dry. She instructed a maidservant to get a charcoal steamer to dry her hair more thoroughly.
It was at this moment that Yu Youyao finally realized what she had forgotten. Her small hands instantly went to her chest, but there was nothing there. Her eyes widened in shock, and when she lowered her head to take a look, her mouth quivered into a pout.
“Chun Xiao, Chun Xiao, my jade pendant is missing. I lost the jade pendant Mother left for me, Mother…”
“Young Mistress, don’t cry. I will get someone to look for it. We’ll be able to find it eventually.” Chun Xiao was shocked as well. The jade pendant was Eldest Miss’s precious treasure, and had always been her most cherished item. As Chun Xiao coaxed her, she also instructed another maidservant to help find the jade pendant.
Soon, the entire Yu Residence was alerted. Everyone had heard that the jade pendant left by Madam Xie, the late First Madam of the family, had disappeared.
The servants searched every inch of the Yu Residence, but they did not find anything.
Yu Youyao was crying so hard that her voice had turned hoarse, and Old Madam Yu’s heart hurt for her. She wrapped her granddaughter in her arms. “Yao Yao, don’t cry, don’t cry. Crying too much isn’t good for your health. It’s okay if you lose the jade pendant, it’ll be okay. Your mother left you many other things. I’ve kept them all for you. Quick, take a look.”
As soon as she finished speaking, she opened a rosewood box. Immediately, the treasures and jewels inside emitted a brilliant glow.
Yu Youyao was instantly captivated. With a little burp, she stopped crying. “This, these were all left by Mother for me?”
Upon hearing this, Old Madam Yu felt extremely sad. “Of course. How could Grandmother lie to you?”
Yu Youyao’s tear-stained face finally broke into a smile. She happily picked up a suet jade Buddha pendant and held it in front of her chest.
“I’ll help you wear it.” Old Madam Yu took the jade Buddha pendant and helped her wear it.
Yu Youyao held the jade Buddha pendant that was now on her chest, and hopped over to the dressing table.
The polished glass mirror reflected the flawless white jade of the pendant. “Grandmother, when I wear the things Mother left for me, it’s like Mother is always with me.”
“Good child.” Old Madam Yu felt a lump in her throat. She couldn’t help but wipe the corners of her eyes with her handkerchief. Madam Xie had personally helped Yao Yao put on the child Buddha pendant just before she passed on. Ultimately, this still wasn’t the same.
Yu Youyao carefully scrutinized the jade Buddha pendant. The more she looked at it, the happier she felt. Suddenly, she felt a warm sensation on her forehead, and it seemed as if a red flower had appeared before disappearing in a flash. She thought that she had seen wrongly.
She rubbed her eyes, and now she could see what was happening clearly—a Blood Jade Lotus had suddenly appeared between her brows like a spark of fire, exuding a dignified and holy aura.
She widened her eyes in shock. “Grandmother, Grandmother, do you see a flower on my forehead?”
Rubbing the top of her head, Old Madam Yu smiled. “What flower? Nonsense. When you grow up a little more, you can have a
huadian
on your forehead. My Yao Yao is so pretty, you’ll definitely look beautiful.”
But there really was a flower! Whenever she thought of a flower, it would appear between her eyebrows.
Yao Yao wasn’t spouting nonsense!
So it seemed that Grandmother couldn’t see the flower, and only she could?
After Old Madam Yu left, Yu Youyao stayed alone in the house, cupping her face with her hands as she looked in the glass mirror. This carefree young lady finally had something to fret about.
The flower on her forehead was the same blood red lotus flower that she had seen in her dream, which was also the same flower on the forehead of her child Buddha jade pendant.
Could it be that she hadn’t lost her pendant?
And it had turned into a Blood Jade Lotus, appearing on her forehead instead?
As the thought flashed through Yu Youyao’s mind, an ethereal dewdrop appeared in her chubby palm—the same one that she had drunk in her dream. The dewdrop emitted a refreshing lotus fragrance, and just smelling it soothed her. She suspected that the reason her throat stopped hurting so badly was because she had drunk this dewdrop.
- Huadian is a kind of flower ornament on the foreheads of Han women in ancient times