Chapter 443 - Flower War (2/2)
When the other maidens saw that she even verbally abused Wang Qiuyue, who was the young lady who had the best relationship with her, they promptly decided to forgo trying to smooth things over.
The more Li Meirou dug a hole for herself, the happier Yu Xiaocao felt. She looked at the three pots of flowers that she brought and spoke to Royal Princess Minglan, “I didn’t bring all three along to compete in the flower wars. This pot of ‘Two Qiaos’ is my gift to the hostess for inviting me. This pot of ‘Cinnabar Purple’ camellia is for the opening act of the flower war. As for this last pot of orchids, that’s the pot that I will be using to compete in this banquet.”
Li Meirou snorted disdainfully, “You certainly know how to smooth things over. Truly someone who refuses to admit a mistake! I, this young lady, shouldn’t have bothered speaking earlier. When you lose face later on, then we can all laugh at you!”
Yu Xiaocao decided to not lower herself to the level of someone who had no brains to speak of in order to avoid getting contaminated by the other girl’s stupidity. A maiden dressed in purple, who feverishly adored camellias, slowly got closer and remarked with an expression full of surprise, “Is this the famed ‘Cinnabar Purple’ camellia from Dali Bai? Their most famous variant? It really is, it really is! The color of these flowers is almost an inky dark purple and I heard that this type of camellia is the one with the most pigmented flowers. It’s gorgeous without being overwhelming, stately without being crude...this camellia, did you also find it in that ravine in the mountain?”
The burning gazes of all of the maidens fell onto Yu Xiaocao. If she also stated that this camellia was found in the mountain ravine, she was pretty sure that they would all throw a tantrum and insist on going there. Yu Xiaocao hurriedly stated, “This pot of ‘Cinnabar Purple’ camellia was given to me as a reward from Princess Consort Jing.”
The purple-clothed maiden muttered, “No wonder. Everyone knows that Princess Consort Jing loves camellias. Imperial Prince Jing and her three sons travel all throughout the country to find rare and beautiful varieties for her. Other than Lady Feng, no one else besides her would be able to have a precious specimen like this.”
Lin Weiyu, who was one of the ‘four talented girls of the capital’, had a spark flash through her eyes and a friendly smile appeared on her face, “Princess Consort Jing adores her camellias the most. Younger Sister Yu, you must have done something great in order to have her personally give you one of her beloved camellia flowers! I heard that Princess Consort Jing’s health had improved immensely in Tanggu Town after encountering a famous doctor who healed her body. Younger Sister Yu is from Tanggu and also has good medicinal skills. Are you somehow related to this famous doctor, Younger Sister Yu?”
Yu Xiaocao glanced at the other girl and gave her a small smile, “No famed medicinal skills here. I only coincidentally encountered a few prescriptions that are good for nourishing the body that were able to improve Princess Consort Jing’s health! However, this reward wasn’t given to me at random. Princess Consort Jing’s camellia had gotten infested with wood maggots and I managed to fix it, which is how I got this pot of ‘Cinnabar Purple’ camellia. I merely tried to graft it onto an ordinary camellia and didn’t expect it to actually work!”
The eyes of the purple-clothed maiden lit up, “Are you saying that you used a branch of ‘Cinnabar Purple’ camellia and grafted it onto another camellia successfully? And now it’s growing well? Then...doesn't that mean, as long as I’m able to get ahold of a branch of an expensive and precious camellia, you’ll be able to grow it into a full plant?”
Yu Xiaocao naturally wouldn’t make such a claim. Otherwise, in the future, everyone would be clamouring for her to raise plants for them. Where would she find the time to do so? Thus, she hurriedly explained, “This pot of ‘Cinnabar Purple’ camellia only happened because this method coincidentally worked. If you wanted me to grow other ones, I really don’t know where I would start!”
The purple-clothed maiden was a bit disappointed. However, she persisted in insisting, “Since you know how to treat the ailments of camellia flowers, that means you also have a good handle on how to raise plants. When spring comes, my family will be having a flower banquet, so please, Miss Yu, show up.”
“Of course, of course! It would be my honor!” Yu Xiaocao metaphorically wiped away a bit of non-existent sweat from her face. Interacting with these obsessed young maidens was truly more tiring than she had thought!
In order to make sure the outcome of the flower war party was fair, Royal Princess Minglan had especially invited a person famed for her gardening knowledge. In fact, she was on the level of Princess Consort Jing and Lady Feng and was considered an esteemed guest by both of them. She never had any issues answering any difficult questions about different flora.
Every young noble maiden, in order to gain some reputation at this flower battle, had also put in a lot of effort in finding good specimens for this party. However, rare and precious specimens could only be sought and not obtained. The ordinary varieties were a dime a dozen. As for any true rare flowers, there really weren’t any.
The young maidens all brought along beautiful pots of flowers along. There were sumptuous and gorgeous peonies, elegant and stately chrysanthemums, delicate and adorable camellias, and refined and graceful orchids...it was truly an astonishing sight. To be able to get so many flowers in such a season, it made it seem like that atmosphere in this warm room had abruptly changed seasons. It looked like spring was in full bloom here.
There was a lot of variety of flowers. In the peonies section, there was the ‘Pea Green’ peony that had sparkling and translucent petals as adorable as jade. Then there was a variety that had thick layers of snowy white petals called ‘Bright Jade’ and a variety that had light purple petals that was called ‘Lightly Tinted Jade Pavillion’...there was also quite a bit of chrysanthemums in this room. Aromatic Gilt, Purple Dragon Curled in Snow, Precious Jade Phoenix, A Thousand Birds, Rouge Stained Snow...these were just the names of some of the chrysanthemums present.
However, there wasn’t a lot of variety of camellias present as the room only held the variants that were commonly seen. A few pots of orchids were available and their rarity was decent. Some of their names were: Heavenly Jade Snow, Green-scented Jade, and Great Silk Snow. Despite that, she had seen all of these orchid variants in the greenhouse at the Fang Residence.