Chapter 560. Planning Her Hairpin Ceremony (1/2)

Seeing the whole table full of similarly sized pearls that were even bigger than a thumbnail, Zhu Junyang suddenly said, ”Are these pearls…gifts from the young dragon maiden that you met?”

“You can consider it that way!” Yu Xiaocao deliberately smiled in a mysterious manner. In truth, she wanted to say, ‘The pearls that the young dragon maiden had given me are all still in my pocket.’ She had not dared to take them out, for fear of shocking others with the pearls that were about the same size as small chicken eggs.

The Pearl Hunting Competition this time was considered quite successful. They had managed to find several thumb nail-sized pearls. Including the ones that they had bought while they were in the capital, and some of the smaller pearls, there were enough to make a pearl crown. The value of the crown increased by another fold when the purple pearl that symbolized grace and eminence was placed in the center of the crown.

Anyway, during Princess Consort Duan's birthday celebration, she wore this crown and outshone all her guests, stunning the noble ladies of the capital. What made others envy her more, was that aside from this crown, the Imperial Palace had also given her a bright, sunset-red coral that was as tall as a person. She had put it on display in the middle of the hall for everyone to admire, earning praises from noble ranking ladies for raising a filial son.

Only Imperial Prince Duan and the princess consort were aware that this red coral display was actually obtained by Yu Xiaocao, that little lass, when she went diving. It was rare to find a girl with such disregard of fame and fortune at such a young age, that she would privately offer the coral to the emperor as tribute, and, though his ‘hands’, give this extremely valuable gift to them.

Princess Consort Duan was now even more curious toward this little lass who she had never met before. For a girl who was born into a farmer’s family, she was not petty at all, and her bearing was even better than the noble maidens of the capital. Moreover, she had remarkable skills in medicine. She heard that Yu Xiaocao had learnt all of this from a barefoot doctor in the countryside, and that her skills were no worse than the families well-known for their medicinal prowess. In fact, she maybe even better, as even Imperial Prince Duan’s damaged body was already slowly recovering from her nursing.

From the little girl’s skilled hands in medicine, it was clear that her teacher must have been a master of medicine who had secluded himself away from the world. Many had guessed that he was the disciple of the Medicine King Valley that the previous dynasty had annihilated. According to the rumors, the disciples of the Medicine King Valley could do the impossible—they knew ways to revive the dead and even the secret to immortality. The emperor of the previous dynasty had coveted this, and that had directly caused the annihilation of the whole Medicine King Valley.

Many had guessed that the Medicine King Valley should still have a few disciples who survived because they had left to gain experience outside of the valley. However, they were now keeping a low profile and secluding themselves deep within mountain forests and in packed cities. It was just that no one was aware of their true identity. As such, Doctor You, who had given Xiaocao enlightenment in medicine, had become a reclusive master in the words of others. As for his disciple, Xiaocao, although she had only learned the bare basics of concocting medicine and wellness, it was enough for her to be praised by others.

It had to be said that the public had quite the imagination. They found logical explanations for Xiaocao’s ‘cheat’ medicines and medicinal diets, and in effect, she was saved from a lot of explanation.

At Princess Consort Duan's birthday banquet, Yu Xiaocao held a very low profile, only giving her a set of cream that she had personally made. Her seat was also placed among the young maidens who she was close to. There were also some who she had seen before but had not had much interaction with. All in all, they got along quite well.

In the circle of well-bred, young ladies of the capital, although there would still occasionally be people who made sour remarks, the majority of the people still had good words to chip in for Xiaocao. They said that she was kind and easy to get along with, very generous towards the people who she considered her friends, and really knew how to hold refreshing gatherings. Compared to those tea banquets and flower banquets where they only sat around and talked, activities like fruit picking, hunting and beachcombing seemed so much more refreshing to the young ladies of prestigious families who had only known one source of entertainment.

During the banquet, Liang Jiahui, the granddaughter of the Grand Preceptor, saw that Xiaocao seemed quite approachable, so she asked probingly, “Miss Yu, I heard that it’s about the season that the fruits in your family’s orchard ripen. Do you have any plans of holding an orchard gathering this year?”

The youngest daughter of Imperial Prince Sa, Zhu Yaner, was a little glutton. Upon hearing this, she finally dropped her chopsticks and raised her head with sparkles in her eyes—her excitement evident in her expression. Previously, she had only heard rumors of this mysterious Official Yu, and thought that Xiaocao was a person who was vengeful and hard to approach.

After interacting with her today, she found that she was actually quite an amiable and interesting person. The delicacies that she mentioned, and her interesting stories from her time at the beach became the little girl’s yearning. The young girl regretted that she got to know her too late, which had caused her to miss out on the previous beach gathering. However, it shouldn’t be too late now. She should be invited to the next orchard gathering, right?

With Xiaocao’s status of a royal princess, the young ladies at this table were either relatives of the imperial family, or the daughters and granddaughters of first-ranked court officials who were usually quite haughty. However, after hearing He Wanning’s stories of collecting seashells at the beach, the underwater adventure and the pearl hunting competition, all of them started to long for events like this. The life of young girls could actually be so exciting!

Especially when they heard Xiaocao mention that the person who won third place in the pearl harvesting competition was actually just a fifteen-year-old girl. They started to think that perhaps being born in a fisherman’s family and living a carefree life would be much more interesting than being cooped up indoors and learning the four arts every day.