Chapter 303: Did You Eat an Immortal Pill?
The young maid smiled, her lips pursed. "Miss, have you heard? The newly built Luan Garden was constructed by the Guardian Lady for her beloved daughter. Inside, there are pavilions and verandas, layers of lush greenery, exotic flowers, and strange stones—it has everything one could wish for."
"The garden was just completed this month, and the Guardian Lady is inviting all talented and comely young men and women to come and enjoy it. It’s a very rare opportunity."
"You should know, on any other day, you wouldn’t be able to get a glimpse inside that garden, even if you wanted to."
Gu Fei smiled. "Alright, you can just leave the invitation."
’If I tell her again that I’m not going, who knows how much more she’ll have to say.’
She took the invitation, but she had no intention of going. ’Nothing is more important than making money.’
The young maid curtsied and left with a smile.
Not far away, a horse-drawn carriage was parked on the side of the road. A corner of its window curtain was lifted.
Seeing the young maid approach, Qin Ying asked, "Did you see Miss Gu?"
The young maid nodded. "I did, and I gave the invitation to Miss Gu."
"However, from the looks of it, I don’t think Miss Gu wants to go. First, she said she couldn’t compose poetry, and then she said she was too busy with her business and didn’t have the time."
Qin Ying was silent for a moment. "What did you think of Miss Gu’s appearance?"
The young maid couldn’t help but say, "That Miss Gu is truly beautiful. One might even say she has a beauty that could topple nations. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life."
Qin Ying’s brow furrowed. "Nonsense. I’ve seen that Miss Gu myself. She is beautiful, I’ll grant you, but she’s hardly what I’d call a nation-toppling beauty. Now, if you want to talk about true beauties, the Guardian Lady’s daughter, Qingluan, fits the description."
The young maid opened her mouth, wanting to argue, but then thought better of it.
It wasn’t that she had never seen Miss Qingluan, the daughter of the Guardian Lady. ’While she’s very beautiful, too,’ she thought, ’in my eyes, she’s a far cry from Miss Gu.’
However, she was well aware of her own mistress’s feelings for Young Master Su, so it wouldn’t be wise to praise Miss Gu any further.
She could only lament internally. ’A woman of such beauty should be cloistered away in a deep chamber, shouldn’t she? Why is she out in public showing her face?’
’It’s a shame she wasn’t of noble birth.’
What the maid didn’t know was that if she had seen Gu Fei before today, she might have found her own mistress to be prettier. But as it happened, after Gu Fei drank the Spiritual Liquid, her entire being had transformed. It wasn’t just that her skin had become like ice and her bones like jade; she also exuded an ineffable, spiritual grace.
It would now be truly difficult for anyone in the world to surpass her in looks.
After the young maid left, Gu Fei picked up the card and examined it. The invitation wasn’t anything fancy. It didn’t even have her name on it—just a simple, generic call to attend.
She was just about to toss the card into a drawer under the counter when Sister Dan from next door came over.
She was holding two strings of zongzi. The moment she walked in, she froze in the doorway, her feet seemingly rooted to the floor as she stared at Gu Fei. After a long moment, she finally spoke. "Little Fei, did you secretly eat some kind of Immortal Pill? It feels like it’s only been one night, but you’ve suddenly become so beautiful I almost don’t recognize you."
Sister Dan placed the zongzi on the counter, clucking her tongue in amazement. "My heavens, with how you look right now, that husband of mine would be drooling if he saw you."
Gu Fei smiled radiantly. ’Of course I took an Immortal Pill,’ she thought, ’but I can’t tell you that.’ "What Immortal Pill? I just applied some pearl powder yesterday, so my complexion is a little better today. That’s all."
Sister Dan touched her own face. "Really? In that case, I’m going to go home and put on some pearl powder myself."
She suddenly noticed the card on the counter and raised an eyebrow. "You got one of these, too?"
Gu Fei looked at her. "Got?"
Sister Dan nodded. "Yeah. Outside the gates of Luan Garden, they put out a big bamboo basket. It’s completely full of these cards."
"Anyone who wants one can just take it."