Three days had past since Qian Lan and Yuhan arrived to the capital. With nothing to do the girls would past their time away chatting or reading scrolls from the duke's study room. Unable to take it anymore, Qian Lan runs to find the duke as the head maid chases after her.
"Miss, please don't do anything rash!"
"I can't stand being cooped up in that room any longer! I won't do anything bad! I just need to talk to your master."
"Wait! The master is with a honored guest right now!"
Qian Lan ignores the maid's pleas and dashes through the halls and corridors. After walking around for ten minutes she stumbles upon the duke escorting another man out of a room. Without thinking Qian Lan screams out after the duke.
"Xia Long!"
Catching the duke off guard, he turns to find Qian Lan running towards him with the head maid chasing after her. Rather than getting mad the duke turns around to greet Qian Lan.
"What is it Qian Lan? It's unusual for you to come looking for me."
"Please give me some money!"
"Some what?"
"Money! I want to explore the capital! I've stayed inside for three days already. Any more and I'll go crazy. So, please! Have mercy and let us go outside!"
The strange man next to the duke bursts out laughing. He couldn't believe there was someone brave enough to call a noble by their name, much less ask for money directly. Qian Lan quickly notices the man laughing and grows mad for no apparent reason. Taking a step to the side, Qian Lan glances at the man from his head to his toe. He was definitely a pretty man with a muscular build. Qian Lan found the strange man to be better looking then the duke, which was high praise in her books.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Pffft! Ha Ha! Who is this Xia Long?"
"Her name is Qian Lan. She's a participant of the maiden selecting tournament."
"Oh?"
The tall and pretty man looms closer, with his face only inches away from Qian Lan's.
"You're rather tall for a woman."
"How rude! I'm not that tall! Everyone here is just small! If a man can be tall, then why can't a woman also be tall?!"
"Alright…. alright you win. I'm merely saying it's uncommon. Usually women are two heads shorter than me, yet you're right to my shoulders."
Qian Lan ignores the talking man and turns her attention to the duke. With her hands out, she asks again.
"I want to go look around the capital, please! Just this one time!"
The duke sees the glistening hope in Qian Lan's eyes and could see how serious she was. Feeling rather bad for locking the girls up for five days including the two-day trip it took to get to the capital, he finally gives in."
"Sigh, alright. You may explore the capital today. I need to prepare a few things first so head back to your room first."
"Alright! You better not forget!"
Finally getting what she wants, Qian Lan happily skips all the way to her room as the head maid chases after her. Once they were far enough the head maid pulls on Qian Lan's sleeve.
"What is it?"
"Are you crazy?"
"What? How am I crazy?"
"That man with the duke was the king! I'm surprised he didn't order someone to chop off your tongue for being so disrespectful!"
"That was the king?! Why didn't you say anything!"
"How can I when he's right there!?"
"You could've told me the person the duke was seeing was the king!"
"I tried! You wouldn't listen!"
"Oh my god, he's not going to order someone to come assassinate me like in the movies, will he?"
"What? Movie? What is that?"
"Ugh…. never mind. Forget I said anything. Let's head back to where Yuhan is. I need to tell her we're heading out."
The head maid follows Qian Lan for another five minutes before going a separate way as she had other tasks to do. Meanwhile, Qian Lan continues walking to her room to find Yuhan still reading.
"Yuhan! I'm back!"
"Qian Lan, where did you go?"
"Uh…long story short I met the king."
"What? You met the king? How?!"
"Only by accident! I had to show him the worse first impression also. He probably thinks I'm too barbaric now."
"Ha Ha! What did you do?"
Qian Lan explains her encounters and watched as Yuhan breaks into an uncontrollable laughter. Yuhan laughed and laughed to the point she teared up. Once she got her fill, she finally calmed down.
"I'm sure you'll be fine if he didn't punish you on the spot."
"You think so? I hope that's the case."
Just as the girls were still talking, a sudden knock on their bedroom door had the girls spooked.
"Knock Knock."
"Who…who is it?"
Qian Lan replies meekly and walks to the door. Slowly propping it open, she finds two men with armor on and swords. The shorter of the men hands a bag of money to Qian Lan.
"What's this?"
"Didn't you ask the duke for this? This is your spending money. We will be your guards as you explore the capital today. Please get ready and come out when you're ready. We will be waiting out in the main courtyard."
The two men quickly stomped away as Qian Lan closes her bedroom door. Yuhan who was sitting was now standing up.
"Qian Lan, what is it?"
"Ah, this is money from the duke. We can use this for our shopping today! How much is this?"
Qian Lan hands the money bag to Yuhan who stared in shock at how heavy the money bag was. Quickly moving to the table, she unwraps the pouch and starts counting the coins.
"So? How much is there?"
"I'm surprised he gave us so many. There's at least three hundred silver coins here and two hundred copper coins."
"Oh, can we buy a lot with it?"
"A man can work a whole year and only earn one hundred silver at the most. This is more than enough."
"Well! Let's get going then! We can buy some new clothing with this!"
Feeling excited to go out, Qian Lan quickly grabs onto Yuhan's right hand and drags her out of the room. The girls happily walked down the hall before they were interrupted by the head maid who was just about to come check on them.
"Heading out?"
"Yes! We'll be back later."
"Just a warning then, be careful and watch your surroundings. This may be the capital but you're carrying quite a bit of cash with you. Be careful of pocket thieves."
"Oh my god. Just like the in movies! Thanks for the warning us head maid! We'll be back later."
Qian Lan continues to pull Yuhan along. After ten minutes the girls were finally at the front entrance of the residence. Quickly scanning her surroundings, Qian Lan could see their two guards talking under a large tree. The two men notices the girls and gestures for them to lead the way. Qian Lan happily steps out first with Yuhan still in hand.
As to not draw attention, the duke ordered for the guards to keep a distance and to have everyone walk to the market. After walking for thirty minutes, Qian Lan and everyone finally arrives to the shopping area.
"Good thing the duke lives close to the market. Should we eat first Yuhan?"
"What? You're hungry? Didn't we just have lunch two hours ago?"
"Yeah, two whole hours ago. Come on, these meat skewers look good."
Qian Lan walks to the stall and tells the man to hand her two skewers. Seeing as Yuhan was the more responsible one, Qian Lan had her hold onto their spending money.
"Here you go miss. That will be two copper coins."
Qian Lan turns around and asks Yuhan to pay the man as she munched on her meat skewers. Qian Lan was excited and ecstatic. Just like in the Chinese dramas and movies she had seen as a kid; the markets were always her favorite. There's endless amount of people, plenty of food, clothing and tea shops. The girls remained close and continues to explore all the shops and stalls they could find. Finally reaching the clothing shops, Qian Lan spots an old woman selling handmade hairpins on a straw mat. As Qian Lan got closer, the old woman finally looks up and greets her.
"Well, hello. Please take a look and see if there's anything you like here."
"Qian Lan, I think I'm going to look at those bracelets over there."
"Oh, okay."
Yuhan wasn't interested in purchasing hairpins, so she quickly moved on to the next stall to glance at the necklaces and bracelets as Qian Lan remained focus on the handmade hairpins. Qian Lan squats down and picks up hair pins after hairpins until one finally caught her eye.
A beautiful long hairpin with the shape of a peacock at the end; with a blue bead hanging off under the peacock. It was a simple yet elegant hairpin. Qian Lan quickly puts her hair into a bun and places the hairpin in her hair.
"How does it look?"
"Very nice, it fits your complexion very well."
As Qian Lan moves her hand to touch the hairpin in her hair, her right sleeve accidently rolls up; revealing her jade bracelet that she received from her grandmother. The old woman quickly notices the bracelet and with widened eyes, she asks Qian Lan about it.
"Where…. where did you get that bracelet?"
"This? It was a gift from my grandmother."
"May I look at it?"
"Sure, I don't mind. I can't seem to get it off my hand though, but you can look at it."
Qian Lan stretches out her right hand and lifts her sleeve for the old woman to see the bracelet. The old woman goes on to touch the bracelet and twists it repeatedly. After a few minutes, she finally stops and thanks Qian Lan.
"Thank you, for allowing me to see it. It is a priceless item so please take good care of it."
"I'm sure it's a fake one, but since it's a gift I'll take care of it."
The old woman goes quiet before taking a deep sigh and packing her things.
"Huh? Wait, let me pay for this."
"It's alright, take it as a gift from this old woman."
"I can't do that. Wait here, let me go get some money."
Qian Lan leaves to go get money from Yuhan. The moment she came back the old woman had vanished into thin air. Qian Lan continues looking around the surroundings are in case she was hiding, but with no luck. Unable to find her, Qian Lan walks to the guards who were watching from a distance and asks them if they saw the old woman.
"Hey, did you two happen to see the old lady I was just talking to?"
"Old lady?"
The guards looked at each other with confused looks on their faces. The shorter of the guards fills Qian Lan on what they saw.
"We didn't see you talking to an old woman. If you're talking about a young woman, we saw her running that way."
The guard points to the opposite direction, but with the crowd of people it was going to be nearly impossible finding a person.
"Are you sure she wasn't an old granny? I don't remember talking to anyone but an old woman."
The guards continue to deny seeing an old woman. At this point Qian Lan was freaking out thinking whoever that was; was not human. Quickly reaching into her hair, Qian Lan throws the hairpin into a waste bin that was nearby. Thinking that the hairpin might be cursed, Qian Lan decided that getting rid of it was the best idea.
"Let's go, Yuhan is waiting."
Qian Lan walks back to Yuhan who was glancing at nearby shops. After looking at the shops with Yuhan, Qian Lan decided it was time to find some new clothing. The girls ended up spending the next half hour exploring the nearby store before finding one they liked. It was a large shop with beautiful tailored clothing on display. The guards motioned for the girls to enter as they stayed outside the shop.
A young woman quickly walks out to greet Qian Lan and Yuhan as they entered the store.
"Ah, welcome ladies. What can I help you with?"
"Ah, are you the shop owner? We're looking to purchase a few things. Do you have anything in our sizes?"
The woman glances at Qian Lan and Yuhan before nodding.
"I may have more in her size than yours, just because you're taller. But I do believe we have a few hanfu's that should fit you perfectly."
"Great! Can you show them to us?"
"Of course, right this way ladies."
The young woman leads Yuhan to a different section of the store and asks for her to browse through the clothing there as she moves on to tend to Qian Lan.
"It's rare seeing a woman with your height, but we do have a few tall women here in the capital, hence why I always tailor some clothing in advance in case they came to shop. How about these?"
The woman pulls out a beautiful light pink hanfu, a light yellow hanfu and a red hanfu; all with a beautiful lotus flower in the front. All the three dresses looked stunning and unlike anything she had ever worn. The woman motions for Qian Lan to try on one of the dresses.
Qian Lan grabs the red one out of the woman's hand and slowly undresses herself in a closed off room. Layer by layer, Qian Lan watched as the dress brought out the colors in her skin. Feeling satisfied with the results, Qian Lan decided she was going to get all three dresses.
"I'll take them all."
"Great choice, miss! Would you like to check on your friend?"
"Yes, where is she?"
"She's trying on her clothing on the other side. I will take you there."
Qian Lan follows the woman to another closed off room. Yuhan had just finished trying on her dresses as well and was happy with her results.
"Ah! Qian Lan, how many are you getting?"
"Just three, how about you?"
"I found two I really like. I think these will do for now."
The young woman motions for Qian Lan and Yuhan to follow her to the counter.
"So, a total of five hanfu's. Your total will be one hundred and eighty silver."
Yuhan quickly digs into her sash and pulls out the money pouch. One by one she counted the exact amount before handing it over to the shop owner.
"Thank you for your purchases. I hope to see you two again. Do stop by again."
"Thank you very much."