Three days later, on the 25th of June, as dawn just began to break, Qian Yixiu quietly rose. She climbed out of bed, careful not to wake her deeply sleeping mother, put on the clothes hung by the bedhead, and after wrapping the Phoenix Eye Bodhi Beads around her wrist three times, she tiptoed down the stairs.
Zi Zhu and Bai Zhu were already waiting downstairs, and they all headed to the Lianxiang Water Pavilion together.
Once in the bedroom, she took out the prepared green cotton and linen clothes from the cabinet, changed into them, and then tied the small dagger around her waist.
She put on the thick-soled, ribbon-tied cloth shoes that she had designed herself—made with the help of Xiao Yu, they were sturdy and did not cause discomfort to the feet.
After getting dressed, she combed her hair into two braided plaits in front of the mirror before winding them atop her head and securing them with wooden hairpins to prevent them from getting messy.
