Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace
Chapter 94: Debut

“The nerve, they’re not even invited in the first place.”

Li Yong exasperatedly glared towards the group.

“Is that the Huang County Lord, Lord Li Min’s aunty?”

“And the younger one must be her daughter.”

He nodded when Yui Mei whispered her question.

The mother-daughter pair was extremely pale, looking sickly white like a sheet of paper. They looked similar to the concubines she frequently saw in the Hundred Blossom Palace.

Even their outfits were designed to look like the clothes from the capital, showing just how conscious they were about the Inner Palace.

On the other hand, Kai is a port city, so many of its citizens, be it men or women, had tanned skin with great body built. Most of the people in the venue were also like that.

‘Well, they won’t look out of place if this is the Hundred Blossom Palace, though, since there are a lot of people looking like that.’

However, they were in Kai, so they were extremely conspicuous, if she was to be frank about it.

Most of the guests that Li Min invited looked different from the Huang County Lord, so the pair looked like they were foreigners mixed in this place.

“Wait a minute, what’s with those decorations? Hurry up and take that trash down!”

When the Huang County Lord and her daughter finally settled down in their seats, they started ordering the mansion servants to do a lot of things regarding the venue’s setup. The servants were thoroughly confused, though, so they were slow in doing what they were commanded to do.

Yui Mei heard from Princess Pan’s maid that when they previously visited the princess to bully her, they acted as though they were the mistresses of this place.

Well, it was pretty obvious that they were saying all those comments because they’re continuing to act that way.

‘Mm, the people they sent were already fired by Lord Li Min, after all.’

This time around, they couldn’t go through them, so this annoyed the Huang County Lord to high heavens.

Because of the Huang mother and daughter pair, what was supposed to be a fun, relaxed and easy-going banquet turned into one with a highly charged atmosphere.

“Lord Li Min and Her Highness the Princess Pan have arrived!!”

Li Min and Princess Pan came out of the mansion.

“Whoa, it’s Her Highness the Princess Pan!”

“Rumors said that she lost weight because she fell sick, but she looks like she’s fine now.”

The venue was filled with the chattering of the guests.

The princess had been confined at the mansion for a long time, so it had been a while since they saw her appear in public like this.

“Still, was she like that before?”

“Right, it seems like she’s more beautiful now?”

The lady guests looked at Princess Pan’s appearance while murmuring among themselves.

‘Yup, yup, what a great reaction!’

Yui Mei grinned from ear to ear as she observed the guests’ situation.

Unfortunately for Yui Mei, her only memory of the princess was when she looked like skin and bones.

However, according to Li Yong, she had been quite chubby back when she was in the Hundred Blossom Palace.

She was white as snow, so she had been ridiculed as “the white pig” by bullies. 

Princess Pan’s current figure was lean and toned.

Her glowing, tanned skin was not as wheat-colored as the Kai citizens, but she was not as foreign-looking as before.

She had been taking care of her skin, and it was a healthy color, to boot, so she looked truly captivating.

‘Fufun, pale and slender ain’t the only standard for beauty, you know!’

The ideals of beauty changed according to the place, so Yui Mei followed the standard of Kai for Princess Pan.

Yui Mei was in cloud nine, as if the buzz in the venue was referring to herself, while Li Yong looked impressed beside her.

“Seems like it had been the right idea that the Kai tailors made the princess’s outfit.”

Indeed, Princess Pan commissioned a dress for this day, and she drew inspiration from the foreign design and incorporated it into her own style.

Thus, it had a different design from the dress that Yui Mei received from the crown prince.

“Yes, all of Princess Pan’s previous clothes came from the capital, after all. They were made to suit fair skin, so they wouldn’t match Princess Pan’s current skintone.”

Actually, the clothes from the capital were designed for slender body types, so they only emphasized the princess’s plumpness all the more.

On the other hand, the Kai women were more on the stocky type, so the designs of their clothes gave the illusion of hiding those curves.

When the two designs were combined, a wonderful, alluring dress was born.

And now that the princess wore it, it would possibly become a fashion sensation among the citizens that would take root in Kai.

Claps resounded throughout the place — the venue had been full to the brim with guests.

The princess seemed taken aback by the warm round of applause, and Li Min put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her.

He then started his speech.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to offer my heartfelt apology to all of you for my incompetence. We had suffered from the hands of the pirates for a long time. However, that suffering is now a thing of the past! From now on, our conversations will be filled with the brightness of hope for the future! Cheers!”

“Cheers!”

Deafening cheers and applause rose up once again.

“Lord Li Min’s unexpectedly good at delivering speeches, huh. His voice is clear, and he can talk quite well.”

“Well, a seafarer’s voice should be loud and clear, after all. Lord Li Min cultivated his abilities aboard the ship. Just being a good speaker and being capable isn’t enough. It’ll be meaningless if people don’t follow you.”

So, he didn’t got this position merely due to his father’s connections, then.

At any rate, only the Huang County Lord mother-daughter pair showed an odious expression in the midst of everyone else who were caught up in the festive atmosphere.

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