Chapter 93 Oiran Contest
For three consecutive days, both mother and daughter went to the mountain to pick bitter chestnuts, and Qianhuan would secretly find a flat place every day to take half an hour to practice dancing.
Because she had to go to the county town to participate in the oiran competition the next day, Qianhuan had to go to Xunfang Pavilion early in the morning, and could not go home until after the competition in the afternoon. Qianhuan felt that she had to think of a reason in advance to go out.
During dinner, Qianhuan said to her parents, "Dad, Mom, I have to go to the county town tomorrow. I want to go to Zuixianju to inquire about the situation and see how much our bitter chestnuts can be sold for after being made into tofu."
"Okay, then you should leave early tomorrow and remember to come back for lunch." Liu said while eating.
"Mom, I won't be back for lunch. After I inquired about Zuixianju's situation, I also want to find a teacher in the city. After we make money from tofu, I want to learn to read from the teacher."
"Why should a girl like you learn to read? A woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent. If you want to learn something, learn embroidery. Your embroidery skills are too poor." Liu did not agree with her daughter learning to read.
"Mom, if I don't know how to read, and I have to sign a contract when doing business with someone, I won't know what's written on it. Wouldn't it be easy for me to be cheated? Besides, I have learned to recognize a lot of words in my dreams. If I don't find a teacher to learn and just say that I can read, I'm afraid the people in the village will think I'm a monster, and they might catch me and burn me to death."
"Pooh, pooh, pooh, who would curse themselves like that?" Liu immediately looked at her daughter in reproach.
"Chunxiang, what my daughter said makes sense. Our daughter has been gifted with so many things and she must have an explanation in the future. Why not let our daughter study with the teacher for a while? When people in the village ask about it, we can say that our daughter learned to read from the teacher and then learned it by reading books herself." Liang Laoer thought for a while and expressed his thoughts.
When Liu heard what her husband said, she immediately nodded in agreement, "Dad, what you said makes a lot of sense. Let's let our daughter find a teacher. When she makes some money from selling tofu, she can become his apprentice and learn from him."
The next day was the day of the dance competition. Qianhuan, under the pretext of going to Zuixianju and looking for a teacher, got on Old Man Wang's ox cart to the county town early in the morning.
When we arrived at Xunfang Pavilion, the front yard gate was closed.
Qianhuan took a detour to the back door, where there was an old man on duty. After Qianhuan explained her purpose, the old servant went to inform Mother Yang.
Mother Yang sent Chuntao, who was beside her, to the back door to take the people into Xunfang Pavilion. At this time, the girls were all sleeping. Qianhuan saw that there were only Mother Yang and the musician Master Qin in the lobby.
Mother Yang was relieved to see Qianhuan arrive as promised, as she had been worried that she would break the promise and not come.
Mother Yang immediately asked Chuntao to bring the prepared dance costume, shoes, veil and long silk fan.
Qianhuan went to her room and changed into her dance costume and shoes. The costume and shoes fit her perfectly. After she put on her veil, she left the room holding a silk dance fan.
When Mother Yang saw Feiyan, her eyes immediately lit up. Feiyan, wearing a dance costume and a veil, looked almost the same as Hongyu except for her eyes and eyebrows.
Qianhuan still drew thick eyebrows when she went out, and she also slightly modified her eyes. She didn't want the people in Xunfang Pavilion to see her true appearance, so she didn't let anyone help her change clothes.
The competition is in the afternoon, so there is still one morning to practice dancing with the musicians.
In the past three days, Master Qin has become very proficient at playing the song "Human Fireworks".
Qianhuan signaled to Master Qin beside her that it was time to begin, so Master Qin slowly sat down, and with his slender and elegant hands gently stroked the strings of the zither, playing the beautiful and melodious music.
Qianhuan also waved her long silk and danced slowly to the music.
After the dance was over, Mother Yang clapped her hands and cheered. She laughed and said, "Well, well, well, Miss Feiyan, your dance was so beautiful that I don't know what words to use to describe it. In short, in today's Oiran dance competition, Mother Yang believes that you will definitely win first place."
Qianhuan and Master Qin practiced together several times, and stopped practicing after making sure it was foolproof.
It was almost noon, Qianhuan said to Mother Yang, "Mother Yang, I'm a little hungry. Please ask someone to prepare some food. After I eat, I will start to dress up."
Mother Yang immediately asked Chuntao to have someone prepare a table of delicious food for her. After she had eaten and drunk her fill, Mother Yang asked a maid to put on makeup for her.
"Mother Yang, you can just arrange for someone to come and comb my hair, and I can do my makeup myself."
Qianhuan puts on her own makeup every day for her live broadcasts in modern times. Her makeup skills have reached perfection and she doesn't need to rely on others. Besides, she doesn't want others to see her true appearance.
"Girl, are you sure you can put on makeup?"
Mother Yang was a little skeptical. She was a little peasant girl who had probably never touched rouge or powder, so she wouldn't believe me when I said I knew how to put on makeup.
"I'm sure. Mom, all I need to do is ask someone to bring some rouge and powder." Qianhuan was very confident in her makeup skills.
Mother Yang asked her maid to bring rouge and powder and put them on the dressing table with doubt. The maid gently tied Qianhuan's long hair and decorated it with a light green hairpin. This hairpin matched her light green long silk dance fan, white dance dress, and light green hairpin. It was a perfect match.
After the maid helped to fix her hair, Qianhuan asked the maid to fetch a basin of water and sent the maid away. After washing her face, Qianhuan began to put on makeup.
Hongyu stays in the building every day and has fair skin, while Qianhuan used to do farm work at home every day without wearing a hat, so her skin was tanned. Although her skin has become much whiter during this period, it is still not as fair as Hongyu's skin who never goes out.
So Qianhuan applied powder to make her arms, face and neck white. After applying powder, Qianhuan began to draw her eyebrows. Her eyebrows were naturally beautiful, with a willow-leaf shape, so she only needed to draw them lightly with an eyebrow pencil.
The most important thing is the eyes. Because Hongyu has almond-shaped eyes, and her own eyes are long and narrow phoenix eyes, she can only make her eyes rounder.
When she finished her makeup and put on the veil, Yang's mother exclaimed, "She looks exactly like Hongyu. Not only is she a good dancer and pianist, but her makeup skills are also amazing."
She and Hongyu wore clothes and shoes of the same color and style, except that Hongyu's shoes had thick soles while hers had flat soles.
Mother Yang arranged a carriage, and the two of them got on the carriage and went to the competition venue.
The Oiran competition was held in Meihuaju in the eastern suburbs. The top prostitutes from various brothels had already arrived at Meihuaju, and they all wore veils on their faces.
You have to know that the top prostitutes in ancient brothels would not let outsiders see their appearance. If you wanted to see her true appearance, you had to go to the brothel and spend money to see it privately.
At the front of the stage were the judges who were qualified to vote. They were all invited dignitaries, wealthy businessmen, and literati from Qingxi County.
When Qianhuan and the others arrived at the pavilion, Qianhuan got off the carriage with Mother Yang.
"You two stay here and watch over the carriage. No outsiders are allowed to get close. Do you understand?"
Mother Yang gave serious instructions to the driver and her personal maid Chuntao.
"I will definitely stay by the carriage, so you can rest assured, Madam Yang."
Chuntao, Yang Mama's personal maid, naturally knew that the real Hongyu was still in the carriage. She understood the importance of the matter and nodded in agreement.
Qianhuan followed Mother Yang into the attic and saw a large stage in the center of the attic. The first three rows of the stage were seats for the judges, and the back of the seats were already densely packed with people.
Qianhuan felt that this was just like a large-scale talent show in modern times, except that in modern times, singers or Hong Kong beauties are usually chosen, but here, the one chosen is the Oiran.
Suddenly, Qianhuan noticed that among the judges in the first row, there was a young man in white who looked very familiar.
She looked carefully and found that the man was actually Chu Yichen, the young master of Zuixianju. She didn't expect that he was also one of the judges today. Behind him stood Yuanji, a servant in gray.