It should have been titled "Fortune and Misfortune, Part Two," but that really did not suit the occasion. The next chapter could use a Fortune and Misfortune title instead.
Before the Quicksilver mirror atop the dressing table, Zou Qingyun, a Female Official of the Eastern Palace, had gathered the Crown Princess's Black hair high atop her head. Then she reached into the cosmetics case and rummaged around for a moment, selecting a hairpin between three pale fingers and holding it up against the cloudlike coiffure.
"Try another one."
The Crown Princess shook her head. "This one is far too gaudy."
"Your Highness."
Zou Qingyun bent low, squeezing half her face into the mirror, and giggled. "It would have been fine on any other day, but Your Highness looks especially radiant today. Even the gaudiest hairpin would suit you!"
The two faces in the mirror were both fair and delicate, but even without close comparison, the Crown Princess was plainly the more beautiful of the two.
She had been born with exquisitely regular features, and every smile and frown carried an air of regal grace. Yet that very dignity had concealed the charm a young married woman ought to possess.
But the face reflected in the mirror today had rosy cheeks without rouge, affectionate eyes without painted brows, and an added hint of languid, girlish softness.
Such passionate allure should have clashed utterly with her natural dignity, yet the sight in the mirror could not help bringing to mind Liu Yuxi's poem, "Admiring Peonies":
The peonies before the courtyard were bewitching, yet lacked refinement; the lotus blossoms on the pond were pure, yet wanting in warmth.
Only peonies possessed true national beauty; when they bloomed, they stirred the whole capital.
As Zou Qingyun clicked her tongue in admiration, the Crown Princess's