"Oh, you probably still don't know what you look like now, do you?
I'll let you take a good look at the state you're in."
"What are you trying to do?"
"What am I trying to do? You'll find out soon enough!"
Before Ziyuan could ask anything else, Bai Chuen glanced around, then headed toward the dressing table.
Bai Chuen stopped before the dressing table, picked up the bronze mirror, and turned to walk toward Ziyuan.
Seeing what Bai Chuen was doing, Ziyuan already understood her intentions and shouted:
"I don't want to! I don't want to look in the mirror! Take it away!"
"How could I do that?
If you don't look in the mirror, how will you know what you look like now?
We can't have you going out flirting with every man in sight with that face and disgracing my husband."
"I won't look! Take it away!"
Ziyuan kept flailing her hands in the air.
At the sight, Bai Chuen called out to those around her:
"Someone, help Concubine Ziyuan. Make sure she gets a clear look at her face."
"Yes."
As they spoke, several older serving women stepped forward and pinned Ziyuan down. They held her head in place, then forced her eyes open so she had to look at herself in the mirror.
Seeing the woman in the mirror who looked like a hideous ghost, Ziyuan screamed. Unable to accept herself like this, she fainted on the spot.
The woman in the mirror had blisters of every size covering half her face, scalded by that kettle of boiling water.
It looked especially terrifying!
Bai Chuen cast Ziyuan a contemptuous glance and said:
"That's all? I thought you had more backbone than that."
Bai Chuen turned to the steward and said:
"Find a shaman and have