CHAPTER 1539: CHAPTER 1515: MAKING ROUGE

Although Wei Zhi and Lord Tang’s words were unpleasant and the emperor disliked hearing them, he still took them to heart, genuinely fearing that the farmers might convert their fields into melon patches due to the high profits from this year’s sweet melons.

Therefore, he specially summoned the county magistrates of Chang’an County and Wannian County, instructing them to encourage and guide agricultural work this year. Next year, they must closely monitor the grain planting on large estates, prohibiting any nobles from leading the conversion of fields to melon patches.

Because he was so busy with these matters, the emperor initially didn’t think about settling accounts with Zhou Man, and by the time he had the free time, he had already forgotten about it.

But Manbao was unaware of this; she had been quietly avoiding the emperor, even opting not to personally attend his acupuncture sessions. Instead, she diligently taught Director Xiao and then left the responsibility to him.

Director Xiao was eager to learn more acupuncture skills from her. He followed Manbao to the side hall, practiced acupuncture on two eunuchs with gastrointestinal issues, and after confirming there were no problems, he confidently braved the emperor’s intimidating presence to administer acupuncture.

With someone taking the heat on her behalf, Manbao still frequented Daming Palace despite avoiding the emperor. Occasionally, when time permitted, after seeing the Crown Princess, she would roam around with Mingda and Changyu and even helped Princess Mingda with some health treatments.

At first, seeing Manbao performing acupuncture on Princess Mingda without using a pulse case, the princess’s maids and eunuchs wanted to intervene. However, when they noticed that the princess’s appetite did improve after the acupuncture and she slept more peacefully at night, they turned a blind eye.

After all, Zhou Man wouldn’t harm the princess, and she rarely recorded the Empress’s acupuncture sessions either.

The emperor’s harem was a bit different from others. Unlike the past, during the late emperor’s time, the harem was often fraught with strife and intrigue.

The current harem, however, rarely experienced such issues.

Even if there were occasional jealousies, it never endangered the offspring, as the Empress managed the harem very well.

It was because of this relaxed environment that Manbao could freely administer acupuncture to Mingda.

Seeing them apply rouge to their faces, Manbao expressed keen interest, mentioning that she had found some rouge recipes while reading medical books in the Chongwen Pavilion, which seemed quite promising.

She planned to experiment with Mingda and Changyu for fun.

Seeing this, Mingda’s old maid thought to herself: During the previous dynasty or the late emperor’s era, it wouldn’t have been safe to let the princesses handle such medicinal materials or use such rouge. Who knew what calamities might be hidden in such activities?

Nowadays, well, they could play as they pleased.

Thus, the old maid watched as Manbao coaxed the two princesses into obtaining numerous medicinal herbs from the Imperial Hospital, turning a circle in the small kitchen only to disdain the smell, so the three of them squatted in the corridor and started concocting.

Manbao couldn’t quite understand them. While weighing the medicinal materials, she asked, "Where’s the fishy smell in the kitchen? I took a stroll in there, and it smelled quite fragrant."

A pot of broth was hanging over the stove, which was reportedly going to be used to cook noodles for dinner.

However, this was for the princesses, and Manbao couldn’t partake. She had to head back to the Chongwen Pavilion before the evening meal; otherwise, the Eastern Palace would be locked at sunset.

Changyu said, "They just slaughtered chickens in the kitchen. Didn’t you smell the blood?"

Manbao thought for a moment and shook her head, "Human blood seems more pungent than chicken blood."

This conversation was hard to continue, so Changyu simply dropped it.

Manbao sorted the weighed medicinal materials, while Mingda and Changyu each sat at a small table grinding the materials. Their personal maid squatted by the stove to tend the fire.

They were skeptical of Zhou Man and the two princesses’ capabilities, having never heard of rouge being made from medicinal materials. Isn’t rouge made from flowers?

Mingda and Changyu usually sat still to have makeup applied. They were still young, only sporting floral forehead ornaments or yellow forehead paints, without powder. Meanwhile, the maids experimented a lot with their looks and frequently bought rouge.

With so many purchases, they naturally knew how rouge was made — basically from safflower, right?

Good-quality rouge might have additional flowers mixed in for better color and fragrance, but none of them were made with medicinal materials.

Manbao, however, was confident, leading Mingda and Changyu to grind the materials, steam and boil them. After three days, when the Empress was about to ask, Manbao had Changyu fetch a piece of mutton fat from the Bureau of Food Supplies.

Not only the maids but even the old nurse was mesmerized, watching Manbao melt the mutton fat and mix it with the pale purple "rouge" they had worked on for three days, making the already light-colored rouge even paler.

Manbao placed it in an ice basin to set, overseeing it from morning until afternoon. Upon uncovering the jar, it had solidified — some parts were pale purple, others were milky white, likely due to uneven mixing.

Manbao sniffed it and found it pleasing, feeling proud. She let Changyu and Mingda smell it.

Both nodded after smelling it, "It smells nice, but is this really rouge?"

While they hadn’t used much rouge, they’d seen others use it.

Mingda hesitated, saying, "Isn’t this an ointment?"

Manbao replied, "Didn’t you say rouge is for enhancing one’s complexion? This can achieve that, so it’s naturally rouge."

Manbao showed them the recipe she had transcribed, "Look, it’s written here, called ’Moist Rouge.’"

Only then did Changyu and Mingda stop doubting and instead focused on the jar of rouge, asking, "So we can use it now?"

"Yes, you can."

Manbao scooped some out with her fingertip, rubbed it into her palm, and applied it to her face. She then wiped it on the back of her hand, observed it, and nodded in satisfaction, "It’s indeed good."

Manbao immediately opened her medicine chest, took out three small wooden jars, and said to Mingda and Changyu, "I want to scoop some out."

They had made quite a lot, a big jarful. While Manbao had brought three jars, they weren’t large, so the two generously let her scoop out three small jars.

Manbao happily carried her medicine chest back to the Eastern Palace. As she left, the emperor and empress arrived. Entering their daughters’ side hall, the emperor glanced around and asked, "Where’s Zhou Man?"

Changyu, still examining the Moist Rouge with Mingda, heard the emperor’s voice and rushed out, "Father, Mother, come quickly, we’ve made something wonderful!"

The emperor said, "I came to see if you had set this side hall on fire. I’ve seen smoke here for three days straight."

Mingda dashed forward to hug her mother’s arm, laughingly asking, "Then why are you only coming to ask now?"

Why, because there hadn’t been time before.

Recently, the ice had been melting upstream of the Yellow River, and water levels were slightly high. The Governor of Shengzhou had urgently sent a messenger to report the Yellow River’s peril.

The emperor’s indulgence in sweet melons was also left unresolved, with Wei Zhi already calculating this year’s relief grain expenses with the Ministry of Revenue, soon to be dispatched to Shengzhou.

Traveling with them would be the Ministry of Public Works, as they must strive to prevent the Yellow River from breaching its banks.

Today, having finalized the procedures, the emperor could finally leave work on time. Coincidentally, the side hall wasn’t emitting smoke today, so his curiosity brought him and the empress over to take a look.