Ye Shiqi closed the door and locked it; she kept more of her jewelry and clothes in the space.
The clothing trunks in the room were merely for show!
She had her father make a wooden bed and, according to her own ideas, sketched out some mattress designs.
Previously, when she was younger and they were poor, these desires were never realized.
With her drawings, her father was not only a woodcarver and mattress expert at the wood factory, the small boss only got a bit more of the money.
The springs for the mattresses were made in the iron workshop of the bicycle factory across the way; despite having the drawings and the ideas, they had to experiment many times and almost thought it wouldn’t work out.
The mattress they made was much better than a hard board, though still not quite soft and comfortable.
Ye Shiqi entered the space and came to a warm pool, where she could smell the flowers and see bees gathering nectar.
The temperature in her space was constant, perennially spring-like, and the flowers never ceased blooming.
She had considered growing flowers to sell for more money, but she didn’t because it was only a small county.
To sell precious flowers, one would have to be in a big city to do better.
Ye Shiqi jumped into the thermal spring, soaking undisturbed, free to dress or undress as she pleased.
She felt the thermal spring had purifying properties as she lay in the water, still in her clothes.
She felt her body, after exercising, soaking in the thermal spring, her skin’s pores opening, then comfortably recovering.
If she were at home, she would share with her sisters or mother; they prepared bathtubs at home, only for sharing among the sisters and their mother.
As for the other three women at home, Grandma and Aunt Lai thought it was just well water heated for bathing.
Ye Shiqi knew that, although this was her room, there were guests outside, and she couldn’t stay in the space too long as someone could come looking for her at any moment.
Reluctant to leave the comforting warmth of the spring, she had no choice but to get up, change her clothes, and dry her washed hair, and then she did her makeup.
In the morning, she had worn her own designed riding dress, but now she changed into an elegant skirt, always dressing in bright colors.
Today she wore a lake-blue dress with a collar embroidered with golden thread flowers, her hair tied back with a lake-blue band, then pinned with a jade hairpin, and she wore embroidered lake-blue shoes.
"Knock, knock, knock," someone was at the door, followed by a woman’s voice, "Qing, are you ready yet?"
Upon hearing her elder sister’s voice, Ye Shiqi flashed out of the space to open the door.
Standing at the door was not only Ye Fengqi but also Si Ma Roumei.
Ye Fengqi wore an orange dress, its sleeves and collar embroidered with golden thread flowers, primarily featuring plum blossoms.
Si Ma Roumei liked to wear a white dress, including white embroidered shoes with a touch of pink flowers, and her hair was redone, adorned with jewelry her mother had prepared for her.
She wanted to keep it simple, but she couldn’t disregard her father’s reputation, with the eyes of everyone in the county on her.
"The men have gone fishing, shall we go have a look?" Si Ma Roumei had no intention of entering the room, standing still instead.
"Dressed , we better not go to the pond. We can just wait in the restaurant, and from the window, we can enjoy the cool breeze and watch them fish," suggested Ye Shiqi.
Her proposal won the support of the two girls, who also felt that changing into fresh clothes only to get them smelling of fish at the pond was truly not a good idea.
The three girls showed up at the estate, Si Ma Roumei’s maid in tow, along with the maids of the two sisters, and the guards protecting Si Ma Roumei also stood at the restaurant’s entrance.
There was more than one dining venue at the estate; reservations were needed for playing and dining in advance.
Otherwise, you could only dine in your room, if a big fish was caught in the pond right away, the chef would cook it, but only serve it at a table in your temporarily reserved room.
This could not compare to the exhilarating experience of dining in the grand hall, perhaps due to everyone’s vanity, believing that they were affluent enough to spend there, how could they let anyone outshine them?
Except for some guests who lived farther away, those closer would always have someone reserve in advance.
As for some guests who were not short of cash, they would rent a room long term at the estate, which then effectively became their permanent residence.