But I’m still beautiful, right?

In the end, Yue Chang found three spies from Da Chu. It seemed that Yue Chen had already known about this, as Bai Yu had expected. The sparring match this time was merely an opportunity to use the position of being close to the royal as bait to lure Da Chu's spies out. Bai Yu's good eyes made their mission smooth sailing.

Bai He did not want his sister to be involved in a conflict between two nations, so he sent Bai Yu along with other women back to their own building. Bai Yu understood her brother's good intention, thus, she obediently left despite her curiosity toward the spies.

This world still held the tradition that women's duties were only birthing children and managing the household. Women should not be included in politics and war matters. The current Bai Yu could only accept and follow that rule.

After his sister had safely returned to her residence, Bai He headed toward the place they had contained the three spies for interrogation. What was Da Chu's intention for sending people to Da Yang during the time that the two nations had agreed on a temporary truce due to their citizen's harsh living conditions in winter? This might be related to the prior incident where Da Chu sent men to fight against Ouyang Feilong many times.

"Did they say anything?"

"You've sent them back?"

Yue Chen did not answer his grandson but asked about his granddaughters and Furen. Despite his cold exterior, he held a deep affection for his family.

"Yes, grandfather."

"Sent words to increase the mansion's security." Yue Chen ordered Yue Chang before turning to Bai He. "Originally, it should be handled by the royal guard. But this time Da Chu's involved, so we have to ask Rui Wang himself to come."

"I've told Ling-er to report to Wangye already." Bai He watched the spies being tortured and silently complimented them for their silence. However, Yue Chen seemed to have noticed something.

"Someone helped them infiltrate Da Yang."

"Grandfather, you mean…our people?"

Yue Chen nodded.

"There's a betrayer among us."

Bai He frowned.

It seemed that the Emperor had prepared a major mission for their return to the capital this time.

----------------------------

"Miss, there're invitations from misses of many major families."

As soon as she stepped through the threshold, Xiao Xi came to her with several invitation letters in her hands. Bai Yu did not care to read or even pick one up. She knew that these letters were the effect of the dress she had designed and wore to the banquet. She might have lost the competition, but at least there was something good.

"Prepare paper and ink for me. I want to write a letter."

Bai Yu could not care less about those invitations, since she had planned that she would make those misses and Furens remain as curious as possible about her dress. It was a simple logic of economy where she retained demand to be higher than supply in order to add more value for her products.

The delicate hand wrote the last letter onto the paper. She then handed it to Xiao Chang who would deliver it to the anonymous master. Last time he had sent a letter asking to meet her in private to discuss designing the modified dresses. And so she was going to accept his appointment. They would meet fortnight.

"Oh…" Before her maid left, Bai Yu thought of something. "About that 'thank you' gift. Is it ready?"

"It is ready, miss," Xiao Chang replied. "What is the next step?"

"Bring her to…" Bai Yu explained the details to her. Xiao Chang wanted to ask whether her miss could see the future or not, but decided against it. "Don't forget to make her carry wild herbs on her at all time."

The newly appointed personal maid, whom Bai Yu intended to give her the duty of managing outside matter, gave an affirmative before leaving to send the letter and prepare the 'thank you' gift that her young miss had ordered her to prepare after the incident in the woods that day.

She had not made any further move yet, since it was not the appropriate time. Meanwhile, Bai Yu wanted to devote herself to her training first. For the design that she sent along with the letter, she had to wait until it was made for the grand reveal day.

If someday she and Bai Hua were still enemies like in the series, she would soon be cut off by her father because of her wickedness that caused the major and minor branch of the Bai family to fall and crumble away from Da Yang. Bai Yu had to find a way to make money by herself as insurance, in case that she truly could not escape her fate.

Doing business with the anonymous master was a good thing. His needlework and skill were to her liking the most, and when coupled with her design, they would surely become fashion pioneers of this era.

"I heard from the servants that after miss left, first Furen grounded the fourth miss. They said first Furen ordered her to practice magic." Xiao Xi was as excellent an informant as ever. Even while she was in another mansion, she still knew the going-ons regarding Bai Hua.

For outside matters, she could rely on Xiao Chang. For everything else in Bai mansion, leave it to Xiao Xi.

"Mm."

According to the series, Yue Mei never wanted Bai Hua to be more remarkable than Bai Yu. Now that everyone knew she could wield magic, Bai Hua would receive numerous letters that attempted to curry favor with her. And so her mother ordered Bai Hu to be grounded as a way to end everything.

But because of that order, Bai Hua could sneak out of the mansion without anyone noticing. She went out to study medicine and herbs, and, at the same time, treat villagers with medical knowledge of her old and new life combined. She also used healing magic to help them and ended up becoming the mysterious divine doctor that was known all over the capital.

According to the storyline in the series, Bai Yu was training to maintain her title of Meihua Lady in the upcoming competition, so she did not have time to create trouble for Bai Hua. It was a prime opportunity for the brilliant heroine to develop her skills. The time right now and in the series seem to be largely similar.

But Bai Yu did not care about the heroine anymore. Instead, she should focus on training and defending her position. Now that she was reminded of martial arts, Bai Yu could only sigh.

This body was so frail. A few pats on the shoulder from her grandfather resulted in pains and aches. This was not unusual for a sheltered young lady who could not even wring a chicken's neck. But for her, it was a big deal.

Her body in her past life was slender but fit from regular exercises. When she crossed over into this body, she forgot that she was not the same person anymore. She could no longer just eat and sleep all day.

After lunch at the main building, Bai Yu sent her brother off in front of the Yue mansion. One shichen later, she ordered servants to bring her a rope that was as tall as her height and started jump roping.

"M…miss, that's not seemly at all."

Xiao Xi was concerned about her miss's image as ever. Right now Bai Yu had her hair in a ponytail, wearing practical clothes and exercising with jump rope until she was soaked with sweat.

"If you don't want to become fat, start doing this too."

Even without understanding the reason for their miss's action, the two maids found themselves their rope and followed suit.

Seeing her maids panting while lying on the floor entertained Bai Yu greatly.

-----------------------

That night was the first time she went to bed with exhaustion from an exercise. She must make her body used to the feeling of fatigue that would raise her heart rate in order to strengthen her coronary arteries, which would then lead to other parts of her body being stimulated and primed for practicing martial arts. She had not yet learned the arts, but she thought that using knowledge from her former life to prepare her body condition would only benefit her health.

The next morning, Bai Yu got up early in the morning to jump rope again, despite feeling the aches from yesterday. Since she began practicing martial arts today, she felt that she should not waste time resting. Truthfully, Bai Yu was a hot-headed person, not calm and cautious like others had assumed.

After taking a bath and freshening herself, Bai Yu went to the main building for breakfast like normal. Her aunt-in-law and Yue Huiling did not show a trace or uttered a word to mock her since she had helped them capture spies from Da Chu. Moreover, it seemed that her baiojie was looking at her with a calm gaze, rather than the usual hateful one.

In the late morning after her grandfather returned from his meeting with the Emperor, Bai Yu started her training for the first time. Yue Chen said that he would teach her how to use her eyes as a weapon, yet right now her training did not much differ from her own exercise regimen.

"Your body's not ready for rigorous training. You must fortify it first."

Yue Chen taught her the right way to kick and throw a punch. In her former life, she had starred in several action films, and obviously, as a world-class actress, she would try not to use a stuntman. Because of her insistence, Bai Yu was sent to train together with the stuntmen to make sure that she had the right form, and would look well and realistic on camera. Thanks to that experience, Bai Yu had received praises from Yue Chen that she was a quick learner and had an impeccable form.

Bai Yu knew that what she was practicing was the basics of fighting and a way to build muscle. But she did not understand why her grandfather would not only conjure up magic training dummies for her to fight but ordered her to fight blindfolded. Did he not say that her eyes would become a weapon?

"Yue family's blood might be few, but it is strong. Your ability must be honed under strict hands."

Bai Yu listened to his teaching with her vision blocked. She tried to kick and punch at the sliver of silver light. Her five senses were fully used unlike any other time before.

"The dummies I've created will dissipate when you hit them. Your training ends when there are no dummies left." As soon as he finished, Bai Yu could not hear anything else other than the sound of magic puppets moving through the air. She guessed that her grandfather had left her to train by herself.

Then, could she take off the blindfold? The goodness in her heart told her that she could not, so Bai Yu had to accept her order and continued beating up the dummies.

-----------------------

"There's an invitation from Tazi's second consort, miss."

"I'm not going."

"An invitation from the eighth princess."

"I'm not going."

"An invitation from royal consort Lan Xian Fei."

"I'm not going."

"An invitation from miss…"

"I'm not going! I don't want to meet anyone. My whole body hurt. I just want to lie down, can you let me lie down like I'm already dead?!"

"Y…yes, miss."

Xiao Xi had to gather invitation letters that were sent to them and took them out of her miss's sight. Xiao Chang gave her an understanding look. She had to face to same thing yesterday as well.

It had been seven days since Bai Yu woke up before dawn to jump rope, then went to have breakfast at the main building. In the late morning, she would blindfold herself and hit magic dummies that her grandfather had created. As always, he vanished after creating them, leaving her alone in the darkness. Her training was repetitive, but even though it was much more boring than she had thought, she knew it helped develop this body to become stronger and more resilient. The clearest result of her hard work was the time she took to destroy the dummies which was decreasing more and more. On the first day, she took over three shichens. On the seventh day, she took only two shichens. Still, everything was bought with aches all over her body. It hurt so much that every time after her training, Bai Yu would lie down still, not caring about her reputation as a beauty at all.

"This is an herb sent from Furen this morning. It'll help nourish your body and relieve muscle aches. Madam Ping said that first Furen always drank this after she trained."

Mother must have forgiven her already!

Bai Yu jumped and sat up the moment she heard the word 'first Furen'. The slender hand that seemed thinner than usual took said herb, happily drinking it.

Cough!

"Heh. I knew you'd be so hasty that you didn't ask if it's bitter or not."

"…Cough…"

Then why did big brother not warn me first?!

Bai Yu could only reprimand her brother with her gaze. She closed her eyes, held her breath, and downed a bowl of the bitter herb in one go. Her ears picked up a low chuckle from her brother who suddenly appeared without announcing himself.

Bai Yu put down the bowl and let Xiao Chang take it away. She held out her hand in front of her.

"What is it?" Bai He acted innocent, asking the meaning behind his sister's action.

"That herb was smelly and bitter. Doesn't big brother have a honey cube for me?"

"Nope." Her brother smugly shrugged.

"The door is that way, Master Bai."

"Miss Bai is so spoiled."

"I'm no—Oof…"

As she opened her mouth to object, a hand sent a small cube of honey into her mouth. Though she was tricked by her brother, she still cheerfully tasted the sweet and fragrant honey. This kind of honey was so hard to find unless you're truly rich and beautiful!

"Hey, don't just sit there savoring honey. Don't you miss your big brother?"

"If you give me another cube, I might be more willing to speak to you."

"But you're talking to me now. I guess you don't need this one anymore."

A golden cube of honey appeared in front of Bai Yu. Even with her aching body, the sweetness in her mouth compelled her to rush toward it.

The honey cube was held up high by Bai He, so Bai Yu who was darting toward it slammed squarely into his chest. Bai He hugged his sister's waist, his brows furrowed.

"You're thinner."

"But I'm still beautiful, right?" Bai Yu smiled sweetly, even after she was tricked by him.

"You're full of bruises." His dark eyes showed worry.

"But I'm still beautiful, right?" She knew how protective her brother was of her. But if she yielded to his worry, then the training would be all for naught.

Bai He stared at his stubborn sister. Bai Yu repeatedly blinked cutely at him. In the end, the older sibling lost.

She's parched.

Bai Yu showed a scout's three-finger salute. "I'll be careful of anything harmful to my beauty!"

Bai He wearily shook his head as he conceded and gave her the honey cube. Bai Yu took it, then gave him a peck on the cheek before turning to sit on her bed that she had only lie on for around two kes.

"I'm here to take you to Xu family's party."

"Xu family?"

"It's the birthday of Xu family's second miss. You've been begging me to go with you for several years. Aren't we going together, now that I've returned from the border?"

"Ohhhhh"

She had ignored all invitation letters, so she did not realize that today was Xu Peipei's birthday. Bai Yu did not much remember details regarding Xu Peipei. It might be because her memory was still spotty.

"Big brother really is going to go with me?"

"Or you don't want to go with me?"

"An opportunity to have brother accompany me to a party? How could I let that chance slip by?"

Tonight's party would be a chance for Bai Yu to present her new dress and drum up the demand. No matter what trick Xu Peipei had up her cleavage, Bai Yu still had to apologize in advance.

Because tonight, big brother and I will be the star of the party!