The General’s Mansion had many properties. That rouge and powder shop on Wanqing Street was merely one unremarkable shop among the many. Lin Hao hadn’t even known there was such a shop here.

On this day, she brought Baozhu to Wanqing Street to inspect the shop’s situation.

The shop wasn’t large. Like many shops facing the street, it had a layout with the shop in front and a courtyard in back, with only a shopkeeper and one assistant in total.

The shopkeeper was a woman in her thirties. When Lin Hao walked in, she was leaning against the counter, drowsy with sleep, while the assistant was wiping the shelves.

Seeing this, Baozhu coughed.

The shopkeeper’s eyes flew open. Looking at Lin Hao and her servant, her eyes lit up. “Miss, are you looking to buy rouge and powder? Our shop has everything! Peach red, orange red, coral red—as long as there’s a rouge color on the market, we have it here…”

Listening to the shopkeeper’s endless introduction, Lin Hao felt secretly puzzled.

The shopkeeper was so eloquent—why were there so few customers then?

“Then let’s look at everything.”

The shopkeeper hurriedly brought over a pile of bottles and jars for customers to try.

Lin Hao picked up a box of rouge and casually took a bit with her little finger to examine closely. The powder wasn’t bad, but it couldn’t be called good either. And right across from this shop was an even larger rouge and powder shop, with people going in and out from time to time.

“How much is this box of rouge?”

After Lin Hao asked the price and purchased it, she left and went directly across the street.

As expected, the shop across had abundant and complete stock. Besides various rouges, there were also floral waters, scented soaps, fragrance balls—all the things young ladies needed could be bought in one trip. When she asked about prices, the same rouge model cost the same as at her family’s shop.

Walking out of the shop, before Lin Hao could speak, Baozhu sighed. “No wonder our family’s shop doesn’t do good business—it has no advantages at all. Miss, look, even our family shop’s name can’t compare to theirs. Theirs is called ‘Flower Imagining Beauty,’ while ours is called ‘Lin’s Fragrance and Powder Shop.’ If this servant had a choice, I’d also go to Flower Imagining Beauty.”

They lost right from the signboard!

Lin Hao raised her eyes and glanced at the sign hanging on her family’s shop, smiling faintly. “The key is still having good products.”

Women who loved beauty all had discerning eyes for things like floral waters. They could distinguish even the slightest advantage—good products wouldn’t lack buyers.

“Miss, when will our shop be able to open?” Looking at the people coming and going on the street, Baozhu’s face was eager to try. “We rarely come to Wanqing Street. I didn’t expect it to be quite lively.”

“We need to explore the steps for steaming floral waters, custom-make all the necessary implements, and purchase fresh flowers… There are so many things to do—it won’t open quickly.” Thinking of all the busy work ahead, Lin Hao instead felt fulfilled and grounded.

Baozhu suddenly pointed. “Miss, look, there’s a crowd gathered over there.”

Lin Hao also saw the lively crowd in front of the teahouse.

“Come, let’s go see.”

The master and servant walked over. Just as they approached, they heard two people discussing.

“Outrageous! A tiny country, yet they dare come to Great Zhou and act arrogant!”

“Exactly! Our Great Zhou has countless talented scholars, and the capital especially gathers talented people from all directions. Are we really afraid of Yuliu people?”

Someone who had just arrived asked curiously, “Brothers, what happened?”

One person’s face flushed red with excitement as he pointed at the teahouse indignantly. “Some Yuliu people are drinking tea, saying repeatedly that our Great Zhou scholars can’t even come close to matching them in couplet contests. Several students happened to be drinking tea and couldn’t help arguing with them after hearing this, so they competed.”

“Did they win?” the newcomer asked.

The other person sighed. “They lost.”

The newcomer became anxious. “How could they lose?”

The person who spoke first became even more indignant. “Isn’t it because the Yuliu people were too cunning! Those students were just ordinary scholars, while three of them are said to be Yuliu’s top young talents. How could they compete?”

“Then, then we just let the Yuliu people win?”

The other person became excited. “How could we! Just now several talented scholars from our side went in—they’re last year’s newly appointed metropolitan graduates!”

The newcomer breathed a sigh of relief. “Good, good.”

Usually watching excitement didn’t matter, but against Yuliu people, Great Zhou absolutely couldn’t lose!

Lin Hao listened silently, understanding the general situation.

Scholars looked down on each other—with scholars from different countries, it went without saying.

Suddenly the crowd stirred. “Someone’s coming out!”

Several young men wearing blue scholar’s robes rushed out. Some covered their faces with their sleeves, others had faces flushed completely red, fleeing in disarray under countless watching gazes.

The onlookers looked at each other in bewilderment.

Did they… lose the competition?

This discovery was like a basin of cold water poured over people’s heads. Just as the atmosphere froze, the laughing voices coming from the teahouse became increasingly grating.

“Hahaha, everyone says Great Zhou has deep cultural foundations and produces extraordinarily talented people in every generation. Now it seems that’s all it is—they can’t even compose a simple couplet.” A young man wearing Yuliu clothing walked out of the teahouse, waving his folding fan and smiling as he swept his gaze over everyone.

Another Yuliu man shook his head and sighed. “Meeting them is worse than hearing about them. Great Zhou scholars are truly disappointing.”

These words made the faces of the watching crowd flush red.

“Don’t go too far!” Several angry young men walked out of the teahouse, glaring.

The Yuliu man with the folding fan showed an exaggerated expression of alarm. “Your Great Zhou wouldn’t resort to fighting when you can’t win in scholarly contests, would you?”

These words embarrassed the young men, who weren’t thick-skinned to begin with, leaving them speechless for quite a while.

The watching common people also felt uncomfortable.

In terms of martial prowess, being somewhat afraid when facing the barbaric Qi people was normal, but losing in a talent competition against Yuliu people—this was unbearable.

Had Great Zhou fallen to this level?

The silent stillness made all the scholars present feel deeply humiliated.

To be disgraced before a foreign country—how could they endure this!

A young man said coldly, “You needn’t be so smug. We hear you’re Yuliu’s famous talented scholars, while those who just competed with you were only the most ordinary students of our Great Zhou—”

“Ordinary?” The Yuliu man laughingly interrupted the young man’s words. “Just now I heard your Great Zhou people say those men were your last year’s newly appointed metropolitan graduates. Your country holds the metropolitan examination once every three years, with thousands of examinees, but only eleven make the list. And these thousands of examinees were in turn selected from tens of thousands of provincial graduates who participated in the autumn examination. If newly appointed metropolitan graduates can all be considered ordinary students, then your country’s requirements for scholars are too high.”

As soon as these words were spoken, the other Yuliu people burst into laughter. The unbridled laughter carried far, like invisible slaps hitting the faces of the Great Zhou people present.

One person strode out from the crowd and stood before the several Yuliu men. The gold-embossed folding fan in his hand snapped open with a flourish as he said dismissively, “So you won a few couplet contests—is that really worth laughing like squealing pigs? Speak your upper couplet, and my friend could match it with his toes.”

When he spoke the first part, people couldn’t help but feel their spirits surge, but hearing the latter part, they nearly choked.

So this was someone bragging on behalf of a friend without taking responsibility!