After having breakfast and washing her face, Ye Yaming applied her makeup, then sat in her undergarments with her hair loose, waiting.

Madam Zhou had instructed that the bride must wait for “the bridal urging.” This meant the bride was supposed to show reluctance to leave home by refusing to dress in her wedding attire, and would only properly arrange her hair and put on her wedding dress after the groom’s wedding attendant came to urge her three times.

Ye Yaxiu truly hadn’t expected that Ye Yaming would marry into the Xuanwu Marquis Mansion as the heir’s wife, and she regretted her past actions deeply.

Wanting to get on Ye Yaming’s good side, she kept praising how beautiful her wedding dress was and how skilled Ye Yaming’s handiwork was.

Ye Yaming’s wedding dress had been embroidered by the best seamstress in Jiangnan, taking half a year to complete. The embroidery was exquisite, truly a masterpiece among masterpieces. Even Ye Yaming, who had seen many fine things in her previous life, planned to treasure it and pass it down as a family heirloom.

If Ye Yaxiu had just praised the dress’s beauty, that would have been fine, but she repeatedly praised Ye Yaming’s skill and embroidery prowess, until Ye Yaming couldn’t help saying: “Elder Sister, please stop, you’re making me blush. When would I have had time to embroider a wedding dress? This was all done by professional embroiderers; I only sewed a few stitches on it.”

Ye Yaxiu was immediately silenced.

Ye Ruhui, being a gentle woman, quickly smoothed things over: “That’s right. Ming’er has been busy making tea every day; how would she have time for this kind of work? Every craft has its specialists, and this kind of thing should naturally be left to professional embroiderers.”

Before Ye Yaming’s transmigration, Ye Yayin had been naive and sweet. Now, after going out more often with her nanny and witnessing many of life’s joys and sorrows, and frequently being instilled with the idea that “a daughter should be self-reliant” by Ye Yaming, she was gradually developing into a spirited young woman.

Resenting how Ye Yaxiu had treated her sister in the past, she couldn’t help but make a pointed remark: “Did Elder Sister embroider her entire wedding dress herself when she got married? Elder Sister is truly impressive.”

Hearing this, Ye Yaxiu’s face reddened, and she immediately fell silent.

For daughters of wealthy Jiangnan merchants like them, it was natural to hire professional embroiderers for wedding dresses. Their embroidery skills could hardly measure up to such grand occasions. If others came to see the bride and her handiwork was poor, they wouldn’t criticize the bride’s skills, but would say the Ye family was stingy and unwilling to spend money on embroiderers.

Ye Yayu was oblivious to the subtle confrontation in everyone’s words and simply stared at Ye Yaming with bright eyes, unwilling to look away even for a moment.

Ye Yaming couldn’t help but smile and reached out to pinch her cheek, which still had a bit of baby fat.

Seeing this, Ye Yayin immediately laughed and said to Ye Yaming: “Sister, Yuyu thinks you look beautiful.”

After spending so much time together, she knew well that Ye Yayu was someone who valued appearance. She strongly suspected that the reason Ye Yayu had so quickly befriended her was because she wasn’t bad-looking either.

Ye Yayu nodded earnestly and said: “Third Sister, you’re so beautiful.”

Ye Yaming pinched Ye Yayu’s face again: “Yuyu is beautiful too.”

In her previous life, Ye Yaming had been a woman with meticulous makeup skills. She considered it a professional quality.

In this ancient era, she found ancient cosmetics fascinating and had purchased the best rouge and powder available to experiment with. When inspiration struck, she would even guide her maids in making their cosmetics.

This body was already naturally good-looking, and with her added poise, she was a presence that stood out among the masses.

Ye Yaming knew well that without power or influence, excessive beauty was not a blessing in ancient times. So although she had purchased many cosmetics, she normally didn’t wear makeup. When she did, she used it to soften her striking features, making people focus more on her abilities rather than her appearance.

But today, she wanted to make herself truly beautiful. For the only wedding across her two lifetimes, she wanted to be the most beautiful bride.

The original owner of this face already had delicate features. She used her cosmetics to downplay minor flaws and highlight her advantages. She focused particularly on her eyes.

Her eyes were naturally beautiful, and with eyebrow ink and her homemade eye shadow applied to the eye area, they appeared even darker and brighter, captivating the soul and making it impossible to look away.

After applying lipstick and using her palm to blend a bit of it on her cheeks, she had Ye Yayu, the little beauty enthusiast, staring at her unblinkingly.

Madam Zhou was also quite impressed: “Third Miss, you should always dress like this. Your skills are truly exceptional.”

She had attended many weddings, and the makeup skills of some wedding attendants were truly disappointing—turning faces ghost-white, applying blush like a monkey’s behind, and painting lips as though they had eaten a dead child. That wasn’t beautifying, but uglifying.

Unlike Ye Yaming, who even when examined closely, showed no trace of makeup. She simply appeared more beautiful, dazzlingly so.

“The auspicious time is approaching,” reminded the wedding attendant who had been sitting aside with nothing to do.

Just as she finished speaking, a maid ran in from outside: “The groom has arrived to escort the bride.”

Hearing this, everyone looked at Ye Yaming.

Ye Yaming felt immediately embarrassed.

They were waiting for her to cry as part of the wedding ritual.

But she truly couldn’t cry. Not only because her feelings for Madam Yin weren’t deep enough, but also because her marriage was different from others. For someone like Ye Ruhui, marriage truly meant no more easy days ahead, facing unfamiliar environments and people. To both her husband’s family and her maiden family, she would become an “outsider,” so naturally there were tears.

For Ye Yaming, whether she married or not had little impact on her future life.

Moreover, her homemade cosmetics weren’t waterproof—what if her tears ruined her makeup…

Before she could think further, Madam Yin covered her face with a handkerchief and began a theatrical lament: “Daughter, oh daughter, you’re being carried away with great fanfare! You’re going alone, facing the tides of life!”

“Respect your parents-in-law, respect fortune, respect your husband and you’ll have food to eat…”

Just as Ye Yaming was staring in astonishment, Ye Ruhui pushed her and gave her a meaningful look.

She had no choice but to imitate Madam Yin, covering her face with a handkerchief with one hand and embracing Madam Yin, crying out: “Mother, wuwuwuwu… I don’t want to leave you, don’t want to leave Father, Sisters, Grandfather, Grandmother…” She didn’t use the singing tone, and made the sound without actual tears—compared to Madam Yin, her performance was completely lacking.

Fortunately, after a short while, the groom’s wedding attendant came in, and under her persuasion, Madam Yin finally released Ye Yaming and encouraged her to comb her hair.

Madam Zhou, experienced as a woman of complete fortune, had practiced hairdressing skills and quickly arranged Ye Yaming’s hair and put on her ornaments.

As soon as the last hairpin was placed in Ye Yaming’s hair, Madam Yin rushed over again, embracing Ye Yaming and crying melodiously. This time, Ye Yaming had gained some experience and cooperated extremely well.

After crying for a while, the wedding attendant came up to persuade them again, and finally managed to calm the mother and daughter, coaxing Ye Yaming into putting on her wedding dress.

After donning the wedding dress, there was another round of crying, followed by more persuasion, and finally, they covered Ye Yaming with the bridal veil.