Chapter 24: Bestowing a Set of Royal Skincare Products

Chapter 24: Bestowing a Set of Royal Skincare Products

Yuan Bao finally couldn't hold it in any longer and spoke up indignantly,

"Your Majesty, those ministers are total thieves! Such precious face cream, and they slather it on like they're plastering a wall. And lately, some have even been sneaking out big globs to take home!"

Yun Ran burst out laughing,

"Who? Scooped out a big glob?"

Yuan Bao muttered under his breath,

"General Chang."

"Chang Yuan?"

She didn't expect Chang Yuan to be so doting on his wife, thinking to share the good stuff with her.

With a grand wave of her hand, Yun Ran said,

"Grant the Chang family a full set of royal skincare. Don't be so tight-fisted."

Yuan Bao felt sour inside. He hadn't expected his tattling to backfire and actually help the guy out.

Hmph, I'm definitely earning that reward money!

Yuan Bao's chubby face split into a big grin as he accepted the decree and left.

The place in the palace where the Emperor's skincare products were stored was the Imperial Medicine Bureau.

With a grimace, Yuan Bao went to pick up a full set, then carefully packed it in a fancy sandalwood box the Emperor had designed himself, padded with silk.

The boss had said these were all potential future customers, so it made sense to send out some trial samples ahead of time for market research.

Even though Yuan Bao often didn't get what Yun Ran said, he was blindly devoted and just followed orders without thinking.

At the Banner Guard General's mansion,

The whole family was still happily enjoying the flowers in the osmanthus garden.

"The imperial decree is here!"

Hearing the ruckus, everyone rushed out and knelt down, totally confused. Yuan Bao cleared his throat, stepped forward, and read the decree:

"By the mandate of Heaven, the Emperor proclaims: Having learned that Grand General Chang Yuan of the Banner Guard deeply loves his wife and keeps a harmonious family, and since the family is the root of the nation, We are most pleased. We hereby grant the Chang family a set of imperial palace balms. So it is decreed."

Chang Yuan's old face turned red.

The Emperor must have found out about him skimming the palace balm.

Who spilled the beans and brought the eunuchs here!

Lady Chang looked even more confused, wondering how she'd ended up getting a reward.

After they accepted the reward, Lady Chang naturally stuffed a fat wad of silver into Yuan Bao's hands.

"Thanks, Eunuch Yuan, for coming all the way here yourself."

Yuan Bao, totally satisfied, made a show of refusing a couple times before leaving.

As soon as the eunuchs were gone, Lady Chang grabbed Chang Yuan's ear.

"You old fool, what did you say to make His Majesty give us a reward!"

"Ow! Mercy, my lady, mercy!"

Chang Yuan's wife was a fiery, outspoken woman. Nobody in the mansion dared to mess with her—she was someone even the great general was scared of.

But Lady Chang was stunningly beautiful. Even though she was in her thirties, she still had fair skin and a great figure—you'd never guess she was a general's wife with three kids.

After Chang Yuan came back, he spent most of his time at the army camp.

His wife ran the household like clockwork, and the family lived happily.

Today's business clearly had something fishy about it.

Under the ear-pinching assault, Chang Yuan grudgingly confessed the truth.

Chang Chun also blushed, pulled out the little porcelain bottle, and dutifully handed it to her mom.

"I thought it was something big. You lot, keeping secrets from your old lady! If Chun'er likes them, just take them and use them. Your mom's got plenty of balm—one face can't use it all up."

"Thanks, Mom! You're the best!"

Chang Chun gleefully hugged her mom's slim waist.

Mom's so pretty and always smells nice—just a little fierce, that's all. Who wouldn't love her?

Chang Yuan naturally got a good beating from his wife, and only then was the matter dropped.

"Mom, look! So fancy!"

Chang Chun picked up a carved porcelain bottle and carefully opened the lid. A fresh rose scent drifted out.

"There's tiny writing here too!"

Under the bottle, there was a delicate little label describing the bottle's name:

"Royal Scented Dew, Imperial Garden Rose?"

Reading the instructions on the label, Chang Chun picked up the little brush that came with it, dipped it in a bit, and dabbed it on her wrist and behind her ears.

"Mom, smell me. Don't I smell good?"

Chang Chun spun around in front of her mom, and a soft scent wafted through the air.

"That smells amazing, sis! It's like being in a rose garden!"

"How special! This royal dew must be super precious. We should use it sparingly."

"Yeah, the packaging alone looks super pricey."

"Only Dad would be so shameless—nobody else would do something like that. Ouch!"

Chang Jiu held his head, tears welling up.

The whole family huddled together, examining the stuff closely.

...

In the Hall of Nourishing Life:

After finishing the day's state affairs, Yun Ran stretched lazily and glanced around the hall.

Although this was already the most luxurious place in the entire imperial palace, it still felt a bit hollow.

A small kingdom is still a small kingdom, after all.

With Yanchi's treasury still empty, she needed to find ways to make money. Without it, neither internal unrest nor external threats could be solved.

It's a real hassle not having a personal guard to handle things and run errands outside the palace for me.

And the Dragon Scale Guard—since I didn't train them myself, I can't fully trust them either.

Yun Ran drummed her fingers lightly on the table.

"Yuanbao, come with me out of the palace—I've got some business to take care of."

Yuanbao, quick to catch on, brought out the emperor's plain clothes and helped her get dressed.

For the past few months, the emperor had been sneaking out in disguise, with no real destination, just aimlessly wandering the capital.

Yuanbao was completely baffled.

If even he—the head eunuch right by her side—couldn't guess His Majesty's intentions, how was he supposed to keep his job?

Once dressed, Yun Ran stepped out in a finely made white robe patterned with bamboo, her hair tied up with a jade crown.

Before leaving, she grabbed two lightweight daggers from her custom hidden-weapon case and tucked them into her boot and her belt.

Once everything was ready, Yuanbao carefully opened a pure black silk box on the side table, took out a folding fan, and presented it to Yun Ran.

"Your Majesty, your weapon."

Taking it, Yun Ran carefully disabled the small firing mechanism so she wouldn't accidentally set it off and knock herself out.

This fan was a personal weapon Yun Ran had recently put a lot of work into crafting, based on a treasured blueprint from a 28th-century weapons master.

"Who'd have thought all that random knowledge I downloaded into my head back then would actually come in handy."

Yun Ran patted the fan at her waist, feeling a strong sense of security.

Both sides of the fan were loaded with anesthetic-tipped needles that could be fired by hitting a special switch.

One fan could fire eighteen poison needles, each strong enough to knock out an ox—let alone a person.

Yuanbao had seen its power firsthand when the emperor first had it made, and he'd never forget how terrifying that thing was.

Killing without a trace—that's exactly what it could do.

This time, Yun Ran left the palace to buy herself a personal shadow guard.

As for the ones in the palace, no matter their rank or background, she still couldn't trust using them. What if they had secret ties and ended up assassinating her?

She planned to hit the labor market and pick someone with a deed of sale to train up herself.

Yun Ran left the palace gates, mounted her handsome white horse, and set off!