Chronicles of the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 53 52. Bronze Mirror Makeup
The hot wind from the scorching summer blew through the lotus leaves, leaving only coolness mixed with the fragrance of lotus flowers.

The boat slowly paddled through the lotus leaves, the stems on both sides being pushed aside by the bamboo oars. The lotus flowers on the branches trembled and swayed, shedding dewdrops, and the resting dragonflies fluttered their wings...

Qin Shi hadn't experienced such a comfortable and peaceful morning without having to worry about anything for a long time.

She shook her head, and the huge lotus leaf above her head was about to slip off, so she quickly held it down with her hand. Then she looked at the rising sun and said, "You can go back slowly."

It's already 7 o'clock. Although there is no KPI, for the sake of my own quality of life, I have to prepare everything I need to prepare.

When they came ashore, Chi Nu was holding a basket of lotus pods. Qin Shi couldn't help but smile when he saw this and said, "The lotus seeds we had this morning were very fresh. Do you want to offer these to the king?"

After thinking for a moment, he asked again, "Are there any lotus flowers near Zhangtai Palace?"

Chi Nu replied, "There is also a pond in the back hall of Zhangtai Palace, but for safety reasons, it is not planted with lotus flowers. Instead, half of the pond is filled with water caltrops, which are very fresh now."

The water chestnut vines spread over the surface, covering half of the pond, which was not very safe. However, the entire city of Xianyang was mostly made of wood and stone, so water sources had to be found everywhere.

I wanted to order people to clean up every day, but the king was impatient:

"I am here. If any thief or assassin can sneak past the heavy guards and hide here, it will be a disaster for Linghe!"

However, the pond was not as vast as the orchid pond, and the lotus leaves and lotus flowers really affected the water supply, so we gave up.

Qin Shi instantly perked up: "The water chestnuts are so fresh and tender!"

She went to the king to ask for some!

She then ordered, "Order more lotus pods, separate the lotus seeds, and dry them in the sun. Then bring them all back to the king."

Chi Nu did not mention that fresh lotus pods were presented to the king every day, so she agreed, "Yes."

Qin Shi returned to the palace, changed his clothes and put on makeup again.

This is still the responsibility of the service lottery.

She brought three other maids to comb her hair. One of them used a brocade cloth dipped in hair oil to slightly moisten the horn comb and jade brush.

This troublesome process was done because Fu Cai noticed that Qin Shi didn't like thick and greasy hair, but wanted his hair to be smooth.

Therefore, you should first moisten the horn comb thoroughly before combing your hair, and use the jade comb for the final smoothing process.

After combing your hair several times like this, your hair will have a slight luster and a scent, while also being manageable, fluffy, and fresh.

As for the usage of the fat, the hairdressing maid secretly found ten sisters and tried it out for a whole day!

Next came the various jade hairpins used to fix the bun, large and small. Because King Qin didn't like a heavy head, he ordered the carpenters to urgently make a batch of thin bamboo ones.

Of course, in order to show the status, it is inevitable that it will still be carved with gold, inlaid with jade and precious stones, but compared with the pure jade production today, it is much simpler.

Finally, the bun option.

Fu Cai's face showed anticipation: "Mr. Qin's new dress today is a light gray-white brocade skirt with gardenia yellow embellishments. It's refreshing and pleasant. Would you like to wear the Winter God's Golden Crown?"

It's the Winter God's Crown, one of the Four Seasons God's Golden Crowns. It's beautiful, but carved with white jade, it looks really heavy...

Seeing Qin Shi's hesitation, Fu Cai added, "The Winter God's Golden Crown is simply crafted, adorned with white jade, and lacks any matching hairpins or rings. It's already quite simple."

Qin Shi was soon shaken!

It's worth a little trouble for something beautiful.

What's more, she has to go to the king today - people's psychology is similar. If the gifts they give out are used by others with joy, the satisfaction in their hearts will definitely be greatly enhanced, and they will give gifts again.

The gold, jade and jewels bestowed upon him by the king were naturally insignificant to him, but Qin Shi also wanted this small positive feedback.

So she sat down patiently - thank God, more tables and chairs had been delivered, so she didn't have to kneel all the time.

After thinking for a while, he ordered Fu Cai to take out the makeup bag from her bag: "Today I will use this to apply powder to draw eyebrows and lips." Nowadays, when nobles apply powder, it is either rice powder or lead powder, but it is difficult to make rice powder as smooth and white as thousand powder, so Qin Shi said early on that he would definitely not use it.

She brought liquid foundation and a compact. After a brief demonstration with Fu Cai, her eyes lit up:
"What a precious treasure!"

Let’s look at the eyebrow pencil and lipstick that Qin Shi mentioned. The eyebrow pencil is fine, but it is quite rare that it can be twisted out automatically. However, the color is light and needs to be repeatedly outlined.

Nowadays, stone ink is used to draw eyebrows. It is made by grinding mineral powder with water and mixing it. Then a brush is dipped in it to draw eyebrows. The color is deep and rich, and it is particularly obvious.

The lipstick was a brilliant red. She didn't know what "xAo Flame Blue Gold 999" meant, nor did she know what "Jixxi Tomato Velvet" meant. But when she twisted the lipstick and saw such a brilliant color slowly rising, she was already dazzled.

"How do you make lipstick like this?"

Qin Shi pointed to the red lipstick on the table: "How is this made?"

The color is a bit dull, slightly pink and purple, not very pretty.

Fu Cai replied, "The original red lipstick was made with cinnabar, but Lord Qin strictly ordered that cinnabar be used close to the skin, so we switched to this comfrey lipstick, which is much darker in color."

Qin Shi: ...She has never really dressed up since she came here, thank God.

Although modern lipstick may not be healthy, it sounds much more gentle than this naked and unconcealed cinnabar.

In fact, she was not very fond of putting on makeup. She used to put it on only when she was with clients or when it was necessary for work. Later, she put it on to cover up her bleak and sickly appearance.

Seeing Fu Cai staring at her makeup bag with great interest, she said, "From now on, these makeup tools will be yours to study and keep. You can decide where to use them and how to use them. Feel free to experiment."

No matter how bold they were, they only dared to carefully scrape with bamboo strips for testing, and Qin Shi was very relieved about this.

Fu Cai suddenly regained her trust and bowed excitedly: "Thank you, Mr. Qin, for your trust!"

She held the makeup bag carefully, as if holding a shaky cake that could break at any moment, but the things inside fell out in a mess, and soon a mirror was revealed.

"This is……"

She asked in surprise, "Mr. Qin, is this a bronze mirror?"

Qin Shi took a look and then remembered: "It's not a bronze mirror, but it is also a mirror. Take it out and use it. It's just that it is a little fragile."

Just an ordinary glass mirror.

The powder compact also comes with its own case, but Fu Cai probably hasn't discovered it yet.

The reason she didn't think of it was because bronze mirrors are very useful nowadays - those blurry yellow bronze mirrors are often seen in costume dramas, and sometimes even distort the shape of the people they reflect.

But not today.

As a noble lady in the Xianyang Palace second only to the King of Qin, her clothing and food standards were even better than those of the other ladies in the harem, and the same was true of the huge bronze mirror in front of her.

It is carved with gold and inlaid with gems all around, and the dragon and cloud pattern on the back is inlaid with pearls, shells and jade.

The bronze mirror is polished to be fine and smooth. After shaping, it is first polished with a whetstone, then with fine oil mixed with fine sand, and then polished with charcoal powder, lead powder, etc. melted in water.

This takes an unknown amount of time, and finally the work is carefully ground and polished with fur or silk cloth dipped in powder.

Nowadays, when we look at people in bronze mirrors, except that the skin color cannot be restored 100%, it is not much different from modern technology.

[In ancient times, water chestnuts were called lingji ji4]

The bronze mirrors of the Qin Dynasty were very sophisticated, but their clarity was probably related to wealth and social status.

[The progress is slow, otherwise I won’t be able to finish the details, so don’t worry.]

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