A middle-aged emperor, childless, was blessed with a beautiful and pregnant concubine who entered th

Inside the Yunmei Palace.

Yun Meiren was sitting in front of the mirror doing her makeup. Her hair was like a waterfall, black and shiny, like beautiful silk.

Because Emperor Qianwu adored her beautiful hair, Consort Yun cherished it very much.

Therefore, there were two palace maids in her palace who helped her comb her hair.

One person gently smoothed her hair with an ivory comb, while the other used his fingertips to take a hair-softening cream specially formulated by the Imperial Hospital, rubbed the cream in his palm, and then gently applied it to Yun Meiren's hair.

After doing all this, you need to use an ivory comb to gently comb through the hair strands, ensuring that each strand fully absorbs the medicinal properties of the ointment.

Every day, Yun Meiren takes care of her beautiful hair, once in the morning and once at night.

The personal maid was already used to it and had become accustomed to doing these tasks.

Just then, a sudden change occurred. A thin strand of hair appeared on the ivory comb, and the palace maid turned pale with fright.

He immediately knelt down with a "plop," crying, "Please forgive me, Beauty Yun! Please forgive me, Beauty!"

"I didn't mean to!"

Anyone who has served Yun Meiren knows that although she looks delicate, she actually has quite a temper, and she especially loves her beautiful hair.

Therefore, twice-daily hair care is of utmost importance.

The palace maid accidentally broke off a strand of her hair; she's probably in for a world of trouble.

As expected, Yun Meiren's expression changed, but she calmed down and said, "Go and receive your punishment."

The calmer she appeared, the more terrifying the palace maid's expression became.

"Please spare me, my beauty! Please spare me, my beauty!"

Yun Meiren said impatiently, "You broke one of my hairs, but I only had a thousand strands of your hair plucked. Is your hair more precious than mine?"

The palace maid immediately stopped begging for mercy and was dragged away by the eunuch.

Yun Meiren immediately returned to her normal appearance, and someone else came up to help her fix her hair.

"Today, let's do a more ordinary hairstyle, to make my hair look thick and flowing, just like Consort Zhen's."

The palace maid who was combing Yun Meiren's hair paused for a moment.

Before Consort Zhen entered the palace, no one could rival the beauty of Yun Meiren's long, black hair.

After Consort Zhen entered the palace, even Consort Yun's thick, black hair paled in comparison.

Consort Zhen met His Majesty at Hanshan Temple, which is why she particularly liked to wear the flying apsara hairstyle.

The maid understood and immediately styled Yun Meiren's hair into a flying fairy bun.

First, use an ivory comb soaked in rosin to tame the hair.

Having learned from the previous experience, the maid dared not be careless in the slightest, and moved extremely gently, for fear of breaking a single hair of Yun Meiren's head, lest she be dragged away and have her hair pulled out like the maid before her...

This beautiful woman, Yun, truly has a strange temper.

Other palace concubines would punish palace servants by hitting them with a board or slapping them.

But the beauty is different.

If anyone displeases her, she will have their hair pulled out.

Therefore, since many palace maids in Yun Meiren's palace had sparse hair, Yun Meiren's beautiful head and eyebrows, and her hair flowing like a waterfall, appeared all the more striking.

Some palace maids whispered among themselves, "This Lady Yun is so cunning!"

Furthermore, this flying apsara bun is divided into three exquisite streams from behind the ears. It is not an ordinary three-strand braid, but three strands of smoke and clouds that have been devoutly combed.

One stream spirals upwards toward the very center of the heavens, like a solitary peak making a pilgrimage; the other two streams rise diagonally from the temples, tracing perfect arcs in the air.

Without any artificial hairpins for support, the hair is entirely made of real hair intertwined and bound with dense pearl cords, forming three spiraling, dark-colored spires on the top of the head.

Each strand spirals with remarkable order:

The most elegant and graceful hair in the very center, like the innermost petal of a lotus bud, has a tuft of hair drooping slightly at its tip, tied with a white jade pendant shaped like a vajra, hanging in front of the forehead like a dewdrop about to fall.

The left side exudes a touch of ethereal beauty, with fine silver threads woven into its strands, shimmering with a subtle silver light when illuminated by the morning sun.

The most exquisite part was the one on the right—a few strands of loose hair were deliberately left out, curled slightly with jasmine dew, and hung down beside the cheek. When the wind blew, it looked as if invisible fingers were stirring the tassels under the temple bell.

When the final step was completed, the maid gently sprayed the hair setting lotion, which was infused with sandalwood, and the entire hair bun came to life.

It is no longer a pile of hair strands, but an upward posture.

Hairpins and ornaments were mostly simple and plain.

Instead of phoenix hairpins, she wore a plain silver lotus seedpod hairpin, with a bluish-gray pearl embedded in each of the lotus holes, like a lotus seedpod holding dew.

A crescent moon made of mother-of-pearl was attached to her temple; it was so thin it was almost transparent, and when she turned her head, the iridescent colors inside the shell were visible.

The only bright spot was a golden lotus flower the size of a fingernail at the base of her hair, its heart inlaid with glass beads from a foreign land. It was as blue as if a small patch of the sky of a Buddhist paradise had been pinned to the darkest clouds on earth.

When she stood up, her hair remained perfectly still, yet it gave the illusion that she was about to fly away.

The palace maid's skills were superb, and Consort Yun was very satisfied.

He immediately went to Consort Zhen's palace with this newly braided hairstyle.

She had to go and see if Consort Zhen had used the water from the well, and if her hair was missing.

When Consort Yun arrived, Zhou Mingyi was still getting ready. She should have sat in the hall and waited for a while, but she couldn't wait to go into the inner hall.

This displeased Zhou Mingyi.

Upon seeing this, Shi Liu immediately went to greet her, "Why has Lady Yun come in?"

"My lady is still getting ready, so it's probably inconvenient for her to see the beauty."

Yun Meiren didn't care at all. "I'm already so familiar with Consort Zhen, it's alright. I specially got my hair styled in the Flying Fairy bun today because I saw that Consort Zhen looks good with this hairstyle."

"I wonder if this is just a poor imitation."

She spoke very modestly, after all, Shiliu was just a palace maid. Even if she was Zhou Mingyi's trusted maid, she couldn't stop Yun Meiren from being disrespectful to her.

Therefore, they could only let her walk in.

Zhou Mingyi naturally heard what Yun Meiren said. She had long noticed that Yun Meiren cared a lot about her beautiful hair, probably because she was comparing it to her.

Perhaps, there are other thoughts on his mind as well.

Zhou Mingyi's hairstyle today is the "Jinghong" bun.

The so-called "Jinghong Bun" first involves interlocking real hair with a black hairpin, using sandalwood as the frame and silver wire as the framework, to build a cloud-like base on the top of the head.

Zhou Mingyi had thick, lustrous hair and used all of it, without any artificial hairpieces.

After the "base" was built, the hair strands coiled up layer by layer, like overlapping spring mountains, gradually rising into a double ring shape - the left ring like the rising moon, the right ring like clouds about to rain, the two echoing each other, blooming into a black eaves at the temple.

Every turn of the hair was carefully brushed with rose-infused hair oil, giving it a subtle blue sheen.

When the hair bun is almost finished, the most wonderful thing is that a strand of hair is deliberately left loose, hanging down beside the jade neck, trembling slightly with each breath, like a lone feather falling when a startled bird flaps its wings.

After the hair bun was completed, they began to adorn it with stars.

A filigree gold phoenix hairpin is first inserted diagonally into the center of the hair bun, with a three-inch string of glass beads held in the phoenix's beak, hanging down between the eyebrows, the beads shimmering.

Twelve kingfisher feather hairpins are inserted symmetrically on both sides, with tiny golden bells hidden in the cloud heads, which sound like the distant whisper of the wind when the wearer moves.

A cluster of coral beads suddenly bloomed at the base of her hair, like the glow of sunset burning on an inky cliff, each bead enveloped in a thin mist.

The final completed hairstyle was majestic and seemed to soar into the clouds.

When Zhou Mingyi slowly turned her head, her hair bun did not turn stiffly, but moved lightly and smoothly. The arc drawn by the dangling beads and hairpins seemed to hit Yun Meiren's face.

She subconsciously looked at the dressing case, where there were several strands of black hair.

Yun Meiren suddenly smiled.

"Consort Zhen has lost quite a few strands of hair, which shows that the palace servants have not been taking good care of her."