The next day, Madam Du arranged for Gu Yunxi, Sun Shengsheng, and five other damsels to take the etiquette course to prepare for entering the Palace.

The etiquette course that Madam Du personally taught them aimed to guide and drill their etiquette about sitting, standing, saluting, and dealing with others.

After the seven damsels stood in two lines, one with three and one with four, Madam Du began to pose. She slowly raised her hands, saying.

"I'll only do it once. Look carefully. Raise your hands on the side of your left chest, and gently drop down on your left crotch. Then lift your right heel and bend your knees slowly and solemnly with your head bowed.

And greet the one by saying — May you be healthy and happy.

"Remember, there is a difference between the curtsy and the fist-and-palm salute. While doing the fist-and-palm salute, you need to put your hands flat in front of your chest and keep your upper body not move."

Madam Du looked dignified. She always spoke leisurely and was gentle and generous to others.

But she turned to be very serious and strict in class, which made the girls respect her more besides fear.

Madam Du asked the seven girls to do likewise after she finished the action and stood straight. And while they flexed their knees to curtsy, she ordered them to keep this position and not move.

Madam Du wandered between the girls' lines with a three-foot-long bamboo pole in her hand, scrutinizing each girl while walking.

As soon as she saw anyone's incorrect posture, she immediately hit the one with the bamboo pole and ordered her to correct it.

Sun Shengsheng, always being spoiled and indulged at home, only briefly learned simple etiquette with nannies and never received any harsh constraints.

Now, having to keep the position for so long, especially a half-squatting posture, she turned to be dizzy and felt her legs got numb within a moment.

She pouted in a sulk and stood straight, groaning.

"I'm too tired. The beads of sweat on my forehead smudged my makeup. Madam, let me take a break!"

Madam Du frowned and slowly walked beside Sun Shengsheng.

"It's just the start of the beginning. Miss, can't you bear it after simply learning to do some basic salutes?"

Madam Du knew that Sun Shengsheng was always overbearing among these damsels with her father as her protective umbrella. She was afraid that the girl would be likely to die after entering the Palace if her arrogance did not get changed in class in some means.

Staring at the girl rocking from side to side, Madam Du solemnly commanded.

"Pose again, immediately!"

Sun Shengsheng rolled her beautiful eyes and crossed arms on her chest like a peacock, seeming to think nothing of Madam Du.

"Although my family members are not the relative of the Emperor, we are also the nobleman. That my father sent me to the Palace is to make me a concubine of the Emperor instead of making me be at the mercy of others in the Garden, becoming so tired and dizzy."

Besides, I have already learned at home what you teach now. I am not in the mood to study here since you insisted on putting me in the motley crowd with those humble people."

While speaking, she gave Gu Yunxi on her side a dirty look meaningfully.

Gu Yunxi was not a fool, and she got that Sun Shengsheng was deliberately pointing at one but abusing another to attack Madam Du and, at the same time, insult her and two other civilian girls.

However, with Madam Du present, Gu Yunxi needed not to stand out.

With the bamboo pole in one hand, Madam Du turned her wrist of the other hand and leaned it against her slender waist. She showed a faint smile to Sun Shengsheng and then said with a stern look.

"I don't care if you are a lady or a maid at home. You have only one identity when you enter the Garden — the damsel to be selected into the Palace!

"Don't think that concubines in the Palace need only to pamper themselves. To say something disrespectful, most of them are from the Garden too. None of them hasn't robed out the period of learning these overelaborate salutes. None of them couldn't keep curtsy's posture without shaking for half an hour at that time."

"Only those who endure the most become the highest. If you cannot understand it and even want to fly high before getting fully-fledged, I'm afraid you will fall to your death in the middle!"

"..."

Seeing that Sun Shengsheng suddenly blushed and became speechless, Madam Du smiled coldly. After glancing over each damsels' face, she gazed at Sun Shengsheng again, and her smile gradually faded.

"Maybe you think I'm making trouble for you that I deliberately ask you to curtsey and don't allow you to get up. However, if you do not master the essential skill, it will be hard to pass the Imperial Ceremonial Service's exam after entering the Palace.

If any of you get eliminated at that time or make a mistake in serving the Emperor, it will be a small matter to disgrace the Garden and me, but it will be a big deal to let your ancestors and families lose face! I usually keep on at you, but actually, I'm teaching you how to save your lives.

"After entering the Palace, in addition to relying on your brain and beauty, you need to pay more attention to keeping the rules if you want to get ahead. As for those picky ones who are always domineering and irritable, they won't even be the concubines' liking, and how come it is possible for them to get the favor of the Emperor?"

Sun Shengsheng interlocked her fingers hard, feeling so shameful that she wanted to disappear at the time.

Madam Du secretly smiled and turned around. Her gaze going around finally fell on Gu Yunxi.

She spoke for so long a time, and the other girls really couldn't hold on anymore. Their posture was rocking, obviously showing their lack of strength in the legs.

Only Gu Yunxi kept her position stably and had no change in her expression.

Gu Yunxi grew up in the Garden since she was a child. At that time, she could not participate in the training course due to her illness, but she also learned a little about women's etiquette in the Palace since she saw Gu Yunyao attend the class.

Besides, she acquired Kungfu now. It was easy for her to hold her body still.

Naturally, Madam Du did not know the low-down of Gu Yunxi. Seeing that her posture was well made, Madam Du felt pleased. She shook the bamboo pole in her hand with a smile.

"All right, that's all for today. You can leave now."

The girls winced with moans and got up one after another. Standing there, they began to stretch their arms and twist their waists...

The moon hung behind the branches, and the ink-liked darkness of night tinted the boundless sky.

It was bright with candles in the room.

Gu Yunxi and Sun Shengsheng lived in the same room. Being always domineering, Sun Shengsheng occupied the bathroom first every day after coming back from the class. She would not go out until she enjoyed enough in the bathtub, and then she would sit in front of the dressing table to admire herself for a long time.

However, Gu Yunxi had to pay the servant to change the bathwater for her or do it herself when she used the bathtub.

After taking a bath, Gu Yunxi changed into clean underwear.

As soon as she left the bathroom, she saw Sun Shengsheng sitting on her bed and holding a hibiscus-patterned filigree rouge box.

"Hey! Don't touch my things—"

Gu Yunxi yelled suddenly and rushed forward.

Sun Shengsheng smelled an extraordinary fragrance before seeing the content as soon as she opened the peony-patterned enamel lid of the box slightly.

Then the sudden roar startled her, making her tremble with shock violently.

When she raised her head, she just saw Gu Yunxi anxiously rush over and snatch the rouge box away.

Sun Shengsheng got startled, still thinking of the smell in her mind.

She became more and more curious about the content of the rouge box.

Being the apple in the Governor's eyes, Sun Shengsheng was so much spoiled that she almost had seen all the first-class things.

But she indeed had never met any rouge with such a strong fragrance.

Sun Shengsheng stretched out her small hand in front of Gu Yunxi and said haughtily.

"Give me!"

"Why should I? It's mine. You scrabbled my things without permission. Don't you think that you are unreasonable?"

Gu Yunxi finished speaking calmly and stuffed the rouge box into her clothes.

"Bah! The humble people are indeed in poor taste. You even treasure such a box of rouge so much!"

Sun Shengsheng snorted and turned around. She took out a ten tael silver ingot from the wooden trunk beside her bed.

"Slap"—

Sun Shengsheng firmly slapped the ingot on the square table, making a sharp noise.

"I'll pay you for that box of rouge. Is it all right?"

Sun Shengsheng was a well-known high-roller among the current batch of damsels.

Her father, the Governor, prepared her a generous amount of gold and silver ingots before she came to Jing City. He also gave her a lot of red envelopes to bribe the servants of the Garden.

Perhaps since the idea that "Money made the mare go" had been deeply rooted in her mind, Sun Shengsheng thought that she could buy anything she wanted from anyone.

Unexpectedly, Gu Yunxi didn't give the silver ingot a look but said coldly.

"Put away your money. I won't sell it."

Gu Yunxi did dislike Sun Shengsheng's arrogance. She would not sell it to her even if the box content were real rouge, let alone it was not.

Sun Shengsheng glared with anger and twisted her slender waist to get in the way of Gu Yunxi, speaking in a cold voice.

"I take you as a person, so I'm willing to pay you. Give it to me quickly. Don't enrage me!"

Gu Yunxi slightly raised the corners of her lips and made a smile full of coldness. With a pair of dazzling cold eyes as if filled with the moon's silver brilliance, she gazed at Sun Shengsheng's face that showed an imperious air.

"Well, can you tell me what is the consequence of irritating you?"

"You!"

Immediately, Sun Shengsheng raised her eyebrows in displeasure, and her beautiful eyes got burning with anger.

All of a sudden, she raised her hand to slap Gu Yunxi in her face.

In Gu Yunxi's eyes, this slap with all her strength was as slow as the tortoise's movement.

Gu Yunxi smiled faintly and kept calm, nor dodge or hide. In the blink of an eye, one of her hands waved and directly grabbed Sun Shengsheng's wrist.

"Ouch! It hurts!"

Sun Shengsheng frowned and groaned continuously in pain.

"Tell me. What on earth is the consequence of enraging you?"

Gu Yunxi gazed at her and asked again, with a cold smile that seemed covered by layers of ice. Suddenly, Gu Yunxi tightened her fingers and twisted her hand lightly.

With a snap, Sun Shengsheng's slender wrist was dislocated by her.

"Ah—"

Sun Shengsheng screamed and fell to the ground. The sweat kept trickling down her delicate cheeks.

She suddenly lost all her arrogance, just sitting and crying on the ground.

Someone knocked on the door outside. The girls next door heard the noises in the room and came to ask about what happened.

Gu Yunxi crouched. Supporting Sun Shengsheng's drooping arm with one hand, she held her palm with the other hand and pushed it back. After another sharp snap, Sun Shengsheng's wrist recovered.

Sun Shengsheng half opened her mouth, staring at Gu Yunxi in horror, unable to say a word.

Gu Yunxi squinted her eyes and smiled. She got closer to Sun Shengsheng and said in her ear in a soft voice filled with threats.

"Maybe you don't know that my father knows some Kungfu, and it's not a big deal for him to help others replace their dislocated arms or legs. If you talk nonsense later, you will indeed lose your arm."

She slowly got up and opened the door. Two damsels stood under the porch.

Gu Yunxi told them that Sun Shengsheng was crying for a nightmare just now, "I have comforted her. She is all right now."

After sending away the nosy damsels, Gu Yunxi closed the door and floated back beside Sun Shengsheng like a ghost.

Sun Shengsheng shivered with fright and stared at Gu Yunxi in horror, with her tears dropping down endlessly.

Gu Yunxi's clear eyes widened and shined with a cold light. She playfully took out a handkerchief to wipe tears for the scared girl and said in a dark voice.

"Even a worm will turn. Sister, you cannot blame me for what happened today. I'm not born to privilege like you, and I am a newcomer, so I naturally need the care of you.

From now on, Sister, you and I will live in the same room. It will be fine if we respectively go on our own way. But if you cannot accommodate me, don't blame me for being cruel."

Finishing the words leisurely, Gu Yunxi directly got up and went to bed, leaving Sun Shengsheng dumbfounded there. With the curtains drawn down, she settled into a dream then.