Chronology of a Hundred Herbs

CHAPTER 16: Crimson Mole II

Hua Rong Yue looked at the painter opposite her; his nonchalance looked as though he was half-awake. She really couldn’t tell if this was deliberate or not, or if he just had terribly low EQ.

“I worked on this painting for very long before I selected the eye colour.” Wu Ming remarked as he looked at the painting, “it truly is an astonishing and stunning colour. It looked very beautiful when I painted it, even though the painting differs from how you look like in real life.”

Was he praising her or cursing her? No individual roaming the jianghu would want to be gifted such a painting. 

Could this be considered an occupational hazard of his in some sense?

Hua Rong Yue looked at the person in the painting, her feelings complicated after hearing what Wu Ming had to say. The person in the painting looked exactly like her, but not like her — it looked like when Yi Ling Long first became a Maniac. 

Yi Ling Long didn’t start out dressing strangely, this was how she’d looked like in the beginning.  Dignified featured topped off with red eyes, Yi Ling Long looked refined and graceful, coupled with a tinge of bewitching mystery. 

This was just the kind of look like Hua Rong Yue liked very much herself. It was like a feather – just enough to tickle one’s heart and pique their interest. In reality, this was exactly the true potential of Yi Ling Long’s appearance, though her looks leant towards muted elegance, it was just enough to strike another’s attention.

But what was really incredible was that Yi Ling Long did not have very feminine features, in fact, she had a certain handsomeness to her.

Even though she was a gorgeous beauty in female robes, no one had ever doubted her gender when she cross-dressed.

No matter how elegant her features were or how striking her eyes were, the first and only impression she’d give others whenever she cross-dressed would always be — this was a very beautiful man.

Hua Rong Yue felt that this was probably largely due to the perfect alignment of her facial features; androgynous beauty needed a very refined base palette like her face to begin with. 

In her daily life, Hua Rong Yue usually dressed very sternly and tidily; Yi Ling Long’s striking beauty was nowhere to be found on her. But in this painting, this characteristic had been thoroughly activated by the pair of red eyes.

So if Yi Ling Long didn’t go through so much to land herself in such a state, she’d have looked like this? ♢ CHRONOLOGY OF A HUNDRED HERBS, CHAPTER 16 is hosted at ZHANLANN.COM ♢  

Hua Rong Yue swept the person in the painting several looks.

That was a very beautiful person, but the moment she had male clothing on, she would look like a guy. Perhaps this was something Yi Ling Long was very unsatisfied with.

—This was definitely not a look the person she likely favoured. But given the situation she was in, she could not extract herself from her male persona so easily. 

And to be frank… the extent of her adoration of the person she liked, no longer had anything to do with her appearance.

Hua Rong Yue felt that Yi Ling Long’s original appearance was stunning enough, but evidently the latter didn’t think so herself.

She would rather cake a thick layer of powder to camouflage her original, porcelain skin, and destroy the androgynous beauty etched in her face.

She’d rather don on all kinds of flambouyant robes just to look even one bit closer to her idea of “femininity” that she so dearly clung on to.

Perhaps her persistence had something to do with what the person she liked had told her before.

After staying for a bit, Hua Rong Yue was ready to leave. She didn’t actually have much business coming here, she really just had to deliver the medicine.

But when she was about to leave, she realised that she didn’t have a small lantern, and Wu Ming couldn’t find a second lantern to lend her.

Hua Rong Yue realised that too. She spectated as Wu Ming pondered, his expression helpless. She wanted to see what he was going to do. 

“Aye, I got it.” Painter Wu Ming suddenly spoke confidently. He took a clean brush from the side, dipped it very slightly and gingerly in a pot of colour, before he suddenly closed in on Hua Rong Yue, and lightly drew a crimson mole beneath her eye. 

“Painter Wu Ming, what are you doing?” Hua Rong Yue was very surprised at his actions. She didn’t react in time earlier. She’d thought that he was going to add on to the painting, so she didn’t expect him to start painting on her. Wu Ming shook his hand. He felt as though a painter thoroughly engrossed in his arts, so he’d do whatever came to mind. He gestured at Hua Rong Yue, “all’s fine now, you can leave, be careful on your way back.”

And so, Hua Rong Yue, topped off with a new crimson mole, headed out the door. She was still a bit confused, she had no idea what this crimson mole was for.

She was afraid that she might bump into people she knew after this crimson addition to her face, so she quickly produced a hankerchief, tied it across her face, and opened her umbrella as well.

Hua Rong Yue initially wanted to wipe away the red mole, but the paint was quite stubborn and would not disappear. If not for this, frequent users of this paint would not have a red mole permanently etched on their faces either. But very quickly, Hua Rong Yue understood why Painter Wu Ming drew this on her. 

En route out the alley, Hua Rong Yue walked past a person. The person glanced beneath the umbrella at Hua Rong Yue, before brushing past Hua Rong Yue calmly, not appearing a single bit agitated or hostile. That person had the same crimson mole as her.

Hua Rong Yue suddenly understood it all.

That person had mistaken her as one of their kind.

In this alley, they don’t attack their own kind.

“It’s raining outside, why isn’t Rong Yue back yet?” Physician Qi looked at the droplets falling from the sky as he muttered in worry. A person suddenly entered the Hundred Herbs Apothecary — it was Wan Fu Lian. She patted the rain drops from her clothes in a hurry before she replied, “Physician Qi, don’t worry! I bumped into Official Yan* on the way back, he said he’ll drop by Eighteenth Pavilion, and he’ll bring Hua Rong Yue back on his way.”

* referring to Yan Sheng 

On the other end, Hua Rong Yue continued walking down the alley, the umbrella in hand, unbeknownst to the commotion.