Her Love for Black Clothes

The next morning when Fan Ling woke up, Zhang Xiu came to her room and told her, "Tomorrow, the emperor will be holding a banquet to welcome back Chief General Cao. You'll be coming with me, so make sure you get ready early in the morning. Also, I brought a dress for you. Wear it for tomorrow."

"Alright, Mother," Fan Ling obediently replied to her.

Then, she asked Zhang Xiu about palace protocols and rules. At the same time, she also asked about palace etiquette. When asking about the etiquette though, she specified for the lesson to be as detailed as possible.

At first, Zhang Xiu was suspicious of Fan Ling being able to learn everything. However, the next morning, she was more than proud of her only daughter.

The dress that Zhang Xiu had given Fan Ling was a pink dress with pink begonias and golden leaves embroidered. For the matching jewelry, her mother had given her a pink begonia and golden hairpin. Accompanying the main hair piece, were some small tiny flowers that ranged from dark pink to light pink.

Generally, pink was not a color that Fan Ling liked to wear. Even in her previous life, her entire closet was full of black clothes. If there were any clothes with colors such as white, pink, red, blue, or anything else, that was because they were required by her job. Although, there was a small little corner where there were army green clothes from her previous military career.

Also, her clothes did not have any designs on them. If there were any designs on her clothes, they were from organizations and research teams that she participated in. Or, they were probably from the military.

Even after transmigrating to this ancient world, Fan Ling did not change her habit of wearing black clothes. On the first day that she came to this world, she had to wear what the original owner possessed. Though, the original owner simply did not own any black clothing.

When Fan Ling asked, "Why do I only have colorful clothes? Don't I have even a single set of black clothes?"

Xiong Qingzhao answered back, "Miss said that dark clothes are too depressing on such a pretty face, so you refused to wear anything that is dark."

After that, Fan Ling instructed Xiong Qingzhao to go find some black clothes to fill her closet with and to give away her bright clothes to the female servants. If none of the servants wanted her clothes, then just give them away to an orphanage.

At the age of fourteen, Fan Ling seemed to stop growing and she continued to look like a twelve-year-old girl instead. Thus, her clothes were also small – able to fit the twelve-year-old and older girls that lived in the orphanages.

Naturally, this also meant that the female servants were unable to wear her clothes since the servants were of the average female height for their ancient world. In fact, only a few elderly female servants came to take a few sets of clothes for their daughters or granddaughters back home. A few men even came by to request a few sets for their daughters and granddaughters.

Fan Ling did not reject the men and allowed them to take the clothes. After all, she had nothing more to do with them since she knew she would not wear them.

Even with these few elderly servants coming by to grab a few sets though, she still had lots of leftover clothes. These leftovers were more than enough to give to every girl in the capital city orphanage.

Of course, Fan Ling did not blindly give away every set of clothes. Instead, she made sure to ask Xiong Qingzhao which sets were gifted from her family.

As her personal maidservant, Xiong Qingzhao always made sure to keep an account of all the gifts that Fan Ling received. So, even though she could not remember all the gifts that Fan Ling got from her family, she simply needed to look through the accounts to remember the appearance of the clothes.

Although Fan Ling did not feel an emotional connection with this blood family that belonged to her, she still knew the importance of gifts.

'If someone gives you a gift, you do not regift the gift. Either make it disappear by accident or keep it in storage.'

In her past life, Fan Ling had received countless gifts. However, many of them went missing one way or another. There were only a few gifts that she kept in storage, and also only a small number that actually went into use by her.

Within the next day, Xiong Qingzhao got an entire load of clothes that filled up her closet with black clothes. However, in a chest that was situated in a small corner of her room, white clothes for special appearances were set aside.

In this life, Fan Ling had no friends since the original owner was reckless with her social life – isolating herself from the entire world. However, she had a family that was sincere to her.

Since the clothes came from her own mother, Fan Ling would not reject nor be picky. Either way, she was currently living in a residence that she did not own and her money did not come from her own hard work. At the same time, she could tell that her family was true to her.

The familial love that she saw from her parents and three brothers was true. She knew that they would most definitely not sell her just to make a momentary benefit or try to sacrifice her. Even if they hated her, they would still try to help her.

This… was probably what unconditional family love was. A connection of not just blood or biological bonds, but also emotional bonds.

While waiting at the entrance, Zhang Xiu complimented, "En, indeed, Mother's eyes are still good."

Standing beside her, Fan De also agreed, "Madam indeed has good sights."

Along with Fan De, the three brothers also commented, "Xiao Ling is looking very beautiful indeed."

In front of just Fan Ling alone, Xiong Qingzhao can have a little bit less restraint on her etiquette. However, in front of others, she knew to be very respectful.

Thus, even though Xiong Qingzhao wanted to say that Fan Ling could outshine even the sun in her beautiful and vibrant dress, she did not.

Instead, Xiong Qingzhao also praised, "Miss is as beautiful as the begonias that are adorned on her."

"Xiao Qing really knows what to say," Fan De commended with a proud look. "However, Xiao Qing should say that Xiao Ling is even more beautiful than the sun in the skies."

Zhang Xiu really wanted to smack the old man on the head but held back her violence.

In her head, she could only think, 'If the emperor heard this, you old man could be sent to the outlands.'

Fan Ling simply expressed a small, "Thank you," to all of their praises and compliments.

In fact, Fan Ling did not feel that she was that beautiful. Instead, she could confidently say that her body became much cuter with the addition of this dress. As they say, 'Your clothes can make you who you are.'

However, maybe the capital did not really place too much importance on the cuteness of a person. Instead, they looked at the beauty of a person. After all, could you truly sell cuteness?

When the carriages parked at the entrance, Fan Ling went into the same carriage as Zhang Xiu. On the other hand, Fan De and Fan Ping joined one carriage, and Fan He and Fan Huiliang also joined another carriage together. In total, three carriages left the Fan Estate.

Arriving at the palace, they were greeted by palace maids who led them to the palace hall that held the banquet.

Listening to the detailed etiquette lesson given by her mother, Fan Ling realized that the etiquette was not too far from her military etiquette lessons – albeit with a few differences.

Thus, from the moment that she exited the carriage, her posture changed from casual into a military stance. People who were not from the military would not know that she was using a military stance, instead, they would only think that she was extremely talented at following royal etiquette.

This was the thought of the palace maids that led the Fan family into the banquet hall.

The palace was a place full of gossip and as palace maids that saw many different sights every day, and faced many dangerous situations by discovering secrets, they all knew about the rumors of the only daughter of Duke Fan.

Young Miss Fan was infamous for shamelessly chasing after General Cao, the son of Chief General Cao, and being an incredibly annoying entity in the capital. Not only that, she recently got into an accident. Many people assumed that her accident was probably instigated by Young Miss Cheng, but nobody would try to justify her since they did not really care for her.

Either way, she was the daughter of a duke. If the duke wished to make a problem, then he can make an issue out of it. If he did not want to, then nobody would try to address the issue.

Of course, the most important rumor at hand was, 'Young Miss Fan is not only stupid and untalented, but she doesn't even know about the least important etiquette in the noble circles.'