Eighty-Eighth Section: The Beauty Salon

After three months without setting foot in Greenwoods Manor, the Princess of a Thousand Gold arrived at last, only to stare in disbelief, thinking she must have come to the wrong place.

The surroundings were exquisite. There was a pond before the manor, with a pavilion built upon it, and along the neatly repaired embankment grew lush green trees. The roads were broad. In the past they had been a foul mix of water, sand, filth, and urine, stinking to the heavens; the princess could never bear to linger there and always hurried through in her carriage. Now the main road had been paved with gravel, and the village lanes with stone slabs, so clean that one could see people constantly keeping the place in order. Ding Shiyi-niang, the steward of Greenwoods Manor, explained, “We redesigned the roads. Livestock are not allowed on the main road, and poultry may not roam freely.”

Though the houses were still thatched, several people who had profited from working at the soap factory had begun building wooden homes, stone houses, and brick houses.

It was not only the outward appearance that was improved; the spirit within was good as well. Wherever the princess had traveled before, the common folk were gaunt and sallow, yet the people on her estate still had a healthy sheen to their faces.

At the village entrance stood two great stone tablets, inscribed with the village rules and agreements. The princess had seen them before, but only now, seeing what her estate had become, did she truly feel their meaning.

“Little Treasure, you truly have an eye for beauty,” the princess praised.

“Ahem, I merely borrowed ideas from other villages I once saw,” Feng Xiaobao said again, causing the princess to roll her eyes.

That night, to thank Feng Xiaobao for all his hard work, the princess used every trick she knew and spent the whole night in delight with him.

...

All along, Feng Xiaobao had been deeply curious about Tang Tian’s extraordinarily fine skin.

Think about it: how could a woman who spent her days climbing, tumbling, and fighting on the ground have skin as tender and white as egg whites, with a rosy glow beneath it?

Yet Tang Tian, despite all her outdoor exertions, somehow possessed skin as smooth as jade and as delicate as a baby’s.

Feng Xiaobao asked again and again, but she only laughed and refused to say.

Still, living together left no secret untouched, and eventually Feng Xiaobao learned her beauty secret.

It was camel milk, taken from the she-camel among the camels they had brought. Her maid milked it, poured it onto a cloth, and then applied it to the face.

Feng Xiaobao watched with his own eyes: after about ten minutes, when the cloth was removed, the dark, sunbaked color on Tang Tian’s face had faded back to fairness, her skin soft and lustrous as silk.

It was practically an elixir, a miraculous potion, magic itself. Feng Xiaobao rushed into her chamber and shouted, “I want it too!”

Tang Tian gave him a milk-soaked cloth. He laid it over his face; after more than ten minutes he took it off, and lo and behold, his face was as fair and noble as polished jade, while Tang Tian’s was like a peach blossom. Their two faces reflected one another, charming in their contrast.

“This camel milk is powerful indeed!” Feng Xiaobao marveled. If he could start a business bleaching faces with camel milk, he would earn a fortune from all those noble ladies.

“It is not easy to obtain,” Tang Tian said, seeing through the countless little stars dancing in his eyes at once.

She told him, “Not every camel has this effect.”

“Only the milk of wild camels from the deep desert has this power. Milk from all other camels is useless. And camels are not like dairy cows; they will not cooperate obediently. You must coax them and use force to make sure you can milk them, and sometimes you cannot get a drop at all.

“Moreover, the wild camels we brought are mother and calf. Only when the mother camel smells the calf’s scent will she give milk, and even then you cannot milk her too much. The yield in a day is very small, so it cannot be scaled up.”

So that was the case. It could not be promoted. What a pity, what a pity!

Yet Feng Xiaobao frowned, an idea striking him, and he said to Tang Tian with a smile, “I’ll give you a business.”

“What business?”

“A beauty salon.”

...

Tang Tian, the gold-medal female instructor at Spring Blossom Garden, had become quite popular among the noble ladies.

Her skill in riding and archery was formidable, and she was outstanding at polo. Most importantly, she was strikingly handsome and exceptionally refined in appearance, so charming that even women could hardly resist her allure.

Sometimes she dressed as a man. When she wore male clothing, she was dashing and graceful, and in the words of the noble ladies: “Marry me at once!” They all vied to wed her.

When she distributed one fragrant beauty trial card after another for “The Beginning of Man” among the noble ladies, thirty had already been handed out in no time.

Her advertisement was wonderfully simple: “Want to know why my skin is like this? Come with me.”

So in the afternoon, they went to experience the newly opened “The Beginning of Man” beauty salon in Spring Blossom Garden.

There were ten beauty beds, and twelve newly purchased Silla maids stood in orderly rows awaiting them; they were the technicians of the salon.

Two brave noble ladies lay down on the beds and received the technicians’ services.

“First, we cleanse the face!” the Silla maids said in halting Chinese.

They used steaming hot towels to clean the face, a method of steam cleansing.

Then they washed the face with light salt water, white vinegar, and apple acid.

Of course, they never revealed exactly what ingredients they used.

Perhaps others knew as well, but “The Beginning of Man” would keep innovating.

Next came facial massage, with hot compresses applied by heated towels, using milk, soy milk, and even rice broth.

Then came the natural cucumber mask. By then cucumbers, also called foreign cucumbers, had already come from the western regions, cut into slices and placed on the face.

That alone would have been enough, but the beauty salon used specially prepared cucumber masks by several methods. One was to mix cucumber with milk, honey, and floral medicinal oil before applying it to the face. Another was to crush cucumber, add egg white, and slowly stir in flour until it became a paste-like mixture.

For secrecy’s sake, they did not prepare it openly; they mixed it backstage and brought it out for use.

Of course, the secret would not remain secret forever, and people would eventually learn of it.

But there was no harm in that. Fortunately, our Comrade Xiaobao had once, in a later age and for the sake of courting girls, crammed himself with some knowledge of natural face masks, along with a few medicinal dishes for health preservation. Even if such things were hard to find, releasing just one new item a year would still be enough to coast on for ten years.

After ten years, would they still need these little trinkets?

After their treatments, the two noble ladies looked radiant and refreshed, their skin somewhat fairer than before. Looking into bronze mirrors, they were all delighted.

No more need for idle talk: more than half immediately signed up for membership.

The fee was high, eight strings of copper coins for ten treatments, but the noble ladies had money, and they never hesitated when investing in beauty.

Those who had not brought money said they would come tomorrow to register.

Then, when they came to sign up the next day, the noble ladies who had not received invitations became displeased and came to demand why they had not been given cards. Did they look down on them?

Tang Tian hurried to smooth things over, saying she had only brought so many and would make up the rest later.

Many people received trial cards. After trying them and being satisfied, most of the more than three hundred noble ladies in Spring Blossom Garden signed up.

Thus Tang Tian came to possess her own private enterprise. Her family also had a base in Chang’an, where her mother’s family lived, so she opened a branch there and then, in major cities one after another, established a chain, building it into a real scale.

When the Princess of a Thousand Gold heard about it, she was most displeased.

For she had secretly gone to try it herself once and found it quite excellent; her complexion had indeed brightened a little. Such a good thing, why had no one given her a share of it? Everyone was his people, so why favor one over another? Unfair!

To calm her fury, Feng Xiaobao handed over the salon’s secret recipe tray, and the princess was overjoyed.

She immediately gave a set to the Empress, and then opened a private beauty salon in her own residence for herself and her closest confidantes to enjoy.

However, apart from giving one set to the Empress, she did not distribute it publicly to anyone else, keeping excellent discretion. This way, it would not encroach on Tang Tian’s interests.