The weather was relatively good, the sun was hidden behind the clouds and it wasn’t as hot as the last two days.

Donghae had already finished washing the assigned clothes and was wiping the sweat from her face when Mother Chen approached her.

“Dong, are you busy?”

“I’ve just finished washing. What do you need, Mother Chen? I’ve done yesterday’s washing too, except I still need to fold them…”

“Don’t worry about that.” Mother Chen followed Donghae to the washing line and chuckled, “You can put that down for now, I need to talk to you.”

Donghae put down the bucket of washing, “Yes?”

“You fixed the two holes in my clothes, didn’t you?”

“I saw them so I did do the mending. Is it no good?”

Mother Chen gave another chuckle, “It’s not ‘no good’. I could hardly tell that there was a hole there! I never guessed you had such nimble fingers!” She grabbed Donghae’s hand, studied it and asked, “Why didn’t you tell us about your skill? I’ll tell you this, My Lady’s wedding is coming up and we’re in a rush to prepare the clothes. Only three girls in our entire Residence are proficient with needlework, so I’m worried we won’t finish in time. From today on, you don’t need to do manual work anymore, come and help sew!” She was Lady Im’s nurse, so she was extremely excited when it came to her wedding.

“This is…” These days, her health had greatly improved and she was planning to escape soon. It would’ve been a lot easier to escape if she was still a laundry maid.

“This is what? Do you still want to do manual labour?” Mother Chen patted Donghae’s hand, “It’s a great opportunity. I’ll tell the housekeeper about this. Inside you go and don’t worry about anything else for now.” She bounced away happily, before Donghae could answer.

Donghae had no choice but to pack her things up and go inside.

The Hua family was one of the most famous commercial families of Dong Lin. The head of the family had one daughter and so her wedding was extremely important. Her clothes required at least four seamstresses and now they had a new addition.

As a seamstress, Donghae’s food and clothing had greatly improved from the time when she was still a manual labourer. However, Donghae had been spoiled for a long time in the Choi Ducal Residence, so she took no notice in the changes. Though her lifestyle had very much downgraded, she was flexible and therefore she didn’t complain.

For unknown reasons, the seamstresses had been scheduled near Lady Im’s building.

“What beautiful fabric, I wish I could wear something like this when I marry. I can’t imagine how beautiful I’ll be!” The seamstresses sat inside, in their own corner. Their heads were bent over while their needles weaved across the fabric.

“Don’t be stupid, how lucky can you get?”

Sejeong, the girl who spoke first, had been promoted to a seamstress at the same time as Donghae. Seeing how Sejeong was mocking her, she retorted, “How can you be so sure about that?”

“Okay, okay, hurry up and get back to work.” Mother Chen was in the room too and seeing how Donghae was so absorbed in her work, she couldn’t resist tip-toeing over to see what she was doing. “Wow! That’s amazing needlework!”

Donghae jumped back in surprise, momentarily losing control of her needle, pricking herself.

“Dong, your hands really are amazing.” Mother Chen took Donghae’s sewing and studied the lively, realistic phoenix. She had worked in the Im Residence for many years yet this was the first time something had sparked her interest. Suddenly, she had a thought. “This technique…I doubt you could find two with the same capabilities in Dong Lin. Yeah, I think your phoenix’s wings is not typically like Dong Lin’s traditions, I think it’s more like…”

Donghae’s heart thumped and she laughed nervously while taking back her stitching. “I don’t exactly understand, but it just has to look good right?”

Her sewing in Gui Le was considered spectacular as well. Although the Choi Ducal Residence didn’t particularly announce it, there had been some private requests for her needlework.

Donghae was also a lazy person, so she refused to sew any more except for a few objects for her Master. This meant that there weren’t many traces of her sewing in the Choi Ducal Residence left around.

While Mother Chen wasn’t looking, she unpicked the wings of her phoenix. She was just about to rest her eyes when a beautiful girl entered the room. Her body was slender, she had huge pondering eyes and her nose was a perfect bridge. She wore an embroidered light purple dress and a necklace of pearls glittered around her neck.

Mother Chen hurried stood up and asked, “Why are you here, My Lady?”

So she was Lady Im. Donghae had been outside doing manual labour, so this was the first time she had actually seen the Lady. All of the maids stood up.

“Oh Nurse, you’re here too?”

“Of course, these are My Lady’s wedding clothes after all, shouldn’t I be seeing everything thoroughly? Look at this sequin, I took a long time picking it out from…”

Lady Im seemed to have lost interest in Mother Chen’s word. She glanced at the red fabric and annoyance crossed her eyes. She turned towards the maids and eyed them, as if searching for someone.

She carefully measured everyone with her eyes, finally letting her eyes rest on Donghae.

“You, come with me.” Lady Im pointed at Donghae and walked away, not waiting for an answer.

“Me?” Donghae pointed to herself in surprise and looked at Mother Chen.

“My Lady told you to go, so what are you standing there for? Go.” Mother Chen lightly pushed her shoulder.

What does Lady Im need me for? Don’t tell me…she knows my real identity?

Donghae followed her into the main room of the Lady’s building and a nice fragrance in the air made her relax. Donghae took a deep breath, thinking, Sir Im is really nice to his daughter. This sort of iced fragrance is a luxury that only royalty can afford.

Lady Im gestured to Donghae to come into the room, “Come here”.

Donghae followed and Lady Im threw her some clothes, commanding, “Put these on.”

The clothes were very fine, a display of exquisite workmanship. It was obvious that these were the Lady’s very own clothes.

She saw the confusion on Donghae’s face, clicked her tongue and smiled. “You see, your figure resembled mine most. Geez, I wasn’t planning to look for a replacement but Lui’er just had to get sick.”

“Perfect!” Lady helped Donghae into the clothes and made her turn around. She looked really happy when she said, “your body shape is exactly the same as mine. You’ll be thought of as a beauty, so long no one sees your face.” Lady was naively romantic in a way that she actually believed her words held no ill intentions.

Donghae giggled nervously, not knowing what to do.

“What’s your name?”

“Dong.”

“Dong, I need a favour.” Lady Hua took a deep breath and whispered, “If you successfully pretend to be me, I’ll greatly award you. If you mess up…let’s just say I’ll punish you like hell. Also, don’t you dare tell anyone about this! If anyone else learns of it, I’ll get Mrs Im to whip you!” Her words were threatening but there was no force in her tone.

Donghae didn’t know whether to laugh or not. “My Lady, I promise not to tell anyone. I’ll do what My Lady asks.”

“Hmm, that’s good. Don’t be scared, I’m not a violent person actually.” Lady Im paused before saying, “I need you to go with me outside the city and we will be going to a shrine on a hill. When we get there, I need you to put on my clothes and play the qin, without a fuss. Oh yeah, I forgot, can you play qin?” She had only just remembered such an important detail.

Donghae saw Lady Im look at her