Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Everyone in the palace said Jinxin had hanged herself.
To quell the rumors, the Empress summoned men from the Coroners’ Office to examine the body.
Those coroners went in and out of Chongxi Hall, and the palace maids who had served Jinxin were all summoned to the Office of Punishment.
After three days of repeated interrogations and investigations, the truth finally came to light.
It turned out that Talented Lady Xu of Baoqing Hall had been jealous of Jinxin’s favor, so she had poisoned Jinxin’s food and then staged the scene to look like a hanging.
But in her carelessness, she left her own silk handkerchief in Chongxi Hall, and that was what gave her away.
The Empress issued an edict consigning Talented Lady Xu to the Cold Palace, then ordered the Imperial Household Department to arrange Jinxin’s funeral.
Everyone in the palace praised Her Majesty the Empress for her keen judgment and her benevolent treatment of those beneath her.
But no one saw how Jinxin’s body was simply rolled up in a straw mat and dragged out the door.
The eunuchs went in twos and threes, laughing and joking among themselves. Not one of them showed the slightest trace of grief.
There were so many noble masters in the palace.
A mere beauty had died. What did it matter?
Baozhu was terrified. That very night, she came down with a high fever.
Afraid she would spread illness to the others, Matron Zhao assigned her a storage room piled with bolts of cloth to stay in for the time being.
When a palace maid fell ill, there was no medicine for her.
I fetched a basin of water and wrung out a cloth again and again.
In the dim yellow candlelight, Baozhu’s face was as pale as paper.
She clutched my hand, frightened and ashamed. “I was the one who hurt her…”
“If I hadn’t made that shawl for her, if she hadn’t risked her life to dance in the imperial garden, if His Majesty hadn’t taken notice of her…”
“If only…”
I pressed down her trembling hand and shook my head gently. “Sister Baozhu, this wasn’t your fault.”
Nor was it Jinxin’s.
This palace had always devoured people.
She lowered her head and finally began to sob.
After that crying spell, Baozhu’s illness lingered.
By the next day, she could not even get out of bed.
After thinking it over, I went to Matron Zhao’s room.
With both hands, I respectfully presented the silver to her. “Sister Baozhu is ill right now. Please, Matron Zhao, look after her a little and don’t send her to Yongxiang Lane.”
I had seen how the palace dealt with servants who suffered from lingering illnesses.
For fear they might infect their noble masters, they were all driven to Yongxiang Lane and left to live or die on their own.
It was not much silver, but it was enough to make Matron Zhao’s eyes curve in satisfaction.
She hooked the little brocade pouch with one finger. “You little wench, you do have some feeling in you.”
“But let me make this clear. I’ll only give her three days. If she still hasn’t recovered after three days, hmph, then don’t blame me.”
I hurriedly kowtowed and thanked her for her grace.
But in my heart, I knew Baozhu had to get better as soon as possible.
Every day, aside from doing my own assigned work, I also had to deliver clothes to the Eastern and Western Six Palaces in Baozhu’s place.
Those routes that had once been so confusing and difficult to remember were now long since etched into my heart.
Sometimes, when my luck was poor, I would run into Deputy Chief Li Yao.
He had a pair of triangular eyes that were always darting about when he looked at people, especially when his gaze lingered on palace maids.
I had never liked paying him any attention.
But today, he stopped me. “Well, if it isn’t Qiuguo from the Laundry Bureau. Why haven’t I seen Baozhu today?”
“Sister Baozhu is ill, so I’m delivering the clothes in her place.”
I took two steps back to leave, but he blocked my way.
“Ill, is she? That can go very differently for different people. For some, it’s just a matter of a bowl of medicine. For others, it’s a roll of straw mat. Same people, different fates…”
Joy stirred in my heart, and hope shone in my eyes. “Eunuch Li, do you have a way?”
Li Yao was in charge of the odd-job workers going in and out through the eastern side gate. If he were willing, smuggling a single packet of medicine in with the palace goods would not be difficult at all.
He chuckled. “A way? I might have one. It’s just that I’ve been working so hard these days, and my dirty clothes have been piling up. I wonder if Miss Qiuguo would be willing to…”
“I’ll wash them.”
Li Yao brought me back to the eunuchs’ side quarters. It happened to be the changing of the shift, and people were coming and going beneath the corridor.
He tossed a wooden basin onto the ground with a loud clatter, and several garments were flung at me, almost hitting me in the face.
When I picked them up, I realized they were several pairs of underpants stained with filth.
“If you wash these clean, I’ll consider finding you a packet of medicine.”
His lecherous gaze roved over the front of my body as he stood above me and ordered,
“See that? Right there, in the crotch. You’d better scrub it clean. If you don’t…”
“Aiyo!”
Before he could finish, I hurled the whole pile of clothes into his face.
“You old bastard, rotten crotch! Wash it with water and it burns like hell!”
As luck would have it, the crotch of the underpants landed right over his head.
He flailed both hands wildly, slipped, and fell flat onto the ground.
As I ran out of the side quarters, his furious curses came from behind me through gritted teeth.
“You little bitch! How dare you make a fool of me!”
The disbelief in his voice made it clear he had been certain I would give in.
But he did not know that on my second day in the palace, Sister Baozhu had already taught me something.
In this palace, if all you did was endure, you would not survive.