Chapter 4

# Chapter 4

On our sixteenth day, Lanyi Academy held a minor examination in deportment, needlework, and “responses.”

For the response test, the matrons pretended to be the empress, imperial consort, crown prince, or empress dowager and questioned us one by one to see whether our answers were suitably gracious.

Qi Tang drew the empress dowager.

Matron Qi sat at the head of the hall and asked slowly, “If We bestowed cold rice upon you, what would you do?”

“Heat it up before eating.”

Matron Qi’s face darkened. “Food bestowed by the empress dowager is a blessing.”

Qi Tang nodded earnestly. “All the more reason not to waste it.”

She received a Grade D.

I drew the empress.

“If the Eastern Palace had another favored consort,” Matron Qi asked, “how would you conduct yourself?”

“I’d look at my monthly allowance.”

Matron Qi closed her eyes. “Miss Xu.”

I added, “If the allowance was enough, I’d get along with her. If not, I’d visit the accounts office first.”

She gave me a D-minus.

Qin Zhaomian drew the crown prince. She lowered her eyes and bowed, gentle in speech, flawless in every movement.

“If the crown prince neglected you?” Matron Qi asked.

“This concubine would reflect upon her shortcomings and harbor no resentment.”

Matron Qi nodded.

Grade A.

There was not a trace of joy on Qin Zhaomian’s face.

After the examination, the girls who received Grade D were sent to the west courtyard for correction. “Correction” meant no supper and standing for an hour with a book balanced on our heads.

Qi Tang and I were both there, along with a girl named Ye Chan.

Her father was an assistant director in the Ministry of Rites-not a high official, but a man with very high standards for propriety. Ye Chan was thin as paper and always checked other people’s faces before she smiled.

Half an hour in, she swayed.

Matron Qi saw. “Stand steady.”

Ye Chan bit her lip.

I pulled a piece of chestnut cake from my sleeve and pushed it into her hand.

She was too frightened to take it.

“Eat. If you fall, they’ll make you pay for the floor tiles.”

She lowered her head and took a tiny bite.

Matron Qi approached. “Miss Xu.”

I stuffed the remaining half into my mouth. “The evidence is gone, Matron.”

Qi Tang burst out laughing.

All three of us had another half hour added to our punishment.

That night, Ye Chan came to thank me. She stood in the doorway, speaking softly.

“I can’t owe you.”

She drew a small packet of needles and thread from her sleeve. “I have no money. This is all I have.”

I accepted it. “How much tuition did your family pay?”

She froze. “Two hundred taels.”

“Any other gifts?”

Her face paled. “My mother gave a pair of jade bracelets to one of Matron Qi’s relatives.”

“Why?”

“They said if I received Grade B, Father could be promoted.”

She lowered her head. “I don’t want to enter the palace, but I don’t want to ruin Father either.”

“Then what do you want?”

She could not answer.

Many girls could not.

No one had ever asked what they wanted. People only asked what they could be traded for.

Jiang Yanbai made his night inspection while I was still holding the sewing packet.

“Collecting more accounts?” he asked from outside the courtyard.

“The Tutor’s authority knows no bounds.”

“Forming private associations inside the academy is punishable.”

“The three of us already have Grade D. There isn’t much left to punish.”

He glanced at me. “Grade D is not a death sentence.”

I laughed. “Easy for you to say. A Grade D for a man means someone thinks his handwriting is ugly. For us, it’s a stone laid on top of the marriage contract.”

He did not answer immediately. Moonlight fell across the cuff of his robe, turning it a cold blue-green.

At last he said, “I will revise the evaluations.”

I stared. “What?”

“A difference in temperament should not be recorded as a failure of virtue.”

“How many evaluations can you revise, Tutor?”

He fell silent.

“You revise the comments,” I said. “I’ll get the tuition back. We’ll each mind our own business.”

“Xu Man,” Jiang Yanbai said quietly, “do not drag everyone else into this.”

Anger flared in me.

“They’re already in it.”

He looked at me. I looked back.

Neither of us said another word.