Chapter 7
The Noble Consort returned triumphant again.
My mistress wasn’t someone who hid her emotions. Everything showed on her face.
She boasted to me, “The Empress Dowager singled me out for praise today.”
“Hmph! What good did all those fools’ finery do? The Empress Dowager is ill and dislikes ostentation!”
I understood immediately.
The eternal problem of mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law!
Even an empress dowager disliked seeing her son’s women dripping with gold and silver. Especially while she was ill: they cared only about dressing up, not offering comfort. Infuriating!
No wonder she’d grown kindly toward the Noble Consort, whom she normally disliked.
To her, those silk velvet flowers were a sign of modesty.
I instantly grasped the heart of the problem.
My mistress was still boasting about her “wisdom.”
“I could tell those women had the wrong idea. They dressed up with all their might, thinking they’d see His Majesty, and he never came! Hmph! After the Empress Dowager’s words, he certainly won’t choose their tablets now!”
Sure enough, the Emperor actually came to dinner that night.
I revised my impression of her as “rich and dim” at once.
No woman survived in the inner palace for nothing.
She might not be clever, but she understood the rules remarkably well.
Busy with affairs of state, His Majesty came only to eat.
Even so, it delighted her enough to finish several extra bowls of rice.
Afterward, she kept hiccuping.
“His—His Majesty hadn’t visited Chengxi Palace in so long. Oh, I’ve finally got through it!”
Patting her back to ease the hiccups, I flattered her.
“Your Ladyship is the finest in the palace. Even all the Manchu and Mongol Eight Banners together couldn’t match your magnificent grace.”
She laughed. “What Manchu? What grace?”
A mistake. I’d tried to flatter her and put my foot in it.
Looking at her, I’d automatically recited that famous television line.
But the Qing armies hadn’t crossed the pass yet. The Jurchens were probably playing in the mud in some remote corner of the Greater Khingan Mountains.
Thank goodness she wasn’t well read!
She’d also had a few extra cups of wine and was slightly tipsy.
Before me, she showed a little of a young girl’s manner.
“His Majesty… if not for that incident, he would surely love me!”
I pricked up my ears for a secret, but Matron Zhang suddenly took her from me and said soothingly, “Your Ladyship, you’re drunk.”
Then she turned to me. “You’ve worked hard today. Go rest.”
Fine. Back I went.
Little did I know something momentous awaited me in our room…