Worse, a delegation of Dutch were coming to the Forbidden City this week. Bo Tao believed that the whites had to be handled with great care, that the world had many dangerous powers that were unknown in China. But Yi Zhen was overwhelmed with internal matters, with the Taiping rebellion in the northwest and China's increasingly corrupt infrastructure. He had no time to discuss Dutch delegates and no patience for his best friend, who warned of yet more struggles on a global stage.
Bo Tao should have left the Forbidden City as soon as his emperor showed signs of strain. He knew Yi Zhen's moods, and yet he had not been able to resist pushing his emperor to see the larger picture. That had been his last, most stupid mistake. After all, Bo Tao had no official status. He was merely the hellion of the Forbidden City, the boy who'd run wild with the emperor, playing games throughout the city-within-a-city. If he were an official appointee, if he were a general or a scholar or something with a title, then he might have had the status to force his friend to listen. But he was simply a consultant, a friend to the emperor, a man who saw the greed in the whites' eyes and feared it. And when he had pushed Yi Zhen to see it as well, his best friend had punished him.
His triple-damned emperor had named Bo Tao master of the festival! He said Bo Tao had become too serious and needed a week of frivolity to lighten his mood. Ox piss! Yi Zhen was merely flexing his royal muscles! Rather than deal with the coming Dutch delegation, Yi Zhen had ignored the issue, ordered Bo Tao to take care of the festival, and then laughed at his friend's stunned expression. It was just like when they were children! Whenever Yi Zhen had felt threatened, he would reassert his status as a royal prince. He'd usually make up some crime and have the eunuchs punish Bo Tao. That was how Bo Tao had learned the fine art of scrubbing kitchen pots or worse, cleaning chamber pots.
This was no different. But instead of a game, Bo Tao was suddenly in charge of scores of competitive, backstabbing, gossiping virgins! Just when the Dutch delegation was due to arrive!
He glared out the torn curtain at the girl who might very well become one of his charges by the end of the day. Narrowing his eyes, he tried to assess her prospects and understand why she was marked as special. She had to have something unique to rank an imperial palanquin, even a shabby one.
Nothing. There was nothing distinctive about her to catch the emperor's eye, and not enough money on this whole street to pay the bribes that would be required to pass through the minefield that was the imperial court. The girl was doomed. And yet here she was in her richly embroidered gown, kneeling before her parents while paid women wailed.
Just as well that his presence in her palanquin would keep her from entering the competition. Once he was discovered in her conveyance, she would not be able to enter the litter. His male yang energy poisoned the virginal bower. She would have to arrange for an alternate way to reach the Forbidden City.
But there wasn't time even if her family had the money for another carriage. Not if she intended to make it to the gate by the appointed hour. Tardiness was not allowed in prospective royal consorts. Fortunately, he wasn't dooming anyone who would have made it through the Forbidden City gates. At least this way, the girl was spared the long and humiliating walk home.
All in all, he decided as he collapsed back down onto a pillow, it was better that he was here ruining her chances. And as an added bonus, he could grab another hour's sleep before he had to begin his double-damned duties in the coming Farce of Fertility.
CHEN JI YUE STRUGGLED to breathe. Excitement pounded in her blood, she was already dizzy with the noise, and yet she still could not draw a full breath. How blessed she was to be of the right age for a Festival of Fertility! Only a few hundred girls every few decades had such an opportunity! To catch the eye of the emperor was every girl's dream. That she would save her family from poverty, as well, only added to her joy. But first, she had to escape all these wailing women!
'Mama,' she murmured from behind the clattering ivory beads. 'Let me go. I cannot be late.'
'Not yet, little heart. Show respect to your father.'
She'd already bowed to her father—early this morning for real and outside again for show. 'Mama, believe in me. I can do it.'
Mama didn't hear her. She was busy wailing again. And worse, she would not let go of Ji Yue's hands.
'Mama…' Ji Yue began, but then her mother pulled her close.
'You won't win the emperor on beauty, Ji Yue. You must be smart. You must see what others don't and capitalize on it.'
'I know. You've told me…' Ji Yue let her voice trail away. This close, she noticed there were real tears in her mother's eyes, and her heart lurched with pain. What would it be like not to see her mother's face every morning? Who would help her father with his poetry or tutor her brothers? Mama, most likely, but Mama already had plenty to do squeezing every penny so they had enough to eat.
'That playboy Sun Bo Tao was named master of the festival,' her mother continued. 'This is very bad and very dangerous. He is a hanger-on because of his friendship with the emperor. No title, no education, nothing but trouble. Avoid him, Ji Yue. Avoid him at all costs!'
'I know, Mama. I will stay away from him. I promise!'
'You can't! He is master of the festival! He is in charge of all the imperial virgins. Remember what I taught you—follow the Confucian virtues, think pure thoughts, but see what the men do not. I trained you to be a political wife, and the first rule of politics is to not get caught by a man of no virtue.'
'I know, Mama,' Ji Yue repeated. 'Have faith in me. I will become the empress.' If she succeeded, then her entire family would be set for generations. They would become royalty and have all the money they needed. All she had to do was catch the emperor's eye.
'Go now. Go before your father unmans himself and cries.' Mama pushed her away. Ji Yue didn't need the prompting to leave. She was anxious to begin her new life even though her fingers clung to Mama's arm. But it was hard to see through her curtain of beads, harder still to walk on the high platform shoes. Thankfully, this, too, had been rehearsed.
The elder of her brothers ran to her side to escort her with all dignity to the imperial palanquin. It had been an exorbitant expense to get the conveyance, but it was the only pull her father had in the Forbidden City. He had spent a year tutoring a eunuch's nephew and in return had been promised a single favor. Papa had used it to obtain this beautiful ride to the Forbidden City. A future empress should arrive like an empress, he'd said, but that was all he could do. After this, she would have to catch the emperor's favor on her own.
The wailers grew louder as she and her brother neared the curtained palanquin. Her brother was to release her hand now and throw open the bower curtains so she could enter. He began to move away, but she suddenly gripped his arm, holding him still.
It was a silly thought, she knew, but she didn't want her brother's last sight of her to be one of extraordinary lavishness. They had so little, and even less now that so much had been spent to outfit her. She did not want her brother to see the interior luxury of the palanquin. After she became the new empress, she would send him exquisite silks as a royal gift. He need not see them now.
'Take care of Papa,' she murmured as a last goodbye to her brother. 'Make sure he drinks his special tea.' Her brother hovered uncertainly beside her, unsure what to do now that she had changed the plan. 'Go back to Papa,' she said to him. 'Study hard so that you can join me in the Forbidden City.' There were jobs as advisors to the Dragon Throne, but only for scholars who passed the exam. She nudged him back even as she tottered forward to the bower. With one last smile that they couldn't even see, she ducked inside the palanquin.
It was dark inside, and with the beads in front of her face, she couldn't see a thing. She went by touch, crawling inside with little dignity and much speed. The cushions moved awkwardly beneath her hands until she touched a very hard one that remained stable. She pushed down, levering her weight on it.
The curtains slipped closed behind her, and one of the porters grunted as the palanquin lifted off the street. She slid off the heavy cushion onto something else. Goodness, silk was slippery. And the cushions were bizarre. The palanquin began to sway as it moved away from her family home. She wanted to peer out the curtain, but she didn't dare do something so vulgar even though the tears burned in her eyes.
She would never see her family again. Once inside the Forbidden City, no consort ever came out again. Her father might be able to arrange to visit, but such things were rare even among those more politically astute than her father. Her mother had less power, and her brothers wouldn't be allowed unless they gave up their manhood first and became eunuchs, or passed the exam and became advisors.
Ji Yue widened her eyes in the darkness, trying to dry the tears. She didn't dare cry because it would ruin the
