That brought a giggling nod from Li Fei. 'Then I shall gratefully join you.'
So began Ji Yue's first friendship within the competition. Ji Yue learned that Li Fei was from an outlying province, that she had many brothers and sisters, but that she was the only daughter of an age to apply as consort. And that she was terribly, terribly nervous about life in the Forbidden City. The next hour flew by as Ji Yue relaxed for the first time since the call went out for eligible daughters. Then a gong sounded. Loud and clear, it silenced everyone who loitered outside the gate.
'Do you think it is time?' Li Fei asked.
Ji Yue nodded, her own heart beating painfully in her throat. They both stood, but it was difficult to see, harder still to hear as a eunuch cried out orders. Fortunately, the news was whispered from servant to mistress to porter and beyond. In time, all understood that the girls were to present themselves one by one to the head eunuch, the imperial dowager consort, Kang Ci, and that playboy courtier Sun Bo Tao, master of the festival. The three would decide who was allowed to enter and who would be sent home.
'But that will take hours,' Li Fei murmured. Ji Yue agreed. So they returned to the palanquin to sit longer, waiting for their inspection. Both tried to talk, but their hearts were not in it, their attention turned to the sounds that came from the front gate.
At first they heard nothing but the paid criers' announcements. 'Fan Mei Lin is accepted! Fan Mei Lin enters the Forbidden City. Fan Mei Lin!'
Next came the refused, the sobbing, the wretched, even a few who had fainted dead away. No crier announced them, but whispers traveled quickly. One had been rejected for a limp, another for hair on her neck. Some had breasts too shallow to nurse a babe or ill-fated ears or feet too large. The last charge struck terror in Ji Yue's heart. Manchurian women were forbidden to bind their feet; that was a characteristic of the defeated Han people. And yet, after one hundred and fifty years of dynastic rule, the Manchu men liked tiny feet. Always the men looked to see the women's shoes.
Ji Yue looked down at her shoes. Like the curtain of ivory beads that obscured her face, her feet were adorned with jade and pearl drops. They were, in fact, her most expensive attire. She and her mother had planned this, since her large feet were her most troublesome attribute. But with feet surrounded by jewels, any man would see wealth, not size. Just as any man looking at her face would see ivory beads and think beauty without judging the face beneath. Or so they hoped.
'We are next,' Li Fei whispered.
Ji Yue nodded, then gripped her new friend's hand. After a quick word to the porters to mind the luggage, the two women walked hand in hand to the front gate.
There was a row of imperial eunuchs, dressed in finery meant to impress. Each was designated inspector of a certain aspect: walk, skin, teeth, ears and yes, feet. A tally eunuch walked with each girl, adding results on an abacus. One count for acceptable aspects. Two counts for excellence. Unfortunate aspect—one count removed. Or, worst of all, an assessment of most unfortunate. Those girls were sent back to their conveyances and told never to return.
Gold and gems disappeared quickly as bribes were slipped from girl to eunuch. One girl just ahead of Ji Yue began with a heavy necklace of gold links that draped almost to her knees. By the end of the line, she wore a tiny choker of links at the top of her gown.
But Ji Yue did not have that much bribe money. She could not pay every eunuch for a favorable report. But she had known that would happen; it was part of her plan. She guessed that her father's status would gain her entry into the Forbidden City. Except for her feet, she had no obviously ugly feature. So the man judging feet received a pearl drop, and the tally eunuch was given a whole string of ivory from her headdress. Beyond that, she simply had to pray that her looks were acceptable.
She maintained hope until she entered the tent where the final tally was evaluated. Inside sat her three judges. She stepped in, making an effort to keep her steps small, her attitude reverent. But when she looked up, she saw the head eunuch, the dowager consort and the insolent eunuch from her palanquin. She stared at him, her mind working feverishly. It couldn't be possible. This couldn't be Sun Bo Tao, playboy courtier to the emperor and now master of the festival. It couldn't! And yet, as she stared at him, she knew it was.
He had changed his clothing into stunning blue silk and combed his black queue. She hadn't realized when he'd been stretched out in her palanquin how very handsome, how very tall, how very
He was Sun Bo Tao, the very man her mother had warned her against! And she had kicked him out of her palanquin! While she was struggling with the feelings he evoked in her, the tally eunuch lowered his head to the ground in the deepest kowtow. With shaking knees, Ji Yue performed her curtsey to the dowager consort. Then her total tally was announced with clear disdain.
'Average,' the dowager consort said with a sigh. 'Only average.'
'Her lineage is above reproach,' the head eunuch said. 'Her horoscope shows four fortunate aspects.'
'Yes, yes,' returned the dowager consort. 'I know the mother. Her father is a scholar who dreams only of the past, but he is honest, so that is something.' She lifted the ivory stone that was etched with Ji Yue's name. 'Very well—'
The tally eunuch beside her dropped one side of his abacas such that the beads slammed against each other with a loud clack. The head eunuch arched his brow. 'Is there something to add? We are choosing the mother of the next emperor. No detail can be ignored. Speak!'
'Only what her porters say,' the tally eunuch responded. 'Apologies, dowager consort, but this girl is said to have consorted with a man while in her palanquin.'
'That's not true!' Ji Yue cried, but no one was listening. The dowager consort had already gasped in horror and the head eunuch snatched up the ivory stone and threw it at her.
'We cannot abide a whore! How dare you insult us with your presence!'
'But it's not true!' Ji Yue cried, fury making her glare at Bo Tao. 'I am not a whore!' Then she dropped to the ground to find her stone. Without that piece of ivory, she would be thrown outside in disgrace.
She saw it just before the tally eunuch planted his foot on top of it. 'The porters say the man tumbled to the ground one li to the east. They laughed as he rolled into the dirt.'
'That does not sound like a lover,' said Bo Tao, his voice low and almost bored. 'Why would he fall into the dirt?'
'Perhaps the excitement of their lovemaking—'
'It's not true!' Ji Yue repeated, her face heating until her cheeks burned. She glared up at the man responsible for her difficulties. 'This is so unfair!' Then she forced herself to think rationally. She had to forget Bo Tao. He had caused her problem, and therefore was not likely to help her out of it. The tally eunuch—the man she'd just bribed to help her!—was her current enemy. She had to discredit him somehow. 'You are a liar. You couldn't possibly know any of this.'
'Shall I bring the porters here?' the tally eunuch asked.
Ji Yue lifted her chin. Virginal modesty be damned. She had to use her intelligence or she would be tossed out before the competition really began. 'Very well,' she said. 'I will give you the truth. There was someone with me in the palanquin.'
That silenced them all for a moment, most especially the insolent Bo Tao. He stared at her, one brow arched in surprise. Did he fear she would accuse him? Not likely. His reputation with women was well known. Any association with him would immediately label her a whore. So with a sniff of disdain, she walked to the door of the tent and pulled Li Fei inside.
'Tell them!' she ordered. 'Tell them that you sat with me in the palanquin. That we spoke about your family. She is of the Tatala clan and is the daughter of Jia Hai. She likes to sing and has brothers who used to pull her hair.'
The dowager consort pulled out Li Fei's carved stone. 'Is this true?'
'Yes, dowager consort.'
The tally eunuch stepped forward. 'It is not true!' he exclaimed. 'It was a man who fell from your palanquin!'
