Chapter 1-1 Women

And though the rudiments of etiquette were

beaten into them Before they arrive, letters

were not.

It would be probably lucky, Maomao

reflected, if half the girls that got snatched

from the countryside turn out to know how to

read. It was, one might say, a hazard of the rear palace growing too populous.

Quality was being sacrifice for quantity.

Although it in no way equaled the

"Flower Garden" of the former emperor, the

consort and ladies-in-waiting together numbered two thousand people, while with

the eunuch that number came to three

thousand. A vast place indeed.

Maomao was a serving girl, a post so lowly

she didn't even have an official rank.

What more could she expect, as a girl who had no one to back her at court, who had arrived

by way of kidnappers to fill out the palace staff?

If she had perhaps possessed a body as shapely as a peony, or skin as pale as the full moon, she might at least have aspired to the status of one of the lower concubines,

But Maomao Possessed only ruddy, Freckled skin and limbs with all the elegance of withered branches.

...I need to just get this Job done....

Maomao picked up the basket with it's tag

depicting a plum flower and the number 17,

and trundled off as quickly as she could manage.

She wanted to get back to her room

before the frowning sky began to weep.

The owner of the laundry in the basket was

one of the low-ranked consorts.

Her room was rather more lavish than those accorded to the

other low consorts-in fact, it was downright

ostentatious.

The occupant, Maomao surmised, must be the daughter of some affluent noble family.

...When a Woman was assigned a palace...

Rank, she was also permitted her own ladies-in

waiting.

A minor consort, however, could have two ladies at most, which was why Maomao, a serving girl with no mistress of her own on which to attend, was carting a woman's laundry like this.

A low consort was permitted personal rooms in the rear palace precincts, but they were inevitably on the fringes of the grounds, where the Imperial eye fall upon her. If she should,

even so, receive a summon to spend the

night with His Majesty, she would be granted new rooms, while a second such night meant

she had truly found a place in the world.

As for those who ultimately never excited thr

Emperor's interest, after a certain age a consort

( assuming her family didn't wield particular influence) could expect to see herself demoted,

or even granted as a wife to see member of the bureaucracy.

Whether that was a blessing or a curse depended on whom she was granted to, but the

fate the women feared most was being

bestowed upon one of the eunuchs.

...Maomao knock discreetly on the door....

A servant opened it and snapped," Just leave it