The Apothecary Diaries

Chapter 17: The Garden Party (Part Two)

The party took place at a banquet area set up in the central gardens. Red carpets were rolled out through large open-air pavilions, and two long tables were placed end to end with the seats of honor at either end. The Emperor himself occupied the central seat of honor, with the Empress Dowager and the Imperial younger brother seated to either side of him. On the east side of the table were seated the Precious Consort and the Virtuous Consort, while on the west side were the Wise Consort and the Pure Consort. To Maomao, the seating arrangement looked deliberately designed to provoke dispute. It could only possibly fan the flames of hostility among His Majesty's "four ladies."

With the young prince deceased, the Emperor's younger brother was now first in line for the succession. Although the Imperial younger brother was, like the ruler himself, the son of the Empress Dowager, it seemed he rarely saw the light of day. A seat of honor had been provided for the prince, but in fact it was empty. He was frequently ill, rarely leaving his room and performing no official duties.

Everyone had a different explanation for this: that the Emperor was quite fond of his substantially younger sibling and wanted to keep him calm for the sake of his health; that he wanted to keep the prince isolated and out of sight; or that the Empress Mother was overprotective and refused to allow the young man outside.

At any rate, none of it had anything to do with Maomao.

The food wouldn't be served until after noon; at the moment, the guests were enjoying musical performances and dances. Consort Gyokuyou was attended only by Hongniang; unless they had some particular business, her other ladies held station behind a curtain and awaited any instructions.

The Empress Dowager was currently rocking the princess in her arms. The woman exuded a class and unfading beauty that could not be ignored even with the four esteemed consorts around her. She appeared so young that, seated beside the Emperor, she could easily have been taken for His Majesty's queen.

And the Empress Dowager was, in fact, relatively young. When Yinghua had told Maomao exactly how young—and when Maomao had done a little figuring from the current Emperor's age to determine how old his mother must have been when she bore him—it was enough to make her profoundly suspicious toward the previous sovereign. There were those possessed of a special deviancy by which they favored very young girls—but how should one react when one's own ruler had possessed such a proclivity? In any event, the Empress Mother had held strong and given birth to the child, and for that at least, Maomao respected her.

As Maomao was having these thoughts, a gust of wind sprang up. She felt herself shiver. They couldn't even bother to set up a tent for us? She thought. The curtain she stood behind was only just enough to keep the attendants out of sight; it did little to block the wind. And if Maomao and the other ladies-in-waiting with their warm stones were feeling cold, how much worse must it be for the ladies of the other consorts? She could see them shivering furiously, and a few were turning pigeon-toed. She didn't think there would be any particular problem with going to use the toilet at that moment, but maybe there were certain pretenses that just had to be kept up with the other ladies watching.

It was a problem, the way these ladies-in-waiting felt compelled to play out proxy battles on behalf of their mistresses. And the head ladies-in- waiting, who might have been able to whip them into line, were busy attending the consorts. There was no one to stop the subordinate women.

At the moment, they were almost like two paintings, one of which could be entitled Consort Gyokuyou's Forces Confront Those of Consort Lihua, and the other of which could be called The Forces of the Pure Consort Confront Those of the Virtuous Consort. And let it be noted that "Gyokuyou's forces" consisted of just four women, less than half of those they were ranged against. The numbers were against them, but Yinghua was striving to make up the difference.