The Apothecary Diaries

Chapter 27: Honey (Part One)

Holding tea parties was legitimate business for the consorts. Gyokuyou had them seemingly every day. Some were held at the Jade Pavilion, while other times she was called to the residence of another consort.

Excellent chance to sound each other out and play politics, Maomao thought. She wasn't a big fan of the tea parties herself. The subjects of conversation were mostly limited to makeup and trends in fashion. Boring talk interspersed with probing questions: a veritable microcosm of the rear palace. They look pretty comfortable with all of it... Guess that's what makes them consorts.

Gyokuyou was talking to a middle-ranked consort who also came from the west. Their shared homeland seemed to be spurring real conversation between them. Maomao didn't know the details, but it seemed the main subject had to do with future relations with Gyokuyou's family.

Gyokuyou was a cheerful and engaging talker, and many consorts would tell her little secrets before they knew what they were doing. One of Gyokuyou's jobs was to write these things down. Consort Gyokuyou's home was a parched land—but it also sat at a nexus of trade, and the ability to read both people and the shifting of the times was paramount. In addition to what she earned as a consort, she helped her family by communicating tidbits of information to them.

She was up awful late last night, but she doesn't look tired at all. The Emperor was visiting his beloved Gyokuyou once every three days, or even more often. Ostensibly, it was to see his daughter, who was starting to grab onto things and pull herself up to standing, but needless to say, admiring the princess was not the only thing he did on his visits. Maomao was aware that the Emperor no more neglected his daily than his nightly business, suggesting a man of tremendous energies. From the perspective of helping the country to prosper, it was a praiseworthy thing.

At the conclusion of the tea party, Maomao received a bevy of tea candies from Yinghua. She was willing to eat some of them, but it was really too much for her to handle alone, so she made her customary visit to Xiaolan. Xiaolan's stories weren't always articulate, or even completely coherent, but she obligingly shared her latest crop of rumors with Maomao.

Today she had talk about the serving woman who had killed herself, the attempted poisoning, and for some reason, something about the Pure Consort.

"They can talk about the Emperor's 'four favored ladies' all they want, but there's no getting around the fact that she's getting older."

Consort Gyokuyou was nineteen, Lihua was twenty-three, and Lishu just fourteen. But the Pure Consort Ah-Duo was fully thirty-five, a year older than His Majesty. It might still be possible for her to bear a child, but under the system operating in the rear palace, she could soon expect to be moved aside in a process they sometimes called "being slid from one pillow to another." In other words, Ah-Duo could not hope to become a mother of the nation.

Talk was already going around about her possible demotion and who might be elevated to the rank of high consort in her place. Such chatter was nothing new, but because Ah-Duo had been the Emperor's consort since before his accession, and because she had in fact borne him a son at onetime, the talk had rarely gained much traction.

Mother of a dead little prince, Maomao thought. It was the same fate Lihua had to look forward to if she didn't become pregnant with another child for His Majesty. And she wasn't really alone: Consort Gyokuyou couldn't assume she would hold pride of place in the Imperial affections forever.

For every beautiful blossom faded in time. The blossoms of the rear palace had to bear fruit, or they were worthless. As familiar as this logic was to Maomao by now, it never ceased to remind her that the palace was also a prison.