Chapter 2
The Master of the Festival was late. Ji Yue rolled her eyes. Of course, Sun Bo Tao, playboy of the Forbidden City, would ignore his Imperial duties. He was probably in an opium daze in some woman’s bedroom. But why hadn’t there been provisions for that man’s irresponsibility? Why couldn’t they continue the inspection without him?
Ji Yue tried to find out, but no one had accurate information, and she dared not risk appearing unseemly by demanding answers. Virgins were supposed to be docile, so she tried to be patient as she waited in her palanquin. Dozens of girls stood around in the heat, their legs aching and their make-up running into their silks. At least she got to sit, though even she felt like she waited in an oven.
Really, the nerve of the man, making the future Empress of China wait like drying fish! She glanced outside to see if there was any progress. Palanquins clogged the streets while porters squatted on their heels and threw dice. Girls visibly wilted in the heat. One in particular drew Ji Yue’s eye.
She stood nearby, her dowry in trunks around her feet. If a carriage of some sort brought her, there was no sign of it now, and so the girl stood outside on tiny lifted shoes. She looked miserable standing there. And perhaps since Ji Yue felt a creeping loneliness, she called out to the girl.
“Come, come! Sit here with me.”
The girl–for she was quite young–didn’t understand. Ji Yue had to gesture her over.
“Me, Mistress?” the girl said, her eyes widening until they seemed to cover her entire face.
“Yes, yes. Why do you stand there in the heat? Where is your carriage?”
“Gone,” she confessed as she waved vaguely to the west. “They said they could not wait around all day on an Emperor’s whim.”
“Treasonous dogs!” Ji Yue spat, earning a smile from the girl. “Come, sit with me. I will say that we were carried here together.”
The girl shook her head and refused to move from her trunks. “I couldn’t! Not in an Imperial palanquin!”
“Of course, you can!” But no matter how much Ji Yue waved, the girl did not move. Finally, Ji Yue crossed to her. “What is your name?”
“Li Fei,” she answered. Then she leaned forward and confided her difficulty. “Mama says I must not sit or I will crinkle the silk.”
Ji Yue smiled. “I understand. But there will be a great deal of standing to come. Wouldn’t it be better to risk a few creases rather than faint later when the Emperor sees you? And besides,” she added in an undertone. “Your mother could not have guessed that the Master of the Festival would be this tardy!”
That brought a giggling nod from Li Fie. “Then I shall gratefully join you.”
So began Ji Yue’s first friendship within the competition. Ji Yue learned that Li Fie was from an outlying province, that she had many brothers and sisters, but that she was the only one of the right age to apply as consort. And that she was terribly,terribly nervous about life in the Forbidden City.
Ji Yue commiserated with the girl, relaxing 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 Forbidden City gate.
“Do you think it is time?” Li Fei asked.
Ji Yue nodded, her own heart beating painfully in her throat. They both peered out, 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. Unfortunately, Ji Yue agreed. So they waited in the palanquin, the reality of the competition weighing on them. 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. “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 one 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 a 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 to her shoes. They adorned with jade and pearl drops and were her most expensive attire. Her mother had planned this as her large feet were her most difficult 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 appearance 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 of each girl: walk, skin, teeth, ears, and yes, feet. A Tally Eunuch walked with each girl, adding results on an abacus. One count for an acceptable aspect. Two counts for excellence. Unfortunate aspect–one count removed. Or, worst of all, most unfortunate. Those girls were sent back to their conveyances and told never to return.
At the end, a tally was given, and the girl passed or not. Gold and gems disappeared quickly in that line 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 linked choker 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 prayed that “average” was 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…no!
