Chapter 14
Ji Yue made it back to her room. Her legs were unsteady, her make up streaked with tears, and her hair was askew. To anyone seeing her, she was the picture of a beaten woman. To herself, she was a woman in love.
What a disaster! She did not join the virgins at dinner. Instead, she went and bathed in solitude. She said nothing to anyone, but of course, she was never alone. Even in the bathing chamber, a eunuch watched her. And so she was not surprised when the Head Eunuch came to her chamber that night. He would want to know exactly what happened to her with Bo Tao. She barely looked at him until she realized there was another person stepping into her room behind the eunuch.
“Imperial Consort!” she cried as she dropped to the floor in a hurried kowtow. It was the only way to show respect to the mother of the Emperor and the one woman in charge of all the women in the Forbidden City. Ji Yue pressed her forehead to the ground, acutely aware that her hair was askew and her clothing loose. She glanced quickly at her smirking roommate Hua Si. That’s why the damned girl hadn’t undressed even though it was late. She’d known the Imperial Consort was coming!
Meanwhile, Ji Yue spoke to the floor. “My gravest apologies. I had no idea you were coming else I would have remained presentable.”
“Nonsense, nonsense,” the older woman said. “You may rise.”
Ji Yue did, though she did so slowly, partly out of wariness, partly because she was so very sore. The Imperial Consort took a seat on her bed. She sat there stiffly, watching Ji Yue with narrowed eyes. Ji Yue did not make the mistake of sitting. Instead, she rose wearily to her feet to stand like a eunuch with head bowed and hands clasped in front.
“How may I serve you, my lady?” she asked.
“Oh my dear, I just came to see if you were hurt. After Sun Bo Tao’s display this afternoon, I have been greatly concerned about your health.”
It was not hard to bring up tears at the reference to Bo Tao. She had not thought loving a man would hurt so much.
The Imperial Consort leaned forward. “Did he beat you very badly?”
Ji Yue glanced nervously at Hua Si who stood beside her and then at the Head Eunuch who loitered just as near. Did the Dowager really think she would confess anything with those two in the room?
The woman understood, of course. The Dowager clapped her hands. “Out! Both of you! I wish to speak to Virgin Chen Ji Yue alone!”
The two clearly didn’t want to go, but they knew their place. They prostrated themselves multiple times, but then scurried backwards out of the room. Probably to press their ears to the walls in the next room. It didn’t really matter. Ji Yue didn’t intend to tell the Dowager anything that couldn’t be known by the whole of China. Or that’s what she thought until the lady’s next words.
“So many changes,” the lady murmured. “It is hard and confusing for me. I cannot imagine how difficult it is for you girls.” She smiled and looked kindly at Ji Yue. “I have heard ofyour mother. She’s very smart. Do you miss her guidance?”
To her horror, Ji Yue’s eyes teared up again. She couldn’t speak, so she nodded in silent misery. Everything had been so clear when her mother was around. Her course was obvious, her duties clear. And if she’d chafed at the restraints, at least she’d had no doubt about what she was doing. But now out from under her mother’s gimlet eye? She had nothing but questions and doubts.
“Tell me about your mother. Would I enjoy her company, do you think?”
Ji Yue swallowed her emotions away and forced herself to answer as demurely as possible. “I cannot presume to suggest whom you would find enjoyable, my lady. I can only say that I miss her deeply. She always sees things more clearly than I.”
The Dowager pursed her lips in distaste. “That was a dull answer. I thought you understood that court life requires intelligence. You certainly can’t survive on your looks.” She wrinkled her nose. “Your feet are horrifyingly big. Therefore, your value to me is in your mind.”
Ji Yue lifted her head, startled to hear her mother’s words so closely echoed by the Dowager Consort. “What do you wish me to tell you?” she answered.
“What did Sun Bo Tao do to you today?”
She swallowed and looked away. “He beat me.”
“Do you know why?”
Ji Yue nodded then gave the answer everyone expected. “Because he lusts after me but cannot have me.”
“And do you return that lust?”
Now there was a tricky question. Ji Yue took a moment to reason out her response. Everyone in the Forbidden City survived on spies. To become useful to the Dowager, all Ji Yue had to do was offer to become one of the Dowagers spies. “I pretend to lust for him,” she answered with a sly tone.
The Dowager’s charcoal-painted eyebrows raised in surprise. “Very wise of you. The lust is not real?”
Ji Yue shrugged. “He is a friend to your son. I can survive a beating if it means we women have a better understanding of the influences upon the great leader of our people.” There, she had just shown the Dowager that she was smart enough to be a spy. Now she had to convince the woman that she was no threat. But how?
She glanced to Hua Si’s side of the room, and the idea came to her. Oh, it was so easy! She just had to convince the Dowager that Ji Yue could be controlled. She had to show the Dowager that something very simple would keep Ji Yue completely in the Dowager’s grip.
So she looked down at her hands, her expression vulnerable. “Can I tell you a secret, my lady?” Ji Yue whispered.
