The garden party was held at a banquet venue set up in the central courtyard. Beneath a large open pavilion,
a crimson felt carpet
had been laid out, with long tables arranged in two rows and a place of honor set up at the far end.
The Emperor would take the place of honor, flanked by the Empress Dowager and the Imperial Prince on either side, with the Noble Consort and the Virtuous Consort to the east, and the Worthy Consort and the Gracious Consort to the west. With the Crown Prince having passed away, the Emperor's own younger brother now held the first right of succession.
Even so, the seating arrangement looked like it was set up for nothing more than picking fights. It seemed to exist solely to stir up the rivalries among the four consorts.
As for that younger brother, despite having the Empress Dowager as his mother, he lived a life out of the public eye.
On the surface, a seat had been reserved for him at the place of honor, but it always went empty. Frail and sickly, he seldom left his chambers and took part in no official duties.
Various speculations circulated — that the Emperor was indulging his much younger brother, or that he was keeping him confined, or that the Empress Dowager simply doted on him too much to let him venture outside.
Well,
Maomao
didn't need to concern herself with any of it.
Food would not be served until after midday, so for now, they enjoyed acrobatic performances and dances.
Gyokuyou
Consort had only the chief attendant with her,
Hongniang,
and unless they had some business, the other attendants waited behind the curtains for instructions.
The princess had been raised by the Empress Dowager. Her refined elegance and undimmed beauty did not pale even when surrounded by the four consorts.
(If only they would just
set up a canopy
for us.)
The curtains were barely enough to serve as a screen, let alone block the wind.
Even with hand warmers, Maomao and the others felt the cold — so for the attendants of the other consorts, it must have been unbearable.
Sure enough, the other attendants waiting nearby shivered in small tremors, some even standing with their knees pressed together. While there was still time,
the privy
She figured it would be fine if she went alone, but if the attendants from the other consorts got their hands on her first, it might not end well.
The problem was that the attendants of the four consorts were only too eager to fight proxy wars on behalf of their mistresses.
Each head attendant who might have intervened was stationed at her own consort's side. There was no one to put a stop to anything.
As things stood, the battle lines had been drawn as the "Gyokuyou faction versus the Rifa faction" and the "Shufei faction versus the Defei faction."
Incidentally, the Gyokuyou faction numbered a grand total of four, less than half of the other side's attendants. It seemed rather disadvantageous, but
Yinghua
was holding her own.
"Plain? Are you stupid? An attendant's job is to serve her mistress. What's the point of dressing up for no reason?"
It sounded like they were quarreling over clothing. The attendants on the other side, serving Rifa, wore blue-toned outfits adorned with fringes and ornaments, making them far more showy than their counterparts.
"What are you even saying? If you look sloppy, it's your mistress who suffers. I mean, that's exactly what you'd expect from someone who'd hire an ugly woman like that."
(Oh my. They're calling her ugly right to her face.)
Maomao thought to herself as if it were someone else's problem. Needless to say, "the ugly woman" in question was herself.
The officious-looking court lady puffing out her chest was one who had clashed with Maomao before. She had a bold temperament, though not the backbone to match—she was always threatening to "tell Father about it." She was so annoying that, in a moment of tit-for-tat, Maomao had retorted, "Then I'll make sure you'll never be able to tell him," after which the woman had been too frightened to come near.
(Humor from the pleasure district doesn't land, does it?)
It was certainly wasted on a sheltered young lady.
"If she's not here, they must have left her behind. Bringing an ugly woman like that would be nothing but embarrassing. She wouldn't get a single piece of jewelry out of it either."
They were completely oblivious to Maomao's presence.
(That's harsh. We were together for two whole months.)
Seeing Yinghua about to explode and lunge forward while the other two restrained her, Maomao decided it was probably time to put a stop to this.
Maomao circled behind Yinghua's group, covered her nose with her palm, and looked over at the attendants in blue.
The suspicious-eyed attendant narrowed her gaze, noticed something, and whispered to the girl next to her.
Like a game of telephone,
the message passed down the line until it reached the last, most defiant attendant. The girl's outstretched pointing finger began to tremble, and her mouth flapped open and shut.
(Finally noticed me, have you?)
Maomao put on her own version of a beaming smile—one that, to the attendants, looked like a wolf closing in on its prey.
「A-Ah, A-Ahh!」
「Wh-What is it?」
Yinghua, oblivious to Maomao snickering behind her, eyed the adversary who had suddenly begun trembling like a small animal with a mixture of suspicion and puzzlement.
「Ah—fine. I-I'll let you off the hook for now. Be grateful.」
With that, she spat out an incomprehensible parting remark and made her way toward the edge of the curtain. There were other open spots available, naturally, but she headed straight for the place furthest from Maomao and the others.
Standing there, dumbfounded and utterly taken aback, were Yinghua and the rest, while—
(She's going to get her feelings hurt after all,)
—thought Maomao to herself.
Composing herself, Yinghua met Maomao's gaze.
「Ugh. I already thought you were awful, but—I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable. You really are cute, though.」
Yinghua said, looking genuinely apologetic.
「I don't mind. More importantly, shall I return the hand warmer?」
「Yes, it's still warm, so I'm fine. But still, why did she start trembling all of a sudden?」
「Who knows. Maybe she wanted to go pick flowers.」
Maomao said, completely unabashed.
Incidentally, Maomao's current persona was that of a girl who had been beaten by her parents, sold off to work as a poison taster—a discarded pawn—and on top of that, had endured two months of brutal bullying at the Crystal Palace, leaving her with such a deep mistrust of men that she would rather smear her own face with filth.
The trouble was that the force of Yinghua and the others' imagination was entirely age-appropriate—or rather, alarmingly advanced for their age.
Jinshi accosting Maomao, for instance, had been reframed in their minds as a celestial being taking pity on a poor, wretched girl—a truly unfortunate misunderstanding.
One could only marvel at the mental gymnastics required to arrive at that conclusion.
Meanwhile, the other proxy war was still raging on.
The numbers were seven against seven.
The attendants in white outfits versus the attendants in dark-colored outfits.
The former belonged to Consort Tokuki, the latter to Consort Shukufei's side.
「Those ones don't get along either, huh.」
Yinghua said, sighing with genuine feeling.
「Fourteen and thirty-five. Even among consorts, when they're separated by a parent-child age gap, they're never going to get along.」
「The junior Consort Tokuko and the veteran Consort Shukufei. Well, yeah. There's bound to be all sorts of friction.」
The easygoing maid,
Guien,
said.
「That's right. They were former mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, too.」
The tall maid,
Airan,
also nodded.
「Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law?」
It sounded like an unusual topic for the rear palace. Maomao tilted her head.
「Yeah, it's a bit complicated, but...」
Apparently, one had been the late emperor's consort and the other the crown prince's consort.
When the late emperor passed away, the consort became a Taoist nun to observe mourning.
But that was just a pretense — by renouncing the secular world, she could pretend she had never served the late emperor, and then marry his son instead.
(The late emperor's era had been five years ago.)
At the time, Tokuko was nine years old. Even for a political match, it was a nauseating arrangement — a girl that age becoming a consort.
(Even for a lecher, that was going too far.)
She was just mentally cursing the handsome-bearded emperor when she learned the shocking truth.
「It's unbelievable, isn't it? A nine-year-old mother-in-law.」
Airan said something so outrageous it made her doubt her ears.