A group of men emerged before me. Some carried pails of hot water and poured them into the tub while some scattered flower petals in the water. One walked toward me, his hand extended.
“Where are the women servants?” I asked Jewel. Usually, the female servants performed the intimate task of bathing.
“This is the eunuch in charge of the Emperor’s night summons. We call him Eunuch Uncle Ming.” Jewel, already disrobed, stepped into the tub. “Is there a problem?”
“No…” I did not realize Jewel would bathe with me. But I should not object. She had been so kind to me. “I just did not know, that’s all.”
“You will get used to the eunuchs,” she said. “And they will take you to the Emperor’s bedchamber when the water reaches the line six.” She pointed at a water clock on a stool.
“All right.” I undressed and joined her in the tub. A eunuch, who appeared to be deaf and mute, came to me with a bowl filled with soap beans, while the others all filed out of the room, except Eunuch Ming.
I hunched my back to let the water cover my chest and inhaled the sweet flower scent, all the while deeply aware of how transparent the water was. Jewel looked relaxed, leaning against the tub with her eyes closed. The water reached just below her breasts, her pink nipples leaping in and out of the petals floating in the water like curious children playing hide-and-seek. A clear stream glided down her pale neck and plunged between her breasts.
I sank farther. I was not as pretty. Her breasts looked supple and perfectly sized while mine were small and unimpressive. She had lush hair under her armpits and below her stomach, blooming gracefully like a collection of ornamental grass in a garden. But mine was sparse and ungainly, shriveling pitifully like a handful of weeds in a desert.
“Are you nervous?” Jewel’s voice drifted in the vaporous steam.
“No,” I said quickly. “Well, maybe just a little.” I arranged my long hair to cover the front of my chest. Pink petals floated toward me, and my hair drifted in the water like black clouds. “I just realized I don’t have decent gowns.”
Jewel pursed her lips as if to suppress a smile. “Gowns? You don’t need any.” She pointed at a red mantle hanging on a peg near a bucket I had not noticed before. “Eunuch Ming will wrap you in the thick cover and carry you to the quarters.”
I sat up. “Just the mantle, nothing else?” Eunuch Ming was examining something among Jewel’s clothes. He picked up a small golden thing, Jewel’s bangle, and pocketed it. He was stealing! I gestured to alert Jewel, but she only shrugged.
“I am only trying to tell you this is the routine,” she said and stretched out her arms as Eunuch Ming returned and washed her with a ball of dried gourd fiber. “You go there naked and empty and come back naked, but with his seed.”
The bedroom affair. It sounded crude coming from Jewel’s mouth. “Oh…”
She gazed at me, her eyes sparkling. “It’s always difficult the first time.”
The deaf eunuch waved a ball of gourd fiber and gestured for me to raise my arms. I obeyed, relieved to be distracted.
“Well, I assume you’ve heard of this…” Jewel paused as Eunuch Ming whispered something in her ear, and she continued, “bedding. The Emperor requires special instructions.”
I watched the two of them. I wondered what the eunuch had told Jewel. “What special instructions?”
She chuckled. “Knowing The Manual for a Pure Maiden is not enough, Mei. After all, he’s the Emperor, not an ordinary man.”
“What manual?” I wanted to bite my tongue. I had heard of it, of course. When a daughter’s wedding night approached, her mother usually hid the manual at the bottom of the clothing trunk. It contained various ideas to conceive boys as well as many rules, taboos, and suggestions about the bedroom business. Its importance was similar to scriptures for religious followers who sought guidance and principles. But I had never seen it. Mother had not given it to me.
Jewel swam to me, her eyes boring into me. “You haven’t heard of The Manual?”
There was something light and flirting in her eyes. I felt my cheeks warm. I hunched my shoulders. “No, I was just asking…”
“Have you seen it?”
The eunuch scrubbed hard on my raw skin, and my nose touched the hot water. “Well…”
Jewel swam back to her side of the tub. “What are you going to do now? You don’t know anything.”
The challenging tone in her voice made me straighten my back. “I’ll do whatever is asked.”
Surely I would not be the first woman who did not know any bedding secrets, and if I were, it would not be a disaster either. The Emperor, among all men, should be most familiar with his battle.
Jewel shook her head. “That’s not enough, Mei. You need to do more than is asked. This is your first chance, and perhaps only chance, to win his affection. You do not wish to ruin it. If you like, I can teach you the tending, the intimacy, and all.”
Teach me?
“Or I have another idea.” She leaned outside the tub, squeezing her breasts against the rim. When she straightened, she held a wine cup in her hand. “Drink this. It’ll give you a man’s valor.”