“Tired?” Plum drew back. “After supper, we’re going to play weiqi. Do you want to join us?”
“Maybe next time.” I pushed some rice into my mouth. That was good news. When they were gone, I could view the paintings.
“You’re not afraid of me beating you, are you?”
“You beat me? You’re joking, right? You never pay attention to where the stones go. How many games have you won so far? Zero?” Weiqi, a two-person board game that used 361 pieces of stones, was getting popular those days in the palace. The goal was to capture the most stones and cover the most territory on the board.
“But I never cared about the stones.”
“Now you’re telling the truth.”
The Talents laughed, and Plum waved her eating sticks, pretending to strike me. I ducked my head. She rose to pursue me. I leaped behind the other girls, keeping out of her reach. For a moment, we played hide-and-seek, laughing and taunting each other. Finally, we grew tired and sat to finish our meal. While I cleaned up the trays, Plum went to the courtyard with the others to play weiqi. A few Beauties next door also joined, and some started to play jump rope. The courtyard was alive with motion and laughter.
I closed the doors, made sure no one was going to enter, and placed the scroll on the table. My heart racing faster, I unfurled the scroll and read the opening paragraph, titled “The Dreams of the Spring.”
“A thousand years ago, things were different. Men and women were free and happy. Every spring they came to a river and made merry, with any mates they wished. They called it the Rites of Spring, described in the song ‘Joy of the Mulberry Groves.’ When dynasties were founded, women were no longer free. They were bound by the wishes of their fathers, their husbands, and their emperors. Their own wishes were no longer important, forgotten, discarded like rotten roots. And this is why the pictures must be kept, to remind us of the ancient joy.”
Oh, how perverse the words were, but very interesting. I unfurled the scroll farther.
A picture. Rather idyllic, with parasol-like green trees, crimson peonies, and porous garden rocks. On the rock sat a man, and on the man sat a woman, whose arms wound around his neck while his hands pushed her skirt up to her waist, uncovering her legs, lower abdomen, and everything in between.
Well… The two were dallying right there. I wanted to avert my eyes. But I could not resist it. I straightened and unrolled more.
Another man and woman. In a study, where brushes, ink stones, and papers were spread neatly on a writing table. A bejeweled, pretty woman sat on it too, and in front of her stood a man, his buttocks bare. He was so close to her—almost touching her—while the woman leaned back, supporting herself with her arms. There were splashes of pink on her cheeks and somewhere else…
Holy ancestors of nine generations!
I rolled up the scroll, my face burning. So that was the secret of the bedroom affair. I knew it now, even though the events were unrelated to the locale. Would I do that with the Emperor? Bare myself like that? I felt as if my skin had been peeled off, like a skinned rabbit waiting to be roasted.
But the woman. Her face … It was as if she were sailing to a place she longed for…and her body…I had never seen anything so revealing, vivid, and…exquisite. Did I look like her? I bit my lip. Hesitating, I slipped my hand into my loose pants…
Ah…the true meaning of being a woman…
I perspired. More…
I moved to the third picture.
Two women. On a bed. One wearing a pink bandeau, one with a blue shawl. One was lying down, and one was sitting…
I almost dropped the scroll. Women!
Footsteps came from outside. Hastily, I rolled it up.
Plum entered the chamber with her friends. My heart throbbing, I turned my back to her and tucked the scroll under my mat. I sat on it, straightened, and pretended nothing had happened. But I kept thinking about the scroll, its round and long shape, like a certain part in the painting.
The chamber became stuffy, and the air smelled hot and sweaty. I fanned myself with my hand. The images of the painting floated before my eyes, but all I thought of was Pheasant.
By the time we were ready to sleep, I was certain it would require eighteen horses to ever drag me to the Emperor’s chamber.
? ? ?
A few short weeks later, I had already forgotten about seducing the Emperor when Heaven’s intention once again disrupted our routine.
I awoke one morning to a commotion in the courtyard. Shooting stars had appeared during the night. For the whole morning, I saw people gathering in corners, whispering, their faces pale.
It had been two years since the appearance of the comet, which had brought us the assassination plot against the Emperor and changed our relationship with the tribes at the border. And now, we had shooting stars.