“Do you like this one?” She handed me a long, indigo gown with patterns of sea waves and mountains.
I eyed the yellow gown next to it. I could not ask for that, however. Yellow was the color for the Emperor and the Empress. “It’s precious.”
“You should wear this. It’ll look good on you. Here”—she took off her bangle and put it around my wrist—“it looks better with this bangle. Do you like it?”
“I do.” I tried to slip it off. “But it’s yours.”
“Keep it. You can borrow it. Tomorrow is an important day. You should make a good impression.” She patted my hand and then added, as if it was almost an afterthought, “Prince Zhi is Wende’s youngest, and the eighth prince. He doesn’t have a chance.”
“I understand, my Noble Lady.”
She nodded, and I was relieved she did not speak more.
? ? ?
That afternoon, the Emperor left early to prepare for his hunting. I put away the ink and scrolls in the library with Plum, who had come to help, as one of the Emperor’s personal attendants had become ill. We were ready to step out into the courtyard when I saw the barefoot astrologer conversing with a group of men wearing the robes of stars and moons, the formal Taoist robes. They had held a meeting with the Emperor earlier, but I had not realized they were still there.
The astrologer caught sight of me and beckoned. “Come.”
I stopped sharply. I had a feeling that we were like cat and mouse, and I had inadvertently stepped on the trap he had set.
He pattered to me instead, his bare feet slapping against the ground. “You look familiar. We have met before. Not here in the palace. Somewhere else.”
His voice had the strange undertone of a priest performing a sacrifice. My forehead moistened. I lowered my head to bow. “I do not believe I have had that honor, my astrologer.”
He frowned, and the rest of the Taoist priests walked to me too. They looked cautious, their eyes unblinking. “Who are you?” one asked.
They were dangerous men. I stepped back.
“What is your father’s name?” the astrologer asked.
I elbowed Plum, and together we hastened to leave, ignoring his shouts behind me.
My heart was still beating fast when I reached the entrance of the Inner Court. I felt as though I had almost tripped and fallen from a cliff.
? ? ?
The next morning when I came to the Forbidden Park, the hunting had already started. The men stayed near the Emperor and his team at the edge of a clearing, while the Four Ladies sat under an ancient ginkgo tree, their servants standing behind. There were other titled ladies and ministers scattered on the other side of the clearing. It was a hunt for the Emperor, but a holiday for all of us in the palace, since we did not need to attend to our daily duties.
The Noble Lady, sitting in the front where she could watch the hunting closely, nodded at me. I went to her. The Pure Lady, who had been absent on many social occasions, sat to the distant right, her white cat perched in her lap. She narrowed her eyes when she saw me. I looked away.
She was cursing. Perhaps at me, but perhaps at someone else. It did not matter, because I could tell she hated everyone, especially the other Ladies. I had heard that when Lady Virtue was bitten by mosquitoes in her garden several days before, the Pure Lady had sent her a cup of juice from pounded leeks—a common cure for the bites, but the liquid turned out to be something else, not leek juice, and soon Lady Virtue’s skin had become infected.
I wondered if the Pure Lady blamed me for Jewel’s downfall. Most likely she did, and perhaps she would give me a cup of poison if she had the chance.
“There’s no reason why he would refuse,” the Noble Lady said to me as I came beside her. Her voice was low, as if she was worried about being heard by the Pure Lady. “He’s rather fond of you, as it is plain to see.”
“When will you speak to him, my lady?” I asked, watching the Emperor on his favorite horse, Brown Grizzle. He raised the bow, and behind him, the bystanders chanted, “Shoot, shoot! That antelope! Antelope!”
I could not understand why men were fond of hunting. It was such a cruel sport. It was not even real hunting, more like shooting, because the hunting party did not take the trouble of walking through the woods. Instead, the herders, with hounds and leopards on their leashes, drove wild boar and antelopes, which had been captured the night before, to the center of the clearing. Then the Emperor and his team, standing at the outer circle of the clearing, walled by more hounds and dogs, began to aim and shoot.
The goal was to kill the animal with one arrow, and whoever killed the most would win the top prize—sitting next to the Emperor during the celebration party afterward. If the shooter wounded an animal rather than kill it, the score turned negative.
I wished the hunt would end as quickly as possible so the Noble Lady could talk to the Emperor and request Jewel’s title for me.