The selection neared its end, but in the embroidery workshop, the matter of pursuing the cheating had just begun.
“I saw it with my own eyes,” said a palace maid, jabbing a finger toward Wei Yingluo. “Jixiang’s handkerchief is stained with blood. Wei Yingluo switched her embroidery with Jixiang and helped Jixiang finish hers! The palace rules state that if someone is caught cheating for someone else, they will both be expelled from the palace!”
“Oh?” Wu Shulai turned to face that palace maid. “Is that so?”
Wei Yingluo glanced at the palace maid who tattled on her. And she felt it amusing.
She had thought the one to rat them out would be Jinxiu. Who knew that in the end, it would be someone they were not associated with.
How funny. If Jinxiu had done it, it would be understandable. She would be the best embroiderer among the group with one less person to compete with. But what was this other palace maid? Her appearance and skill with the needle were not the best. Even if she removed Wei Yingluo, she still would not be at the top. In fact, no one would like a person who ratted our people behind their backs. The rest of the palace maids would avoid her. So what good would this do for her? Or was she so jealous that she became dumb? This kind of action was harming others without receiving benefit.
With a slam, Jixiang dropped to her knees. Her voice sounded like she was about to burst into tears. “I¹… I…”
“What ‘I’ or ‘you’? So much stuttering. You forgot the rules.” Granny Zhang’s face was cold as she lectured Jixiang. “General Manager Wu asked you a question. Why aren’t you answering?”
“It’s me!” Jixiang gritted her teeth, taking all the blame for herself. “It’s because of me…”
The sound of laughter.
The soft laughter interrupted Jixiang’s confession. Everyone turned to the direction of the sound, curious to see who was so daring to laugh at such a time.
…It was actually Wei Yingluo.
In the beginning, Wu Shulai thought Wei Yingluo was a calm and rule-abiding person, and felt a good impression toward her. After seeing her laugh in this situation, he now felt her a careless person. His expression started to darken. “Why are you laughing?”
“Laughing at the funny person.” Wei Yingluo made her way to Jixiang’s side. “Who said I cheated? Look.”
She held her embroidery of the golden fowl next to Jixiang’s embroidery of a peony. Then, there was a glimmer of hope at the darkest hour².
“This is…” Wu Shulai widened his eyes.
As stated before, Jixiang’s peony gave off a rich and noble impression. If any mistake were to be pointed out, it’d be that it was lacking some life. On the other hand, Wei Yingluo’s golden fowl seemed as if it would come alive any second. If one were to force themselves to find mistakes, those mistakes would be the red speck on the fowl’s comb, and that after observing the image for a while, one would find the color choice of the embroidery too simplistic.
Now that the peony and the golden fowl were compared side by side, they looked to be part of a single work of art.
The unparalleled beauty of the peony’s coloring caused the coloring of both embroideries to seem magnificent. The brilliant fowl improved the manner of both embroideries with its proud attitude. However, these weren’t separate embroideries at all…
“These are actually one embroidery split into two parts. The name is Golden Fowl Peony Painting,” said Wei Yingluo, smiling. “Because it would take too long to finish for one person, Jixiang and I partnered up to complete it.”
“That’s not it!” That palace maid hurriedly reported. “You two, you two…”
“I’ll be daring and ask a question,” Wei Yingluo said to her, a smile still dancing on her face. “When I gave the embroidery to Jixiang, was the peony finished?”
The palace maid opened her mouth, but she couldn’t find the words to explain.
Although everyone was working in the same place, the embroidery workshop, it wasn’t as if they were all squished together. There was room between every person. Only three other people knew the cause and effect of the incident. Jixiang, Jinxiu, and Linglong. That other palace maid had eavesdropped on them, but might not have been privy to all the details. If so, she wouldn’t have known that Jixiang had worked on embroidering a golden koi at first, not a golden fowl.
Therefore, Wei Yingluo decided to feel her out. Seeing that that palace maid was speechless, Wei Yingluo immediately knew her suspicions were correct. Right away, she said, “Similarly, when Jixiang handed over her golden fowl embroidery to me, it was missing a lot of stitches, right? Since they’re both unfinished embroideries, how can it be considered cheating?”
Dumbstruck, everyone then turned to Granny Zhang.
This translation is the property of Sleepchaser at https://sleepchaser.wordpress.com. If you read it anywhere else, it’s stolen.
“This…” said Granny Zhang with much difficulty. “There’s no such precedent of this in the palace. General Manager Wu… What do you think?
General Manager Wu glanced at her. In his heart he wondered if this Granny Zhang wanted to be stuck working in the embroidery workshop for the rest of her life. Even for such a small thing like this, she needed to ask for someone else’s opinion³.
He was different from her. General Manager Wu worked in the palace for more than a decade, having gone through arduous training and hard work to get this far. There was nothing he hadn’t seen before. Just hearing a few words and he knew the whole situation. It was true that Wei Yingluo had cheated.
But so what?
“Good!” Wu Shulai suddenly burst into laughter. Her actions profound for him, he said to Wei Yingluo, “Sure enough you are quite resourceful!”
Her eyes trembled and she ducked her head. “Many thanks for the praise, General Manager Wu.”
In her heart she knew that everything she did the head eunuch knew. Nothing went past his eyes. She was unsure of how the other party would deal with her.
Now that he had observed her gaze, Wu Shulai quite admired her. So what if she cheated? What he valued was that child’s clear mind. She had already prepared excuses for her act before she even did such a thing. When someone tried to tattle on her, she immediately struck back.
Such a smart child would have an unlimited future⁴ and would not be like Granny Zhang, stuck to one department. Stuck in the small embroidery workshop for the rest of her life, accompanied by only the embroidery frames, needles, and threads.
“The palace maids that are useful speak less and act more.” Wu Shulai decided to give Wei Yingluo some face before she was promoted. In passing, he took care of the idiots. “Furthermore, the masters hate these type of gossiping fools the most…”
As he said this, he turned to face that palace maid who had tattled on Wei Yingluo. Then he lightly said, “Take her away and remove her name.”
Never had that palace maid imagined things would progress like this. For a moment, she froze in place. It wasn’t until two little eunuchs grasped her arms did she jump back to reality, knees growing weak into a kneel on the ground. She cried, “General Manager Wu, I was wrong! I won’t talk anymore, General Manager Wu!”
Wu Shulai smiled, shaking his head.
An idiot was really an idiot, unaware of why they had been punished.
Was it because she had run her mouth indiscriminately? No, it was more because she had failed to do anything well. If one wanted to frame a person, one must not do so flippantly. Even if the target was still very much alive, one could not surrender. She didn’t understand this concept, yet she still wanted to remain in the Forbidden City.
Having her leave early was for her own good. With such stupidity, she wouldn’t have the opportunity to see her hair grow grey in the palace. Rather, she would be swallowed up by others before she had the chance.
The cries of that palace maid soon disappeared. She had been dragged out of the room. This was not just a farewell; from now on, they would never see her in the Forbidden City again.
“It isn’t early anymore. I should go.” But before he left, Wu Shulai glanced at Wei Yingluo with a smile. “Today there were four outstanding palace maids. From now on they will stay in the embroidery workshop.”
“Yes,” said Granny Zhang respectfully, following behind him. “I will see you off, General Manager Wu.”
Jixiang waited until the figures of the two disappeared before she let herself lean on Wei Yingluo, exhausted from the event. “It’s finally over…”
Wei Yingluo swept her gaze across the room. Casually, she said, “Yes, for now it’s finished.”
It was already evening by the time Granny Zhang had sent Wu Shulai off. The sun was setting, though it was still bright outside. Sunlight dyed the Gate of Heavenly Purity⁵, and the eunuchs standing by there yelled out, “Lock the doors⁶!”
The doors slowly closed with a heavy groan, stopping the last rays of sun from passing through.
At the same time, the door to the embroidery workshop closed. Wei Yingluo was the last one to exit. In just one day, so many things had happened. Not to mention, she had to exert more energy to embroider two works. Mind and spirit were exhausted. Her face grew increasingly pale.
This translation is the property of Sleepchaser at https://sleepchaser.wordpress.com. If you read it anywhere else, it’s stolen.
“Are you okay?” Jixiang said, still leaning on Wei Yingluo and concern practically radiating from her body. “If you feel tired, you can lean on me while we walk.”
Wei Yingluo smiled slightly. She didn’t refuse Jixiang’s good intentions and shared her weight, her shoulder lightly pushing against Jixiang’s. They relied on one another to walk, just like how they had embroidered the Golden Fowl Peony Painting together.
The two straggled at the long line of green-clad palace maids. Like tired birds returning to their nests, following their leader, Aunt Fang. Aunt Fang was a head palace maid who had entered the Forbidden City for many years. She was responsible for teaching new palace maids, and the place where she was currently leading them through grew dark. Both sides of the path stood thick with trees. As the palace maids passed through they would catch sight of the numerous shadows cast by the leaves and branches, and the immaculate stone floor tiles dyed black.
Aunt Fang suddenly stopped in her tracks. She rushed her words, “Hurry, turn around!”
As soon as she finished speaking, she was the first to turn around and face the wall.
The palace maids were confused. But they all copied her one by one.
However there was always going to be one or two people who couldn’t follow orders, too curious for their own good, eyes darting left and right to satisfy said curiosity. For example Jixiang, who sneaked a peak at the people soon to pass by even though she had already turned to face the wall. Sure enough, she saw further down the path two red lanterns approaching. Four, then six…
Two lines of palace maids neared their group, a big red lantern held in each of the maids’ hands. The red glow of the lantern candles seeped through the thin lantern cover, painting the ground red, as if they had unfurled and placed down a carpet of the same color. A gorgeous ceremony played out atop the red carpet: a procession containing a beautiful woman in a palanquin. She seemed a little tired. Her eyes were closed, her body leaning against the back of her seat. Around her wrist was a bracelet made of jasper beads, and as the palanquin swayed so did the bracelet. Whenever it hit against something, it would make a melodious sound.
Jixiang’s gaze chased the jasper bracelet, unwilling to leave, until Aunt Fang slapped her once on the face. Only then did Jixiang realize the procession had already left.
“What are you looking at?” Aunt Fang’s expression was cold as ice. “Are you tired of living?”
Jixiang raised a hand to touch her cheek that was growing warm. Yet she couldn’t tell if it truly felt warm or leaned toward painful. Or if it were her heart that felt warm. She watched the departing silhouette of the parade, her eyes reflecting a type of infatuation. “So that’s what the procession of imperial concubines⁷ look like…”
Aunt Fang clicked her tongue. “You’re really someone who’s never seen the world before. Only the empress can have such a noble and extravagant procession as the Yijia⁸. The procession that passed just now was Noble Consort Hui’s Yizhang⁹.”
Linglong approached Jixiang and Aunt Fang. Unable to dampen her curiosity, she asked, “What about the other imperial concubines?”
Aunt Fang shot her a look. “Those processions are called Caizhang¹⁰. However, only real masters can use a Caizhang. In other words, Noble Ladies and below¹¹ do not have this privilege!”
The new palace maids were all curious about this fact. They quickly broke into chatter. For them to bombard Aunt Fang with questions was a regular occurrence. And although her face showed annoyance, in the end she still answered a few questions occasionally, to show off her immense knowledge as a head palace maid.
Like the rest, Wei Yingluo listened carefully to Aunt Fang. But she uttered not a word. Instead, she committed to memory the questions asked by every palace maid and the respective responses from Aunt Fang. In her heart, she believed these were hints useful for the future. Once she absorbed all of this information, she’d be able to track down her sister’s murderer!
“Aunt Fang.” Jixiang, who stood next to Wei Yingluo, was however not as thorough of a thinker. She followed the other palace maids in shooting a question at Aunt Fang. And that question was of the same low standard as the rest of the bunch. “Where is Noble Consort Hui going?”
A cackle from Aunt Fang’s direction. “It’s none of your business where the masters go! Now stop looking. Your eyes are about to fall off! None of you will ever have such a noble fate, so let’s leave!”
The selection neared its end, but in the embroidery workshop, the matter of pursuing the cheating had just begun.
“I saw it with my own eyes,” said a palace maid, jabbing a finger toward Wei Yingluo. “Jixiang’s handkerchief is stained with blood. Wei Yingluo switched her embroidery with Jixiang and helped Jixiang finish hers! The palace rules state that if someone is caught cheating for someone else, they will both be expelled from the palace!”
“Oh?” Wu Shulai turned to face that palace maid. “Is that so?”
Wei Yingluo glanced at the palace maid who tattled on her. And she felt it amusing.
She had thought the one to rat them out would be Jinxiu. Who knew that in the end, it would be someone they were not associated with.
How funny. If Jinxiu had done it, it would be understandable. She would be the best embroiderer among the group with one less person to compete with. But what was this other palace maid? Her appearance and skill with the needle were not the best. Even if she removed Wei Yingluo, she still would not be at the top. In fact, no one would like a person who ratted our people behind their backs. The rest of the palace maids would avoid her. So what good would this do for her? Or was she so jealous that she became dumb? This kind of action was harming others without receiving benefit.
With a slam, Jixiang dropped to her knees. Her voice sounded like she was about to burst into tears. “I¹… I…”
“What ‘I’ or ‘you’? So much stuttering. You forgot the rules.” Granny Zhang’s face was cold as she lectured Jixiang. “General Manager Wu asked you a question. Why aren’t you answering?”
“It’s me!” Jixiang gritted her teeth, taking all the blame for herself. “It’s because of me…”
The sound of laughter.
The soft laughter interrupted Jixiang’s confession. Everyone turned to the direction of the sound, curious to see who was so daring to laugh at such a time.
…It was actually Wei Yingluo.
In the beginning, Wu Shulai thought Wei Yingluo was a calm and rule-abiding person, and felt a good impression toward her. After seeing her laugh in this situation, he now felt her a careless person. His expression started to darken. “Why are you laughing?”
“Laughing at the funny person.” Wei Yingluo made her way to Jixiang’s side. “Who said I cheated? Look.”
She held her embroidery of the golden fowl next to Jixiang’s embroidery of a peony. Then, there was a glimmer of hope at the darkest hour².
“This is…” Wu Shulai widened his eyes.
As stated before, Jixiang’s peony gave off a rich and noble impression. If any mistake were to be pointed out, it’d be that it was lacking some life. On the other hand, Wei Yingluo’s golden fowl seemed as if it would come alive any second. If one were to force themselves to find mistakes, those mistakes would be the red speck on the fowl’s comb, and that after observing the image for a while, one would find the color choice of the embroidery too simplistic.
Now that the peony and the golden fowl were compared side by side, they looked to be part of a single work of art.
The unparalleled beauty of the peony’s coloring caused the coloring of both embroideries to seem magnificent. The brilliant fowl improved the manner of both embroideries with its proud attitude. However, these weren’t separate embroideries at all…
“These are actually one embroidery split into two parts. The name is Golden Fowl Peony Painting,” said Wei Yingluo, smiling. “Because it would take too long to finish for one person, Jixiang and I partnered up to complete it.”
“That’s not it!” That palace maid hurriedly reported. “You two, you two…”
“I’ll be daring and ask a question,” Wei Yingluo said to her, a smile still dancing on her face. “When I gave the embroidery to Jixiang, was the peony finished?”
The palace maid opened her mouth, but she couldn’t find the words to explain.
Although everyone was working in the same place, the embroidery workshop, it wasn’t as if they were all squished together. There was room between every person. Only three other people knew the cause and effect of the incident. Jixiang, Jinxiu, and Linglong. That other palace maid had eavesdropped on them, but might not have been privy to all the details. If so, she wouldn’t have known that Jixiang had worked on embroidering a golden koi at first, not a golden fowl.
Therefore, Wei Yingluo decided to feel her out. Seeing that that palace maid was speechless, Wei Yingluo immediately knew her suspicions were correct. Right away, she said, “Similarly, when Jixiang handed over her golden fowl embroidery to me, it was missing a lot of stitches, right? Since they’re both unfinished embroideries, how can it be considered cheating?”
Dumbstruck, everyone then turned to Granny Zhang.
This translation is the property of Sleepchaser at https://sleepchaser.wordpress.com. If you read it anywhere else, it’s stolen.
“This…” said Granny Zhang with much difficulty. “There’s no such precedent of this in the palace. General Manager Wu… What do you think?
General Manager Wu glanced at her. In his heart he wondered if this Granny Zhang wanted to be stuck working in the embroidery workshop for the rest of her life. Even for such a small thing like this, she needed to ask for someone else’s opinion³.
He was different from her. General Manager Wu worked in the palace for more than a decade, having gone through arduous training and hard work to get this far. There was nothing he hadn’t seen before. Just hearing a few words and he knew the whole situation. It was true that Wei Yingluo had cheated.
But so what?
“Good!” Wu Shulai suddenly burst into laughter. Her actions profound for him, he said to Wei Yingluo, “Sure enough you are quite resourceful!”
Her eyes trembled and she ducked her head. “Many thanks for the praise, General Manager Wu.”
In her heart she knew that everything she did the head eunuch knew. Nothing went past his eyes. She was unsure of how the other party would deal with her.
Now that he had observed her gaze, Wu Shulai quite admired her. So what if she cheated? What he valued was that child’s clear mind. She had already prepared excuses for her act before she even did such a thing. When someone tried to tattle on her, she immediately struck back.
Such a smart child would have an unlimited future⁴ and would not be like Granny Zhang, stuck to one department. Stuck in the small embroidery workshop for the rest of her life, accompanied by only the embroidery frames, needles, and threads.
“The palace maids that are useful speak less and act more.” Wu Shulai decided to give Wei Yingluo some face before she was promoted. In passing, he took care of the idiots. “Furthermore, the masters hate these type of gossiping fools the most…”
As he said this, he turned to face that palace maid who had tattled on Wei Yingluo. Then he lightly said, “Take her away and remove her name.”
Never had that palace maid imagined things would progress like this. For a moment, she froze in place. It wasn’t until two little eunuchs grasped her arms did she jump back to reality, knees growing weak into a kneel on the ground. She cried, “General Manager Wu, I was wrong! I won’t talk anymore, General Manager Wu!”
Wu Shulai smiled, shaking his head.
An idiot was really an idiot, unaware of why they had been punished.
Was it because she had run her mouth indiscriminately? No, it was more because she had failed to do anything well. If one wanted to frame a person, one must not do so flippantly. Even if the target was still very much alive, one could not surrender. She didn’t understand this concept, yet she still wanted to remain in the Forbidden City.
Having her leave early was for her own good. With such stupidity, she wouldn’t have the opportunity to see her hair grow grey in the palace. Rather, she would be swallowed up by others before she had the chance.
The cries of that palace maid soon disappeared. She had been dragged out of the room. This was not just a farewell; from now on, they would never see her in the Forbidden City again.
“It isn’t early anymore. I should go.” But before he left, Wu Shulai glanced at Wei Yingluo with a smile. “Today there were four outstanding palace maids. From now on they will stay in the embroidery workshop.”
“Yes,” said Granny Zhang respectfully, following behind him. “I will see you off, General Manager Wu.”
Jixiang waited until the figures of the two disappeared before she let herself lean on Wei Yingluo, exhausted from the event. “It’s finally over…”
Wei Yingluo swept her gaze across the room. Casually, she said, “Yes, for now it’s finished.”
It was already evening by the time Granny Zhang had sent Wu Shulai off. The sun was setting, though it was still bright outside. Sunlight dyed the Gate of Heavenly Purity⁵, and the eunuchs standing by there yelled out, “Lock the doors⁶!”
The doors slowly closed with a heavy groan, stopping the last rays of sun from passing through.
At the same time, the door to the embroidery workshop closed. Wei Yingluo was the last one to exit. In just one day, so many things had happened. Not to mention, she had to exert more energy to embroider two works. Mind and spirit were exhausted. Her face grew increasingly pale.
This translation is the property of Sleepchaser at https://sleepchaser.wordpress.com. If you read it anywhere else, it’s stolen.
“Are you okay?” Jixiang said, still leaning on Wei Yingluo and concern practically radiating from her body. “If you feel tired, you can lean on me while we walk.”
Wei Yingluo smiled slightly. She didn’t refuse Jixiang’s good intentions and shared her weight, her shoulder lightly pushing against Jixiang’s. They relied on one another to walk, just like how they had embroidered the Golden Fowl Peony Painting together.
The two straggled at the long line of green-clad palace maids. Like tired birds returning to their nests, following their leader, Aunt Fang. Aunt Fang was a head palace maid who had entered the Forbidden City for many years. She was responsible for teaching new palace maids, and the place where she was currently leading them through grew dark. Both sides of the path stood thick with trees. As the palace maids passed through they would catch sight of the numerous shadows cast by the leaves and branches, and the immaculate stone floor tiles dyed black.
Aunt Fang suddenly stopped in her tracks. She rushed her words, “Hurry, turn around!”
As soon as she finished speaking, she was the first to turn around and face the wall.
The palace maids were confused. But they all copied her one by one.
However there was always going to be one or two people who couldn’t follow orders, too curious for their own good, eyes darting left and right to satisfy said curiosity. For example Jixiang, who sneaked a peak at the people soon to pass by even though she had already turned to face the wall. Sure enough, she saw further down the path two red lanterns approaching. Four, then six…
Two lines of palace maids neared their group, a big red lantern held in each of the maids’ hands. The red glow of the lantern candles seeped through the thin lantern cover, painting the ground red, as if they had unfurled and placed down a carpet of the same color. A gorgeous ceremony played out atop the red carpet: a procession containing a beautiful woman in a palanquin. She seemed a little tired. Her eyes were closed, her body leaning against the back of her seat. Around her wrist was a bracelet made of jasper beads, and as the palanquin swayed so did the bracelet. Whenever it hit against something, it would make a melodious sound.
Jixiang’s gaze chased the jasper bracelet, unwilling to leave, until Aunt Fang slapped her once on the face. Only then did Jixiang realize the procession had already left.
“What are you looking at?” Aunt Fang’s expression was cold as ice. “Are you tired of living?”
Jixiang raised a hand to touch her cheek that was growing warm. Yet she couldn’t tell if it truly felt warm or leaned toward painful. Or if it were her heart that felt warm. She watched the departing silhouette of the parade, her eyes reflecting a type of infatuation. “So that’s what the procession of imperial concubines⁷ look like…”
Aunt Fang clicked her tongue. “You’re really someone who’s never seen the world before. Only the empress can have such a noble and extravagant procession as the Yijia⁸. The procession that passed just now was Noble Consort Hui’s Yizhang⁹.”
Linglong approached Jixiang and Aunt Fang. Unable to dampen her curiosity, she asked, “What about the other imperial concubines?”
Aunt Fang shot her a look. “Those processions are called Caizhang¹⁰. However, only real masters can use a Caizhang. In other words, Noble Ladies and below¹¹ do not have this privilege!”
The new palace maids were all curious about this fact. They quickly broke into chatter. For them to bombard Aunt Fang with questions was a regular occurrence. And although her face showed annoyance, in the end she still answered a few questions occasionally, to show off her immense knowledge as a head palace maid.
Like the rest, Wei Yingluo listened carefully to Aunt Fang. But she uttered not a word. Instead, she committed to memory the questions asked by every palace maid and the respective responses from Aunt Fang. In her heart, she believed these were hints useful for the future. Once she absorbed all of this information, she’d be able to track down her sister’s murderer!
“Aunt Fang.” Jixiang, who stood next to Wei Yingluo, was however not as thorough of a thinker. She followed the other palace maids in shooting a question at Aunt Fang. And that question was of the same low standard as the rest of the bunch. “Where is Noble Consort Hui going?”
A cackle from Aunt Fang’s direction. “It’s none of your business where the masters go! Now stop looking. Your eyes are about to fall off! None of you will ever have such a noble fate, so let’s leave!”
