The Making of a Palace Intrigue Victor - Chapter 3

From palace maid to imperial consort, the most common path, and the one with the highest chance of success, was through the recommendation of an imperial consort.

The women of the imperial harem were not only chess pieces sent in by their families; they also had to hold bargaining chips of their own in order to survive in that man-eating place.

Everyone was a commodity that could be weighed and measured.

Take me, for example. I could read, write, and calculate. Relying on a bit of my own cleverness, I managed to take root under the senior palace maid of the Imperial Household Department.

After all, I was someone in my twenties. Compared with a real young girl, I handled matters much more steadily.

As for Shen Junrou, she was saving money.

Every opportunity to show one’s face before a master had to be bought with money.

A palace maid’s monthly pay was one tael of silver. Aside from the portion she used to show filial respect to the senior palace maid, Shen Junrou saved all of it.

Low-ranking palace maids had poor food. Others used their monthly pay in secret to improve their meals, but she gritted her teeth, swallowed her saliva, and refused to eat even a bite.

This time, it was my turn to stuff egg yolk into her mouth.

“I’m at the Imperial Household Department. I’m not short of this bit of food.” Seeing her hesitate, I added, “If you don’t eat now, your looks will fall behind others by a notch. How will you become an imperial consort then?”

So she hurriedly took another bite.

In truth, I could not skim much for myself either, but I was still better at enduring hunger than she was.

After I gained a firm footing in the Imperial Household Department, I tried every possible way to get Shen Junrou transferred over as well.

That way, at least her monthly pay would be a bit higher.

At last, after saving two years of her monthly allowance, and after much picking and choosing, Shen Junrou finally parted with the enormous sum of ten taels of silver to buy one chance to deliver the Cold-Dispelling Painting.

Errands to deliver things during festivals were especially expensive, because the masters were in good spirits and there were many chances to receive rewards.

When she carried the item over, she happened to run into Concubine Zhen’s Third Prince and the Empress’s Fourth Prince.

The five-year-old Fourth Prince was bored out of his mind. “This snowy scene is so dull. A vast expanse of white-how inauspicious.”

Shen Junrou was sharp-eyed. Seeing Concubine Zhen walking over slowly beside His Majesty, she bowed slightly and said in a crisp voice, “Fourth Prince, please don’t find the snowy scene dull. Back in this servant’s hometown, everyone says an auspicious snow heralds a bountiful year. Next year will surely be a good year with a fine harvest in sight.”

The Third Prince naturally followed up, “Of course. Father Emperor is blessed by Heaven.”

The Emperor heard every word of this conversation, and his expression was pleased. “This little palace maid does have some insight.”

But when he looked at the Fourth Prince, displeasure returned to his gaze.

Shen Junrou bowed gracefully and was about to say more, but Concubine Zhen had already said coquettishly, “Your Majesty, in this world of ice and snow, why make things difficult for a child? The Fourth Prince is young and ignorant; it’s normal for him to be playful.”

The Emperor’s gaze then moved away.

Shen Junrou was somewhat resentful that Concubine Zhen had arrived too quickly, yet delighted by the Emperor’s praise for her. That night, she described the scene to me over and over again, tossing and turning.

“Do you think His Majesty will remember me?”

She asked expectantly, her face shy and excited.

The next day, the Empress’s decree arrived.

But it was not the conferment Shen Junrou had been hoping for. Instead, it reprimanded her for failing in her duties, punished her with thirty slaps to the mouth, and ordered that from that day on she leave the Imperial Household Department and go to Chengxiang Hall to work as a palace maid in charge of sweeping.

The Empress hated that Shen Junrou’s words had made her son appear foolish and ignorant, and hated even more that Concubine Zhen had added fuel to the fire.

Concubine Zhen was now deeply favored by imperial grace and at the height of her influence, so the Empress could not touch her. But a little palace maid like Shen Junrou could easily be handled.

Shen Junrou knelt before the eunuch who had come to announce the decree. Hearing it, she instinctively raised her head, terrified and at a loss.

I did not even have time to react before I saw her struck hard across the face and flung to the ground.

The one who struck her was the momo by the Empress’s side. Her hand was extremely strong, and every slap seemed as though she were beating an enemy.

“You cheap little slut, do you think I don’t know what you’re scheming?”

She looked down from above at Shen Junrou, who lay wilted on the ground. “You still want to seduce His Majesty? Lowly wretch! Her Majesty the Empress is kindhearted and left you your miserable little life. I’m going to make you give up that idea completely!”

Shen Junrou’s cheeks swelled high, and blood streamed from her mouth and nose.

But that was not the most terrifying part.

Once her reputation for being a foxlike seductress spread, she would no longer have any place to stand in the palace.

Neither the Imperial Household Department nor the palaces of the imperial consorts would take in a palace servant with a bad reputation.

The Empress had always been compassionate and detached.

But that compassion existed only in the surface image of her eating vegetarian food and chanting Buddhist prayers every day; it had never once fallen upon a little palace maid.