Free Empress Orchid by Anchee Min Page A

happy. My being chosen had changed the condition of her health overnight. She looked well and was in exuberant spirits. We drank and celebrated. I had no real reason to be proud, because my good looks had nothing to do with me. But I thanked myself for having had the courage. I would have missed the opportunity if I had hesitated or carried myself poorly.
    Mother wanted to know if the newly selected Imperial concubines would get along living together in the Forbidden City. I didn’t want her to worry, so I told her that I had already made friends. I described Nuharoo’s beauty, her admirable manners and knowledge. I also described Lady Yun. I didn’t know much about her character or family background, so I concentrated on her beauty. I mentioned Lady Li as well. I described the difference in their characters. While Yun was daring and cared little about the opinions of others, Li wondered if she was the reason that people coughed.
    Rong was a bit jealous when I mentioned Lady Soo, the youngest, who wept in front of the Majesties. Soo’s sensitivity needed tenderness and care. She was an orphan, adopted by her uncle at the age of five, and she was obviously both sad and scared. The Grand Empress sentdoctors to examine her; they concluded that she had a disturbed mind. Soo’s weeping didn’t stop after she was officially chosen. The eunuchs called her the Weeping Willow. The Grand Empress became concerned about the quality of the “eggs” that Soo would produce. “No quality eggs, no ladyship,” she had said to all of us. If Soo continued to be who she was, Her Majesty would give her away.
    “Poor child.” My mother sighed.
    I went on to speak of Lady Mei and Lady Hui, the two who looked like twins. They had less beauty but strong bodies. They were the Grand Empress’s favorites. Their breasts were as big as melons and their buttocks were the size of washbasins. They were gifted in flattery and hovered around Nuharoo like pets. Cheerful and animated in front of the Grand Empress, they were wooden and silent by themselves. They didn’t like to read, paint or do embroidery. Their only hobby was to dress alike.
    “Did the Grand Empress Lady Jin look like the paintings we have seen, beautiful and elegant?”
    “She must have been a beauty when young,” I replied. “Today I would say that the pattern on her dress is more interesting than her looks.”
    “What was she like?” both Mother and Rong asked. “What does she expect from you?”
    “That is a hard question. On the one hand, we are expected to follow the rules. ‘As royal members,’” I mimicked Her Majesty, “‘you are the models for our nation’s morality. Your purity reflects our ancestors’ teachings. If I catch you passing around books of a salacious nature, you will be hanged like those before you.’ On the other hand, the Grand Empress expects us to mate with Emperor Hsien Feng as often as we can. She told us that her achievement will rest in the number of heirs we produce. The Emperor is expected to outperform his father and grandfather. Emperor Kang Hsi, Hsien Feng’s great-great-grandfather, sired fifty-five children, and Emperor Chien Lung, Hsien Feng’s grandfather, twenty-seven.”
    “That shouldn’t be a problem.” Kuei Hsiang smiled slyly as he threw a fistful of roasted nuts into his mouth. “His Majesty has more than three thousand ladies all to himself. I bet he can hardly make the rounds.”
    “But there are obstacles,” I told Mother. Hsien Feng’s performance in the Record Book of Imperial Fertility, a diary kept by Chief Eunuch Shim that traced His Majesty’s bedchamber activity, was poor. TheGrand Empress had accused the Emperor of “deliberately wasting the dragon seeds.” Too often, His Majesty was said to favor a single concubine, forgetting his duty to spread his seeds by sleeping with different ladies each night. The Grand Empress spoke angrily of past concubines who had been possessive of His Majesty. She