Chapter 1
Li Mei shivered and pulled the thin, dirty sheet over her frail body more, to try and shield herself from the unforgiving cold night air. She struggled to fall asleep on the freezing stone ground of the alley she was in.Just as she was barely falling asleep, she was roused from her state by a gruff voice, “You, girl.” the voice addressed her. Dazedly opening her eyes, she let them adjust to the dark lighting of the small alleyway. When her eyes adjust, she sees its a royal guard addressing her. Her eyes widened when the guard stated,“Get up. You will start working in the palace as a maid, starting tomorrow.” Standing up as quick as she can with her sore limbs, she let the tattered sheet fall to the ground. Brushing back a piece of her mud clumped hair out of her face, and looked up meekly at the powerful guard.
The guard took her arm, the tattered hanfu that clung to her body, threatening to rip off at any moment. He led Mei out of the dark alley that was hidden in the poor part of town, into the richer area. Mei hung her head low as to not be seen by anyone that may be poking their noses into anything they shouldn’t be seeing. For all anyone knew, Mei was just someone who had committed a crime against the Emperor. When they reached the gates to the palace, the guard released her arm when a girl in a royal maid outfit walked up to them.
She looked Mei up and down with a look of displeasure on her face. The maid grabbed Mei’s wrist with two fingers and kept her at arm’s length, acting like she had the plague. Walking through the pathways that were impeccably cleaned, they came up to a large building. The maid gently pushed open the door to the building, as she wasn’t trying to wake any of the sleeping maids up.
The maid paused to look at Mei for a split second, then began walking down the long halls. The maid pointed to her right of them as they passed a door and stated, “Behind that door is the kitchen where we prepare food for ourselves and the royal family. After the royal family has eaten, we immediately take the dishes and wash them.” The maid put her hand back to the side of her body, and as they passed another door, Mei looked to it and softly asked, “what’s in that room?” The maid looked over and declared “that’s where we eat our breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
The maid stopped in front of a door and instructed “You will bathe, get dressed and start your work as a maid tomorrow. Your sleeping hanfu is by the tub and your work one is by the sleeping one.” the maid let out a small yawn and turned to walk to what Mei believed was the sleeping quarters. Taking a deep breath, Mei pushed open the door and-
“Mei? Mei!!” Mei snapped out of the daydream of her coming to the palace for the first time 6 years ago. “Yes Wenling?“Mei turned her head to her best friend as she continued washing dishes. “I said,” she put emphasis on the word ‘said’ before continuing, “his highness, the Emperor has a special declaration tomorrow!” Wenling exclaimed excitedly. Mei gasped and a thought instantly came to her ‘What if he finally chooses his personal maid tomorrow?’ Mei shook her head. ‘He hasn’t chose one ever. Im such a silly girl.’
She continues washing dishes till she heard, “Everyone, get out here now!” a feminine voice yelled from outside the maid house. Taking her hands out of the warm soapy water, she turned and wiped her hands on a small towel. She rushed outside with the rest of the maids and dropped to her knees with each and every one of the maids. “All hail Madame Zhen!” the maids praised. “You may rise.” she assured. Standing with the rest of the maids, Mei stared at Madame Zhen.
Madame Zhen was the top lady in the royal harem, and the daughter of the king of the neighboring Xiongnu Empire. Madame Zhen was sent to China as a peace offering, to become one of the Emperor’s consorts. Since the empires were connected by family, it is hoped that neither empire will declare war on each other. The sound of Madame Zhen’s heels clicking against the perfectly cleaned stone pathways sent shivers down the maid’s spines. She wore a purple silk hanfu that had golden flowers stitched down the sleeves. Beautiful jade and gold jewelry adorned her neck, hands, and hair, she wore cherry blossom red lipstick that seemed to shift from red to pink in the sunlight.
Since Madame Zhen is royalty, she wants everything to go her way. Every servant, maid, and butler, hears about how cruel Madame Zhen is every other day, because she punishes servants for the littlest mistakes. She is also known for being the most desperate consort to get the Emperors attention, all though she doesn’t believe that, and kills anyone who she thinks is a threat to her position in the royal harem.
“As you all know, the Emperor has a declaration tomorrow, and its happening in the Supreme Hall of Ceremony. The Hall is messy and we need it to be cleaned, I will not be declared Empress in a messy Supreme Hall of Ceremony.” she smirked. Mei lightly scoffed at Madame Zhen’s remark, but quickly remembered her place and waited for her instructions. “I’m going to assign everyone a task to do in the Supreme Hall of Ceremony. When I go into the Hall, I don’t want to see a speck of dust or dirt in there! Got it?” Madame Zhen said and gave them an icy glare. “Yes Madame Zhen!” Mei and the rest of the maids said and Madame Zhen assigned each of them a group, and that group a task to do.
Mei was assigned the task of cleaning the floors. “You are all dismissed.” Madame Zhen dismissed them with a flick of the purple fan that had dainty lotus flowers painted on it. Mei and her group turned to the maid headquarters and walked inside, grabbing cleaning buckets along the way. They filled the buckets with warm water and put one rag in each of them. Mei lifted her bucket, and began walking to the Hall, careful not to spill any water. Walking up the steps to the Supreme Hall of Ceremony, she pushed open the doors and saw the slightly muddy floors.She shuddered and sat her bucket down, and pulled the rag out. She got onto her knees and started scrubbing the dirt away from the grand marble floors. After a few minutes she dipped her rag into the water and rinsed the dirt off of it.
Scrubbing the floors again, she began humming a song that all the maids knew. Soon after she started humming, the rest of the maids did too. Slowly, she started singing the lyrics instead of humming. She dipped her rag in the bucket and rubbed the dirt out of it before finishing the song. Starting up on singing a new song that she knew the other maids didn’t know, she suddenly heard “All hail his Majesty!” while she was singing the second verses of the song. Quickly turning, she saw the Emperor standing in the doorway of the Hall. She dropped the rag in the water bucket and ran over with the rest of the maids and dropped to her knees.
“You may rise.” The Emperor Hui Fang Duan said. Mei and the other maids stood but kept their heads lowered in respect.Hearing the clicking of heels on the pathway, Mei looked up to see Madame Zhen walking up behind the Emperor. Madame Zhen had a purple lotus flower hair piece in and she was holding a dark purple parasol that had painted gold flowers on it. “Who was the one just singing?” the Emperor asked the maids. Mei stepped out of the line and said “It was me, I was the one singing, your majesty.” she kept her head bowed.
“You have a very lovely voice.” He complimented her. Madame Zhen shot an envious glare at Mei, before walking up to the emperor and grabbing his arm and batting her eyelashes at him. “Do I have a very lovely voice, your majesty?” she asked him in a voice that was supposed to be seductive, but she was failing miserably . “Your voice is okay.” The emperor pulled his arm away from Madame Zhen’s grasp. Madame Zhen’s eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open.
After standing in shock for a few moments, she narrowed her eyes at Mei and huffed. She angrily turned away and stomped back to her palace. “You ladies can go back to work now.” the Emperor said and turned away to walk out of the Hall. “Yes your majesty.” Mei and the maids bowed before going back to work. Mei grabbed the rag and began scrubbing the floor again, happy that she had been complimented by the Emperor himself.
~ ~ ~
Madame Zhen slammed the door of her palace open, in a blind rage. The maids in attendance to her all jumped at the loud noise. “How dare he compliment a lowly maid!?” she screamed to no one in particular. One of the maids timidly walked up to her holding a tray of tea. “Madame, w-would you like s-some tea?” she asked, the tray shaking lightly from her weak grasp.
“I don’t want any damn tea!” Madame Zhen screamed and grabbed a porcelain cup that was filled with hot tea and threw it at a wall. Some of the hot tea got on a maid and the maid winced from the hot liquid. “Owww..” the maid said and tried wiping the hot tea off. “If you would have moved like a normal person who has a brain, you wouldn’t have got hit with tea!” Madame Zhen sneered at her. “You’re right Madame, its my fault I got hit with tea.” the maid bowed her head.
Madame Zhen pointed at a maid who jumped at her menacing glare. “You. Clean that mess up. Now.” She pointed to the shattered shards of porcelain and the puddle of tea. She then pointed at three other maids. “You three, go run a bath for me, and I want fresh rose and lotus flower petals in it. If I find out that any of you didn’t pick fresh flower petals, you will be punished with thirty lashes.” The maids jumped at the sound of their punishment. “Yes madame Zhen.” The four maids bowed and began to do their work.
Madame Zhen sat down and ordered a maid to take her long chocolate brown hair down. As her hair cascaded down to the middle of her back, the two maids who she ordered to get flower petals came back into her palace. They each were holding two separate bowls with the flower petals in them.They walked into the bathing room and left from Madame Zhen’s sight. A maid sat down a tray on the table with chamomile tea on it, the tea had small rose petals floating on the top.
Madame Zhen lifted the tea and sipped it gingerly. She sighed, delighted at the fact no one dared mess up anything she wants. She finished her tea and sat it down on the table in front of her. “Madame, your bath is ready” said a maid who had just walked up. Madame Zhen stood up and began walking to her bathing quarters.
The maid pushed the door to the bathing quarters open, and Madame Zhen walked in. Madame Zhen took off her silk hanfu and her heels. She stepped into the tub, and the flower petals moved away from her body, then she dismissed the maid by saying “I want to soak for a while, I will call for you when I want to be washed. Stand outside the room, and if you leave, you will get a punishment.” The maid left and madame Zhen sunk into the warm water and let out a soft sigh.
As she soaked in the water, Madame Zhen began plotting how to keep the emperor’s attention off of Mei, and on her. “I will make sure that piece of scum for a maid, never gets his attention again.” she promised herself of that. After soaking for a while and plotting of how to keep her promise, she called her maids in to bathe her. She didn’t even have to lift a finger to bathe herself the entire time.
~ ~ ~
Mei looked at the shining marble floors, that they had worked on all day. She lifted her muddy water bucket and poured the water out into a patch of untended to grass. Walking back to the Maid house, she walked into the gardens and saw some of the roses had petals missing. She stopped for a moment and looked over them to see of it was any sort of bug eating them. Once she was satisfied that she knew it wasn’t, she continued walking to the maid house.
Setting the bucket down, she walked into the kitchen and washed her hands, to rid them of the dried mud water.Quickly walking to the sleeping quarters, she sat down on a stool and took her hair out of the buns they were in, she let her silky black hair fall down to her waist.Lifting a wooden comb, she ran it through her slightly tangled hair. After combing her hair out, she sat the comb down and went over to her bed and lifted her folded sleep hanfu. Shedding her dirty working hanfu, she slipped into her sleep hanfu, tied the ribbon around the top of her chest, and left the room to wash her work hanfu.
Taking a small soap bar, she worked at all the dirt that had accumulated on her hanfu, and miraculously got all of the dirt out with ease. Squeezing most of the water out of her work hanfu, she walked outside and pinned them to a clothesline, before she went back inside, yawning. She walked back into the sleeping quarters and laid down on her bed and fell asleep almost instantly.
~ ~ ~
Mei awoke to the sound of a gong, as she and the other maid sat up, she gave a small yawn and rubbed her eyes. Standing from her bed, she sleepily walked over to the fresh bucket of ice water. She splashed her face and shivered as the bone-chilling water covered her delicate features. ‘Well, I’m definitely awake now’ she thought to herself with a small smile. Taking out her hair ribbons she ties her hair into small buns on either side of her bed, the goes outside to grab her work hanfu, happy that its fully dried.
Taking off her sleep hanfu, she puts on her work one on and slips her flats on.She walks into the kitchen, to already see it bustling with cooks making extravagant meals , maids rushing in and out with trays of already done food, and head maids and cooks shouting orders left and right. Seeing a girl struggling under the weight of two completely full trays, she rushes over while dodging everyone else in the kitchen and takes one of the trays from her while giving her a small smile. Carrying the tray out of the kitchen out at a fast pace, she carries it up the steps and into the hall.
Looking at the label on the tray, she see that the tray in her hands is meant for the top consorts; Madame Zhen, Duchesses Ai Chen, Jia Baozhai and Jingfei Lio. Walking to the head of the consort table, she set the tray down took the card off, and made sure that the center-pieces are aligned with the table cloth. Looking around, she makes some last minute adjustments to a few decorations, and made sure that Emperor Hui Fang Duan’s throne was immaculate, and up to perfection.Leaving the hall and out to the entrance she saw a few servants putting up gold and red dragons around the pillars of the Supreme Hall of Ceremony, she speed-walked back to the Maid quarters to get more food trays.
She walked into the kitchen and heard, “Mei! Grab the tray on the table to your left! Now!” not even questioning the order she grabs the tray and leaves the kitchen and out the Maid quarters to make it back to the hall. Making her hay up the three flights of stairs, she walks into the hall and glances at the car on the tray she has in her hands. Seeing that its for the Emperor she quickly made her way to the table in front of the throne and set the tray down gently, and took the card off of it while readjusting the tray. Stepping back slightly she nods and turns around to walk back to the rest of the hall.
~ ~ ~
“Get me my finest pink and gold Hanfu. I want to look my best as I am declared Empress of all China.” Madame Zhen flicked her hand at a small group of maids and they rushed away. As she ordered a pair of maids to do her hair in a very delicate and ornate way, she sipped her chamomile tea and looked around at the rest of the maids in attendance. She set her tea down and pointed at a maid, “You! Get over here and start doing my makeup!” The maid jumped and quickly began working on her make-up. Holding up a finger to the maid working on her makeup, she ordered her to make it match her hanfu.The maid nodded and quickly began continuing the make-up job, only pausing to grab different shades of makeup. When the maids are done with her hair and make-up, the small group of maids come out with a mainly pink hanfu, that had gold trim around the neckline, down the length of the over-robe and around the bottom trim, and around the edges of the see-through sleeves that had cherry blossoms stitched into them.
Taking off her regular Hanfu, she has the maids put the other one on her, and when they are done, to the other maids in attendance, Madame Zhen looked like nothing less than a goddess. Putting her pink and gold heeled flats, she turned to her head maid and nodded at her, signaling for her to follow Madame Zhen.
~ ~ ~
Mei helped the three other maids push the large red carpet across the floor and across the three flights of steps. Turning around to look at the hall, she realized it was almost time for the announcement to happen, so she went back up the stairs, into the maid side of the hall while readjusting her hair buns, due to some of the strands falling out. She listened to the gong sound, to let the consorts, the generals, and the noble-men know to start coming to the Supreme Hall of Ceremony. As the Noble-men arrived with their wives, the maids and butlers bowed to them and recited these well known words to them; “Welcome M’lord and M’lady.” When the generals arrived, some with their wives they greeted them with, “Welcome Sir and Madame.”
When the consorts arrived,They greeted them with their respective titles. But when Madame Zhen walked in with enough confidence to make any man drop to their knees, the maids and butlers nearly forgot their lines, but quickly recovered with, “Welcome Madame, you look more beautiful than the moon tonight.” Madame Zhen smirked and walked over to her seat at the head of the table for the consorts. As everyone was settling in, the gong was rang twice, to signal that the Emperor was about to arrive. As the doors swung open for the final time, the Emperor walked in wearing a dark navy hanfu with a gold dragon stitched along the back of it. Everyone in their hall bowed their heads in respect as he made his way to the throne.
As he sat on his throne everyone lifted their heads and waited for him to allow them to start eating.When he flicked his hand, everyone in attendance began to eat and converse among themselves. The maids and butlers moved behind the tables and watched for an order from anyone at the tables. Mei got an order from Duchess Ai Chen to refill her cup of wine, and Mei filled it not even missing a beat to complete another order from Madame Zhen to move the bowl of grapes closer to her. As Mei completed the task she moved back to her original position behind the consorts.
~ ~ ~
Not even thirty minutes after the ceremony started, the Emperor raised his hand as to signal everyone to pay attention to him. “Now, I know you all may be wondering why I have brought you here for an announcement.” He stated and mostly everyone, except for a few consorts who thought they knew what this was for. “Now I am here to announce something that a few of the consorts have been flitting around their bubbles and what most of the maids dream of.” Madame Zhen prepared herself to stand up and Mei leaned in a little closer with a few of the other maids in expectation at his next words. “Will Li Mei please come to the front of the room, for I have chosen her to be my personal maid.”
