A Forbidden Happiness

Chapter 5

After Wang gugu left, Jiayi laid on the ground crying bitterly. She wished she had never left the hard labor camp. Even if Su gonggong thought about being cruel, she was sure she could muster up the strength to fight him off. Not to mention the man was near 70 years old! Her suffering would've only lasted five years or so. Shorter, if she became impatient.

Here, being unfair to a palace maid was like treading the ground beneath you. It was nature. As much she wanted to curl into the carpet and cry, Jiayi knew that Wang gugu would expect all three of them to up and ready to work in a few short hours. There was no point in crying any longer.

Biting back a scream, Jiayi sat up. She tipped her head back, closed her eyes and remembered. She remembered bathing in the rivers with her nanny as a child. She remembered how she felt like water cleansed her of all her worries. Jiayi clutched that memory in her sweaty hands and stood.

"I'll boil some water for a wash," she said before limping away.

She didn't bother to pick up a lantern and walked into the pitch blackness of the courtyard. She walked until her knees hit the edge of the well and pulled up a bucket of fresh water. When she stepped back inside, an older maid was there to meet her.

"Good," the stranger said, "Is the water clean?"

"Um...I have to heat it,"

"Hurry up then!" She said before delving deeper in the rooms.

Jiayi didn't have the energy to question the sudden appearance. She carried the warmed water to the maids' room.

Two other elder maids were in the room, leaning over Ping'er and Molan who face down on their beds, stripped to only their underpants. Several medicinal bowls were boiling away over small braziers.

"Finally," The older maid said. She took the warmed water and nodded to the medicines, "Fan the fire, but don't let it boil over,"

Jiayi picked up the fan lying by the medicines and got to work. It looked like Wang gugu sent a few gugus from the Imperial Hospital to check on them. Wang gugu knew that it was more work than it was worth to find an entirely new set of maids to keep readying Xiang gui ren's rooms.

"Idiot," the gugu said, pulling her upright, "Why didn't you say anything? Strip down, lie on the bed. Quickly!"

Stripping out of her clothes was monumental task. The dried blood had glued her clothes to her back. By the time she was topless, she was bleeding all over again.

"Not as bad as the others," the gugu tutted, "It's good that you're not so delicate,"

The gugu wiped her back down in warm water and layered a foul smelling paste on the wounds before wrapping them in gauze. Nasty as it smelled, the paste numbed her pain enough so she could change into her nightclothes. The gugu gave them each a bowl of bitter medicine to drink.

"Wang gugu was very merciful to you three," One of them said as the packed up, "Make sure to behave yourselves in the future,"

Jiayi, Ping'er and Molan struggled to their feet.

"This servant understands," they chorused.

Ping'er crawled back into bed, weeping miserably, "I want to go home," she cried with big gasping sobs, "I want my mother!"

Jiayi was painfully reminded that Ping'er was only slightly more than a child. Both she and Molan had been in the Forbidden City for years and understood the suffering that came from being a servant. Less than a year ago, Ping'er was probably still hiding behind her mother's skirts.