Forbidden City: Blood Blossoms

Chapter Three: Memories of Snow

The sedan rocked gently with every swift stride that the sedan carriers took.

Zhuang sat very still in the sedan, her hands white from clenching the folds of her skirt in her lap. She could hear Yuan's quick footsteps following behind the sedan in the eunuch's usual hurried gait.

She did not know where they were bringing her. But what does it matter now?

The sedan window curtain was drawn up, and Zhuang could see the scarlet walls of the Forbidden City going past as she was borne to her destination. Like so many years of my youth in the palace, she thought numbly, was it all for this ending?

Then the sedan turned and the walls fell away.

A light fragrance permeated the sedan. They were passing through the palace gardens, through a path lined with pear blossom trees. The trees had blossomed late, and their branches were still heavy with delicate white flowers in autumn. But now, a strong wind was tugging at the branches and the white petals were falling gently in a silent white curtain.

From the sedan window, it looked like falling snow.

The wind whistled through the cloth flap of the sedan, and Zhuang seemed to hear Consort Li's whimpering voice in her ear again, "He never trusted us... He never trusted any one of us..." She saw Lady Cui, standing in shadows of the falling petals, holding out a bowl of dark liquid and saying coldly, "Do you think you have a choice?"

The wind shifted, and the milky white petals swept upwards in a slow spinning spiral. The flowers caught the sunlight as they fluttered, seeming to shimmer with a luminous light of their own.

In the midst of the pale swirling blossoms, she seemed to glimpse the lithe form of Xue dancing gracefully between waves of glimmering white silk.

Porcelain wine cups clinked. The palace orchestra had struck up a light playful tune. There was light chatter and laughter among the concubines in the banquet hall of the Palace of Eternal Peace, as the servants drifted in with plates of delicacies and jugs of wine.

Zhuang sat demurely among the lower ranking concubines at the bottom tier of tables lining the hall. In between polite banter with Lady Chun and sips of wine, she would covertly glance up at the center of attention of the banquet hall.

The Emperor sat at the highest tier of the hall, resplendent in his imperial yellow robes. His favorite consorts and concubines were arrayed around him, each vying subtly in their own way for his attention. Consort Li was leaning over and speaking to him with a coy touch of her hand on his arm, but at this moment, he did not appear to be listening to her. He was gazing intently at one of the dancers in the center of the hall.

The dancers on the dais were performing a lively stomping song about love in spring. Their voices soared as they whirled and swayed their long sleeves in time to the music.

Xue spun gracefully in the center of the group. Her long skirt flared out like the petals of a blossoming flower around her willowy figure as she turned. Her small oval face was enticingly flushed and her eyes bright, as she sang joyously with her fellow dancers. The Emperor watched her, seemingly captivated.

Zhuang gazed at Xue with mixed feelings.

Xue had entered the Forbidden City at the same time as her. Like Zhuang, Xue was one of numerous concubines in the palace. But Xue had not attracted the Emperor's notice for many years. Meek and quiet in behavior, she was unable to compete with other concubines who dominated the Emperor's attention with witty conversation, flirtatious manners, tantrums and other tactics.

Zhuang had dropped several concerned hints about her reticence in the beginning, but Xue would remain silent with a resigned look in her eyes. As seasons passed and more girls entered the harem, she became even more withdrawn and melancholy.