The Ant Woman Ch. 03

Nuan nudged her shoulder. "That would be too embarrassing for someone of Mistress' status. She should never go there."

Wen didn't deny anything, but she didn't confirm anything either. She only sighed.

When lunch was done, the maids started gathering the dishware onto trays so they could be washed. The washing would be done by one of Pollen Lady Kumi's lower servants.

Just as they were about to open the door, someone knocked on it. A male voice, likely a eunuch's, it said through the wood, "Seafoam Attendant Wen, people have seen the Emperor in his sedan chair heading this way. Pollen Lady Kumi told me to come get you in case he comes for your attention."

Wen's feet and hands cooled. Under her makeup, her cheeks and nose heated. She almost coughed, but she was able to force it into a throat clearing.

"Oh, I'll have to go downstairs, then," Wen said as she turned to Moto. "Can you carry all these dishes by yourself?"

"I'll have to take a portion at a time, Mistress," Moto said.

Wen nodded. "That's fair. Do your best. I'll have Nuan accompany me downstairs."

Putting her tray of dishes down, Nuan asked, "Wouldn't our Mistress prefer to have a flashy piece of jewelry in her hair or on her neck before she sees the Emperor?"

Shaking her head, Wen said, "Don't worry about that. I'm perfectly acceptable. Now come."

Downstairs, in the reception room, Pollen Lady Kumi was watching two concubines dance while two others played light music, a zither and a woodblock slit drum that was quite small. Some other concubines also watched, eating light snacks and looking a bit impatient.

Kumi called out to Wen. "Oh, Little Seafoam Wen! Come sit near me. I've reserved a chair for you."

"Thank you, Madam," Wen said as she walked over to that seat. Nuan stood by and kept appropriately quiet.

Kumi's nose twitched a bit as she expectantly looked at the archway that led to the foyer. She wasn't really paying as much attention to the dancing as she should've been. "I hope lunch was pleasant for you."

"Very pleasant," Wen said as she tightly folded her hands in her lap. She wouldn't admit it, but her heart was pounding. "I'm grateful to be fed so well."

Such boring things were said for a few more moments, and then a eunuch came into the room and announced, "His Majesty's arrived!"

Everyone went down to their knees, and this greeting was given in nearly perfect unison. "Greetings to His Majesty!"

Escorted by Min Ji, his favored eunuch, Emperor Shungjahe Shunlin walked into the room with a refined stride. He was wearing a slightly old fashioned, but still often worn robe. The left side of the robe had a much longer flap required. It was wrapped around the man's body twice in a spiral-like pattern and held in place by a wide, tight sash of black silk. The garment itself was in a base of silver-like gray with white and brown embroidery.

Essentially, as the man walked, brown fish seemed to leap against a cold sky with white clouds. There were black trims with pearls on the edges of his collar, plackets, hem, and loose cuffs of his long and hanging sleeves. His blond hair was bundled up in a topknot with a matching black ribbon with more pearls, snugly kept around the bun.

Finely dressed, as Wen had expected him to be.

Inside her ankle-length socks and flat shoes, the muscles in Wen's feet and toes flexed.

The Emperor made a light gesture in the air and said, "Rise, and continue enjoying your activities."

Everyone got their feet. The musical instruments were played again. The dancers moved again. Both sets of performing concubines seemed to become heavily concentrated and forcefully cheerful. The other concubines, even Pollen Lady Kumi, quietly watched as the Emperor walked on a confident and direct course towards Wen.

The moment when his black boots halted close to Wen, she half-knelt and said, "If His Majesty has instructions for this concubine of his, then I'd be very pleased to comply."

The man's face seemed handsome, although she didn't look at it for more than a second. Firm nose with just enough width in the bridge to seem strong. On the mouth, a bottom lip that was thicker than the top. A sharp but sturdy jaw and almost pointed chin. And skin with only enough of a tan to suggest he certainly had his outdoor activities.

He hadn't smiled yet. In fact, his somewhat darker blond eyebrows were low as if something had irked him all the way to this palace. Wen wondered if he was making some sort of judgment about her. "Seafoam Attendant Wen," he said, "there's a concubine kneeling outside this palace. Has she offended someone here?"

Might as well gain a little bit of pity.

Wen turned her hands over and held her palms up. A doctor had carefully washed her them and applied some mild ointment, but there wasn't much else to do. She'd heal well. It was best to go on with her life.

"That Seafoam outside had seen me walking on a road. She assumed I was a playing maid even when I showed her my badge." Wen kept her eyes on one of the fish in the Emperor's clothes. "She made me fall down and scrape my hands. The madam of her home, Pollen Lady Hayun, punished her, and so she kneels here."

One of his eyelids twitched so quickly and so subtly that Wen silently asked herself if that even happened at all. And to her very well contained amazement, the Emperor put his closed, straight fingers under her hands, as if he wanted to support them. It turned out that he was indeed a person with blood moving in his body, warmth in his flesh. His fingernails were short, blunt, and bare.

"I sent the decree to not only the palaces, but also every building in the Tree Cage, and this is what's happened?" His voice certainly wasn't happy, but it wasn't a loud, commanding voice either. "That Seafoam has good fortune. If I'd witnessed that event without enough time for that Pollen to give her punishment, she'd have received ten strokes from a cane."

Typically, a cane beating involved strikes against the backside with ... well ... thick canes. This wasn't like a spanking one would give a child. This punishment almost always drew blood. Technically, not even an Emperor's son was immune from receiving that sort of punishment if his offense was terrible enough (but of course, only if the prince was legally an adult would he be beaten this way). The fact that the Emperor had just said he would've had it done to one of his consorts frightened Wen. She imagined it being done to herself, and her buttocks clenched under her clothing.

A light breath came from her throat as she tried to speak. Then she closed her lips, tapped the back of her black teeth with her tongue, and remade her sentence. "Please have mercy, Majesty. It was only a misunderstanding, and my hands aren't doomed."

He sighed. His hands lowered as his fingers bent. "Well ... have you written anything today?"

Putting her own hands back in an elegant pose near her belly, Wen gave a single nod. "I've written some, only simply little tales."

"That's good. You should write as much as you can." The Emperor turned his body to one side, his neck and back straight. "I'm leaving now. Goodbye."

Half-kneeling as all the other women suddenly were, Wen said, "Goodbye, Your Majesty." The other women repeated that phrase.

When Wen was back in her apartment, Nuan holding onto her trembling arm, she collapsed onto the floor, startling the poor maid who hadn't expected it. Wen's arm had slid through Nuan's grasp until only her wrist was held.

***