The Ant Woman Ch. 09

The reward for Wen's latest book was absolutely darling. It was a set of fingerpicks, plectrums for when she played the zither. They were made of tortoiseshell, unlike the animal teeth versions Wen had been using up until that point. She spent an hour or so playing her zither with these fingerpicks, while the Emperor relaxed nearby, sipping flowery water and admiring the summer sky. He said he wanted to spend a little more time with her since he'd be gone the next morning.

A religious ceremony outside the Tree Cage, followed by a hunting trip. Even the Emperor needed to have something to break up the routine.

Later that night, beside a lamp, Wen pulled out her Honey Attendant badge and let her fingertips slide around its edges. It was similar to her old badge, bronze with her name, although her new rank was also engraved there. It was still a low rank, but the Emperor was now giving her quite a bit of favor.

Before, when she was the lowest rank, she purposely dressed beneath it, hoping that nobody would assume she had arrogant plans. Seducing the Emperor? In those clothes? There would be no way! But it seemed that, somehow, she'd seduced him anyway ... although Wen couldn't pinpoint the exact way she'd done it.

Maybe ... maybe the reason why he'd become so attracted to her was because she didn't try to seduce him? He might've thought that was refreshing. If she got pregnant and then successfully gave birth, she'd likely be promoted a few ranks ahead. Goodness, she might even be given a palace all on her own, with an abundant amount of servants to look after her!

But Wen told herself not to seek out this fate. If she remained content with what she had, even with less than that, then she wouldn't be disappointed. A man's favor, even a good man's favor, was often capricious.

***

A eunuch sent a message to Wen's apartment the following morning. It was from the Moonbeam Palace. Pollen Lady Hayun wanted her to come over for lunch. Wen didn't know what to think, but she happily went with Moto at her side. She trusted Pollen Lady Kumi to keep her apartment safe, especially since there was a new lock on the door.

Inside the elegant reception room of that Moonbeam Palace, Wen was greeted by the shining Pollen Lady and served a hearty yet carefully portioned meal. Wen expressed her gratitude in the humblest way, but Hayun tapped her shoulder with her hand fan and said, "Don't pretend you don't know why I've invited you. You have the Emperor's favor now, and it's in my best interest to be cordial with you."

That wasn't illogical.

The conversation was light until Wen happened to ask if Seafoam Attendant Bora was doing well.

"Even after all this time," Hayun said as she held a spoonful of vegetables, her golden eyes regretful, "Bora is quite gloomy. Her body's healed but her heart is low."

Wen wanted to give a catty remark, but she knew better. "I'm certain that when her confinement's finished, that Seafoam will become much more animated."

"She's asked if you'd mind visiting her apartment after lunch." Hayun shrugged as her little mouth formed a thin line.

Wen pulled her drink a bit closer as she said, "Madam, this concubine doubts your trust in her."

A dangling silver ornament in Hayun's looped, black hair swung a bit as she looked away. "What little trust I have in her has been stretched thinner than an old man's hair. You should put even less trust in her."

"No matter," Wen said, "this Honey will certainly pay the Seafoam a short visit."

Once lunch was finished, Wen gave her polite goodbye and then she had Moto escort her upstairs to Seafoam Attendant Bora's apartment. In the dining room, Bora was sitting in a chair. Her normally plump face had a bit less fat than Wen had expected. Her hazel eyes were twitching as she stood up, then slowly half-knelt. Her voice had an odd hitch in it as she said, "Good afternoon, Honey Attendant Wen."

"Have you been well, Seafoam?" Wen asked as she took a seat. Bora went back to hers.

Bora reached up to pretend to adjust a comb in her blonde hair. "I don't think that could be honestly answered without offending someone."

Wen saw one of Bora's maids leave towards the kitchen, probably to find light snacks for the guest. On the way, she thought that maid moved a little too close to Moto for her comfort, and Wen did turn her neck to narrow her eyes and follow the maid's path.

Bora suddenly said. "I'm required to apologize to you."

Looking back to Bora, Wen said, "You could've done that a long time ago. Don't bother kneeling. I won't accept such a weak display from you. You're not worth the time." It was one of the rudest things she'd ever said to a concubine, but Wen had the courage. She had a higher rank and the Emperor's favor, and Bora was openly recognized as someone Wen had every right to dislike.

Her almost childlike nose wrinkling, Bora said with more blatant hatred, "You won't accept an apology?" There was a fleshy, thick noise as she slapped the tabletop. The maids around them recoiled a bit. "Your rank might be higher than mine, but my family is higher than yours! You're only the child of a second-rate treasury minister! My father is baron!"

"Your father is a baron," Wen said as she got up from her seat, "but from the beginning you were given the lowest rank. His Majesty must not be very intimidated by such a baron." She too slapped the tabletop, but her palm remained on the wood and her fingernail guards clacked almost clumsily as she stared down at the uneasy Bora. Her nostrils flared so much that Wen almost looked like a pig.

"I'll tell you a little story, Bora." Her voice wasn't particularly loud, but it was sharp and precise. "My legal mother once falsely accused me of a crime. My father sent me off for two years to work in the countryside. But in some months he learned I was innocent and sent men to take me away from that hard life. Pure animosity still fried in my stomach, and I demanded to remain for the remainder of the original punishment just to embarrass him. I. Am. Maliciousness incarnate. Vent no more anger towards me nor my maids." Again, she slapped the table. "Or else you will suffer."

Uncaring of Bora's shocked face and quivering lips, and certainly uncaring of her maid returning with snacks, Wen told Moto they were leaving the apartment. Along the way, Wen made a point of asking Moto if she was alright. Was she pricked? Bruised? Did anything strange happen to her? Moto couldn't recognize anything odd. So, the walk was peaceful.

But ...

Just before Wen and Moto were at the entrance to the Sweet Carrot Palace ...

With some maids and a gang of eunuchs, Pollen Lady Hayun rushed over. "Halt! Halt!" the Pollen Lady said, holding her skirt and rushing over.

Wen and Moto both knelt down on the stone pathway leading to the entrance. Wen said, "Beautiful Pollen, what's the matter?"

One she was standing before the kneeling women, Hayun pointed to Moto and said, "Search her!"

Green eyes confused, mouth shriveling, Moto had to endure a light body search from Hayun's maids. Wen nearly broke her voice as she asked, "Why are you doing this?!"

Behind Wen, the entrance doors were open and shut, and Pollen Lady Kumi's voice nearly echoed, but it still held a loving concern. "What's the meaning of this? How can such viciousness be in the harem?"

With her own maids and eunuchs, Pollen Lady Kumi stood Wen and Moto, and she looked at Hayun with a sad expression. "What reason do you have to search a maid from my palace, Hayun?"

Putting a palm to her bosom, Hayun sighed and told her, "I'm afraid that I must. Someone's reported Honey Attendant Wen's maid as a thief."

"Moto wouldn't steal," Wen said, cringing at the discomfort on Moto's face.

Yet right after Wen had said that, a maid took something out from, of all places, one of Moto's sandy blonde buns. A short and thin hairstick had been hidden in there, apparently. It was made of gold with a single, tiny bead of dark green jade. Moto's eyes widened as she looked at the thing and she said in a panicked tone, "Never! This servant would never steal! Never!" She prostrated herself before Pollen Lady Hayun. "I swear by Heaven! I am not a thief!"

Almost looking nauseated, Hayun said, "Seafoam Attendant Bora reported that her old gold hairstick, a personal item from her childhood home, had gone missing the same time Honey Attendant Wen and her maid paid her apartment a visit today. And here the stolen item is, with Tou Moto."

"Moto was close to me during the entire visit," Wen insisted, "if she'd stolen anything, I'd have witnessed it!"

Hayun turned her head away. "Dear Little Honey, you're known for coddling your maids. If your Tou Moto did steal something, I wouldn't be surprised if you'd lie to protect her. Actually, coddling one's maids can lead to such bold crimes."

In her vulnerable, curled position, Moto was shaking and sniffing.

With a firm shake of her head, Wen nearly yelled this out, "The hairstick was planted on Moto! I saw one of Bora's maids move too close to her at one point! I never thought something as ridiculous as this would happen!" She slammed her hands so hard on the pavement that it hurt, and she too prostrated herself. "Please, Great Pollen Ladies! Investigate this!"

To Wen's shock and horror, she heard Kumi say in an admittedly reluctant tone, "Wen has always protected her maids. A maid treated too softly can grow insolent. One of Wen's maids dared to have an affair with a guard, and Wen asked His Majesty for mercy. Perhaps Tou Moto believed the risk of punishment would be diminished since her mistress is so kind?"

Pity and alarm ran through Wen's extremities. She rushed to offer the best thing she could think of. "Please, Pollen Ladies, please put this matter before the Empress Consort to judge." She assumed that since the Empress Consort was on positive, if a bit distant, terms with her, then she'd be more likely to listen to her pleas.

Both Pollen Ladies sent a eunuch over to the Moonlight Pearl Palace.

The next few minutes were so disgustingly tense and quiet. Wen could still hear poor Moto whimpering, close to bursting. Nobody spoke, not even the Pollen Ladies, who awkwardly stood as if they were afraid to ask for chairs to be brought to them.

Eventually, the Pollen Ladies' eunuchs returned ... with more eunuchs, who had likely come from the Moonlight Pearl Palace. One of the other eunuchs said quite harshly, "The Empress Consort is highly irritated by this trivial matter. She's demanded that the thief be caned to death."

Moto's raw wail of despair and desperation broke Wen's heart. As eunuchs forcibly grabbed her by her arms and dragged her away, Wen stood up and cried out, "I'll go beg to Her Majesty for leniency! Endure the best you can!!" Then, not wanting to give the Pollen Ladies any time for them to speak, she sprang up and ran. Just ran by herself. One of her fingernail guards fell off and bounced on the pavement. So did a brooch. She didn't care.

After what felt like days, Wen collapsed at the gate hiding the Moonlight Pearl Palace. Not thinking much of the guards' concerned looks, she got to a kneeling position, although she was shaky. She hollered out, "This Honey Attendant humbly begs for Her Majesty's compassion!!"

Then she prostrated, letting her head tap the road. It hurt a little.

Then she took her kneeling position again.

One of the guards seemed to speak through a tiny hole in the fence, likely to another guard. Some moments later, as Wen continued to bow down, refusing to cushion herself with her hands, the gate was opened. The next time Wen rose back to a kneeling position, one of her paper decorations from her brow had peeled off, and along with the paste there was a bit of blood. She looked up at the maid behind the opened gate and asked, "Will you please tell the Empress that Honey Attendant Wen is outside begging for mercy on behalf of her maid?!"

The maid nodded and said she'd obey. Wen still knelt there, trembling but too stubborn to fall over. Some more moments painfully dug in Wen's mind. Finally, The Empress Consort emerged with her maids, glittering and twinkling as usual. It didn't matter that she was a little shorter than Wen. Wen was in a low position, literally, and the Empress stood over her, looking down with tired eyes as if her patience had already fled.

"You honestly don't believe that maid stole anything, correct?" The Empress' voice was dry.

"I believe trickery has been used on us all," Wen said as she prostrated herself again. "Please, Your Majesty! Please investigate!"

Like a child that had her favorite game interrupted, the Empress groaned. "I was having a wonderful time, and then this mess was brought to me. But the more you slap your forehead on the stone the more annoyed I'll be. If I halt the beating and have the maid interrogated instead, will you let me have my peace?"

"I'll be forever grateful, Your Majesty!"

The yellow and blue striped hem of the Empress' skirt flapped and twirled as she turned around. "Fine. I'll send a eunuch with my order."

That should have given Wen relief, and for a while it did. She thanked the Empress so many times that it genuinely gave her a brief stomach ache.

But when the Empress' eunuch returned he gave a report with an awestruck voice ...

The eunuch in charge of Moto's death caning wanted to have mercy on her. Instead of killing her slowly, they'd simply put a single, heavy blow to her head. They were planning on lying and giving false records about it.

Moto had died before the Empress Consort had given into Wen's pleas.

Wen's body felt cold for the longest time.

She didn't love Moto.

Didn't really know much about her.

There was no affection at all.

But Moto was a person, and the fact that this had happened at all put the quietest ire in her heart.

On that same day, the Empress Dowager heard about the incident. She summoned Pollen Lady Hayun, Pollen Lady Kumi, the Empress Consort, and Wen all to her Plum Aroma Palace for a very stern meeting.

Whatever the truth of the matter was, the Empress Dowager was convinced that the Empress Consort had mismanaged this case. Unfortunately, now that the maid was dead, the Dowager didn't think there was much else to do. She didn't think there as enough evidence to point one way, the other, or some mysterious third way. But she did give the Empress Consort a chilling warning. The Emperor himself would be home soon, and he was the one person with the authority to depose her. If he thought his Empress Consort wasn't managing the harem very well ...

It wouldn't have been the first time an Empress Consort was dethroned and sent off somewhere while a concubine was promoted as the new Empress Consort.

But this pretty Empress Consort didn't seem concerned at all by the Dowager's words. She only knelt down and gave the laziest apology Wen had ever seen. She was starting to wonder if the Empress Consort regularly drugged herself.

The eunuch that had decided Moto should be killed quickly was punished, but lightly so, because the Empress Dowager believed he had good intentions. As for Moto's death, the story that was told was this: Tou Moto had a seizure and knocked her head on something. The Empress Dowager herself would send her family a small package of silver and claim it was to "compliment and congratulate" them for having raised a hard worker. This was to keep possible shame away from Moto's family and, more importantly, to hide the entire incident.

***

A shard of understandable fear blossomed in Luh Lien's heart when she learned of the calamity. For a maid to suffer an unjust death, even when her mistress was kind and tried to protect her, well ... that was deeply disturbing. It was enough to have Lien press her back to a wall and lose her thoughts to terror for a few minutes.

Thankfully, Mistress was kind and understanding, even when she was clearly quivering from hardly contained rage. She didn't tell Lien to hurry up and serve her. Honey Attendant Wen only sat at her dining table and very angrily chewed on raw carrots for the longest time. Sometimes she might get up and sit at her writing desk, one of the Emperor's old boots in her lap, squeezing it like a pillow.

When the sky darkened, Pollen Lady Kumi sent a servant to ask Mistress Wen go visit her. Lien knew she couldn't relax anymore. She had to present herself well for Mistress' sake. Protectively, she took Mistress Wen's wrist and walked her out of the apartment and into the palace's reception room. It was mostly empty.

For a time, Pollen Lady Kumi gave Mistress quiet little words. They were probably meant to be comforting. After a while, the Pollen told all the maids, including Lien, to leave them alone. As she walked off to a corner of the room, Lien looked back to see the Pollen leading a fatigued looking Mistress Wen to some secret place where nobody could see them. Mistress had her hands on her face, looking as if she was trying to hold in an explosion.

The next morning, Mistress wanted her breakfast alone in her apartment. Lien went off to the kitchen to get some extra things for her. On the way, she happened to bump into a eunuch that looked really eager to leave the place. With a short cry, he dropped a heavy sack. When it landed on the floor, it made a metallic clunk. But he smiled and picked the sack back up, holding it over his shoulder.

Wondering if he'd stolen something, Lien said to him, "Oh Sir, you look so happy. Have you received any good news?"

Nodding, the eunuch said, "Yes, Miss Luh. Pollen Lady Kumi has given me permission to leave the palace to visit my family. She's even given me a much more time than I'd asked for."

Lien shrugged and congratulated him. But she took a detour to see Pollen Lady Kumi herself. She said to the concubine, "This servant might have misjudged the situation. That eunuch is likely innocent of any crime, but it felt so strange that it should be reported." Pollen Lady Kumi told her she'd investigate, and she thanked her.

***

When it was close to the lunch hour, a eunuch from the Dragon's Nest Palace visited and said, "His Majesty has requested Honey Attendant Wen's attendance at his dining table." He bowed to Wen. "Please don't keep His Majesty waiting."

Another inevitable thing. The Emperor would certainly want to speak to her about this issue.

Wen thought she was much calmer than she'd been before. Most of her anger had ran out. But she certainly wanted to tell the Emperor her side.

The private little dining room that Wen was escorted to had bright blue and yellow colors along with a combination of pale and dark woods. When the Emperor was in her sight, Wen thought he seemed particularly grand. His pale hair was mostly loose with only a few thin braids that had gemstone beading. His cap had a few stick-like ornaments with dark jade beads and pearls forming abstract shapes. His closed gown had fitted sleeves and was a rich berry red color. Silver threads made images of falling water on the arms and chest.

After Wen knelt, the Emperor told her to rise before she had the chance to give her greeting. His lower eyelids tightened. He wasn't smiling. He made a crisp gesture towards a chair and told her to sit down.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Wen took her seat. She saw and smelled the pleasant foods that were already laid out for them.

Not giving her time to even have a cup of tea poured for her, the Emperor sat down and demanded Wen's personal explanation of the incident concerning Tou Moto. Feeling dramatic, Wen put her hand on her heart and took a heavy breath. Then she gave what she believed was an honest view on that terrible chain of events.

The food and drink hadn't even been touched during the whole thing.