Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace

“How should I put this, uh, she’s quite the weak person, isn’t she.”

That was Yui Mei’s impression after listening to Xu’s story so far.

In the face of her family’s hardships and downfall, she neither accepted the situation, nor did she do something to oppose it. She just wished that somebody would save her.

Afterward, she made Xu appear as the villain and saw herself as a pitiful, tragic, woman. She hoped that somebody would save her and restore her to her former life of being a pampered woman.

She pretended to be oblivious towards the difference of her ability with that of Xu.

It seemed that she had a bad habit of pretending she didn’t know anything if it didn’t suit her convenience.

Xu nodded in agreement to Yui Mei’s words.

“Yeah, precisely. Are all women born with golden spoons in their mouth raised like that?

Xu seemed like she was saying “good grief” by the way she spoke, but it was noticeable that her manner of speaking had become more relaxed.

Perhaps she was feeling better after letting out all those things in her heart that she had been holding back.

In any case, Yui Mei just smiled wryly at Xu’s unreserved judgment.

“I don’t believe that’s how it is. All the noble people I met here in the palace are all splendid, you know?”

Of course, not all the consorts and the palace ladies were purely innocent, and there were those who went astray because they had been devoted to their avarice. Nevertheless, none of them stayed weeping in the corner while relying on others to save them from their situation.

With that perspective, even those who had turned into villains were still considered splendid in Yui Mei’s book.

“Is it like that?”

Xu just shook her head even after hearing Yui Mei’s explanation.

From Xu’s standpoint, those noblewomen were not people she could casually approach and strike up a conversation with. She could only see them beyond the gauze that separated them from the place where the band was crammed into.

Now, back to the topic at hand.

Blaming Xu for her current misfortune wasn’t the only thing that the girl did.

“If it wasn’t for you, my career should already be rising by now, and I might even have gained the attention of the emperor”

That was what the girl said.

The “attention” she was referring to didn’t just mean being praised for her skills in the lute.

She had been expecting something beyond that — that was to be summoned into the emperor’s bedchambers, apparently.

“Eh, did she just target His Majesty the Emperor!? Seriously!?”

Yui Mei unwittingly shrieked at the unexpected development,

Xu looked a bit exasperated at her scream.

“Yeah, that’s right. Based on the stories circulating in the Jiaofang, it’s not unheard of for the palace courtesan to catch the eye of the emperor and become one of his consorts Well, aside from being an exaggeration, it’s just an absurd story. And yet there she is, thinking she can be like that for some reason.”

“SIgh, I’m not sure now whether she has the guts, or she’s a coward….”

Or perhaps, had she belonged to a family powerful enough that she was once considered as a candidate to enter the Inner Palace?

Was that the reason why she decided to start over and change her life course into that direction?

‘Still, isn’t that a bit… too optimistic of her?’

Yui Mei came all the way here from the borderland just so she could watch the Inner Palace, but she doesn’t think it was such a big deal. That girl was as carefree as Yui Mei in this sense.

Yui Mei turned to face Libin, who had been quietly listening until this time, because she was a bit curious as to what he thought.

“Lord Libin, do you think it’s possible?”

“No. At the very least, unless you search for records that date way, way back, you won’t find any names of consorts who were once a palace courtesan, right? At any rate, I don’t know anyone like that.” 

Libin promptly dismissed it.

“Yeah, same for me. The organization per se might make it possible for a palace courtesan to be a consort, but it isn’t realistic. Having no backing or support is considered as a blemish on one’s career, and they don’t give any benefit to the country, so they’re generally considered as a worse option than having a commoner-born concubine.

In order for the impossible to happen, that person must be someone extremely outstanding.”

The man also expressed his own opinion.

‘Right?…’

She could only agree with Libin and the man’s opinions.

—–

T/N: *Consort, as in those higher ranked ones, not plain concubines.