Finally, we arrived at a beautiful building. The two main doors were wide open to allow the breeze through and Lady Yun was reclining on a sofa with plush, silk cushions. She sat up as I approached, but she did not stand. I kneeled before her.

  “Lady Yun,” I said, my eyes downcast. “You were so kind to send for me. I am not worthy to be in your magnificent home.”

  “Please, Mistress Yang,” she said, motioning for me to sit near her. “The honor is mine. I don’t know why I didn’t invite you to visit me years ago. You were one of my favorite people at court.”

  “You flatter me, my lady,” I said, sitting.

  “Well, I was intrigued by your note,” she said. “You know, we don’t know much of anything going on at court. We just sit here in our own little world as life on the outside passes us by. Life at court was so much more interesting than life in here.”

  “I am sure life in here has many more pleasures than life in service, though,” I said.

  “In some ways,” she said. “I certainly don’t want for anything material, but the lack of mental stimulation can be frustrating.”

  “I can understand that,” I said. “If I didn’t have my embroidery work, I am not sure what I would do to occupy my mind.”

  Lady Yun nodded and a maid approached to pour us some tea. “So, tell me, Mistress Yang, why exactly have you come?”

  “It is about Prince Gong,” I said. “The empress is concerned about his health.”

  Lady Yun laughed. “I don’t believe that for a minute. Did you forget I also served alongside that harpy?”

  My face blushed. I had never heard anyone insult the empress in such a bold manner. She must have seen my reaction.

  “Oh, don’t worry,” she said. “We can speak freely here. I just meant that I know Empress Cixi doesn’t give one fig about the well-being of others. She is only concerned about the prince’s health if she thinks it might impact her in some way.”

  I nodded and took a sip of my tea. “You are right about that,” I said. “She is worried that the prince’s health is hurting his ability to offer council.”

  Lady Yun stirred her tea and took a long sip before replying. “He has been sick for a while. He can’t sleep but he is tired all the time. He is forgetful. He has even vomited blood.”

  I put down my teacup and reached for her hand. “I am very sorry to hear this,” I said. “I had no idea.”

  “Didn’t you?” she said, looking at me with tears in her eyes. “Don’t you see him even more than we do? His own wives? His own children?”

  “Lady Yun, I don’t know what you think or what others have told you, but I rarely see the prince. I am in the inner court, where the prince, where any man, rarely is allowed. I had not seen him in months before yesterday and realized something was wrong.”

  She shook her head. “You don’t know what it’s like, Yaqian,” she said. “The loneliness is devastating. People talk of marriage, of love, as if it is some all-encompassing union between two people that will bring all manner of happiness, but it is torture. Do you know what it is like to devote yourself to one person you can never have all to yourself?”

  I didn’t respond because I knew I could never relate to the pain she felt.

  “And don’t fool yourself into thinking that children can fill the void. My sons are all gone, either at school or in military training. They will soon establish their own households. My daughters are all gone. Married young and at the homes of their husbands. I cannot embrace my husband or my children. All is lost to me.”

  “You are in a unique position to help him,” I said. “The empress is not happy. If he doesn’t step down or give her a reason to dismiss him, she could do far more than ask for his resignation.”

  Her eyes widened in fear. As sad and lonely as she was, if anything bad happened to the prince, she could end up without even a roof over her head.

  “But they have been allies for thirty years!” she said. “It is only by his support she is even sitting on that throne.”

  “Yes, but her prerogative now is to stay on that throne. You know she shouldn’t even be on it now.”

  “So I heard. Apparently your daughter has moved up in the world.”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about,” I said, though she knew I did.

  “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me, for as much of a secret as it is.”

  “What do you mean? I thought you were cut off from the court.”

  “This goes far beyond the court, Yaqian. Everyone knows you and prince are her parents.”

  I thought about how the empress accused Lady Tang of being Hulan’s mother. Did she really think it was Lady Tang or was she just pretending?

  “Lady Yun, please, I must apologize…”

  “For what? That is just how life is. The prince has half a dozen wives and concubines, what is one more lover? The only difference is that you are the only one inside the palace. The only one with the ear of the empress. You wield a great amount of power in that little embroidery needle of yours.”

  I really didn’t know what she was talking about, but I didn’t want her to know that. And I needed to get her to listen to me about Prince Gong before I had to leave.

  “Lady Yun,” I said, setting down my teacup, “I am trying to help. The prince must take care. He must give the empress an excuse to dismiss him, but not something serious enough that she could take it further and seek to ruin him or worse. He must cause a small offense.”

  “I don’t know. It seems risky.”

  “It is, but it is better than the alternative. If Empress Cixi is forced to come up with her own solution, it could have much more dire consequences. Besides, if he is dismissed, he can come home. He can be here with his family. He can get medical treatments.”

  “And what do you want, Mistress Yang,” she asked me.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Why are you here? What are you hoping to get out of this?”

  “Nothing,” I said. “I don’t need or want anything. I am only trying to help.”

  “Because you love him?” she asked.

  “Because I love her,” I said. “Prince Gong has been her friend and ally for decades. Sometimes, she can be impetuous and mourn her actions later. I don’t want her to do something she will regret.”

  Lady Yun nodded. “I thank you for coming by,” she said, motioning that it was time for me to leave. “I will consider what you have told me.”

  * * *

  The next day, Prince Gong was absent from court, and he was gone for several weeks. He apparently took leave from work, the council, and the court without permission. This was considered an affront to Her Majesty and negligence in his duties. It was not a deadly offense, or even a greatly disgracing one, but enough for the empress to have cause to dismiss the prince from court.

  When the prince returned, Cixi threw a red-inked decree at his feet and banished him from court. He easily accepted, but he still asked that she allow him to wish her well on her birthday. She refused to see him.

  23

  The Forbidden City, 1889

  The day finally came when my daughter could no longer placate the emperor. According to her, he was fed up with being denied his rightful place on the throne. He even began throwing and breaking things in his palace out of frustration. He could not oust his Papa Dearest on his own, that would be unfilial, but his outbursts could no longer be contained. He was still quite young, but he was well-educated thanks to Tutor Weng and knew his rights. Empress Cixi could no longer hold the throne on his behalf and began making arrangements for his wedding and ascension to the Dragon Throne.

  The empress knew this day would come eventually, so she already had the emperor’s consorts chosen. My daughter was not one of them. She chose the younger daughter of her brother and named her Empress Longyu. Since Empress Longyu was the daughter of Empress Cixi’s brother and Guangxu was the son of her sister, the new emperor and empress were even closer cousins than the emperor and Hulan. However, this fact did not seem to concern anyone.

  By the time her wedding arrived, Longyu was already twenty-one years old, far older than most new consorts. She was also much older than the two women chosen to be Guangxu’s concubines: Jade, who was fourteen, and Pearl, who was only twelve.

  Empress Cixi’s choices for consorts were shocking. Longyu was not only too old, she wasn’t very pretty. When I was sent to her home to prepare her wedding gowns, I couldn’t believe the difference between this plain creature and the astounding Alute I had made a gown for years before. Alute could seduce a man with a glance; this girl couldn’t seduce a pig farmer. I am too cruel. She wasn’t ugly, but she wasn’t the type of girl any man would pick if he could choose any girl in the country. Longyu was kind, well trained in manners and etiquette, and utterly devoted to her aunt, but she wasn’t very well educated. She could not read, write, sing, or play any instruments. Her personality was as dull as her face.

  Pearl and Jade were not much better. Jade was pretty enough, though still forming. Her breasts were growing and her face was womanly and innocent at the same time. She would undoubtedly be a lovely woman. Pearl, though, was little more than a child. When she pinned her hair up, she looked so much like a boy one would only know she was a girl by the clothes she wore.

  The emperor did not choose his consorts, which was a stark change from tradition. Even though the Empress Mother always had an influence on her son’s choice of empress, the emperor typically made the final choices. Empress Cixi did not allow her adoptive son this luxury and he did not have the will to fight her. He wanted to be on the throne, and if giving into his Papa Dearest’s choices for consorts was the price, so be it.

  My daughter was ordered to leave the palace before the new empress and consorts arrived. But there was a complication.

  “I am pregnant,” my daughter told me the night before she was to leave.

  “How is that possible?” I asked.

  “I don’t know exactly,” she said. “But he must have spilled inside me just enough.”

  “Have you told the emperor?”

  “No. I have told no one.”

  “Good,” I said. “I think we should keep it that way.”

  “Why?” she asked. “This could be the emperor’s first son. That has to mean something.”

  “I don’t know that is does,” I said. “You are not a consort.”

  “But the empress and the council had to know that this was a possibility when they allowed me to become his mistress. What was their plan?”

  “I don’t know that they had a plan,” I said. “Maybe they just figured they would deal with that problem if it ever came up.”

  “Well, it has happened now. Shouldn’t we tell them? Wouldn’t it at least allow me to stay in the palace and my child to be raised like a prince?”

  “My darling, I fear for your safety at this point. If the child had come months or years ago, I would allow you to take the risk and perhaps be appointed an official consort, but I think it is too late now. The empress has been chosen and you are a complication.”

  “What are you saying? You think they would kill me?”

  “I think that killing you now would be easier than killing you later if you give birth to a son. They cannot allow you to supplant the new empress.”

  “So you would deny my child his birthright? Just as you denied me?”

  “To save his life? Yes.”

  “Where will I go? What will I do?”

  “Does the emperor know you are leaving? Has he given you any money?”

  “He has never given me money. Any money for my household was given to my eunuch and he handled the accounts. But he has given me many gifts over the years, jewels and silks and such.”

  “That will do. Take whatever you can. If you think anything will be too suspicious to move now, give it to me and I will send it to you later. I also have money I can give you, and embroidery you can sell. I will send word to your father. He will take you into his home.”

  “That will be terrible,” she said. “All those women who are not my mother and all those cousins? And me, pregnant with no husband?”

  “Hopefully it will only be temporary. We can try to set up a household for you of your own. Or I can talk to the empress and ask her to make a marriage for you.”

  “I don’t want a marriage,” she said. “After what I have experienced with Guangxu, marriage is nothing to be envious of.”

  “I won’t argue with that,” I said.

  “I’m probably too old to make a match anyway,” she sighed. At twenty-four, she was probably right. How funny it was that my unmarried daughter was going to have a baby at the same age I did, also without a husband. I didn’t raise the girl, but she certainly turned out like me anyway.

  That night, I sent a letter to Prince Gong and Lady Yun and asked them to take Hulan into their home. Their reply accepting my request came quickly. The next morning, Hulan left before the sun rose with as many jewels, clothes, and trinkets as she could carry.

  * * *

  Guangxu’s wedding, for all its splendor, was a disaster. The emperor was furious with his Papa Dearest’s choice of empress. He had not seen her before the wedding and was not told how old she was. He was cold to her and refused to kiss her or hold her hand. He feigned sickness and did not attend the marriage banquet. He thought little better of Jade, but he did seem to take a strange liking to little Pearl, the boyish child bride. I thought about his predecessor and cousin, Emperor Xianfeng, and how it was rumored that he also preferred the company of boys in his bed to that of his wife. I wondered how long it would be before similar rumors swirled around Guangxu.

  Empress Cixi was similarly unhappy. She retired to the Sea Palace, which was situated on a lake within the Forbidden City. She was so close to the seat of power but couldn’t be further from it. The emperor refused to keep her informed about what was going on in the kingdom and did not solicit her advice. The grand councilors had no pretense to visit her and also could not communicate with her. She was bored and frustrated. Her only consolation was that now she could engage in her one true enjoyment – opera. The operas played day and night, the singing and clanging of symbols drowning out the misery that infected the palace.

  I at least was able to feel some joy. Several months later, Prince Gong sent a messenger to me, since what she had to tell me was too sensitive to be written down.

  “The Lady Hulan has given birth,” he told me. “The child was a boy. They have given him a Manchu name in honor of his father. His name is Arsalan.”

  24

  The Summer Palace, 1889-1894

  The years my empress spent in retirement were incredibly boring for all who waited on her. She did her best to make the most of it. We all retired to the Summer Palace and the empress was rarely invited back to court. She painted, she wrote operas, she bred little Pekingese dogs, but her mind was restless.

  The rebuilt Summer Palace was exquisite. I have no idea how the throne paid for it, for it must have been expensive, but perhaps the magistrates of the court felt she had earned it. Most emperors would take long hunting trips, as many as three or four a year, to Jehol, and the whole court would have to be uprooted and moved for weeks at a time. Each trip would be paid for by the throne and were considered the emperor’s right since he gave so much of himself to his people. Empress Cixi had never taken such a leisure holiday in her life. Her only trip to Jehol had been when the court had to flee when the British burned the previous Summer Palace, which led to her husband’s death in exile. Even though Empress Cixi had only ruled on behalf of her sons and was not empress in her own right, everyone knew she was the ruler of the country, so she should have been entitled to such relaxing trips as her predecessors were, but she never took advantage of this right. I do know that she paid for much of the rebuilding work from her own savings and allowance because she became very stingy during those years. She was less free with gifts, had fewer attendants brought into her retinue, and told all of us to be as frugal as possible. I could not waste any thread. If any thread could be reused, I was to do so. But it was worth the sacrifice and difficulties because the new Summer Palace was splendid. It would never quite be as remarkable as the original, but mostly because the priceless gifts and artifacts from all over the world that had been collected there could never be replaced, but the quality of the artisanship and attention to detail of the new palace was just as exquisite and would forever be a source of pride for the Chinese people. In a way, the Summer Palace was a gift to the Chinese as a premiere example of Chinese architectural art.

  Like she had for her son, Empress Cixi left the empire ready for new leadership. The empire was at peace, relations with the Westerners were good, the coffers were full, many modernization projects were underway, and the people were satisfied. The emperor had no need to fear uprisings or rebellions from inside his domain, but he also took no note of growing dangers outside.

  Many of Cixi’s modernizing projects, such as the railroad and the navy, the emperor saw as wasteful during such peacetimes. He didn’t understand that times of peace were the best times to prepare for war. He also didn’t fear other countries. He believed he and his country were superior to all others in every way. He didn’t heed the warnings about a growing danger in the east.