Chapter 1239: Chapter 1245: Leaving the Mansion (2)
Du Wanqing softened her voice and said, “Mother has waited upon for so many days, and I too cannot bear to let Mother leave. However, the days ahead for in this mansion will beco increasingly difficult. re loyalty isn’t enough, Mother; you also need courage and stratagems. Otherwise, a single misstep could an losing everything. By that ti, not to ntion the wealth and honor I promised you being gone, even your old life could be taken from you under the cri of abetting tyranny. Decide for yourself what to do!”
Old Lady Zhang was frightened, nodding her head like a chicken pecks at rice, she said, “From now on, this servant will definitely not fret and cause the Young Madam to beco angry. Whatever the Young Madam instructs, this servant will do. By the way, Young Madam, what is our next step?”
Du Wanqing said with a cold smile, “Help find out where that Young Madam’s manor is. I will find an opportunity to pay her a visit!”
“Yes!”
Old Lady Zhang was completely subdued by her; whatever Du Wanqing said, that was it. After giving her instructions, Old Lady Zhang went out to gather the information.
…
Cai Wei only found out several days later that Xiang Yun had left Duke Li Guo’s Mansion because she had been busy with a significant matter these last few days and hadn’t had ti to contact Xiang Yun.
What she was busy with was very aningful—it concerned the fate of tens of thousands of palace maids!
In the ancient palace, palace maids were always a miserable lot.
Once they were chosen to enter the palace, they lost all their freedom. They were mostly clothed and fed poorly, lived in crude quarters, and endured a lifeti of hard labor without ever seeing their parents again. Complicated rituals, strict hierarchies, hardly a day of standing out. Beyond their various toils, they were also often forced by female officials who teach reading to study books like “Lessons for Won” and “Won’s Filial Piety” to warp their minds. Palace maids who slighted the rules were punished with “Dun Lock,” “Ding Bell,” and “Board Binding,” among others.
When palace maids fell ill, there was no doctor for them; they were left to fade away. The current dynasty’s laws stated: “For Palace Concubines and those below, doctors may not enter, and dicine is obtained only with a prescription.” If even Palace Concubines were treated so, needless to say for the palace maids. When a palace maid beca ill, or simply aged, like criminals, they had to rely on their own vitality to extend their days or wait for death. After palace maids died, the dead had no place for burial; their ashes, after being burned, were filled into dry wells.
Not to ntion, sotis palace maids were even chosen for funerary burial. Thus, common girls all did not want to enter the palace, and they tried by all ans possible to avoid selection, even resorting to forced marriages.
Cai Wei randomly learned of these matters and felt profound emotion.
Living a life is difficult enough; how many young won in the pri of their lives were selected into the deep palace, from then on living a life devoid of sunshine, never to have a day of prominence. They had no chance to experience a woman’s rite of passage through love, marriage, nor to feel the happiness and joy of giving birth and raising children as a woman should. Their pri youth was gradually consud and corroded within the palace walls, until they aged, died, and after death, not even a burial plot to call their own—turned to ashes and dumped into that deep well.
If she were a palace maid living within this Deep Palace, how utterly despairing that would be! And this palace system for treating palace maids—how utterly degrading to humanity it was!
Imdiately, she summoned the Steward of the Imperial Household Departnt and inquired about the palace maids. Upon learning there were as many as six thousand palace maids within the palace, she was astonished.
Everyone says that the Imperial Harem has three thousand beauties, and she had always thought that only three thousand palace maids should be in the harem. She had never imagined that there would be as many as six thousand. Now in the harem, there was only her; she didn’t need so many palace maids. Rather than keeping them and increasing expenses, it would be better to set them free to live their own lives.
At night, she shared this idea with Nangong Yi.
Upon hearing this, Nangong Yi looked at Cai Wei thoughtfully, his fingers unconsciously stroking the teacup in his hand, and said, “These palace maids were all chosen during a few selections carried out by the Retired Emperor during his reign. Our current dynasty does not yet have rules for releasing palace maids, which is why their numbers keep increasing. Throughout the dynasties, when an emperor passed away, many palace maids accompanied him to the grave, and so were sent to the Nun’s Convent. Thus, the palace always keeps a large reserve of palace maids for unexpected needs.”
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