Little Palace Maid Desires a Higher Seat of Honor - Chapter 127

Chapter 127: Palace Selection

A selected maiden was sent out of the palace, but it did not actually cause much of a stir. If this selected maiden had not borne the surname Gu, no one would have paid it any attention at all.

When the news reached Cining Palace, the Empress Dowager merely held her prayer beads and said blandly,

“The palace has no need for those without propriety.”

The Empress Dowager had not forgotten she was of the Gu family, but there was already one consort with the Gu surname in the palace, her elder brother was being a little too greedy.

Zhang Momo caught the meaning behind Her Majesty’s words and offered no further comment on the matter.

The only ones delighted were in Yongning Palace. When Liu Gui heard the news, she practically ran back to the hall, her face full of barely contained joy.

“Your Ladyship, the Third Young Lady has been sent out of the palace!”

Consort Jing was a little surprised.

Liu Gui excitedly recounted the whole story from beginning to end. After a moment, she covered her mouth and muttered quietly,

“Your Ladyship, don’t you see, no matter how heartless Xiurong sounded, deep down she still keeps you in mind.”

There were no such coincidences in the palace. Xiurong, who never left her own quarters, just happened to choose this day to go out, and just happened to run into the Third Young Lady?

Liu Gui’s joy was obvious. She sat down, looking at the nearly finished little garment in Her Ladyship’s hands.

“Your Ladyship, let me pick the threads for you.”

Yongning Palace had already prepared many such garments, all waiting for Xi Xiurong to give birth to the imperial heir, so they could be sent straight to Chu’an Palace.

—

The day of the Palace Selection arrived as scheduled.
Yun Si was called up by Qiu Yuan before the hour of Chen. Today she wore a palace gown of rouge-red paired mandarin-duck patterned brocade, which set off her complexion beautifully.

She wavered for a long while between jade hairpins and gold ones, until a hand reached in and made the choice for her, using the jade pin to sweep up her dark hair.

Through the bronze mirror, Yun Si looked toward the person behind her. Her apricot eyes curved slightly, and she obediently accepted the arrangement.

It was the first day of the selection. Tan Yuanchu had stayed the night before at Chu’an Palace, and the next morning he accompanied the lady straight to Honghui Hall.

The selected maidens had already arrived in front of Honghui Hall, standing in neat rows and waiting to be summoned.

When the imperial carriage arrived, the entire group knelt in a dark wave. The bolder ones dared to steal a glance, but saw only the Emperor shielding the lady as they entered the hall; when they tried to see more closely, there was nothing left to see.

Yun Si had never been to Honghui Hall before. Honghui Hall was no different from other palaces, if anything, it was not as spacious and imposing as Taihe Hall.

She gave it a single glance, then withdrew her gaze without interest. Since the selection in the hall was only between her and Tan Yuanchu, her seat was naturally placed at his side.

Once she had settled in, Tan Yuanchu finally looked toward Xu Shunfu. Xu Shunfu bowed his head, turned, and left Honghui Hall. Moments later, the sharp, high-pitched voice of an eunuch rang out outside.
Yun Si could not make out the words clearly, only that it was a summons. Before long, a line of selected maidens entered the hall side by side.

The selected maidens lowered themselves in greeting, each respectfully announcing her family background and performing her bow.

Yun Si’s eyelids fluttered faintly; only then did a trace of unfamiliar feeling rise in her heart. She could not help but turn her head to glance at Tan Yuanchu.

Unexpectedly, Tan Yuanchu looked utterly lazy, not even bothering to glance down at the selected maidens below. Yun Si paused, and that flicker of emotion in her heart dissipated before it could take shape. Her expression turned a little odd, and she lowered her voice,

“Your Majesty?”

At the sound of her voice, Tan Yuanchu lifted his gaze to look at her.

”Do you see any you like?”

Yun Si was at a loss for words, he wasn’t choosing concubines for her, so how could she have a favorite?

Without the slightest hesitation, she shook her head.

Batch after batch of selected maiden were dismissed. Yun Si glanced at the silver token in a palace maid’s hands, the sachets representing selection had not been given out even once. She could not quite fathom Tan Yuanchu’s thinking.

She couldn’t help but tilt her head and ask,

“Is there none Your Majesty likes?”

Her face was troubled. Had she known things would turn out like this, she wouldn’t have bothered to come to this selection.

It wasn’t that she was dissatisfied with the outcome, rather, she worried that once today’s results spread, there might be rumors saying she was jealous and had personally rejected all the xiunv.

Yun Si felt that was far from impossible.

As soon as she spoke, she saw Tan Yuanchu glance at her, his expression unreadable, though clearly not pleased.

This batch of selected maidens too was dismissed, not a single one catching Tan Yuan chu’s eye.

Qiu Yuan peeled a lychee for Her Ladyship, and Yun Si accepted it, placing it into her mouth. The selected maidens before them were all beautiful, enough to dazzle the eyes, but Yun Si, long accustomed to palace beauties, felt no surprise at all.

Silently, she made a quick calculation, out of a hundred selected maidens, five entered at a time, so there would only be twenty batches in all.

Now, after barely an hour, the selection was already halfway through.

Yun Si heard the eunuchs outside announcing the selected maiden’s fathers’ official rank, by now they were all of third rank or lower. At that moment, she faintly began to realize something. Pressing her lips together, she turned to look at Tan Yuanchu.

Tan Yuanchu, however, misunderstood her meaning. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he asked in an unreadable tone,

“Have you taken a liking to someone?”

Always pressing him.

Just then, a voice from below called out in greeting,

“Fu Qingjuan, daughter of the Vice Minister of Revenue, pays respects to Your Majesty and the Your Ladyship Xi Xiurong.”

The voice was crisp and cool, drawing Yun Si’s gaze. She paused for a moment, in comparison to the other selected maidens, this one who called herself the Vice Minister’s daughter was indeed more striking in appearance, almost comparable to Su Jieyu back then.

And Su Jieyu had once been hailed as the most beautiful woman in the previous selection.

She glanced at her twice more, and Tan Yuanchu caught it, a faint feeling of blockage rising in his chest.

Other consorts presiding over a palace selection would be eager to eliminate any woman who might threaten them; yet here she was, ignoring the plain ones and only looking at the exceptional, was that it?

Tan Yuanchu’s cool voice drifted over,

“Pretty?”

Yun Si was taken aback by the question. She looked again at the selected maiden, then answered after a brief hesitation, “She is very striking.”

His long fingers tapped lightly on the table, his tone calm and indifferent,

“Then your eyes aren’t very good.”

Below, Fu Qingjuan involuntarily tightened her grip on the handkerchief in her hand, a flicker of unease rising in her heart, she could not fathom the meaning in the Emperor and Ladyship Xi Xiurong’s exchange.

Before she could think it through, the palace attendants were already signaling for them to withdraw.
Fu Qingjuan’s face paled, she knew she had been eliminated.

She couldn’t help lifting a hand to touch her cheek. When her father had someone teach her palace etiquette, they had said clearly that once she reached the final selection in the hall, she would almost certainly be chosen.

During her time in the Chuxiu Palace, she hadn’t been as flamboyant as Gu Qingchuo, but deep down she, too, carried a faint pride.

She had believed that among this year’s selected maidens, purely in terms of beauty, there was none who could match her.

Yet now, both those with good family backgrounds and those with outstanding looks had all been rejected. Fu Qingjuan suddenly found herself unable to discern what standard the Emperor was using to choose.

It never occurred to her to suspect Xi Xiurong of interfering.

Xi Xiurong had clearly said she was quite striking, it was the Emperor who had contradicted her.

Fu Qingjuan’s brow furrowed slightly, and she inwardly grumbled: if even her looks weren’t enough, could it be the Emperor had some odd preference for the plain?

With so many eliminated, many from families more distinguished than hers, her disappointment quickly eased. To have made it to the hall selection at all meant her etiquette and manners were flawless, and with her family and beauty, she would have no trouble finding a good marriage.

As for the other selected maidens, seeing her eliminated left their expressions a little strange.

But as the later groups left the hall one after another, all equally rejected, that strangeness gradually faded.
Clearly the problem did not lie with any one of them.

In the hall, Yun Si glanced back at Tan Yuanchu again and again. After all the manpower and expense spent on this selection, surely they wouldn’t choose no one at all?

The thought of what rumors might arise if that happened left her faintly headache-stricken.

As if sensing her concern, when the final group of xiunv came in, Tan Yuanchu did not even look at them. Before they could finish their greetings, he casually pointed to two.

“Grant them sachets.”

The hall was startled; the palace maid holding the sachets almost failed to react. Only when someone nudged her did she hurriedly step forward to present them.

When the announcing eunuch reported the family backgrounds of the two chosen girls, everyone learned that their fathers held only local Fifth Rank official posts. This year’s selection was unlike previous years, the lowest-ranking official allowed to present a daughter was Fifth Rank.

Those two were stunned by the decree, but their month of etiquette training had not been for nothing.
They quickly knelt and gave thanks for the honor.

Yun Si glanced at Qiu Yuan. In previous years, Qiu Yuan had served in the Yangxin Hall, in other words, she had personally witnessed the last selection. Could it be that Tan Yuanchu had always been this careless about it?

Qiu Yuan said quietly, “The last hall selection was done by the Empress. The Emperor was busy with state affairs and only made a brief appearance before leaving quickly.”

Yun Si gave a faint “Ah,” and for a while couldn’t find words.

When everyone had withdrawn and only she and Tan Yuanchu remained in the hall, Yun Si couldn’t help asking, “If you’re this perfunctory, won’t they have objections?”

She didn’t name names, but they both knew she meant the court officials, those who had urged the Emperor to hold the selection early. In the end, with such a result, how could they possibly be content?

They would surely be displeased.

But—

Tan Yuanchu’s lips curled in a mocking smile.

“It’s not their place to decide.”

Yun Si still frowned slightly, feeling it was somehow unstable. Tan Yuanchu shook his head, his tone unreadable, “They know even better than you what it means when thunder and dew alike are the Emperor’s grace.”

Yun Si didn’t quite understand, but she could hear a layer of mockery in his words. Before she could argue, Tan Yuanchu pulled her toward the front of the hall and pointed to one of the selected maidens.

“That’s the only daughter the Grand Secretary Qiu had late in life. Tell me, if I were to betroth her to Prince Anxian, would Grand Secretary Zhang dare defy my decree?”

During the selection, he hadn’t even looked up, yet he knew the backgrounds of certain selected maidens like the back of his hand.

Yun Si had heard of Prince Anxian, the late Emperor’s thirteenth son. Born with lingering ailments, he had always been frail and sickly, one of the rare princes to survive the battle for the throne, and had been granted a title by Tan Yuanchu.

But everyone knew Prince Anxian wouldn’t live long.

If a woman married him, she was essentially waiting to become a widow.

Yun Si was stunned.

Tan Yuanchu answered his own question, his tone light.

“He wouldn’t dare defy me. He’d have to watch helplessly as his only daughter married Prince Anxian. If he did defy me, it could implicate his entire clan.”

Yun Si’s apricot eyes widened; she was speechless for a long while.

She could faintly tell he was saying something more, but it was as if there were a thin veil between them, she couldn’t quite grasp it.

Then someone gave a light tap to the back of her neck, his voice dropping lower,

“Today’s conversation will reach outside the palace. Tell me, will they think I was being perfunctory, or will they be pleased that I didn’t act recklessly?”

Yun Si suddenly fell silent. She lifted her apricot eyes to look at Tan Yuanchu, and he was looking down at her.

At last she understood what he meant: he was simply telling her that if he insisted on doing something, no one could stop him.

No matter how absurd, it was still an imperial edict, an imperial favor.

Yun Si’s lashes trembled lightly. She felt as if she’d heard some hidden implication in his words, and her heartbeat seemed to skip two beats, but she didn’t dare be sure.

She turned her gaze away.

Someone, in exasperation, pinched the back of her neck.