“With you frowning like that, I can’t paste the flower ornament flat.” Mi Moyan held a piece of mica, his face full of helplessness.

Baozhu at this moment was furious, gritting her teeth, wishing she could jump up and grab someone to bite to death.

“You’re saying they not only want me to perform dances, but also want me to serve dishes?!”

Like roommates sharing quarters in other rooms, the two sat facing each other, applying makeup for one another. Baozhu thought that after desperately practicing the zhizhi dance for four or five days, she would finally have a chance to take the stage and see the mysterious master’s true face. Who would have expected today’s assignment to merely be serving tea and water to guests at a banquet, doing the work of a serving maid.

Mi Moyan sighed helplessly: “We are house entertainers, no different from movable furniture. Where the master wants to place us and for whom to use us is all natural. Otherwise, how would we have the opportunity to wear silk and satin? This is just the soft cushions and backrests placed on furniture.”

The “Tang Legal Code Commentary” clearly states: Slaves and servants are base people, legally equivalent to livestock.

All the dancing girls in Nishang Academy belonged to the base register and could only depend on their master’s household for survival. Even if they escaped, they couldn’t obtain free citizen status. Moreover, the academy had a strict collective punishment system – if one person escaped, many would be punished. Roommates living together often depended on each other, and none could bear to implicate the others.

Baozhu had planned to unite with other house entertainers to escape the cage together, but when she tried to implement this, she discovered the idea was as insubstantial as castles in the air. She couldn’t even convince her own roommate, and Mi Moyan had already been beaten because of her involvement.

Considering her situation once again, Baozhu took a deep breath and secretly comforted herself with the stories of King Goujian sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall, and Han Xin enduring the humiliation of crawling between someone’s legs. Even Empress Wu, that unprecedented female emperor, had to humble herself and submit when she first returned to the palace from Ganye Temple to serve Empress Wang.

Small impatience ruins great plans. To find an opportunity to escape or delay time for Wei Xun to rescue her, she had to be able to bend and stretch. At worst, she could secretly spit in the dishes when serving them as revenge.

So she tried to smooth her brow and let Mi Moyan stick the mica flower ornament on her forehead, while she helped him apply slanted rouge and lip color.

After finishing each other’s makeup, they changed into the uniform servant clothing and followed the other dancing girls in formation, passing through multiple courtyards to reach the kitchen. In the cooking quarters preparing meals for the master, over a hundred people rushed about busily as if fighting a battle. Prepared dishes and wine were arranged on a long table, and the dancing girls each went forward to pick up bowls and plates.

Baozhu took a large bowl of ice and a plate of fresh nai plums. Just as she was about to turn and leave, a kitchen woman loudly shouted at her: “Lazy, slippery girl, why are you only carrying two things?”

Baozhu said strangely: “I only have two hands. Should I balance one on my head?”

Mi Moyan quickly said: “Use both wrists to support the third one.” He demonstrated. Baozhu thought his flexible skills were beyond her reach, so she simply poured the plate of nai plums directly onto the ice, freeing one hand to take a dish of deer jerky.

Who would have thought this action would anger the kitchen woman? Her expression changed and she began cursing with foul language. Mi Moyan stood in front of Baozhu, apologizing and explaining to the kitchen woman: “She’s new and doesn’t understand the rules. I’ll take that plate of nai plums to wash clean.” After much persuasion, the kitchen woman went angrily to busy herself with other tasks.

Baozhu was puzzled, truly not understanding why this would provoke such a strong reaction from the kitchen woman. “What, don’t people in this courtyard eat iced fruit?”

Mi Moyan put down the dishes in his hands and picked up the nai plums from the ice one by one, placing them back on the empty plate, saying: “Do you know where this ice comes from?”

Baozhu thought it was understandable for common people not to know, but having grown up surrounded by gold, jade, and brocade, consuming countless ice blocks every summer, how could she not know the source of ice? So she said confidently: “Naturally it’s harvested in winter and stored in shaded cellars for summer cooling.”

“But where exactly is the large ice placed in winter cellars harvested from?”

This question stumped Baozhu. Mi Moyan continued while washing the fruit: “Luoyang’s ice is harvested in winter when Cuibi Pool, Jiuzhou Pool, and the Luo River freeze over – it’s all natural ice. It looks crystal clear, but that water is actually very dirty, with human and animal waste, water plants, fish, and insects. Therefore, wine must be cooled in ice containers without direct contact, and fruit cannot be placed directly on ice blocks.”

Hearing this, Baozhu was slightly stunned. In the palace, she had been served in every detail and never paid attention to these specifics. Indeed, the food and drink provided by the palace’s Food Service Bureau never directly contacted ice blocks. She complained: “I didn’t know. You could have just taught me – that kitchen woman cursed so foully.”

Mi Moyan smiled bitterly: “She was being polite by not hitting you. If guests ate from that iced plate, seven or eight out of ten would suffer abdominal pain and vomiting for several days. If the master or mistress ate it and happened to contract cholera or similar diseases, do you know what would happen to us servants carrying plates and the kitchen women cooking?”

Abdominal pain, unstoppable vomiting. Baozhu suddenly trembled violently, feeling a buzzing in her ears.

Her thoughts instantly flew back to the day “before her death.” It was midsummer with blazing sun. The last food she ate was iced pomegranate fruit syrup and iced sweet melon brought by serving maids. These things would normally be pre-cooled in ice containers and only taken out when eaten. But that day, there was something slightly unusual.

The fruit syrup was cold but tasted much thinner than usual, as if diluted with water. The sweet melon was wet, as if just taken from melting ice. She had returned from hunting, hot and thirsty, paid no attention, and consumed it all.

Mi Moyan’s words “what would happen to us servants carrying plates and the kitchen women cooking?” struck like ice water, making Baozhu’s heart flutter with anxiety. No one in this world knew better than she what miserable fate awaited the personal servants after their master’s sudden death.

Could it be that she wasn’t poisoned by villains that day, but simply accidentally ate ordinary ice? Though her food was tasted for poison by palace attendants beforehand, they usually only took small portions to try. Even if dirty ice had melted into it, it probably wouldn’t cause great harm. This thought flashed through her mind like lightning, then fell back into fog.

For palace maids and eunuchs trapped in the deep palace, obtaining deadly poison was nearly impossible, but ice was the most common summer consumable. Just as she had planned to spit in the cups and plates for guests when she first arrived, could someone have risked severe punishment for everyone just to make her eat dirty ice to vent their hatred?

Mi Moyan finished washing the nai plums and re-plated them. Everyone carried food and wine away from the kitchen, quickly walking toward Auspicious Cloud Hall where guests were entertained. The sound of music became increasingly clear and loud.

Seeing herself getting closer to the true culprit who had kidnapped her, Baozhu knew she had to endure humiliation to survive. She forcibly suppressed her anger and shame, quietly encouraging herself: “I can do this, I can manage it…”

“Expression!” the lead matron shouted in a low voice. Hearing the command, the dancing girls immediately forced smiles, making Baozhu feel particular revulsion and disgust.

The vermillion-lacquered doors slowly opened, and the elaborately dressed dancing girls filed in carrying fine wine and delicacies. Auspicious Cloud Hall was an open courtyard with green tiles and red ridges, planted with exotic flowers and trees everywhere, with a high platform for dance performances in the center. At this moment, a graceful dancing girl was performing on stage – it was Yu Hu.

Around both sides of the high platform, over ten guests sat behind their own curtained tables, chatting and laughing merrily while drinking, while servants ten times their number shuttled among them like an inconspicuous colony of ants, providing meticulous service.

By normal logic, the master should sit in the north of Auspicious Cloud Hall, symbolizing power and status. A projecting room with three open sides extended from the center of the main building, containing a gorgeous sitting couch.

However tonight, that honored position in the projecting room was empty, with no one visible. Judging by the guests’ relaxed attitude of entertaining themselves, there seemed to be no nobles of superior status seated among them. Otherwise their expressions wouldn’t be so relaxed – they would definitely be obsequious and respectful.

Baozhu asked Mi Moyan beside her: “The master didn’t come?” Mi Moyan whispered: “He always arrives last.”

Though the person hadn’t arrived, on both sides of the gorgeous couch, two enormous lamp stands taller than a person burned silently, each lit with over ten thick tallow candles, illuminating the projecting room bright as day. A hanging of thin gauze curtains blocked the front of the couch, with candlelight flickering shadows through it.

Seeing this, Baozhu shifted her gaze and glared viciously at each guest, secretly memorizing their appearances for future reckoning when she escaped. She silently recited: Traitors who eat food and drink served by one of true dragon bloodline, may you lose thirty to fifty years of life and suffer full retribution.

Mi Moyan sensed her strangeness and lightly pressed the back of her head, leaning close to her ear to remind: “Lower your head! Don’t make eye contact with them!”

Baozhu asked displeasedly: “Another absurd rule of this house?”

Mi Moyan shook his head heavily and said: “No, it’s just that after making eye contact with them… bad things might happen.”

The dancing girls placed dishes on the guests’ curtained tables one by one, then filled wine cups. Baozhu kept her head down, stealing glances from the corner of her eyes, thinking these people wore ordinary clothes but their bearing and behavior didn’t seem like common folk. Their elegant conversation suggested they weren’t ignorant wealthy merchants either.

She had wanted to steal a dining knife or similar small weapon from a table, but unfortunately saw no cutlery. Roasted items like lamb shoulder were all cut into small pieces before serving.

After serving food and wine, the dancing girls should have filed out in formation, but two or three with outstanding looks were chosen by guests to stay and accompany their drinking.

Baozhu secretly rejoiced at not being selected and was thinking of quickly leaving this filthy place when she suddenly heard someone call out: “That foreign boy stays!”

Mi Moyan’s form paused, his expression changing slightly. Though he had kept his head down and moved silently, his beautiful features and brilliant golden hair made him particularly conspicuous among the servants.

Since being captured and brought here, Baozhu had always had Mi Moyan as company and had developed some reliance on him. Hearing him called to stay, she couldn’t help looking at him anxiously.

Mi Moyan saw the worried expression on her face and forced a smile, saying softly: “You go first, I’ll return soon. These people, most times are very short.”

“Short what? What’s short?” Baozhu looked confused and at a loss. Mi Moyan had already turned and walked quickly toward the guest who summoned him, obediently kneeling beside him to serve.

Baozhu was surrounded by other dancing girls and hurriedly left Auspicious Cloud Hall, still worried and frequently looking back. Just then, a gentle breeze passed by, and the curtains in front of the projecting room fluttered up, revealing a corner of the huge lamp stands on both sides of the honored seat.

The special patterns and design of those gilded lamp stands looked very familiar to Baozhu.

It was the season of blooming osmanthus flowers – autumn was crisp and pleasant, yet guests still favored cooling their throats with iced wine. However, that gentle night breeze made the hair on Baozhu’s back stand up suddenly. Suspecting she was seeing things, when she urgently looked toward the projecting room again, the vermillion-lacquered doors of Auspicious Cloud Hall had already closed.

Author’s Note: Even modern industrially manufactured edible ice often has news reports of contamination by E. coli and other microorganisms. When dining out, hot drinks are safer than iced drinks.