Chapter 1: Palace Affairs of the Eastern Palace
The female officials of the imperial palace belong to the Inner Palace Bureau, under which are established the Six Departments: Ceremonial, Etiquette, Wardrobe, Royal Kitchen, Bedchamber, and Crafts. The Royal Kitchen female officials hold the fifth rank, with subordinate assistants including Food Service, Wine Service, Medicine Service, and Cooking Service officials of the seventh rank, two each. These four services each have their own assistants – under Food Service alone there are four each of Food Management, Food Preparation, and Female Secretaries, plus numerous unranked palace servants managed by the various female officials, who are assigned to serve in different palace quarters after completing their training.
Zhenzhen, Feng Xian, and their group of palace servants selected from the common people totaled sixty persons, divided into groups of five, each entrusted to a female official under Food Service for instruction. Usually, Pei Shangshi managed the Emperor’s meals, Qin Sishan managed the Crown Prince’s meals, while another Food Service official surnamed Sun resided permanently in Cifu Palace, managing the Empress Dowager’s meals. These three were extremely busy, only occasionally having leisure to teach the palace servants. Among the Royal Kitchen female officials, there was no Food Service official surnamed Liu – Zhenzhen had inquired about this very carefully. When the young palace servants were asked about “Food Service Liu,” they all looked blank, and naturally they knew even less about who Wu Qiuniang was. No matter whom Zhenzhen asked, the answers were always “don’t know,” “don’t know,” and “not clear.”
Zhenzhen was assigned to Food Preparation Feng Jing for instruction. Feng Jing was a gentle eighteen-year-old woman who, besides being an eighth-rank Food Preparation official, had another identity – the niece of Consort Li.
The palace servants in the Royal Kitchen had their own patterns for viewing colleagues: those from Lin’an looked down on those from outlying prefectures and counties, those with ancestral roots in Bianjing looked down on those from Lin’an, and among those with Bianjing ancestry, they compared ancestral official ranks to determine who looked down on whom. Feng Jing was the daughter of Consort Li’s sister, with ancestral roots in Bianjing, and her father and brothers all held official positions. Logically, such a background should have allowed her to look down on all the beauties in the Royal Kitchen, but Zhenzhen discovered this was not the case. Those palace servants who had grown up in the palace often showed barely concealed mockery in their eyes and brows when speaking of Feng Jing, treating her politely to her face but leaving her with traces of sneering glances once they turned away. Feng Jing showed no anger or resentment, turning a blind eye to all the slights and rudeness. Unless necessary, she rarely made contact with anyone, often coming and going alone, or sitting alone in a corner, whether busy or silent, always bearing the marks of loneliness.
The new palace servants in Zhenzhen’s group gradually learned the reason and told Zhenzhen in private with great shock: “Food Preparation Feng was originally a candidate for Crown Princess, just one step away from ascending to heaven, but she was abandoned by the Crown Prince!”
It sounded like a lamentable story: the late Emperor’s Zhang Wanyi had an exquisite garden called Jifang Garden. After Lady Zhang’s death, this garden was reclaimed by His Majesty for the enjoyment of imperial clan members and nobles. Last year, the Crown Prince was enjoying spring there when he encountered Feng Jing by chance. Feng Jing was elegant in bearing and well-read in poetry and literature. The Crown Prince felt an immediate kinship with her and was quite taken with her, subsequently inviting Feng Jing to meet him several more times in Jifang Garden. However, perhaps because during the period before and after Crown Prince’s mother Empress Anshu’s death, the Emperor had favored Consort Li exclusively for a long time, the Crown Prince harbored resentment and was quite cold toward Consort Li. Feng Jing perhaps had some concerns about this, and during her private meetings with the Crown Prince, she concealed from him the fact that she was Consort Li’s niece.
The matter of Feng Jing’s secret meetings with the Crown Prince in Jifang Garden later became known to the Emperor and Consort Li. Consort Li was both angry and anxious, scolding Feng Jing harshly. The Emperor was quite tolerant, saying that since the two had mutual affection, why not include Feng Jing among the Crown Princess candidates.
At that time, there were already several Crown Princess candidates, all from noble families of princely houses and distinguished clans, each with extraordinary family backgrounds. But the Emperor told the Crown Prince he could choose according to his own heart’s desire, without needing to consider family background. Just when everyone thought Feng Jing would be selected, the Crown Prince instead took up his brush and chose a descendant of the King of Wuyue, Miss Qian.
That Miss Qian was the seventh-generation descendant of King Qian Shu of Wuyue, whose great-grandmother was the Grand Princess of Qin and Lu, whose grandmother Tang Shi was descended from famous ministers, and whose mother was also a lady from a great family. In terms of noble status, she was more than sufficient to overshadow Feng Jing. Therefore, after the Crown Prince made his choice, though the world was slightly surprised, all considered it a wise decision, and the entire court was pleased to see it.
However, this result placed Feng Jing in an extremely awkward position. The several secret meetings with the Crown Prince had become known to the outside world, damaging her reputation, and no more princes or young nobles came to propose marriage to her. The Emperor intended to have the Crown Prince take her as a concubine, but the Crown Prince actually refused, saying that he was newly wed with the Crown Princess and would not take any more concubines. Thus, Feng Jing seemed destined to live out her days alone in her natal family. Consort Li could not bear to see her become a laughingstock, so she asked the Emperor to allow her to enter the palace, giving her the title of Food Preparation official and making her a female official.
“After all, it’s quite normal for female officials to remain unmarried for life,” sighed Zhuang Lingzi, the palace servant who told this story. “However, suddenly inserting her into the Royal Kitchen as an eighth-rank female official also caused dissatisfaction among the palace servants, who felt she hadn’t received proper culinary training and had limited skills, yet suddenly obtained this position through family connections, unable to convince the masses. So everyone openly and secretly loved to mock and ridicule her.”
Zhenzhen questioned: “Consort Li is her aunt. When the palace servants mock her, aren’t they afraid of Consort Li’s reproach?”
“Don’t you know?” The sense of superiority from being well-informed arose spontaneously in Zhuang Lingzi’s heart. She raised her eyebrows high and told Zhenzhen, “The lady His Majesty most favors now is no longer Consort Li, but Liu Jieyu. Consort Li now completely presents an appearance of being indifferent to worldly affairs, just getting by, how could she still care about Feng Jing!”
Zhenzhen felt some sympathy for Feng Jing, and the Crown Prince left her with the impression of a fickle lover. Zhenzhen occasionally imagined the Crown Prince’s appearance, also sketching him in her mind as a figure in fine clothes on a spirited horse, daily engaging in romantic pursuits and flirting with young ladies – a higher-level version of the Second Prince.
But she soon discovered that reality differed somewhat from this.
At the end of April that year, the Emperor was to hold a “Wenxi Banquet” at the Ministry of Rites’ examination hall to feast the newly successful jinshi degree candidates. The pre-banquet arrangements were handled by the Ceremonial Department, while the food and drink content needed to be planned in cooperation with the Royal Kitchen. Several days beforehand, the palace servants, led by several female officials, went to the examination hall to inspect the relevant facilities and vessels, familiarizing themselves with the environmental layout. After completing this task and returning to the palace, the palace servants had just entered the palace city through Lizheng Gate when they encountered the Crown Prince and his consort coming out of the South Palace Gate.
A brief commotion rippled through the palace servants like a tide. Zhenzhen heard them whispering: “Crown Prince…”
Zhenzhen looked up and indeed saw a tall figure in flowing robes and wide sleeves walking toward them from the depths of the palace. Judging by the style of his ceremonial ornaments, he was indeed the Crown Prince.
He walked with steady steps and elegant bearing, with fair skin and a pair of phoenix eyes slightly upturned, which, combined with his consistently upward-curved lips, made his features appear handsome and gentle. His every movement was full of scholarly grace – he hardly seemed like someone who would engage in abandoning lovers after seducing them. Zhenzhen stared at him curiously, surprised by his difference from the dissolute young master she had imagined. For a moment she forgot her manners and didn’t realize that the accompanying palace servants had already uniformly bowed to the Crown Prince behind her.
The Crown Prince noticed her standing there in a daze and showed no reproach whatsoever. Instead, as he passed by her, he smiled and slightly bowed to her, as if taking the initiative to greet her.
Zhenzhen awakened as if from a dream, then remembered the etiquette the female officials had taught many times. She quickly performed the proper bow, maintaining a posture of lowered eyes and submissive demeanor. In her peripheral vision, the Crown Prince’s shadow drifted by like a cloud. Zhenzhen caught the faint fragrance of his robes and couldn’t help but secretly sigh: What an elegant man – second only to Teacher Lin.
Crown Princess Qian Shi followed behind the Crown Prince, maintaining a distance of three steps from him. As she moved, her hairpins, crown, rings, and pendant ornaments remained perfectly arranged, and her smile maintained the most protocol-appropriate arc. She was a beautiful and gentle woman who also seemed to have earned the Crown Prince’s sincere respect and care. When they reached their carriage, the Crown Prince personally supported Crown Princess with both hands as she boarded, repeatedly confirming whether she was seated properly. Only after receiving her affirmative smile did he turn to mount his horse, riding alongside the carriage as they headed together toward the Eastern Palace.
Zhenzhen thought of Feng Jing and turned to look. She saw that Feng Jing was still in a bowing posture, her eyes cast down, staring at the ground, motionless, under the gloating gazes of the crowd.
She wore the veiled hat used by female officials when traveling out. Earlier, she had lifted the gauze veil according to protocol to face the Crown Prince in greeting, which now left her face exposed to everyone’s prying eyes, with nowhere to hide.
Zhenzhen stepped forward, took the gauze veil of Feng Jing’s hat in both hands, and let it fall again, shielding her tear-bright eyes. She said softly to Feng Jing: “The wind is picking up. Please wear your veiled hat properly, Food Preparation official, to avoid the wind and sand.”
Then she took Feng Jing’s hand and, ignoring the other palace servants, walked calmly toward their quarters.
After that day, both Feng Jing and Zhenzhen tactfully never mentioned that day’s events, but Feng Jing began to speak with Zhenzhen on her own initiative, teaching Zhenzhen various etiquette more carefully, observing Zhenzhen’s cooking, and also offering timely pertinent opinions and suggestions. This made Zhenzhen feel that her coming to the Royal Kitchen was not merely due to Consort Li’s forceful arrangement – her culinary skills, even compared to the palace servants who had been trained in the Royal Kitchen since childhood, were not necessarily inferior.
The main dishes for the Wenxi Banquet were not for the newly entered palace servants to prepare; Zhenzhen and the others only needed to make some small pastries. Feng Jing asked Zhenzhen what she wanted to make, and Zhenzhen said she had no idea what kind of pastries the high officials and nobles in the capital ate.
Feng Jing showed a gentle smile and said in soft, gentle words: “Actually, even the pastries His Majesty eats are not complicated, pretty much the same as what common people eat, just more refined in ingredients and preparation. Let me teach you a simple one first. This pastry is loved by His Majesty and… and the nobles in the palace. It’s called Crispy Prints.”
She taught Zhenzhen to mix flour and bean flour together, roll them by hand into strips as thick as chopstick heads, cut them into small sections two fen long, then pick them up one by one and use a small comb to create evenly spaced tooth-like patterns on top. Then she heated oil in a pot, dropped the patterned small strips into the pot to fry until cooked, scooped them up with a strainer, and while hot, sprinkled fine white sugar powder over them and mixed evenly.
Before long, Zhenzhen had mastered the technique. After the Crispy Prints were fried, the entire space was filled with warm, sweet fragrance. Taking one in her mouth, the wave-like tooth patterns spun on her tongue tip, and with a gentle bite, the crispy strips instantly crumbled under her teeth, releasing the heat and fragrant oil sealed within. The warm, sweet feeling quickly generated a sense of joy sufficient to make one temporarily forget all troubles, experiencing the pure happiness of childhood when chasing after sweets.
Zhenzhen placed the Crispy Prints in a dish, set it on the counter in her group’s small kitchen to cool, then went to other rooms in the courtyard to look for suitable containers for sealing. After a short while, she returned to the kitchen with a food box, only to find that many of the Crispy Prints in the dish were missing, and several were scattered on the floor.
Zhenzhen suspected a cat had passed by and stolen the Crispy Prints. Looking around, she discovered that the cabinet where large containers were stored seemed to hide some living creature, making slight rustling sounds.
Zhenzhen strode over and yanked open the cabinet door. She heard a startled cry from inside as a girl in green clothes tumbled out in a heap, then sat up, staring at Zhenzhen in terror, with Crispy Print crumbs still at the corners of her lips.