Bo Tao hefted the ugly carving. “This was his bribe.”

“It looks like a badly made stone phallus.”

Bo Tao twisted it around, his brows contracting as he saw what his emperor had. “No doubt that was the appeal.”

Yi Zhen waved it away. “Go and see to your duties with the virgins.”

For all that he wished to do just that, Bo Tao hesitated. “I cannot continue this way, Yi Zhen,” he finally said. “I value what I do for you and for China, but I am a grown man. It is time I saw to my family name.”

“You wish your appointment.” It was not a question. “So you can have a wife.”

Bo Tao nodded, though he did not miss the hard tone in Yi Zhen’s voice.

“Very well. Complete your duties as master of the festival with honor, and I will see to your appointment.”

Bo Tao nearly groaned. Another promise to be fulfilled after another delay. How many times had he heard these same words? Just one more task, and he would get an official title. Just one more month, one more something, and all his wishes would be fulfilled. Bo Tao no longer believed in his best friend’s promises.

“Yi Zhen,” he began. “What title do you offer-”

“Idiot!” Yi Zhen roared and abruptly pushed up from the table. “Do you see what I look at?” He gestured at the maps and the military reports strewn on the table before him. “Do you think the Taiping are finished? Why do you press me now? Get out! Get out!”

Bo Tao bowed, his life tasting like ashes in his mouth. But what were his options? His life was subject to his emperor’s whim.

“And take that disgusting thing with you!” the emperor snapped, indicating the carving. “It’s my gift to you in thanks for your great service!” Then he laughed with cruel humor as Bo Tao grabbed the thing and departed.

There was no time left. The dowager consort’s entertainment was set to begin within moments. Still carrying the statue, he rushed through the twisting pathways of the Forbidden City to the dowager’s main garden. He made it there barely in time. The servants were just now clearing away the meal. Immediately afterward, Ji Yue would dance.

He scanned the crowd of faces, not even bothering to smile. The dowager had her courtiers there plus all the remaining virgins-over three dozen at last count. Add in eunuchs and other servants, and the number of bodies crammed into the garden was daunting.

There! He spotted Ji Yue as she limped toward the center. She limped? Bo Tao stepped forward, his eyes narrowing as he searched her face. Even from this distance, he could tell her cheek was swollen beneath her paint. She likely had bruises or scratches in other places, as well. But why was she walking so oddly? Graceful one moment, then halting and jerky the next. And she was about to dance before the dowager? She would fail the artistic display and be expelled for sure!

This was exactly what he wanted! He slowed his step, knowing that all he needed to do was wait for the inevitable disaster. He could wait and watch her dreams be destroyed in a painful and humiliating display. He would stand back and watch Ji Yue be crushed and then released in the hopes that her parents would relent and accept her back into their home.

Just wait a few minutes more, he told himself. But he couldn’t do it. Having just had his own hopes crushed, how could he visit such a thing on Ji Yue? He couldn’t. Even if it meant that she stayed an imperial virgin and he never, ever had a chance to court her.

So he had to stop her performance, but how? She was already arranging herself in the opening position. Then she lifted her head and blinked, obviously trying to hold back tears. The sight of her face looking so brave and yet so tragic broke something deep inside him. He did not care the risk to his career if he singled her out; he had to stop this farce now!

“Chen Yi Jue!” he bellowed.

The excited chatter abruptly stopped. All looked at him in shock.

“Chen Yi Jue, you will come with me now!”

“But she was about to dance,” groused one of the virgins. Bo Tao pinned the girl with his stare, while searching through his memory. It was Gao Hua Si-the spoiled roommate of the someone-spit-in-my-white-paste tantrum.

“Do you think I care for your women’s entertainment? I was just interrupted from an important meeting with Han Du Yu. Why? For this?” He hefted the ugly statue. He curled his lip. “A gift from your parents, Chen Ji Yue.”

Ji Yue had straightened, a look of horror on her face.

“You will come with me now. You will write a letter to your parents to tell them that the master of the festival does not accept bribes.” He curled his lip at the offending item. “And certainly not ones this ugly.”

It was a lie. He had, of course, been given hundreds of gifts from the virgins’ families. All of them were dutifully catalogued and passed over to Yi Zhen, who wished to know the nature of the family who sired his future empress. Had Bo Tao kept even a tenth of the gifts, he would have enough money to establish a proper household and find a wife. But Bo Tao had been honest and so he had nothing. Nothing to support a wife, nothing to impress Madame Chen. Nothing, that is, except this one hideous carving.

Meanwhile, the dowager consort narrowed her eyes and stood as she addressed him. “You must be thirsty, Sun Bo Tao, please join us. Have some tea. After the performance, I am sure Chen Ji Yue will have time to do whatever you wish.”

So it was a planned expulsion. The dowager could not fail to see Ji Yue’s condition. If she wished to spare the girl, then she would have allowed Bo Tao to whisk Ji Yue away. But she hadn’t. Which meant that the dowager wanted a public excuse to eliminate her. Anything private could be recanted. The humiliation had to be public and therefore assured. Which meant that someone even more powerful must want Ji Yue to remain.

Bo Tao nearly groaned. The only one more powerful than the dowager consort was the emperor himself. Yi Zhen had clearly taken an interest in Ji Yue, if only to torture Bo Tao. Sweet heaven, women’s politics gave him a headache! He sighed and spoke from the heart.

“Great Imperial Dowager Consort Kang Ci, I do not care! I do not have time to eat nor do I wish to tarry. Chen Ji Yue will be punished for her parents’ hideous effrontery to myself and the Dragon Throne. And she will be punished now.”

And with that he gestured widely with the phallic statue. People cleared a pathway before him, if only to avoid being hit by the heavy thing. At the opposite end of the path stood Ji Yue, tears escaping from her eyes and streaking her makeup. An ache welled up deep inside him. He hadn’t wanted to cause such anguish in her, but he’d had no choice. With a last bow to the dowager consort, Bo Tao turned away, forcing Ji Yue to limp after him.

12

“MY PARENTS DID NOT SEND that ugly thing!” she snapped.

Bo Tao almost smiled. Trust Ji Yue to defend herself to the very end, for all that she was alone and vulnerable in his private office suite.

“What is wrong with you? Why do you limp?”

She flushed and looked away. “It is nothing.” Then she abruptly spun back to him, her eyes blazing. “And if you really cared, you would have stopped it from happening two nights ago!”

He grimaced at the confirmation of his fears. “So the virgins have continued beating you.”

She nodded. “I have brothers. I know how to fight back.” Then she took a wobbling step forward. “But why do you allow it? They are vicious bitches!”

He shrugged. “It is a woman’s life in the Forbidden City. Like hens and a pecking order. Eventually the hierarchy will be established, but for now-” he shook his head “-as long as the dowager consort despises you, you will stay on the bottom. If I were to interfere, it would only go harder on you.”