I took the disguised Empress Dowager on a trip south. Who would have thought that while listening to music at a theater, we would run into Shen Yulan, a young woman about to enter the palace as a concubine?
The Empress Dowager accidentally spilled tea on her, and she flew into a rage, demanding that the girl be sent to a brothel.
"Lin Jiang, even if you are the emperor's favorite consort, you can't reveal your identity here in Jiangnan. I can't do anything to you, but I can teach this wanton old palace maid of yours a lesson."
She sneered. "You're already so old, yet you still dress up like a blooming flower. Who are you trying to impress? Since you like seducing men so much, I'll do you a favor and sell you to a brothel!"
In desperation, I sent a carrier pigeon to the capital that very night. The emperor replied, "Yulan is just a young girl. She's only a palace maid. If she gets sold, she gets sold. Why must Consort Lin be so harsh?"
"As for the Empress Dowager, I watched her recite sutras in the Buddhist hall with my own eyes. Is a palace maid really worth committing the crime of deceiving the emperor?"
Only then did I remember that a portrait of Shen Yulan still hung in the emperor's study.
