Laundry in the Dust

During the Jinghe era of the Southern Dynasty, Shen Wei, a third-rank palace maid in the Laundry Bureau, only hopes to save up her regular allowance and leave the palace as soon as possible. But one late-autumn rainstorm brings her face to face with Xiao Che, a junior eunuch official in the Directorate of Palace Attendants, in the woodshed. He is a distant relative of the Empress Dowager who has made his own way in the world; she is a low-ranking palace maid who only wants a quiet, stable life. Their difference in status is an unbridgeable gulf. Yet the dry outer robe he offers her, his quiet reminder to ask, "Is the water hot enough?" and the old jade hairpin he has someone return to her when she leaves the palace allow the small affections of palace life to take root. There are no earth-shaking schemes or golden finger, only low-ranking palace servants cautiously testing and protecting one another amid the everyday bustle of the inner palace. He shields her from torment, while she gives him the only warmth he can find within the palace walls. In the end, they part with a wish for each other's safety, leaving behind a long, lingering remembrance.