Chronicles of the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 334, Section 333: Not Inferior at All
Yueyan was carefully drawing her eyebrows in front of the bronze mirror hidden in her sleeve in her room.

For a palace maid of her ordinary status, who was hastily brought in from outside the palace, there wasn't even enough time for identity verification.

Therefore, the current arrangement is for ordinary palace maids to sleep in a large dormitory.

Fortunately, the Queen is kind and has built heated walls in the large communal sleeping area this year, making their daily lives warm and cozy. The maids speak of the Queen with great gratitude.

No, it's not just a feeling of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, deep emotion); it's clearly a strong sense of ambition.

Now that they've finished their shifts, many of the palace maids haven't had a chance to see each other; they've all gone to learn calligraphy from the other talented individuals who were selected at the same time.

The Queen had only been in the palace for a few months, yet she had already promoted several maids. Although they were lowly palace maids, according to the Queen's newly revised palace rules, they could also have their chance to rise in rank.

A bright future is just around the corner. This means tangible improvements in our living standards, such as food, clothing, housing, and transportation. Even just wanting to eat a little more meat?
But for Yueyan, it was far from enough.

After all, when she was in Guanzhong, she had two maids by her side, and she was served in her daily life. She had never suffered such hardship before.
But before leaving Guanzhong, she was kept by her mother and spent a few days learning from the household servants.

She wanted to stubbornly refuse to study and even go on a hunger strike.

But who would have thought that her mother would be so heartless! She truly refused to give her a single drop of water or rice.

The taste of hunger...

A day later, she saw the green grass swaying in the cold wind on the ground outside the window and her eyes lit up, wanting to take a bite.

Therefore, he could only reluctantly follow the servants to fetch water, sweep, and do some heavy work, even gritting his teeth and enduring the coldness of the icy water.

Thinking of her mother, she felt both wronged and resentful.

But in that moment of distraction, the eyebrow pencil in my hand tilted an inch, causing me to draw a thick line at the peak of my eyebrow.

The bronze mirror she brought from outside the palace has become somewhat faded because she took it out to look at it every day and it wasn't carefully maintained and polished by craftsmen.

Looking at her own face, which was chapped and red from the cold wind and couldn't be concealed even with powder, Yueyan felt dejected.

At this moment, she carefully wiped her eyebrows again and reapplied the powder.

When the maid in the same room returned from her shift, she was startled to see a pale face turn around.

Then, she rolled her eyes, slammed her feet into the room in a huff, and shook the bedding by the bed without hesitation.

The bedding, made of inferior silk flakes, scraps, and dried reeds, was not very uniform to begin with.

She shook it, and some crumbs flew in the air.

Yueyan immediately became angry: "What are you doing?!"

The other party snorted coldly: "What am I doing? The Queen loves it when the people around her are clean and well-groomed. The sun is shining brightly today, so I'm taking my bedding out to air it."

She glanced at Yueyan sideways again: "After all, I'm not like those servants who have fallen from their luxurious lives and don't even know their own identity."

A palace maid who is only assigned a lowly job should act like one.

Dressed up like this, if the Queen saw them, she would think they had used some underhanded tricks!

She clutched the rustling blankets and stepped out the door, but before leaving, she couldn't help glancing at Yueyan's pale face and sneering again:
"Everyone in the palace says that lead powder is bad for the skin. Even the most beauty-loving Lady Chu has stopped using it, but you are still using it."

"Hey—" she raised her chin slightly, "Are you really some kind of lady from a prominent family? Or are you from some backwater?"

"Only those poor country folk living on the left side of the alley would overestimate themselves and think that they have any beauty to speak of in the Xianyang Palace."

"you!"

A lady of high society doesn't use swear words.

But just because she doesn't swear doesn't mean Yueyan can be tame.

Wasn't the other person saying something rude?
She snorted coldly, then grabbed a basin of murky water that she had just used to wipe her face, and poured it over the other person's head onto the bed.

The sound of splashing water caught the attention of the other palace maids who had returned with paper and pens, and their brows furrowed again.

"you!"

The other party didn't bother to argue with her; Qin law was strict, and Xianyang Palace was even more so. He then carefully put away the paper and pen in his hand, and finally turned to say:

"I'll go and fetch the Assistant Magistrate of Yongxiang right away!"

The palace maids were under the jurisdiction of the Shaofu (Minister of the Imperial Household Department), which was further divided into Yongxiangling (Director of the Yongxiang Palace) and Yongxiangcheng (Assistant Director of the Yongxiang Palace). Since the other party was so presumptuous, they were sure to suffer a severe beating!

……

Yueyan felt a tightness in her chest.

When she entered the palace, the Yongxiang Cheng had already given her a stern lecture. Although he didn't use any special methods, his imposing manner, coupled with the fear and helplessness she felt at being separated from her parents, had already instilled a sense of timidity in her.

But then she raised her head again—

My mother works for the Queen, so even if it's just because of my mother, they won't do anything to me!

But since the Queen had already given the order, and the other party was so blatantly provocative—

If a bucket of cold water were poured onto someone's bedding on a winter's day, and if it weren't for the Queen's mercy in setting up a fire wall this year, this very act could easily cause a person to catch a cold and lose their life.

We are all lowly palace maids, how dare we do such a despicable thing to harm others?
"Drag him away! Ten strokes of the cane! Call all the officers on duty to come and see!"

Yongxiang Cheng said in a deep voice, "The Queen has instructed that everything in Xianyang Palace shall be conducted in accordance with the law."

"As for you—" She glanced at Yueyan with a stern expression, a smile that was neither mocking nor not mocking appearing on her face:

"If you still have the strength after being flogged, you can get some paper and pen from me."

"The Queen has been kind enough to allow you to communicate with your mother."

If she were to commit such an outrageous act again, one can only wonder what kind of merit that poor mother would have to exert to barely save her daughter's life.

……

That night, the Assistant Magistrate of Yongxiang handed a letter from home to a eunuch, who then forwarded it to the Chief of the Imperial Carriage Office.

"It should be left to the Queen to handle, but it is late at night, so please do not disturb her unless it is urgent."

"Secondly, it contains many outrageous statements, which were witnessed by guards during the various inspections... We earnestly request the Prefect to handle this matter..."

When Zhou Ju was finally able to rest late at night, he casually opened the app and saw what Yue Yan had described:
[...Clearly, the Queen is ungrateful, and Father has done nothing wrong, yet he is rebuked like this. Mother is unfaithful and unwilling to share joys and sorrows, and even her daughter has to kneel and serve others... Did Mother teach me to manage household affairs and read and write so that I could sweep and clean faster...?]

Now she has been humiliated by the vulgar servants in the palace and flogged. Who knows if she will survive? I am not reconciled!

The Queen is of average appearance, but her daughter is no less beautiful! And she is in the prime of her youth; if she gains the King's favor, she will surely bear him a crown prince…

Zhou Ju had not seen this delusional talk for many years while he was in the deep palace.

He scoffed.

It was not uncommon to find palace maids with such ambitions, numbering in the teens or twenties, in the Xianyang Palace.

When the king was only twelve or thirteen years old and had just begun to rule in his own right, people were already offering themselves as his bedmates.

However, by now, the grass on those people's graves is probably already three feet tall.

Zhou Ju had naturally gotten to know the people the Queen had specially brought.

Na Yueyan did have a rather large face—large in a real sense.

The Queen is so kind, yet she still dares to say that the Queen's appearance is average and that she herself is no less beautiful?

He casually handed the letter back:
"The Queen will deal with the person she brought back. Just keep an eye on her and make sure she's not easily beaten to death."

You must understand, the queen who can make the king happy every day and stay by his side every night is not the kind of person who would willingly force herself to endure something just because of Lady Hu's limited abilities!

　Haha, this number of chapters! I hope it will be finished by 2026! If not, I'll write up to 666 chapters!

　　I beg some deity to grant me more writing opportunities each day...

　　(End of this chapter)