He looked at Ji Yue, his heart in his eyes. "I have enough to live. And after the festival, Yi Zhen has promised me an appointment with a salary. Enough money to support a wife and—"
"Bah on promises!" Madame Chen gripped her daughter's arm and spun her around. "Hsst! You are smart, Ji Yue. Use your head." Madame Chen pointed a bony finger at him. "Beauty fades and grows old. Imperial promises come and go with the wind. You want nothing of this one!"
Ji Yue compressed her lips in annoyance. Bo Tao could tell she did not like having her mother tell her what she wanted. But without her mother's support, she could not go home.
"Mama, the dowager consort despises me."
"Because the emperor sees your worth."
"I do not think—"
"Enough," interrupted the father.
Bo Tao turned, startled to hear from the man. "Honored sir?" he said with a bow.
"My daughter has caught the emperor's eye. She will remain an imperial virgin." He lifted his chin. "There is no room for her at home." Then he gestured to his sons. "Come, sons, your studies await. You do not want to become a wastrel, dependant upon promises before you can take a wife." And with that, he waved his daughter a casual farewell and walked away.
His wife fell into step behind her sons. But at the door, she turned to glare at her daughter. "Ji Yue, go! Go to the virgins' palace and spend no more time with this wastrel!"
Ji Yue did not appear happy with her mother's advice, but it didn't matter. Without a home to return to, Ji Yue would remain in the Forbidden City and take her chances among fifty others to become the next empress.
Bo Tao sighed. He could kill a foreigner in the lesser great hall, but he could not win a girl away from her parents' ambition. "Do as your mother bids," he said. "I am late to report to the emperor." He clapped his hands twice very loudly and a pair of eunuchs appeared. "Escort Chen Ji Yue to the virgins' palace. I am late."
With a last bow to her mother, who still smirked in the doorway, he turned and left both the Chen women behind.
Chapter 11
BO TAO DID NOT SEE a single virgin for the next two days. He completely ignored his duties as master of the festival and remained at his home in Peking. He focused on his reports to the emperor, on strategies to outwit rebels or invaders, on anything that would keep his mind completely away from Chen Ji Yue.
It didn't work. He found himself reading her notations on the Dutch envoy, remarking anew that she had a keen eye for detail and a clear head despite the horror she had witnessed. He read it a hundred times or more, hearing her voice in his head as he did, feeling the touch of her hand and the heat of her body. By the dawn of the third day, he was insane with want. His jade stalk felt like a heavy stone dragging his thoughts straight back to her.
It was ridiculous! She was just a woman. She could not possibly be as beautiful, as sweet, as brilliant as he remembered. He ground the heels of his hands against his eyes. He had to see her again. That much was obvious. He had to prove to himself that he'd built a fantasy in his head. So he stormed from his home, barged through the gate of the Forbidden City, and went in search of a virgin.
He could not find her. The virgins had spent the last two days practicing their talents—whatever they might be—so they could entertain the dowager consort during the artistic display exam. Some painted, others sang or danced and some wrote poetry. Each day had produced a display of some sort for the dowager consort. And each day, someone had been dismissed as unacceptable because of one trifling reason or another.
He had watched the list of unacceptable virgins closely, hoping to see Ji Yue's name. If the dowager consort dismissed her, then perhaps her family would relent. Perhaps they would accept her back, and he could court her after his appointment—whenever that came. But her name did not appear because—he now learned—she was set to dance before the dowager consort today.
And Bo Tao was set to meet with Han Du Yu, a minor dignitary of a small but wealthy province near Peking. He wanted to give the emperor gifts—bribes—so that his son would pass the civil service exam. It was a ridiculous meeting given to Bo Tao because the emperor could not waste his time on such stupidities. Neither Bo Tao nor the emperor had anything to do with who passed and who did not. But every year desperate parents tried to buy favor where there was none to give.
Bo Tao would have ducked the meeting completely, but Han Du Yu was rich. So rich that the emperor could not afford to slight him. Worse, Bo Tao had been thinking about what Ji Yue said. If peasants followed food and hope, then the emperor needed to know exactly how hungry and how hopeless his people were. Short of interviewing every man, woman and child who slopped pigs, he had to rely on the nobles who oversaw their lands. And here was a perfect opportunity to do just that.
Therefore, much as he wanted to see Ji Yue dance, he could not cancel. Which meant he had to sit and wait. And wait. Until finally the fat, pompous ass arrived carrying a huge ivory carving of one of the nine Immortals, a celestial being in Taoism.
Bo Tao stared at the ugly thing. Bribes needed to be small and secret, not ostentatiously large. And it wasn't even carved well! Forgoing diplomacy in favor of expedience, Bo Tao pushed the stupid present back to the idiot. "I have nothing to do with marking the exam, I have no influence there, and have no wish to waste your money. Please, take this back."
The man laughed heartily, thinking that Bo Tao was merely pretending to have no influence, pretending to be honest. The harder Bo Tao tried to convince him, the more entrenched the stupidity became. In the end, Bo Tao had no choice but to accept the ugly piece or they would be there dickering all day.
Then Bo Tao leaned forward, getting to the meat of what he wished to know. "Tell me, Han Du Yu, of the people you oversee. What do the peasants say? What do they want?"
Han Du Yu grinned and clapped his hands. "They sing the emperor's praises night and day."
Bo Tao grimaced. Time was passing and this idiot thought he wanted false platitudes. "When smoking tobacco, when drinking at night, what do they say? What do your peasants want?"
"More beer."
Bo Tao quieted. "So they are hungry?"
"Of course not! The people in Zun Hua are happy. They simply want more beer to toast to the emperor's good fortune." Han Du Yu leaned forward. "I hear the imperial virgins are most beautiful. Will I see them today, do you think?"
The thought of Han's piggy eyes looking at Ji Yue made Bo Tao's stomach turn. "They are not show girls to be paraded about."
Han sighed. "Of course, of course. Perhaps tomorrow night, then. I have a message for the head eunuch from his brother."
Bo Tao waved the comment away. He had no interest in this man's maneuvering, though this was the first he'd heard of the head eunuch having a brother. It didn't matter. "Do the peasants come to you for aid? For rulings or judgments?"
"Of course, of course! They love my rulings." He grinned. "They love me."
"And what are their petitions?"
"Oh, the usual peasant thing. One man stole another's ox. This boy killed that one's chicken. The round of complaints is endless."
And completely ignored, no doubt. Well, he now knew how Han Du Yu became so wealthy. A man this casual about administering his province would be easily swayed by bribes.
Bo Tao pushed to his feet. "Thank you for your time and your lovely gift," he said, though the words nearly choked him. "I will go directly to the emperor with this…thoughtful present." He hefted the huge item, wishing he could use it to clobber the man. Then Bo Tao left, not even bothering with any of the formalities. He had no time for ridiculousness and now he was walking around with an ugly ivory statue.