Chapter 1: Imperial Dr. Yen, Yen

Yen was an orphan when she was a baby when her village burned down and raided by bandits. Her adoptive father was a traveling doctor who rescued her, and she grew up traveling around the world with him. Until he settled down north due to old age, where's Yen continued to move around. During one of her travels through a simple village. Until they decided to kidnap her and sell her into the imperial court as a servant, she was lucky she left her stuff with a trusted friend and fellow doctor before she was taken.

Well, she is getting paid, and if she worked for two years, she might be able to return to the village to reclaim her possession. Is wasn't the first something like this happened the place itself wasn't bad to work in, but that depended on the person.

But for Yen being a doctor and all, it wasn't satisfying without being around….Well you get the point.

Whether the kidnappers were capturing young maidens and selling them off to eunuchs for their alcohol expenses, or that these maidens were being sold as substitutes for their daughters Yen didn't care. Whatever the reason, it didn't change the fact that she got roped into this. If it weren't for this, she wouldn't ever want to have anything to do with the inner palace. The smiles on the palace ladies wearing beautiful clothes, cloying makeup and perfume were superficial.

"There is no poison as terrifying as a woman's smile," Yen said under her breath. She lifted the laundry basket left by her feet into her arms and headed inside the building. Unlike the exterior, the tasteless courtyard had a paved stone pool, where servants who were neither male nor female were washing a large amount of laundry. The inner palace is forbidden to men. The only ones who could enter are the country's most noble one, his blood relatives, and the eunuchs.

When she set down the basket, she looked at the rows of baskets in the nearby building. Those weren't dirty laundry, just washing laid out for the sun. Among the palace ladies, there are also those who couldn't read as it included those who got kidnapped too. Before they are brought into the imperial court, they are taught the minimum etiquette, but it's difficult when it came to literacy. It would better if the literacy rate of countryside girls are over fifty percent.

You can say it is the evil practice of the inner palace that has become too large – although the numbers in the place have increased, their quality is poor. While it cannot possibly compare to the previous emperor's flower garden, the current one is a large family that consisted of two thousand consorts and palace ladies, and three thousand eunuchs altogether.

Of those numbers, Yen is among the lowest of maidservants. She didn't even receive a government post. She especially lacked any backing that's a given for a girl who has been kidnapped and forced to make up the numbers. Well, if only she had a body that is plump like tree peony and skin that is white like a full moon, then she might have had the chance to serve a low-ranking consort, but Yen only had healthy skin covered in freckles and limbs that are like withered branches.

After Yen located the basket with the tag that had been painted with plum flowers and 'One-Seven,' she quickened her pace. She wanted to return to her room before the deep overcast sky started to weep.

The owner of the basket of laundry is a low-ranking consort. Compared to others with the same ranking, the quality of the furniture in her private room is gorgeous but overly extravagant. One way or other, it gave in to the expectation that the owner of the place is the daughter of a wealthy merchant. It is possible for those with a ranking to have a maid low-ranking consorts are allowed two at most. That's why maidservants like Yen who didn't serve a master carry laundry like so.

Low-ranking consorts are permitted a personal room within the inner palace, but since those are located at the edge of the palace grounds, they rarely catch the emperor's eyes. Even so, if a consort is ordered to attend to his bedside even once, she can move rooms. A second time chosen holds the meaning of a promotion. On the other hand, consorts who pass the suitable age without running his forefinger limited to those whose families have no substantial political power would have their ranks lowered. At worst, they could end up bestowed. Whether that is unfortunate depended on the person, it seems for the palace ladies, and it is most terrifying for them to be presented to a eunuch.

Yen lightly knocked on the door.

"Leave that over there." Replying bluntly was the maid who opened the door.

There was a consort with a wafting sweet scent waving a wine cup about inside. Before entering the inner palace, she was praised for having a beautiful figure. She is, after all, like a frog in a well. After she got overpowered by the other gorgeous flowers and got her pride crushed, she hadn't tried to leave her room lately.

Yen accepted the laundry from the room next door and returned to the washing area. There was still a lot of work left. It wasn't that she liked it. She planned to work for her pay. Diligent by nature, that was the former pharmacist Yen. She could eventually leave if she worked obediently. By no means would she be chosen as a mistress.