Chapter 61: His Majesty Wants to See the Maidens

The Forbidden City, Qianqing Palace.

Zhu Youxiao stood up and stretched lazily, a look of idle ease on his face. These past few days had truly been uneventful, which had put him in a considerably better mood.

The empress selection over there was also proceeding smoothly—it seemed the first four rounds had already been completed. Mind you, during the initial screening, over five thousand candidates had been selected. It probably wouldn't be long before results came out.

The so-called initial screening was the selection of maidens, because the Great Ming dynasty's empress was chosen from commoner families. Of course, the so-called commoners meant true commoners—the nobility naturally didn't qualify.

These five thousand selected women had been picked from among a great many others, and it could be said that most of them were rare beauties hard to come by.

Whether it was to flaunt her own status or not, Consort Dowager Li, who had taken up residence in Cining Palace, had thrown herself wholeheartedly into this empress selection.

Once the fifth round began, this Consort Dowager Li personally went to oversee it. Mind you, according to the Great Ming's empress selection procedure, there was simply no need for such involvement.

This wasn't the first time the Great Ming's emperor had selected an empress; every selection had its fixed rules and procedures.

The first step was the "initial screening." When the emperor reached marriageable age, the palace would dispatch eunuchs to every corner of the realm to pick out maidens between thirteen and sixteen years of age, selecting five thousand of them. The imperial household would pay their travel expenses, and their parents were to deliver them to the capital within a set time for the second round of selection.

In the second round, the eunuchs would choose a large venue, line up the maidens in rows of one hundred, arranged by age. After an inspection, those who were too tall, too short, too fat, or too thin were eliminated. This round eliminated roughly one-fifth.

On the second day after the preliminary selection, the third round was held. The eunuchs used the same formation as the first day, carefully examining each girl's facial features, hair, skin, as well as voice and bearing—any single failing mark meant elimination. This round eliminated half of those remaining.

The remaining approximately two thousand would undergo the fourth round of fine selection. In this round, the eunuchs not only measured the girls' hands and feet with rulers but also assessed their gait and charm. This step eliminated another thousand girls.

The final one thousand beauties were summoned into the palace to continue the selection.

Zhu Youxiao had heard that these one thousand beauties had entered the palace the day before yesterday, and he genuinely wanted to go take a look. Never mind that this was selecting an empress for himself—even as a mere beauty contest, the scale was extraordinary!

But going now was a bit early; it wasn't his turn yet. If Zhu Youxiao were to go, he'd have to wait until the "Select Three" stage.

The so-called "Select Three" was actually the final round of empress selection. After these one thousand beauties entered the palace, they still had to undergo selection. Upon entry, palace maids would lead the girls separately into private chambers to "examine their breasts, sniff their armpits, feel their skin, and verify their chastity."

They could not have a single scar on their bodies, and their skin had to be fine and lustrous. From these one thousand, three hundred were chosen as head palace maids.

The fifth pass had eunuchs dispatched by the emperor observe these three hundred beauties remaining in the palace for an entire month, judging from their temperament and speech whether their character was gentle and honest, and whether they possessed wisdom and virtue.

Based on this, another two hundred fifty were weeded out, and the remaining fifty were automatically promoted to consorts.

The penultimate round was "Select Three," where the Empress Dowager or a Consort Dowager chose three from the fifty for the emperor's final decision.

Finally, the emperor would designate one as empress. Generally, the two beauties who accompanied the chosen one after "Select Three" would be titled Noble Consorts.

All Zhu Youxiao had to do was attend the "Select Three." Other than that, he had no qualification to participate in such a grand beauty pageant.

"Should I go take a look?" Zhu Youxiao muttered, stroking his chin.

As for being admonished or whatever, Zhu Youxiao didn't care. He would soon become a new fatuous ruler, and his reputation would plummet. One more reputation for being a libertine didn't matter—these people would make up stories anyway. For instance, the story about the Zhengde Emperor sleeping with another man's wife: they said Zhengde went out on a jaunt, casually walked into some household, and bedded the man's wife, all to highlight his debauchery and depravity.

And it didn't end there—they also claimed the Zhengde Emperor didn't actually do it for the sake of sleeping with her, but to prove he wasn't impotent, because he had no children.

Truly, literati kill without a blade. These people had also slandered Zhang Juzheng plenty—things like Zhang Juzheng having an affair with Grand Dowager Consort Li.

In any case, an emperor defined as a fatuous ruler absolutely had to have some sex scandal or another. Since that was the case, he might as well stop trying to avoid it—it couldn't be avoided anyway—so he might as well live according to his own wishes.

"Come on, let's go see those maidens."

In high spirits, Zhu Youxiao prepared to go see his future women, beckoning Chen Hong to accompany him.

At this moment, Chen Hong wore a pained expression. Go see the maidens? What kind of talk was that? It violated all propriety! Besides, these maidens hadn't even been selected yet—going over now?

But Chen Hong dared not offer remonstrance. On matters like this, the Emperor was extremely difficult to advise. If he made His Majesty weary of him, he'd be finished.

Chen Hong had no choice but to steel himself and lead the way, terrified that he might give his master the wrong impression.

In later ages, many people assumed the maidens lived in Chuxiu Palace, but that wasn't so. Although the name Chuxiu Palace sounded like it might be the case, Chuxiu Palace had absolutely no connection to the maidens.

Chuxiu Palace was actually one of the Six Western Palaces of the Forbidden City's inner court, located east of Xianfu Palace and north of Yikun Palace—it was where consorts resided, not where the maidens stayed.

Among these maidens, one empress and two noble consorts would eventually emerge, but right now they were merely maidens—how could they possibly be qualified to reside in Chuxiu Palace, which only consorts could occupy?

Mind you, within the palace, to be master of a palace—that is, to reside alone in one's own palace—one had to be at least a consort.

So where did the maidens live?

They lived in side halls and some wing rooms. For them to move into Chuxiu Palace—that was impossible.

Zhu Youxiao had only learned all this in this lifetime.

Led by Chen Hong, Zhu Youxiao strolled about the palace, and naturally, as he wandered, he eventually reached the place where the maidens were lodged.

Then Zhu Youxiao saw a great crowd of beautiful girls. Yes, girls—beautiful to the extreme, aged thirteen to sixteen.

Of course, they matched Zhu Youxiao well enough, since he was only sixteen himself.

But Zhu Youxiao's eyes soon grew dizzy—there were too many of them, a whole sea of twittering, chirping beauties.

Moreover, Zhu Youxiao wasn't wearing eunuch's attire.

In the palace, a man not wearing eunuch's attire—the result was obvious: Zhu Youxiao nearly became a piece of fat meat to be devoured.

Everyone was dying to throw themselves into Zhu Youxiao's arms and be bedded on the spot, so they could legitimately become His Majesty's consorts.

As for the contrived drama in later-era TV shows where women were unwilling to become consorts—that simply never happened.

That was the position of empress! What "entering the palace means losing freedom"? This was the Great Ming dynasty—if you weren't the empress, where could you go? Marry someone and wander the streets—that's freedom?

Besides, anyone unwilling to enter the palace could have quietly withdrawn long ago. Would they have stayed all the way to this round?

Under this onslaught of peach-colored attacks from all sides, Zhu Youxiao decisively chose to retreat.

PS: Recommending a book, "Transcending Worlds, Dogging It"—a myriad-worlds theme; staying low-key is what matters most!