I step out of the carriage and my jaw drops. A big palace stands in front of me, glittering in the sunlight. Then suddenly, Liang Wen's dead face appears in my mind, and I feel like the palace isn't so beautiful after all.

The Chancellor Wu walks up to me. "Welcome."

Behind me, the carriage door opens and the other girl steps out, wearing a light green dress. I gasp. She's pretty, and it's obvious she has taken care of her skin. It's positively white and glowing, something the Chinese take as a sign of beauty.

She glances at me, and I see what I'm feeling reflected in her eyes: fear, apprehension. And there's something else. She doesn't want to be here. Not that I blame her.

We both start walking to the big doors. Guards are standing there, and they nod to us when Chancellor Wu flashes his identity document. When we step in, the palace is even more impressive.

The girl behind me asks "Is the Emperor coming to see us?"

Chancellor Wu looks shocked. "No, no, no! And address him as His Honoured Majesty! His Honoured Majesty does not waste his time on you."

The girl flushes and looks down.

"Lady Wang, Lady Gao. This way, please," says a court lady at that moment. She's wearing pink robes which fall gently to her feet. 

We follow her, and Chancellor Wu leaves us. The court lady leads us to a building at the back of the palace. It's made of stone, or jade, and it looks pretty unwelcoming. As we near it, I can hear the sound of laundry, and women chattering. I glance at the other girl, and I see she's looking nervous too. I smile at her.

Tentatively, she grins back. Her face looks even prettier when she smiles. I feel like an uneducated, ugly girl next to her. Of course, I am pretty uneducated- I dropped out of school when I was 14, two years ago. It's considered long for a girl though.

I suddenly see it. It's Liang Wen's smile. That crooked smile. I stumble, and she grabs my arm. "Are you okay?"

I nod, thanking her in the rough dialect of my province before I remember that it's not spoken here. To my surprise, she answers in the dialect. 

"You come from Guizhou too?" I ask in surprise.

She smiles- Liang wen's smile. "Yeah."

We enter the building, and immediately, a lady in a bright purple dress swishes by. Her arms are full of clean, freshly ironed clothes (a/n: idk if they had irons then, whatever, just pretend they had). She sniffs disdainfully. The court lady says quickly "New girls, Lady Lin. Please help."

Then the court lady leaves almost at once, as if scared of this place. A dozen voices call out "Where is His Honoured Majesty?"

Lady Lin stares at us, her nose twitching. Then she gestures wordlessly, and we follow her. She leads us to a room on the third floor, at the end of the corridor. "You two can share."

The door is thrown open, and Lady Lin looks at us smugly, trying to see our reactions. The room obviously hasn't been used in a while. The curtains are pretty, although slightly faded, and there's two small beds. They look dusty, but they are beds. That's good enough. I grin in delight. "Thank you," I say, curtsying. Something tells me I should curtsy to Lady Lin. Lady Gao, the other girl from Guizhou, quickly echoes me and curtsies too. 

Lady Lin sniffs, and points at us. "Now, listen. Emperor Taizong will most likely not give you any attention, so don't worry about it, alright? I've had lots of new girls complaining about how he never sees them. It's just like that. Get used to life here."

Lady Gao blinks. "So...he's not coming? Then why are we here?"