Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 57 The Queen Mother Likes to Eat Human Milk (3)
After washing off the grease, all Her Majesty had to do was to apply rouge.This routine will never change, just like schoolchildren go to class.The Empress Dowager's hands were also smeared with that juice, but when she applied the grease the next morning, the Empress Dowager was too lazy to do it herself, and we, the female officials in charge, had to do it for me.We had to melt the fat in our palms first, and then carefully spread it all over her hands.If you only look at the Empress Dowager's hands, it is definitely difficult to judge her age. Those hands should not be what an old man should have. Not only is the complexion fair and tender, but it is also extraordinarily soft to the touch.After the grease is applied, after ten minutes, we are also responsible for removing them.The queen mother is very picky about things, she doesn't allow us to wash with water, but to use a clean and soft handkerchief to pat off the fat bit by bit.I personally think that doing this is thankless, but the Queen Mother has this hobby.

For the sake of beauty, the Queen Mother has come up with many methods, one of which is to take the powder made from pearls regularly, and the taking cycle is ten days.It is said that this method was passed down from ancient times, and the effect is very good.The queen mother takes one tablespoon each time. As for how many pearls are needed to grind one tablespoon, I have not calculated.The empress dowager chooses all high-quality pearls, which must be extremely valuable, and ordinary people must not be able to afford them.The spoon can be seen to be specially made, only in this way can we ensure that the amount of pearl powder is neither too much nor too little.The Empress Dowager has been taking pearl powder for decades without interruption. Based on this amount, I don't know how many pearls she has eaten.There was a eunuch who was responsible for grinding pearl powder for the queen mother. Every time the queen mother saw that person coming in, she knew that she should eat pearl powder.After receiving the pearl powder, the queen mother didn't say much, she just poured the pearl powder into her mouth, we had already prepared warm water beside her, and the queen mother didn't take the water, she directly drank a few cups from our hands mouth, hastily swallowed the pearl powder.

By chance, the Queen Mother told me the magical effect of taking pearl powder. She said: "Pearl powder is a good or bad thing, the key depends on how you use it. Taking pearl powder in an appropriate amount can effectively maintain a person's beautiful appearance and can Keep people's skin smooth, white and tender. If you take it reasonably, even the elderly can have young skin. If you want to take it reasonably, you must first determine the amount, neither more nor less. Furthermore, determine the time and interval of taking it Too long or too short is not suitable. If you take too much, or take it casually without paying attention to the rules, it will not only do no good to the human body, but will greatly damage the body.” That’s what Lafayette told me at the beginning. As for what she said Not really, I don't know because I couldn't try it myself.Whether the pearls have the effect of keeping the skin white and tender will not be known until after the laboratory test, and I can't confirm it.But the queen mother's skin is indeed much fairer and tenderer than that of people of the same age. Until I left the palace, the queen mother was still taking pearl powder solemnly.

After getting old, the empress dowager was most troubled by the wrinkles on her face.In addition to applying egg whites and fats, the Queen Mother had many other methods to deal with wrinkles, one of which was rolling a jade stick on her face.On the queen mother's dressing table are two jade sticks about two or three inches long, with gold handles inlaid on both ends.Every morning after waking up, the Empress Dowager would always spend a lot of time on the jade stick. She would roll the jade stick on her face for a long time, and stare at the mirror while rolling, as if a miracle would appear immediately after rolling.That thing looks slippery and cold, and there is no powder on it. I really doubt its function.For this reason, I found a time when the Queen Mother was not around, pulled out the stick and rolled it over my face, feeling nothing but comfort.While I was trying it out, the Queen Mother came in suddenly, looking very angry.But she didn't because I stole her things, but because I shouldn't doubt the function of that jade stick.

The queen mother said seriously: "You young people don't need this kind of thing, and you don't even need other egg whites and pearl powder. These are things used by our old people." After hearing this, I knew that the queen mother There was a fire in her heart, so she quickly knelt down and kowtowed and said, "Queen Mother, I didn't mean to, and I will never dare to steal your things again. I just saw that this jade stick is very cute, and I want to try it." The feeling of putting it on the forehead, I found out that it is really comfortable to use after trying it..." I said something indiscriminately, and the queen mother laughed when she saw that I was so anxious. "Since you like it so much, you can keep this thing for yourself." The queen mother's straightforwardness surprised me, and this grace came beyond my expectation.In fact, the queen mother's reward this time was not because I did any good deeds, but because the jade stick had already passed through my hands, and the queen mother felt disgusted in her heart, so she threw it to me.Anyway, I have another precious imperial gift in my hand.Staying in the palace, you can often see some very rare things.Every time I see something I like, I always try my best to endure it.Otherwise, with Lafayette's character and the fact that I was being favored at the time, I would definitely get a lot of treasures.Maybe, I don't have to worry about it for the rest of my life.

In order to maintain her beauty, the Empress Dowager also has a very extravagant habit of drinking more than half a tea bowl of human milk every day.It is well known that the Queen Mother likes beauty, even in choosing courtiers. It is said that she once dismissed an official because of his ugly appearance.When choosing our eight female officials, Lafayette also inspected and evaluated us one by one. I can say responsibly that none of the people who stay with the Queen Mother can be called "ugly".Surrounding the queen mother are some beautiful people, how could a woman's natural jealousy not be stimulated?In contrast, we are more beautiful, and the Queen Mother is even uglier. This is something the Queen Mother cannot tolerate. For this reason, she will do everything possible to retain her youth and beauty.In order to achieve this goal, it can be said that Lafayette took great pains and came up with many methods that others could not think of.

No one gave birth in the palace, and no one took care of children. It was almost impossible to find human milk, but this did not bother the Queen Mother. She hired several wet nurses.These wet nurses were selected from among the wives of bureaucrats, big and small. The Empress Dowager had high requirements for these people. Not only must they be beautiful, but they must also be extremely clean. If they are even slightly unclean, they cannot enter the palace.Occasionally, the Queen Mother would meet someone she liked, not only beautiful, but also with a lot of milk. At this time, the Queen Mother would hire this person for a long time and pay this person a lot of money to let her hire another wet nurse to raise her children.Such situations are rare, so the Queen Mother always employs two or three wet nurses at the same time.Since these people have children, the queen mother gave them special grace to bring their children into the palace.After entering the palace, the Empress Dowager gave them special treatment. All food, drink and housing were the same as ours. The place where they lived was cleaned every day. Their only job was to take turns expressing some milk every morning.The Queen Mother was worried about their own milking, and would send a female officer over to monitor each time.

Because the queen mother likes to eat human milk, it has caused many misunderstandings inside and outside the palace.Not everyone knows about the queen mother's living habits, even the nobles in the palace don't know much about it.Because there are two or three nurses in the palace at any time, and they also carry their children with them, it causes a lot of inconvenience, the most obvious being the crying of the children.Breastfeeding babies don't understand anything, the only thing they know is to satisfy their needs through crying.If they need something or feel uncomfortable, they will cry out their throats, which is something that no one can do, let alone us female officials, even the face of Lafayette can't stop them from crying.In this way, people who occasionally enter the palace will hear the faint cry of children.These people must feel strange, because they know that there should not be children in the palace according to common sense.They had doubts in their hearts, and they were too embarrassed to ask the Queen Mother, even in front of us female officials, they did not dare to reveal their true thoughts, and the Queen Mother herself felt that there was no need to explain to them.As time went by, rumors were flying all over the sky, and the unresolved misunderstandings grew deeper and deeper. When people entering the palace heard the cries of children, they would always look at them with their eyes, as if to say: "Look, the rumors outside are really true. Wrong." When I was walking in the palace, I often saw some people like this, I really don't know what they think.

The queen mother didn't start drinking human milk until she was old. She developed the habit of drinking a bowl of human milk every day when she was still very young.Because of this, when Emperor Xianfeng died, the queen mother still looked very young, like a girl in her 20s.After the death of Emperor Xianfeng, the Empress Dowager continued to take human milk. Later, a wet nurse whom the Empress Dowager loved entered the palace. Because she was eager to love her son, she insisted on taking her son with her. Enough, and agreed.That is, from that time on, everyone began to hear the cries of children.Since then, it has become a common practice for wet nurses to bring children in the palace. Since this practice is established, children's crying is naturally inevitable.The cries of these children were repeatedly heard by many people, and everyone spread rumors, and finally it was so absurd that the Queen Mother and An Dehai (Li Lianying's former chief eunuch) had a baby in private.The empress dowager was wronged, and she didn't even have a chance to defend herself. It was extremely wronged.

This rumor had been circulating for nearly 20 years when I entered the palace. According to common sense, people should not continue to doubt it, but whenever they heard the cry of a child, people would still say that the Queen Mother had given birth to a child.These people didn't use their brains to think about it, the queen mother is so old, how could she still have children?Even if the queen mother can give birth to a child, the child has not grown up all these years, and the crying sound has always been like a child?The reason why these misunderstandings cannot be resolved is to some extent related to the bad roots of "repressing good and promoting evil" in human nature.In addition, the queen mother has done a lot of excessive things, and others hate her even more, so rumors and slanders have increased.

I heard this rumor not long after I entered the palace. I felt very uncomfortable at the time and wanted to tell the world the truth about the Queen Mother drinking human milk.After thinking about it carefully, I felt that doing so would cause unnecessary trouble.I remember when I first entered the palace, I saw the queen mother drinking human milk for the first time. Apart from feeling disgusted, I also felt that the queen mother was an old monster who cannibalized people.I had a vague impression that the milked women would soon die.Later, after getting along with the queen mother for a long time, I gradually understood many things, knowing that doing so would not harm people's health, not to mention that the queen mother also gave these people generous treatment.The Empress Dowager also has many special habits. When she first got in touch with her, she felt inappropriate, but after a long time of getting in touch with her, she gradually understood that these things are as no big deal as we eat, but people outside will not understand. To let them know would only fuel a crude rumour.

Finally, I think everyone must want to know whether consuming human milk is good for beauty, and my answer is yes.Everyone grows up slowly under the nourishment of breast milk. From this point of view, breast milk is first of all a good tonic.I have carefully observed babies in childhood, and their skin is indeed much better than that of adults. To some extent, this is also the effect of breast milk nourishment.Breast milk has such miraculous curative effects, no wonder Lafayette chose it as his beauty product.In fact, as long as the way to obtain breast milk is legitimate and does not harm the health of others, why should we blame it?As long as breast milk is regarded as an ordinary tonic, isn't it all right?In this way, it can not only satisfy the vanity of an old man before his death, but also make life easier for all of us in the palace.Even if we don't praise such a thing that kills two birds with one stone, at least we shouldn't slander it.

(End of this chapter)