Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 60 Bathing (1)
It was not my voluntary choice to enter the palace as a female official, but since the Queen Mother issued an order to let my sister and I enter the palace, there is nothing we can do about it.When my sister and I first entered the palace, we felt uncomfortable everywhere, and taking a bath was one of them.Due to living abroad for a long time, my sister and I have developed the habit of taking a bath every day, but after we came to the palace, we couldn't find a place to take a bath after great effort.Looking back at the other female officials and deacons in the palace, there was no sign of them taking a bath.My sister and I are incredulous about this phenomenon. Could it be that these people have secretly prepared a set of bathing tools and only use them when no one is around?Or do these people only bathe when their family visits home?With no real solution, my sister and I could only endure it for the time being.Resisting the feeling of not taking a bath is very uncomfortable. I think of the Queen Mother. Since this noble woman is so particular about dressing, how can she allow herself to be covered with dirty things?The Queen Mother must take a bath often, but I don't know when and where she takes a bath.I am a rather curious person, so I really want to know how the Queen Mother solves this personal problem.

Before I talk about the queen mother's bathing problem, let me talk about how my sister and I solved this problem.Our bathing problem can be satisfactorily resolved, fundamentally speaking, it is the empress dowager who treats us two sisters preferentially.When we first entered the palace, we lived together with other female officials in the side hall behind the Empress Dowager's bedroom. This was done for the convenience of the Empress Dowager's summons.Thanks to the kindness of the Empress Dowager, realizing that we do not want to live so crowded, we allocated a small room to each of us in the side hall.In addition, the Empress Dowager arranged additional rooms for us in other places in the Summer Palace.In this way, we have enough space to place the bathing facilities.However, despite our best efforts, we could not get enough equipment in the Summer Palace, and in desperation we had to send a eunuch to deliver a message to my father.Not long after, my father brought a light Western-style bathtub.Since then, the bathing problem of my sister and I has been perfectly solved.

Next, let me introduce to you in detail the Queen Mother's bathing method.One evening a few days after I came to the palace, a female official came to me and said, "The Empress Dowager is going to take a bath again tonight, and it's your turn to serve, so hurry up and get ready." From her words, we can get Come to such a conclusion: the queen mother not only takes a bath, but also often takes a bath.I was on duty that day, so naturally I served the Queen Mother to take a bath. "Well, ok, I'll get ready, but can you tell me where the bathroom is? I don't know how to get there." I asked her honestly. "Bathroom? What's a bathroom? I don't understand what you're talking about." She answered me blankly.Originally, I wanted to ask her some questions, but I didn't expect that it would be me to explain to her instead.It took me a long time to get her to understand what a bathroom is.In fact, it was understandable that she didn’t know what a bathroom was. The Chinese at that time didn’t pay much attention to it. When they needed to take a bath, they just dragged out a large wooden tub. There was no need for a bathroom at all, so naturally there was no need to build a bathroom.

Since it was the first time to bathe the queen mother, I couldn't help feeling a little nervous, so I asked again: "When I was abroad, almost every house had a bathroom, and it was very convenient to take a bath. The queen mother is so honorable, why don't you build a bathroom for yourself?" ? Isn't that more convenient?"

"How do I know this question? If you are really that curious, you can ask the Queen Mother yourself later." The female officer had other things to do, and she seemed very anxious and spoke very quickly. Finally, she said: " You don’t need to worry, you don’t need to do anything when the time comes anyway, just watch, you are such a smart person, I’m sure you’ll be fine.” After listening to her comfort, I couldn’t ask any more questions, I could only wait quietly with.

I have mentioned some of the habits of the Queen Mother, one of which is that she likes to chat with us every day after dinner.After dinner, surrounded by us attendants, the Empress Dowager would go to a side hall, where she would sit firmly on an armchair and start chatting.The so-called family talk was actually said by the Queen Mother alone, and we stood quietly and listened.What the queen mother talked about was nothing more than what happened today and what to do tomorrow, and occasionally she commented on the character of the ministers in the court.This process takes about an hour, and then the Queen Mother will go back to the bedroom to make preparations before going to bed.

Because I knew in advance that I would serve the Empress Dowager to take a bath today, I followed the Empress Dowager back to the bedroom after the other female officials withdrew, and there were four court ladies with me.I don't know what I need to do, I feel very nervous, if I make a fool of myself when I bathe the Queen Mother for the first time, I will really be overwhelmed and walk away.

It didn't take long for me to know that my worries were unnecessary, because those four maids were the ones who bathed the Queen Mother directly, and all I needed to do was to give some pointers to those maids.I just entered the palace and am not familiar with anything, how dare I point those people out?But it doesn't matter, the queen mother likes to direct everything by herself, how could she let others mess around with such a big matter as taking a bath?In this way, instead of saying that I am serving the Queen Mother to take a bath, it is better to say that I am watching the Queen Mother take a bath.

After returning to the bedroom, two eunuchs immediately brought in a large wooden basin.Nothing the queen mother uses is the same as that of ordinary people, including the bathtub.Although the bathtub is made of wood, it is covered with a thick layer of silver skin, so the bathtub looks bright and splendid no matter what time it is.The two eunuchs poured half of the basin of warm water into it.At the same time as the wooden basin, there were also many white towels. The Queen Mother is a person who advocates luxury, and you can understand this just by looking at those towels.The towels are trimmed with apricot silk thread all around for a neat and beautiful look.There are many patterns embroidered on the snow-white texture, most of which are Danfeng Chaoyang.From workmanship to pattern design and embroidery, these towels are all high-quality goods. If they are sent to a museum, someone will definitely collect them as precious handicrafts.While the eunuch was preparing these things, the Empress Dowager sat down firmly on a low table. The back of that low table could be taken off, so that the maids could wipe her back.

The eunuchs withdrew, leaving only women in the room, and the four maids were busy preparing the bathing utensils.The queen mother saw that they were too busy, so she unbuttoned her blouse and left her upper body naked.I don't have a hobby of peeping at other people's baths, but at the moment I can't see it.But after just one look, I was too shocked to speak.At the age of the queen mother at this time, each of us is very clear. According to common sense, there should be nothing on her body except dry skin and old spots, but the fact is exactly the opposite.The skin on the Empress Dowager's body is not only very fair, but also very tender. Not everyone in her 20s has such good skin.If the dowager was younger, with such a body, she would undoubtedly be the most beautiful woman in the palace.Just looking at her skin, it is not difficult for me to imagine how beautiful the Queen Mother was when she was young.

The four court ladies officially began to bathe the queen mother.They first spread out and stood in their own positions, that is, one at the front, one at the front, one at the left, one at the left, and one at the left.I say standing here is very inappropriate, because the queen mother is sitting, so naturally they can't stand upright to bathe the queen mother, they can only half squat and half stand.Unlike these court ladies, I was standing not far from the Queen Mother. Since I had nothing to do, I had no choice but to observe the Queen Mother taking a bath.

The four maids threw four towels into the bathtub, let the towels soak for four or five minutes before picking them up, and then wrung the towels vigorously until no water dripped down.These four court ladies must have received special training. All their movements are orderly, and every move is uniform. It easily reminds me of the scene during the military drill.After the towel was wrung out, they took out the homemade rose soap in the palace, and applied it vigorously on the towel. The movements were slow, but it didn't seem to give people the feeling of procrastination.After the soap was wiped off, they approached the Queen Mother together and officially began to bathe her. One wiped her chest, one wiped her back, and the other two wiped her ribs and arms respectively.The queen mother let them wipe her body motionless, while talking to me, her expression was very relaxed, obviously she had long been used to being watched by others in the bath.If it were me, I wouldn't even be willing to kill him.

(End of this chapter)