"With your brows knitted like that, I can't get the floral ornament to lie flat." Mi Moyan held a sliver of mica, his face full of helplessness.
Baozhu, meanwhile, looked furious. She ground her teeth, longing to leap up, seize someone, and bite them to death.
"You mean they not only want me to dance, but to carry dishes too?!"
Like the roommates sharing the other rooms, the two sat facing each other and did one another's makeup. Baozhu had thought that after five or six days of practicing the Zhezhi Dance, she would finally have a chance to perform and see the mysterious master's true face. Who would have thought that today's assignment would merely be serving tea and pouring water for the guests at the evening banquet, working as a serving maid?
Mi Moyan sighed helplessly. "We're household courtesans, scarcely different from furniture that moves. Wherever the master puts us, whoever he lets use us, it's all perfectly natural. How else would we have the chance to wear silk and satin? These are simply the cushions and padded backs laid over the furniture."
The Tang Code expressly stated: "Lowly slaves are, under the law, equivalent to livestock."
All the dancers in the Rainbow Garment Courtyard belonged to the servile class and could live only by depending on their master's household. Even if they escaped, they could not gain the status of a free person. Moreover, the courtyard enforced a harsh collective punishment system: if one person fled, many would be punished. Roommates who shared sleeping quarters often relied on one another, and none could bear to implicate the other.
Baozhu had once planned to unite the other household courtesans and escape their cage together. But as soon as she tried to put the plan into practice, she discovered