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their instruments. The sound was oddly mournful at first. Then it turned into the sound of a horse being beaten. Then, broken and strained, the notes sounded like wind whistling through the Mongolian grasslands. The opera began. The actors entered, dressed in women’s gowns with blue and white floral prints. The musicians hit their bamboo tubes with sticks as the actors sang and beat their thighs.
    Crack! Crack! Crack!
I remembered the sound. It was unpleasant and I couldn’t understand why people liked it. My mother told me that it was a traditional Manchu performance mixed with elements of Chinese opera, originally a form of entertainment for commoners. Once in a while rich people would request it performed, “to taste the local delicacy.”
    I remembered sitting in the first row. My ears grew numb from the loud drums. The sounds of the sticks beating the bamboo tubes felt like a hammer coming down on my skull.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
My thoughts were beaten out.
    Chief Eunuch Shim had changed his costume. The fabric featured hand-painted red clouds floating over a hill of pine trees. On both of his cheeks, two red tomato-like circles had been drawn. The eunuch must have painted them in a hurry, for the color had smeared. Half of his nose was red too. A narrow white line ran from his forehead down the bridge of his nose. He had a goat’s face, and his eyes looked like they had grown out of his ears. He smiled, revealing a set of gold teeth.
    The old lady was cheered. “Shim, what are you going to say?”
    “Congratulations on your gaining seven daughters-in-law, my lady. Remember the first line the mother-in-law said to her new daughter-in-law in the opera
The Wild Rose
?”
    “How can anyone forget?” The old lady laughed again as she recited the line: “‘Get your water bucket, daughter-in-law, and go to the well!’”
    Chief Eunuch Shim cheerfully called in the six other girls, among them Nuharoo. The girls entered like goddesses descending from Heaven. They lined up next to me.
    Shim lifted one side of his robe and took two steps, placing himself at the center of the hall facing Emperor Hsien Feng and the Grand Empress. He turned his face to the east and then back to the center. Crisply, he bowed and cheered, “May your grandchildren be counted in the hundreds and may you live forever!”
    We repeated the line after Shim as we got down on our knees.
    Outside the hall came the sound of drums and music.
    A group of eunuchs, each holding a silk-wrapped box, entered.
    “Rise.” The Grand Empress smiled.
    Chief Eunuch Shim announced, “His Majesty summons the ministers of the Imperial court!”
    The sound of hundreds of knees hitting the ground came from outside the hall. “At your service, Your Majesties!” the ministers sang.
    Chief Eunuch Shim announced, “In the presence of the spirit of the Imperial ancestors, and in the presence of Heaven and the universe, His Majesty Emperor Hsien Feng is ready to pronounce the names of his wives!”
    “
Zah!
” the crowd responded in Manchu.
    Boxes were opened one by one, revealing pieces of
ruyi.
Each
ruyi
was a scepter that had three large mushroom- or flower-shaped heads interconnected with a stem. The heads were made of gold, emeralds, rubies and sapphires, and the stem was carved jade or lacquered wood. Each
ruyi
represented a title and a rank.
Ru
meant “as” and
yi
meant “you wish”;
ruyi
meant “everything you wish.”
    Emperor Hsien Feng took one
ruyi
from the tray and walked toward us. This
ruyi
was of carved golden lacquer with three entwined peonies.
    I continued to hold my breath, but I was no longer afraid. No matter what kind of
ruyi
I would receive, my mother would be proud tomorrow. She would be a mother-in-law to the Son of Heaven, and my siblings Imperial relatives! I regretted only that my father hadn’t lived to see this.
    Emperor Hsien Feng’s fingers played with the
ruyi.
The flirtatious expression on his face had disappeared. He now