That evening, as dusk fell, the palace servants could not stop talking about the afternoon entertainments. Well, mainly about the theatrical performance titled, 'Ghostly apparition'—a tale about a young concubine escaping the Otherworld and lamenting her life taking so suddenly before her wedding night.
Yes, a mutter of voices rose like smoke from the servants' quarters. And the words were about the embarrassing topic of Empress Dowager whose shocking behaviour had cut short the performance.
In the middle of the play, the Empress had made quite a ruckus and within the confines of the palace such scandalous behaviour had never occurred before.
The Empress had displayed a feverishness of mind witnessed by many: the ministers, the Chancellor, the Emperor and Consort Emika; also, the serving maids and the whole troupe of actors, and singers, and musicians.
