The Princess had invited the young noble ladies to the palace to make fa gao as the lunar new year approached. Meili arrived in the high walled courtyard with some trepidation after her last visit to the palace.
A large group of girls was already gathered around a stone table in a pavilion as she anxiously approached them. She wished she had some friends among them. There was one girl she knew slightly. Yue Tingting was an old family friend who was expected to marry her First Brother, if she was not chosen at the concubine selections.
As she went to stand by Yue Tingting, the princess looked up and saw her.
"Mei Meili," she called with genuine warmth. "Welcome, come and join us."
"Hello Miss Mei," said Tan Wentian shyly. Her brother had asked her to be kind to the Mei family's daughter.
"Hello everyone," Meili curtsied.
"Miss Mei," greeted Li Fengfeng with false sweetness, "how lovely to see you again".
"Miss Li," she nodded shortly in reply. Meili was positively frightened of Li Fengfeng now, so she ducked to the opposite side of the table from the girl.
"I thought we could make two types of fa gao today," said the princess. "We can see which ones rise better."
The belief was that the higher the fa gao cakes rose, the greater the good fortune for the New Year.
"Half will be made with flour and yeast and the other half with fermented rice. Who wants to make the flour cakes?"
"Miss Mei, will you join me on the flour batch?" ask Li Fengfeng quickly.
Oh no, thought Meili, but she couldn't refuse without appearing rude. "Of course, Miss Li."
Meili found herself surrounded by Li Fengfeng and her group of close friends and followers, with the princess, Tan Wentian, Yue Tingting, and the other gentler girls, on the other side of the table.
She took a deep breath. What was the worst that could happen? They were steaming new year cakes for goodness sake!
"Su Yan, you do the spices, Li Mingda, you make the colours, Miss Mei, you're in charge of the flour," Li Fengfeng ordered her minions about.
The girls all set to work on their tasks. Meili poured a large amount of flour into the huge mixing bowl.
"Make sure you check the flour for lumps Miss Mei," said Li Fengfeng.
As Meili was leaning over the enormous dish, Li Fengfeng, walked behind her and gave her a sharp bump with her hip, sending Meili face-first into the vat of flour.
"Oh dear! Miss Mei! I'm so terribly sorry," Li Fengfeng cried. "How clumsy of me!"
Meili picked herself out of the dish, her face covered in flour like a little white snowman. She opened her eyes, her eyelashes heavy with flower.
Peals of laughter broke out across Li Fengfeng's coterie.
"Miss Mei! Wait right there. Don't move," cried the princess, hurrying around to help her.
Meili steamed with anger and embarrassment. There was no way she was going to let this horrible girl keep on bullying her like this!
Before she'd had time to consider the consequences, she wiped her eyes, reached into the bright dishes of colour prepared by Li Mingda, turned, and threw fistfuls of the coloured powder all over Li Fengfeng and Su Yan, who stood next to her.
Both girls screamed.
But Meili didn't stop there, she poured the coloured powders into the huge bowl of flour, grabbed more fistfuls of the now coloured flour, and tossed it on the other girls who'd been laughing and who hadn't had the good sense to move away from the table.
There were more squeals and shouts of protest.
Meili reached in for more flour and dashed after some of the girls who were now fleeing the pavilion. Bullseye! She hit those two in the back of the head. They also screamed and wailed. The high-walled courtyard now echoed with the squeals and plaintive cries of young ladies.
The princess, who had been standing with her mouth agape, decided the whole thing looked like too much fun to stand on the sideline. She dipped her hands in and threw two fistfuls of coloured powder at Tan Wentian.
Tan Wentian's face turned bright red with a face full of red yeast rice powder. She looked like she'd received a terrible burn. The princess burst into peals of hysterical laughter.
"Princess!" wailed Tan Wentian.
Tan Wentian didn't waste any time returning the favour. A handful of green tea powder struck the princess across her cheek and ear, leaving her half-green and half-white.
The whole courtyard of girls was in pandemonium now, shouting and screaming as they chased one another around the square with coloured powders, hitting one another on the face and body, completely destroying their pretty dresses and hairdos.
Before long, everyone was different shades of the rainbow and in all sorts of states of disarray. The princess was half green, half pink, Meili was white-faced with flour, but her dress was all colours of the rainbow, Li Fengfeng had a brown face with the cocoa Meili had hit her with.
As they started to run low on coloured powder, they grabbed handfuls of the fermented rice batter. Now it got really messy! Girls were covered in rice goop, and they soon discovered that the coloured powder stuck to the rice batter to great effect.
Meili was chasing after Li Fengfeng with two full handfuls of fermented rice which she had taken the time to mix red yeast into, for extra good effect! She was much faster than the nasty girl, who screamed as she ran from her. Meili threw both handfuls at once with all her strength.
One hit Li Fengfeng square in the back with an extremely satisfying gooey thump.
The other missed and struck someone else full on the chest.
Meili laughed and cheered, jumping in a circle with glee, pumping both her fists with delight, in a gesture she had learnt from her brothers. She stopped short and peered behind Li Fengfeng.
Unluckily, the Second Prince had walked into the courtyard as she threw those two handfuls of rice...
The second one had landed on the front of his green silk robe, where the red sludge was now dripping down his chest as though he'd been stabbed.
Standing next to him was Prince Nur, whom the Second Prince was chaperoning, and had brought along to enjoy the fa gao preparations.