Folklore recounts that Gaozong got up at one point to relieve himself, coming back out of the water closet to find that Wu had followed him in to the antechamber. She knelt on the floor before him and offered a water bowl for him to wash his hands. As he did so, he inadvertently splashed her face with water and commented that the 'clear waters have marred your powder'. Wu flirtily replied: 'I accept Heaven's favour of rain and mist,' making a poetic allusion to sexual intercourse. A later, and considerably less reliable, source has Gaozong initiating the wordplay, flicking water at her from
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