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Chapter Twenty One : Chinese Openings
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Beijing –Palace of Imperial Purity
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Seventh month of the year 4509
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Ron Zongsan sighed and kowtowed the last twenty meters until he arrived at the Son of Heaven's throne.
- Are you bored, my dear Zongsan?
Yonglin Emperor's voice was, as usual, ironic.
- I'm bored, my knees hurt and I'm licking my sweat from your floor, ô Supreme Commander of an Army of Fat and Lazy Eunuchs… All things that are in no way useful to the mission the Son of Heaven bestowed unto me.
- Two dozen feet more, my dear Zongsan and you'll have the honor to wet my boot with your sweat. Do spare enough of it, please, my boots are dusty.
Ron Zongsan kowtowed the last feet, put his head on the Emperor's boots and waited.
It could be a long wait if the Emperor was in the mood to show his displeasure.
- Sit, Zongsan, said He finally after a few seconds. We have a lot of work before us.
Ron Zongsan made no effort to hide his frustration while he stood up to take place on the ridiculously small and narrow chair underlings were forced to use. At least those who had not to spend the whole audience stretched on their belly.
The Emperor was wearing a simple multicolored silk robe and had, like often, forgotten to wear the greatest part of his Imperial Regalia. No fancy hat, no huge golden fingernails and no ridiculously high wooden slippers. Shockingly simple and casual.
With thirty years, Yonglin was a tall man of handsome and brawny build. When younger and a long way from power he had been trained to be an army officer and he liked to be in good health and form. His takeover had come as a surprise but what was called the Demon Visits had changed quite a few things in China and had terrorized a lot of the prospective Emperors. Yonglin had, like the others, been visited by the Demon but unlike the others he had stayed mentally sane while quite a lot of his brothers had lost it. He had stood his man and the Demon had backed down.
And, impressed by the new Heir's courage, he had even helped him to get rid of the old squad of Eunuchs who had, for a few weeks, believed they could go on as usual.
Yonglin didn't lie to himself and he knew that the Demon had let him be and that it could have destroyed his spirit as easily as it had done it with his brothers. But he had come out of the Throne room as sane as before –which in his opinion was not sane at all- and his candidacy had been approved by the court Eunuchs the following morning. He had not yet been bestowed with a dynastic name because there was still no High Priest candidate available. He had made no effort to find a candidate since while there was no High Priest there was nobody available to whisper the Gods' message into his ears. Yonglin was sure he needed none and Zongsan was in total agreement with his Emperor.
- It is necessary, my friend, my new Eunuchs are perhaps new at their posts but they still would skin me if I let you walk to my throne. I made them kowtow, so you'll do it too! The rules are the rules.
Zongsan forced himself to shut up. Yonglin had dispatched most of his father's surviving old Eunuch crew within days of the night of the mummies as it was called all over the Capital City. The three that had been executed by the Demons had been dealt with because they believed that could instruct the Son of Heaven in the art of ruling. And clearly the Demon hadn't acknowledged their impression. The survivors had all, without any exception, been exiled to foreign lands. China had now prestigious ambassadors in every country in Europe. The new eunuchs, perhaps trusted ones, had been elevated to work in the Emperor's vicinity.
So, since Yonglin had replaced the demented Jiāqìng Emperor who had died ten months before, the rules had shown a tendency to become less stringent. So it had happened that both men, the new Emperor and the former Mathematician forced to be an administrator had developed what would one day perhaps be a friendship –if one considered that Ron Zongsan shouldn't even be authorized to breath the same air as the Yonglin Emperor it was well on the way- and spoke on a daily basis.
- We both waste precious time, ô Marvel under the Sky. Time, we don't have since our enemies are making every day new discoveries, we are not even able to understand yet.
Yonglin Emperor, couldn't resist to the temptation to laugh –which, as the Son of Heaven, he was forbidden to when in presence of underlings- but he liked Zongsan's humor too much to resist.
- I love all those new fancy titles you bestow me with… I like it when my advisers have balls. You are the only one who finds it in itself to laugh at me and mock me.
- I don't mock you; ô Wearer of no longer Dusty but Sweaty Leather Boots, I mock these idiotic protocol rules. To become a modern Nation, we need to stop all the traditional bullshit particularly in protocol matters.
- This Wearer of Sweaty Boots works on it, my dear Zongsan, but I suspect we have more important things to deal with first. And I'm very proud to announce that it will be no longer necessary –the weekly kowtow session every public servant owes me not included of course- for you to come in my throne room to speak to me.
Zongsan's eyes immediately sparkled.
- You have found a way to get a telephone, ô Industrious and Resourceful Ruler?
- I have looked up how the foreigners were doing it and I've copied them. I've ordered it at the Malaysian Company Outpost and it has been delivered by airship this very morning. Along with all the other things you wanted me to get. Like those magnetogenerators and Chappe boxes you wanted to put at the end of those copper wires you had my army install along every road of the Empire. I have now one hundred and twenty of each. With spare parts!
Zongsan forced himself to stay put and not run to open the crates, wherever they were.
- The two hundred operators have been ready for months now, ô Wonder of Wisdom. They trained and trained, and it will be a fantastic change in their lives when they finally got to do some real work. In a month, with luck, we will have almost instantaneous communications from one side of the Empire to the other. I hope it wasn't too expensive?
- A few pounds of gold paid everything, the telephones included.
- Telephones?
Zangson was so surprised that he forgot to find a fancy title for his Emperor.
- I have bought a dozen pairs; I hope to be able to speak with those of my Governors who are on the frontier. Having them speak to me will be even better than reading the Chapped dispatches.
- I'm not sure I have the knowledge to make them work, ô my Smart but Impatient Ruler. Telephones need other cables to work on long distances…
- No need, I have hired a man who knows how to make it function. And if we need more materials I still have the address in Malaysia..
Ron Zongsan frowned at his Emperor.
- Hired?
Yonglin nodded while letting his smile spread.
- We were in luck, my Troublesome Former Scientist! He was in Japan doing the things European technicians do when installing factories for the Shogun, when he was abducted by unlawly Japanese Highwaymen who sold him to Malaysian pirates who tried to ransom him… One of my heavy dreadnoughts was lucky to intercept the pirates and take their ship. My men saved him and out of gratitude –and money and female company- he has accepted to stay with us the time necessary to make the telephone work.
- We should perhaps, ô Uncommonly Lucky Ruler, add some money and more female company to get him to stay the time necessary to teach to some of my men what he knows. I do have the books with the theoretical knowledge but having a real technician able to teach would be so much better.
Yonglin Emperor made no effort to hide his satisfaction.
- He already has accepted, hence the multiple female company, to be a teacher for two years after the telephones are installed and operational. He seems a smart fellow and even if our propositions are interesting and profitable, he knows that it was only for the show. He accepted quite willingly having no mate awaiting him in Europe. So, I have no doubt that he will also accept during those two years to repair your Chappe boxes and my telephones.
Yonglin made a face.
- After these two years everything is open. I hope he will accept to discuss another contract and stay after the end of his first contract. We will, of course offer monies and other advantages but I hope to have him wanting to stay. These Westerners seem to be rather fond of their children, so we have conveyed our wish to his current female company to do what's necessary to be pregnant within the next months. I hope that if they succeed he will become attached and will want to stay with them. But as you will see in not so long, there is perhaps no need to get him to stay…
Zongsan nodded.
- And how, ô Scheming Master, will you have my boxes repaired should he decide not to remain with us for a few more years?
Yonglin nodded once more and pointed toward his office.
- Come with me, ô you Uncouth Doubter, I have something to show you. Something that should interest you even if it has only a distant link with Sciences, Technology or Engineering.
They walked through some corridors and arrived at what looked like an office. Three Eunuchs were busy making copies –or summaries?- of reports. They were out of the room seconds after their arrival.
One wall was covered with hundreds of Pictures. Photographs cut out of European Magazines. Mostly 'Light and Famous' whose photographs were always the best quality.
The man in the center he recognized immediately. Napoleon Buonaparte, the man who ruled over Europe and Africa! This man's imperialistic trait had been threatening the Middle Empire for years now.
He looked around and soon understood what he was looking at.
- Those are the enemies, ô Mistrusting Collector, what are you planning against them?
Yonglin smiled before moving and pointing at another photograph.
This one was clearly not 'Light and Famous' quality.
Zongsan squinted his eyes and tried to recognize the man, an ugly big nosed European with brown hair and probably green or blue eyes.
- It's a photograph of a painting, said he finally.
- A photograph of the only painting still visible for outsiders in the whole world, said Yonglin with a proud eyewink. There is no other picture or painting of this man that isn't safely locked up in Pemberley or Spalatro. And I really believe he didn't know that David, the painter he chose to immortalize him and his wife, had the habit of, before making the real picture, painting a portrait of his subjects. Portrait he'll use as a reminder if other paintings were wished for.
- And who is this man?
Yonglin made a circle with his finger pointing at six women pictured around him. Two were Westerners, one probably of Semitic ascent and three were Asians. Two of them were rather plain Chinese girls. Sisters probably if he had to judge their similarities. Pictures of youngsters –some of them toddlers- were aligned under each of the women.
- You are a scientist, you should be able to make the right deduction.
Zongsan nodded and studied the glued pictures.
- He has more than one wife? Or are they concubines and mistresses?
- Three wives, two concubines –the two Chinese- and one Gandharan witch, answered Yonglin.
Zongsan went on looking at the pictures when he finally recognized the man under the picture of the blue-eyed blonde with the easy smile. It was William the Fourth, the ruler of the British Federation whose picture was in every one of his Science Magazines. From there it was easy to complete his mental picture.
He pointed at the copy of the painting.
- That's d'Arcy…
- Or as he was known in LangZeu two decades ago meet Ru Quonru, the man who would have been the most famous assassin of China had he not been a foreigner.
Zongsan who was rather uninterested outside of his field of expertise, looked at the Emperor.
- He has a Chinese name? He lived in China?
- Eleven years if what I have been told is true. And for five years he was the main assassin of Peu Tshomai, one of my numerous Uncles.
Yonglin pointed at a list nailed on the side of the wall.
- His known victims. He was a Master in his field. Still is…
Zongsan studied the list and was really impressed. This man had been able to kill quite a lot of wealthy and well protected men. He really was a Master in his field.
- Why did he change his career?
- Peu Tshomai did or said something that angered the Emperor and seven court assassins were sent out to deal with said Uncle and his Household. Said seven assassins were arrogant fools who believed themselves the best. They clearly weren't, they all disappeared and were never seen again.
Yonglin tapped Quonru's picture.
- Nobody knows what really happened, but I believe that they failed because of him. He got them all and while my Uncle was able to run to Beijing to try and reconcile with his brother, Ru Quonru chose not to stay to pay the price of the Son of Heaven's wrath and went back to Europe taking with him his treacrherous employer's treasure hoard.
Yonglin snickered.
- He was right to do it; my Uncle was a blabbering fool and had no loyalty. To save his head he was the first to denounce Quonru and throw him to the wolves.
Zongsan once more looked at the picture.
- He's ugly and his bright eyes are weird and upsetting.
- He's a long nose, my dear Zongsan, he's said to be handsome within his racial circle and all his wives are renowned for their beauty and intelligence.
- So, he went back to his father's lands?
- Indeed, and there he found himself the heir of quite a lot of his deceased family members.
- An epidemic?
- A revolution, corrected Yonglin. The rubble stood up and killed the Aristocracy. He was the only one of his rather numerous family who came back after the killing came to an end and after wisdom came back. At the time of his return he was one of Napoleon's trusted allies and he had no problems to convince the new owners of his family heirloom to renounce.
Zongsan snickered.
- I suppose he used his acquired Chinese knowledge to convince some of them?
- It is said that finding the bloody heads of your bodyguards on your pillow when you wake up in the morning is a very good way to convince a potential seller to sell the property back to the rightful heir.
This time it was Yonglin who laughed.
- And he repaid the exact sum with legal interests the new owners had paid to get said properties. Honesty incarnate, that he is.
- Being ruthless like a Chinese killer must have helped, added Zongsan.
- That he is too but the important word in your sentence my friend is 'Chinese'!
Once more Yonglin tapped on the picture.
- This man, my friend, lived with us, learned with us, became one of us, practiced skills he was able to use the whole of his following life to build a financial Empire and to ingratiate himself at the highest levels of the Power in Europe. He speaks a perfect Mandarin, his Wu and Yue is probably better than mine and he speaks and understands Amdo and Khazak. In some reports it is said that his wife had said that he dreams in Chinese.
He looked at Zongsan.
- Does all that give you the feeling that I'm speaking of an enemy of China?
- Assuredly not, ô my Scheming and Duplicitous Ruler, but we have shown a rather important level of belligerence against him in the past, have we not?
- As you said, my dear Zongsan, in the past! Now we are in a new era where old wrongs can be forgotten and forgiven…
- Will he forget and forgive?
Yonglin shook his head.
- Probably not, my friend, but…
He moved his hand and pointed at the golden-haired woman.
- But his first wife who is renowned to be a compassionate and loving creature will. It shouldn't be too difficult to convince her that the past is the past and that we are at the brink of a new era of peace and understanding.
His smile widened.
- And it is said in some other reports that he's unable to say no to his beloved wife.
Zongsan made a face.
- I see where you are steering, ô Duplicitous and Smart Fiend, but how are we going to get said first wife to be our promoter for peace and understanding?
Once more the Emperor's finger moved to point at the face of a young woman figuring just under one of the two Chinese concubines. A Chinese half-blood with grey eyes and a nose way too large to ever please a well-born Chinese man.
- Meet our ambassadress to Pemberley, my dear friend. Ru Sunteu, a thief, a burglar and a cut-purse of the worst sort… It happened that a few weeks ago, after having succeeded for years to escape my police she was finally caught. It probably happened because I gave some very pressing and detailed orders to find her and to get her.
Yonglin snickered.
- She would probably have escaped once more if one of my zealous police auxiliaries hadn't shot her.
Zongsan looked up and Yonglin could see that he feared the worst.
- She survived but suffered none of the usual side-effects of being captured by police forces. Said police forces had very precise orders and they knew what would happen to them and their families should something untoward had happened to their prisoner while in their custody… She broke both her legs surviving a three-story fall and is, as we speak, beginning to walk again within the Women's Palace.
- Why your interest in her?
- You haven't guessed? I'm disappointed! She's Ro Quonru's eldest daughter, my friend.
Zongsan couldn't help but make a face.
- He already has more daughters than any decent Chinese man would ever want. I doubt he will be thrilled to have another one sent to his Household.
- Stop thinking like a Chinese, my friend, and remember that I'm not sending her to Quonru but to his first wife who, as I said, is renowned to be compassionate and loving! She will welcome our poor half orphan as if she was hers and I'm quite sure that Quonru won't have a say in the matter once she has her under her wing.
Yonglin stopped pointing and the pictures and moved to look Zongsan in the eyes.
- And stop thinking like a Chinese and project yourself to Europe and its ways. They don't treat women the way we do. They even have begun to give them the same rights as men. In Europe girls are considered welcome additions to a family. Every family, should they have the means to rear them, sees a child, whatever may be his sex, as a blessing! And for Quonru's family money is the least of problems.
Once more he pointed towards the wall with the pictures where Ru Quonru and his family was depicted.
- This is probably the richest family of the whole world. When all is said and told they are even richer than I.
Zongsan couldn't help but show his doubts. The Son of Heaven had all the wealth of China at his disposal.
- Think European, Zongsan! There, a ruling family does not own the whole country. The rulers get paid by the government, but the land is not theirs! Here I own nothing because here in China I own everything and everyone. I want something, I ask for it and it is given to me since it always has been mine. There he will have to pay to have it, but it will belong to him and his heirs. Not so for me: the day I'm no longer on the Throne, I remain with nothing but my successor's good will. Not so in Europe where the rulers own things but those things are the ruler's personal belongings. And Quonru is, as a person, richer than most of Europe's rulers.
He pointed at Sunteu.
- For people with such wealth a girl more is of no financial importance. They will just accept her as they have for the Gandharan witch's daughter. And once in front of her father he will have no choice but to listen to her. She will be able to present him the deal I propose. And the Chinese part of him will see that it is, for himself and Europe, the best deal ever.
Zongsan looked at the pictures and soon found those of Charles Bingley and his family.
- Could you, in your deal proposition, include a message for him, ô Smartest of all Rulers?
Yonglin nodded once more.
- Of course, I will! I need him and his Uncle to come here and build factories to speed up the technological infrastructure you complain every day we don't have!
Zongsan couldn't help but let his extreme surprise show.
- The Empire will open his borders? To foreigners?
Yongli shook his head vehemently.
- Of course not, my Inattentive Scatterbrain! At least not yet! I have asked my staff to investigate the matter. The first results were disappointing, so I changed the men in charge. Twice. The third squad, luckily for them, did look at the whole thing very differently. It appears that we treated Ru Quonru very wrongly. By hiring him and employing him for more than seven years my Uncle has included said Employee in his Household. My staff discovered that by doing that he has been elevating him, by association, to the level of a member of the Imperial Household. As such he should have benefited from a hearing by the Eunuchs in charge of Imperial family affairs before being charged and prosecuted. We will welcome back Ru Quonru's family because we can no longer let a member of the Imperial Household be wronged without reason.
Zongsan frowned at his Emperor.
- Isn't such a pretense a little farfetched, ô Master of Manipulation?
- Of course, it is, smiled the Emperor. Quonru won't believe it but he still will see the reason behind my move. And he had been faithful to my Uncle when he protected him against hired killers he could not know had been sent by the Emperor. So, there is really nothing serious we, the Son of Heaven, can blame him for. Loyalty should never be considered a crime, don't' you agree?
Zongsan nodded.
- Loyalty is a two-edged sword in the Empire, ô my Lord. I have seen too many examples where Loyalty to one party was immediately considered as a crime by the Son of Heaven because said party worked against the Seat… It seems Sons of Heaven tend to believe in distributive justice, having whole Households executed for the crime of only one member...
- Do I discern a criticism there?
- Last I heard Ru Quonru's family in Europe did suffer from just that sort of justice. And just a few weeks ago there were those executions in Henan. A whole family eradicated because the Patriarch was cheating the Emperor…
- It is the way things are done in the Empire…
- An injustice doesn't become fair because it has been done for a long time, ô you Ruler of Many Minds!
Yonglin looked Zongsan in the eyes for an exceptionally long time but Zongsan never wavered.
His friend was lucky that Yonglin had never been groomed to be the Emperor. Some words would have cost him his head with quite a few of his brothers. But with so many of his brothers refusing to become Son of Heaven it had come to him to sit on the Throne and take over the Empire. Even if he had no real desire to become ruler of anything.
Zongsan had no problem to guess what his Ruler was thinking. He hoped, for his survival, that he was, for quite a few more years, as useful for China as he believed. Not so useful to be able to survive really angering the Emperor but useful enough to have a chance to utter what he deemed crucial.
The Court in Beijing had enough Courtiers who were always eager to tell the Son of Heaven exactly what he wanted to hear. He hadn't chosen to be at the Emperor's side so he wouldn't be one of those people who looked at the Emperor as their own little source of income and privileges. Ever!
And, after all, he should have died two years ago when he had been caught studying illegally the Western science! And here he was, alive, finally wealthy and soon to be a father. Being a survivor and not at all sure that the Empire foolish technophobia wasn't about to resuscitate, he had made the most out of the two last years.
And he didn't regret a second of it.
It had been the most interesting and most fulfilling period of his whole life. He had even been able to get the girl he loved as his wife against his father's will. A thing that would never have happened hadn't he been hired by the Son of Heaven and able to get an Imperial signed warrant. Even an old grumpy fool like Bo Seudan had not found in himself the courage to protest a warrant signed by the Son of Heaven himself! Liyeu's father hadn't liked it at all but he had kowtowed like everybody else and the fact that he wouldn't have to pay a dowry had probably helped. Whatever happened to Zongsan now was of no real importance.
- I admit, said finally Yonglin, that the times are ripe for some groundbreaking changes within the Empire and we'll see if we can steer the Empire into fairer waters. For now, let's be sensible and not try and change everything at the same time, shall we?
- For as long as the prospect of rendering the Empire fairer is considered by you as a worthy endeavor, I can only agree. Too many drastic changes at the same time would destabilize the Empire. And with the technological revolution we need to introduce, the land will be shaken enough without introducing what could be seen by would-be opponents as too lax a justice.
- Glad you agree with that! As for Ru Quonru, we will just erase the decisions that should never have been made and pardon him without ever admitting it. And as a gesture of good will I'll send him his eldest daughter to invite him and his family to visit. Since his son is the Ruler of the second greatest Empire of the world it could even be an occasion to introduce us to each other and, perhaps, sign a Treaty of Amity? It would be such an excellent occasion to open the door to those other unknown members of the Imperial Household, wouldn't it? Of course, as members of the Imperial Household, the rules restricting foreigners do not apply to any of them. They will be authorized to journey with a large Imperial retinue! They will have to bring as much servants as necessary to install what they believe necessary.
Zongsan nodded at his master's shrewdness. Indeed, if Ru Quonru was considered as a part of the Imperial Household, only a very small number would find the courage to protest against their visit. But it still was dangerous within an Empire whose situation was very much on the brink of collapsing into chaos. With the last four presumed heirs eliminated because of visible mental health problems, a lot of influent people within the Empire were wondering –discreetly of course- if a dynastic change wouldn't be a good thing.
- You do steer towards savage waters, ô my Lord.
- Where's the fun to sail in calm Sea? I just hope I don't underestimate my opponents' will to maintain the Empire's tight closeness.
- The Eunuchs will cry out. They will never accept that foreigners are again admitted in China.
- Those who still are in power won't cry out at all, my friend. They know that I don't hesitate to eliminate fools who believe themselves my equals. And even fools should understand that the Empire needs to change and change fast. Since it wasn't Ru Quonru's fault that he was forced into exile, we will consider that this visit in Beijing is the compensation we offer him for all those years he was forced to spend in foreign barbarian lands.
Once more Zongsan made no effort to hide his reluctance.
- Your father was the Son of Heaven, you remember? He could not do wrong! There can't be anything to compensate. He made some decisions and you make others. That's it and nobody will dare show the least trace of open reluctance by you doing the opposite of your father.
- But you show reluctance and frown at me with regularity…
- I'm not a Sycophant and I don't want to fleece you, so I don't need to look all the time as if your words were the smartest ever. And I believe you are levelheaded enough not yet to believe you can't be foolish!
Yonglin bowed slightly to acknowledge the compliment.
- We still need their help; my friend and I did think that by offering them said compensation I could more or less push them into considering staying longer than for the visit.
- Does staying longer include inviting his brother and Uncle to look around and begin to build factories?
- It does include giving the family a chance to add the whole of the Chinese Empire into the Company's customer base! Doesn't it seem an adequate compensation to you, my technologically interested friend?
- It does indeed, ô my Farseeing Ruler!
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Beijing – Palace of concentrated Beauties
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Seventh month of the year 4509
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Sunteu forced herself to make another step and after that another one… One hundred and ten more and she would have walked the thousand steps she wanted to walk today.
It did hurt but she had learned a long time ago to bear the pain of injuries. It wasn't the first time she had broken a bone, but it was the first time that she had three different medics trying to heal her. She shouldn't complain because if they had frowned at her not mutilated feet, they had made no effort to correct the blunder.
The fact that she was ugly, tall and brawny like a warrior had probably played in her favor.
They had no problems with mutilating girls of Aristocratic origins, but they had accepted that her feet were still useful.
They had nevertheless frowned at her collections of scars. Clearly women in their world were never subject to dangerous circumstances. She was the exact opposite of their pampered world.
Fights were common in the world she had been a part of these recent years and she had always been aware that her life would probably not last long should she show weakness.
Well it had lasted twenty-two years and she still had no idea if it would end soon or not.
She had no idea why she was here in this building learning anew to walk and obliged to take up with the ugly foreigner who had been ordered to teach her that awful language. Not her father's she was sure of it…
She looked at the sky and the shadows and sighed heavily. Soon said foreigner would be fetched and she would have to speak in that silly monotone language…
She forced herself to stop complaining and made a step more. And then another one, and so on…
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Kathleen Sumter sighed when the four Eunuchs stepped before the door of her tiny room and stood up from her desk. She was making progress in learning the Mandarin Scripture and the books the Imperial Librarian had lent her were extraordinarily interesting. Some of them were more than two thousand years old! And she had been allowed to study them, to try and learn how the Chinese Scripture has evolved…
She fastened her facial silk mask –her mandarin was now perfect and nobody would hear that she was a foreigner but one glance at her face and the illusion would die at the same time as herself- before opening her door where the four Eunuchs bowed in that same very handsomely choreographed move they always used with her. It was not the same bow they used with the Ladies of the House of concentrated Beauties and it was not the same they used when encountering men or high-ranking Eunuchs. They never bowed to her pupil. In fact, they just refused to acknowledge her.
- I am ready, Sirs, please bring me to my pupil, she said. Not because it was necessary, they had never ever answered to her greetings or questions but along the way she had decided that some rules were hers to make.
Thus her words.
Once more they bowed before placing themselves around her to wait for her first step.
She had tried it one of the first times; they wouldn't move until she lifted her foot. But as soon as she made said first move, they literally swamped her to their destination.
Today she wasn't in the mood to play and she walked as swiftly as her little group of escorts.
As always she counted the passing time and, since they did not cross anyone important where they would have had to stop and bow –or kowtow if it had been some very important personage of the court-, they arrived in less than ten minutes.
They opened the door, pushed her in the courtyard where she was teaching her pupil and closed the door. Whenever she would open the door two of them would be there waiting. Within minutes the other two would arrive and she would be swamped back to her room.
- Hello Sun! How are we today?
- Bored and grumpy, came the immediate answer.
- Nice to have the information but you should remember that there are forms even in England. When greeted you normally greet back.
- Hello Kat, and you?
Kathleen made no effort to hide her amusement. Sun had not been an easy student, but she was a very gifted one. She had learned incredibly early in time how to use English to convey sarcasm and other emotions. She knew perfectly that the correct answer was 'And how are you?' but making deliberate mistakes was part of her attempt to show that she would not be plummeted into submission.
A fact that Kathleen wouldn't begrudge her in the least since she was of a mind with her in that matter. She had seen how Chinese women of the Upper Upper class were treated and she couldn't imagine a world where she would or could accept such treatments. American women were not really treated as equals, not yet at least, but there was something else than possession and lust in the men's eyes on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
- I'm not bored and not grumpy in the least. I'm still having problems with quite a lot of the Chinese ideograms but every day I learn a few more. Someday I will be able to read Chinese books without having to ask the Lesser Librarian who has been punished with advising me…
- Reading is a silly occupation, grumbled Sunteu who made great efforts to pretend she didn't like to read or write. Kat had suspected from the beginning that she was already literate and twice or thrice she had gotten proof that her pupil did master the art of Chinese writing and reading. Where she had learned it was a real mystery since even the Emperor's Wives were, for most of them as illiterate as was possible. For now, Sun clearly wanted to have it stay a secret. She wouldn't ruin her plan.
- What's important happens around us, not in books, added Sun. If you are so blind to what happens around you it's because you spend more time reading than living…
Since Sun nevertheless did what she was asked without resisting in more than words –which was even a greater victory for Kat since Sun used English words-, Kat was quite satisfied with her reluctant pupil's progress.
- You and me we look at the world in different a manner, that's all! I was brought up in a sheltered but open environment where girls had no possibilities to really do things that looked like unfeminine so, in order not to be bored to death, I took refuge in what books could teach me.
She smiled at Sun who went on walking for a few minutes more.
She wasn't annoyed by the girl's efforts. She knew that inactivity was something Sun hated and having been forced to spend four weeks in a bed with both her legs immobilized had been not only a torture but a real humiliation for the headstrong she-wolf. Now she knew quite a lot of vocabulary and she had no problems to speak while walking around…
It was alright with Kat. Until a few days ago she hadn't asked questions because she didn't want to push the young woman into open rebellion. Which would have had the result to see Sun refuse to work with her. Now, that task had been achieved and behind her. Sun knew enough English to have an elaborate conversation with anyone who spoke the language fluently. She could now risk her pupil's rejection.
- It must have been pleasant to be sheltered, said finally Sun.
The silence lasted for a couple of minutes and Kat was beginning to believe that it would be like the other times when Sun finally added a personal comment.
- I never was. My real father was a long nose who was forced to flee the Empire before he even knew I was on the way.
Her real father was a long nose… Probably a man born in Europe and not an Englishman since the English words she had taught her never awoke a reaction.
But as she just said he walked away before she was born. She wouldn't have heard him speak. And why would he have spoken in his mother language while living in China with a Chinese wife or concubine.
- My second stepfather, my first, who was a decent man, died in an accident, was a moronic drunkard. He took over the farm my parents had bought with my real father's money.
Sun sighed perhaps because she was just turning around to make another turn or perhaps because of what she was remembering while speaking.
- My mother wasn't an idiot and she should have refused to remarry but with only a twelve-years old girl tending to a farm was difficult. So, she accepted the offer of a cousin of hers who was renowned to be a good farm-help. He married her but never showed any affection for the freak I was. Soon he gave me to understand that I would never be a part of his family. As long as my mother was alive, I had a roof and enough to eat. Once she was dead, it was four years after her second marriage, the things changed drastically. My mother wasn't dead for more than a week that he tried to slip into my bed.
She grunted once more.
- You've probably noticed that I'm tall for a Chinese and very tall for a Chinese woman. And I had done my share of work at the farm during the previous years. He was a fool to believe he could get at me. I was stronger and a lot more determined than him. But he was drunk, and it perhaps explains his decision.
She looked up –she was concentrating on her feet- and looked Kat in the eyes.
- I won't search excuses for his attempt. I knew he was preparing something. I've seen it in his eyes. But being drunk pushed him to make his move too early and while I was wary of him. Since my mother had died, I wasn't sleeping in my bunk but in the attic! It was hot but a lot safer. Both facts helped when he came. I had no difficulty to guess why he was climbing the ladder to the attic in the middle of the night! Not having ever shared any affection was a great help to make my decision and it was my boot that welcomed his nose when he showed his head.
She snickered.
- He fell like a stone and while he was trying to recover to stand up, I jumped him from the attic. He took the hit in the stomach. After it was only a question of how much damage he could take before fleeing. I beat the crap out of him, and his mother wouldn't have recognized him after I was finished with him. He had no choice but to get the hell out of my house. But I had seen at his eyes that he would not accept his defeat. He would be back. And like all cowards he would come back with reinforcements.
- Did he?
- Of course, he did! He came back the same night with the town's whoremaster he had sold me to. I was no longer there. I had taken what was mine and made a break for it. I passed through the village and told another of my Mother's cousin about what had happened and that I intended to be on my way to Langzeu to live with my Aunt. They tried to convince me to stay but I was in a suspicious mood with family and I refused and took the road. At least that was what I said and those still awake in the village could see me walking on the road going towards the province's Capital city.
Kat, who had heard her share of sad stories just nodded.
- But you didn't go?
- Not immediately… Before I had to be sure that my stepfather would never come after me.
- What do you mean?
- What do you believe I mean? There is only one way to be sure that a scorpion will never be able to sting you: kill him!
Kat looked her pupil in the eyes and, not for the first time, she felt herself facing something she had never faced before, at least not when speaking to a young woman. She shuddered.
- How could you even consider killing him?
- There was nobody left to protect me, remember? I had to take the job into my own hands; nobody was going to do it for me.
- So, what did you do?
- I went back to the farm and hid in the orchard. Just before sunup my stepfather came back with three men. They searched the house and the dependences but didn't look in the orchard as I knew they wouldn't. Having not found me my father and the whoremaster soon began to quarrel. It didn't last long before I heard my stepfather getting his second beating of the night.
She laughed.
- I liked every smack and thud of it. After a few minutes two men came out of the farmhouse and began to run towards the village.
Once more Sun grunted and turned around.
- I crept to the house and saw my stepfather lying on the floor in very bad shape. Facing him, sitting at the table while eating our best bacon was the bloody whoremaster. To say the least he wasn't happy at all with my departure. He had bought me, and he was pissed-off not to have been able to taste his new whore.
Sun stopped her efforts and smiled.
- He should never have sent his men away and he should never have chosen to gloat at my stepfather while eating my bacon. He wasn't a total fool, though, since he was sitting with his front towards the front door. But it was my homestead. I knew how to get in discreetly. I climbed through the Attic and got behind his back without him having the least hint about my presence. I believe he never knew who stabbed him into the eye with one of the farm's knives. He just stopped munching the bacon, opened his mouth and fell over on the table.
- What about your stepfather?
- What about him? I took the whoremaster's dagger and killed him with it, letting the weapon stick in his throat. If someone came to look at them, they would have killed each other, that's all. I was already on my way to the city, remember?
- Why did you kill him? He was a coward, he would probably not have found the courage to pursue you.
- That's a silly belief. And it went against my father's –my real father's- legacy. He was an Imperial Assassin and my mother often spoke of him when we were alone. And there was only one advice he gave me through my mother. He didn't speak about his missions but there was one thing she always remembered about him and that she repeated me often: 'don't let a known enemy alive if you have a chance to kill him. Once dead, forever dead!'
She nodded while sitting in front of Kat. She was probably through her paces. For now.
- I didn't steal the whoremaster's purse. Even if the money would have been welcome. But I needed to be coherent with my little scenario. I left without using the front door and went on my way to the city. I saw the Whoremaster's men come back and decided to avoid them. One I would have attacked. Two would have been too chancy. I went on with my journey. Two days later I was at my Aunt's door and when she heard what had happened, she accepted to take me in for the time I needed to decide what I wanted to do. I wasn't without means I had my father's throwing knives and the money he had given to my mother in case she would be in need. She never needed it and she had whispered its location to me on her deathbed. Of course, none of my stepfathers had ever known about it. It was enough to survive a few years had I been alone. But my Aunt had been given instructions too. Just to be prepared for such an event. With her support I was able to go to the temple where my father had studied. His instructions were to learn the skills I needed to be his heir. The Monks at the Temple hadn't been surprised by my arrival and accepted me without making a fuss. I followed their teaching for the next four years.
Kat nodded. The Eunuchs who had informed her of her task had been a lot less precise about Sun's past. They hadn't mentioned at all that she had been following teachings at a temple and had mainly spoken about her as a thief, a burglar and a cut-purse who could not be trusted.
From what Kat had seen about Chinese justice it was as speedy as it was bloody. The fact that Sun had both her hands, her tongue, her eyes and no brand marks visible anywhere was a testimony of her being either very lucky or very good.
Or both.
Probably both.
The luck part was probably responsible for her being here alive even after having been shot and having fallen down from a roof.
Sun had been silent for the last minutes, but Kat knew that she would speak up again. She was in no hurry: Sun wouldn't be sent on her journey before she could walk normally and then she would be able to go back to her studies.
- Do you know why I'm here? asked she finally.
- I have no idea, answered Kat. I can speculate if you want but it will only be guesswork, nothing else. I suspect that the Eunuchs who passed on the instructions don't know either. They have directions and they follow them, but nobody had deemed it necessary to inform them about the reason of your presence. I suppose the Son of Heaven does know but I can't be sure. Does he know everything that happens within this range? I wouldn't bet on it. There are so many levels of power within this palatial complex that it is possible that a great deal of what happens within these walls gets unnoticed by a majority of its inhabitants.
She looked at Sun and uncorked the bottle standing on the table before pouring the golden fluid in the two china cups standing in front of her. The liquid was lightly alcoholic with a flowery side-taste. She quite liked it but preferred tea when available. Sun would drink with her but since she had never emptied her beaker, it was probably out of politeness that she followed Kat's suit.
- The fact that you have been healed and that I have been sent to you to teach you English pushes me to believe that whatever faction is behind your capture, they need you for something only you are capable of.
- Why send the police to get me? I am a sword to hire, had they made an interesting offer, I would probably have accepted.
- They had probably no intention to give you a choice. As I see it, the choice has been taken out of your hands. I can't be sure but I'm quite sure they believe they have the means to force you to do what they want.
- Once I'm out of here, they will have problems to hold me…
Kat answered with a shrug.
- They wanted you here and they wanted you learning English. I see only one reason for them to want you to speak and understand English and it is you journeying there to do something for them. And from what I have gathered from your skills I would have said that they wanted you to perform something in England but it does not explain why they went through all that trouble to get you. There must be other specialists who have the same skills than you and who already are on the Palace's payroll.
She shook her head and sipped a little more of the golden liquid.
- Is there something only you and specifically you can do in England?
- I thought about my father but he wasn't from England. My mother wouldn't have made the confusion. She said he was Fensh, is that a part of England?
- Not anymore and it is French, with an 'r'. And I do believe I know who your father is and why you are here.
Sun's eyes bore into her like two heavy breach loader.
- You know my father?
- No, I don't but I have heard a life-story who is very similar to the one you just told me. I believe I know who it is; the little you said about him corroborates what I know of an incredibly famous if not well known very powerful man of Europe.
- Corroborates?
- Verifies, justifies, validates… What you've told me about your father is approximatively the same things that are told about a very important Frenchman the world has discovered twenty years ago and who has been in everyone's focus for the last twenty years.
- What's this man's story?
Kat could see that her pupil was interested. And perhaps it was her father who's come back to change Europe's fate?
- He was the second son of an Earl –that's an important European Aristocratic rank, probably a Bo or, but I doubt it, a Hou- who left his family to follow his grandfather who had, as France's ambassador, visited the Middle Empire. There he spent more than a decade and studied the art of bare hand fighting at a temple before becoming for a few years the favorite assassin of a Guogong in China's West. He was forced to come back because his master lost the Emperor's trust.
Kat looked at Sun.
- It looks a lot like what you know about your father, doesn't it?
- Indeed, whispered Sun. Would you know how he looks like?
- I'm certain that I have a few of last years' copies of 'Light and Famous' in my little private library. I will probably be able to show you pictures of his whole family but I'm not sure there is one picture of him. He seems to be a very private man.
- A pity you can't show to me but it's a good thing he's cautious if it is him. It's never a good idea to be easily recognized…
- I'll bring the copies with me tomorrow, said Kat. If it is him, you'll be able to look at your half-sisters and half-brothers. I do remember that some journalists say that his filiation with his son, William, is very recognizable .
She could see a light stiffness around Sun's lips. It soon was under control, but it had been there, she was sure.
He didn't know you existed, remember? And he wouldn't have been foolish enough to come back to get you with the Son of Heaven very decided to get his head.
- He's married and his eldest children should be around twenty.
- He didn't lose a lot of time…
She didn't quite hiss but it wasn't very far.
- He's said to be a very handsome man and his first wife is famous and well-known for her good heart and beauty.
- How many wives does he have?
- Three, I'll be able to show you pictures of them tomorrow. They are a lot less shy than he. There will be some of the children too. They are quite a famous family, once a month one or more of them makes the front page.
She made a placating gesture.
- But there still is a chance that I'm wrong! D'Arcy could not be your father…
Sun closed her eyes and remained silent for some time.
- d'Arcy… said she finally. Is that his name?
- It is the name of the man I suspect to be your father. We have, I remind you, no certainty.
Sun finally opened her eyes and there was a smile on her lips.
- Perhaps not but there are so many similarities that, should I, one day, be free to leave this place, I know where I'm going next…
I
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