Dao of Language

The brush completes the last rune without the paper coming apart between my fingers.

I slowly let out the air I hadn’t realized I was holding and contemplate the result with the tranquil satisfaction of one who has already burned enough paper to appreciate a victory. The runes shine barely an instant, a faint light that runs across the strokes as if the ink were breathing, and then they go out and remain latent, waiting for someone to awaken them when they need them.

Another Freezing Talisman finished.

I leave it to one side, next to the ones I have already completed this morning, and I lean back in the chair while I stretch my fingers, stiff from holding the brush so much. To my right, in a corner of the desk, rests the cup of tea Lianhua brought me a while ago, and from which there still stick out, stubborn, a few pieces of ice that refuse to melt entirely. Probably, the most frivolous use one can give to a Freezing Talisman is to use the ice to cool my beverages, but with the heat there is these days I flatly refuse to feel guilty about it. If I am going to live surrounded by this swelter, at least I will drink my tea cold.

I am about to dip the brush to begin the next one when I notice it.

Handmaidens’ voices that cross and overlap, hurried steps that come and go through the corridors of the Pavilion with an agitation that is in no way the studied calm of custom. I furrow my brow and leave the brush suspended over the inkwell without getting to dip it, because I know the rhythm of this house well enough to know that the handmaidens do not raise such a commotion over nothing, and that if they do it is because something is happening.

I don’t have to wait long for someone to confirm it for me, since some knocks sound at the door, firm and measured, and on the other side a voice I would recognize even asleep identifies itself with its serenity of always.

“Zhāohuán Wen”, says Lianhua. “It’s me.”

She does not add a single word about whether anyone accompanies her, which, knowing her, means she comes alone, because Lianhua would never present herself without warning that she brings company to a room where she knows perfectly well what I am doing. So I don’t even bother to gather up the talisman utensils I have spread out on the table and instead, I direct my gaze toward the bolt of the door and, with a small effort of the Dragon’s Grip, I make it draw itself, sliding out of its catch with a dry click.

“You may come in”, I say.

The door slides and Lianhua enters with discretion, and as she crosses the threshold I cannot help telling myself, once more, that the outfit the dressmaker made for her following my indications suits her really well. It is one of the designs I commissioned to combat this heat, lighter and much more daring than the court is accustomed to tolerate, and I am fairly sure that half the court is still scandalized by the style, whispering between fans about the lack of decorum of the Zhāohuán and her handmaidens.

But I am also sure of another thing, which is that as this heat goes on longer than these people are accustomed to bearing, similar styles will begin to appear, probably somewhat more conservative at first, but similar in the end. Things like that were not rare in my previous world, it didn’t matter the era, it didn’t matter how modest the society in question claimed to be, because when the heat really presses, comfort ends up winning the game against modesty, always. And I see no reason for it to be different here. Today they are scandalized, tomorrow they copy, and within a year I would be surprised if there weren’t half a dozen variations of the same design strolling through the gardens as if the idea had been anyone’s but mine.

Lianhua finishes entering while I contemplate her and lose myself in my musings, and once inside she turns, throws the bolt again at her back and only then turns toward me.

“I have important news”, she tells me.

I arch an eyebrow upon hearing her and cast a fleeting glance toward the door, toward the noise that still filters in from the corridor.

“And is that news the reason why the handmaidens are raising such a racket out there?” I ask her.

“It is”, confirms Lianhua, and she makes a brief pause before continuing. “The news has just arrived that the Fei Zhi is about to reach the palace after completing her ten-year period of exile.”

I stay a moment weighing her words while I remember that whole unpleasant matter with my half-brother, the one about the boy whom she began to cultivate too soon and who did not survive it.

It happened when I was two years old, and if I am now twelve, then the ten years have already been completed, or are about to be. The math, once more, checks out.

And with it returns to my mind that deduction I made during some interminable ceremony, counting heads of brothers and consorts until I realized that the Fei Zhi must have had another child besides the one who died, one who almost certainly accompanied her to her banishment. Which means she does not return alone, but rather returns with one more half-brother whom I have barely seen, raised far from the court, dragging behind him ten years of exile and, in all probability, a grudge the size of Everest.

Charming. Just what this place needed, more people to stir up the hornet’s nest.

“Has my mother said anything about it?” I ask, setting those thoughts aside for later. “Has she given any order in particular?”

“Guifei Xiang has said there is no need for us to do anything unless some celebration is organized for her return”, replies Lianhua. “But that considering there was none when we returned from our own exile, it is unlikely any will be put together in this case.”

I nod slowly, since when my mother and I returned from those nearly two years in Xi’an, no one came out to receive us, and if the Emperor’s Guifei was not dedicated even a miserable welcome banquet, I very much doubt they are going to roll out the red carpet for a fallen-from-grace consort who returns from a ten-year banishment. In the court, coldness is also a message, and this one everyone understands without need for anyone to pronounce it out loud.

But I decide that the Fei Zhi and her son are a problem for another day and I change the subject toward something rather more to my liking.

“Well, leaving aside the little commotion of the Fei Zhi’s return”, I tell Lianhua. “How is the matter of the sale of the Freezing Talismans going?”

For an instant I seem to see something very much like professional pride peek out beneath Lianhua’s habitual serenity.

“Extremely well, Zhāohuán Wen”, she tells me. “When Guifei Xiang said that the Freezing Talismans would be much sought after, she was completely right. They buy them the moment they go on sale despite the fact that we have been raising the price until almost doubling it, and even so we cannot keep up. What’s more, people have begun to appear who seek out my intermediaries, clearly with the intention of finding the source of the talismans.”

That last sentence wipes the smile off my face all at once.

“Is there any risk for those intermediaries?” I ask right away, straightening up in the chair. “Is there the possibility that someone might trace the origin of the talismans and reach us? Because if there is, I prefer to interrupt the sale right now before something serious happens. Money is all very well, but not at any price.”

Lianhua shakes her head, and she does it with that calm that declares she has everything under control.

“There is no problem in that regard”, she assures me. “Following the trail to you is extremely difficult, not to say impossible. Reaching you through them is not within the reach of the kind of people who buy talismans to cool their wine cellar.”

I nod, somewhat calmer, but I still have a thorn stuck in me.

“And will those intermediaries be all right, with so many people suddenly paying them attention?” I insist. “It doesn’t please me at all the idea that someone might end up harmed because of a business that, after all, is mine.”

“Don’t worry about that either”, replies Lianhua, and her tone admits no doubt. “They are people who know perfectly well what they do and what they expose themselves to. They earn a good quantity of money precisely for assuming that kind of risk, and I assure you they will not betray you by selling your name since they understand better than anyone that their own safety depends on keeping their mouths shut.”

I let out a long sigh and end up giving up, because it is clear that this is a battle there is no sense in continuing to wage.

“Very well”, I tell her. “You are the professional, and you know much better than I do how to handle that part of the business. If you say everything is under control, I trust you.”

Lianhua inclines her head barely, considering the matter settled, and I turn again toward the table, disposed to take advantage of the momentum and begin another talisman while I am still on a roll.

But I don’t have time, because there is another knock at the door.

“Zhāohuán Wen”, says this time a young and hurried voice I recognize instantly. “Do I have your permission to enter?”

“Xia”, I murmur, and I make a sign to Lianhua, who draws back the bolt, opens the door to let her in and closes it again at her back as soon as the girl is inside.

I cannot help smiling upon seeing her. Xia enters with one of the outfits I also designed for her, another of the light variations of my little rebellion against the heat, and as I look at her I think, not for the first time, that when she grows up she is going to be a true beauty. Even now, with that mixture of overflowing energy and features that are beginning to define themselves, she gives more than clear signs of where things are going to go. But I push the thought aside before it shows too much on my face, because the last thing this kid needs is for someone to swell her head.

“What have you come to see me for?” I ask her.

Xia straightens up, clearly containing the urge to jump, and lets loose the news with a solemnity that doesn’t last her even two words.

“I have come to tell you that this morning I finished the Body Tempering”, she tells me, and the smile escapes her at the corners. “So I am not going to be able to continue with my task of creating impurities.”

I look at her, and the smile that draws itself on me is entirely sincere, because I know well what lies behind those words.

“Congratulations, Xia”, I tell her sincerely. “You have done it very well, and much faster than most would dare even to dream, especially with the current conditions. I am proud of you.”

The girl lights up entirely before the praise, and for a moment I truly fear she is going to start leaping about in the middle of the study. But before things go any further, I turn toward Lianhua.

“Then it is time to announce to the Shangshu that I have finished the Body Tempering”, I tell her. “And while we’re at it to start thinking about the party that is supposed to be celebrated in these cases.”

But the word party has barely come out of my mouth when I think about the heat reigning out there and I furrow my brow.

“Although, is it really a good idea to organize a party with the heat there is?” I add. “I can’t imagine all my guests in the park, melting inside their finest attire and pretending they are having a marvelous time while they sweat in torrents. It sounds more like a punishment than a celebration.”

“That has a solution, Zhāohuán Wen”, replies Lianhua without flinching. “One can request permission to celebrate it in some of the areas of the Imperial Palace where, with considerable urgency, Temperature-Regulation Formations have been installed precisely to be able to keep celebrating official events without the heat ruining them.”

That reconciles me quite a bit with the idea of the party.

“Perfect”, I say. “Then, when you go to see the Shangshu to announce the matter of the Body Tempering, take the opportunity to sound him out about that possibility. If one of those halls can be obtained, we celebrate the party, if not, we forget the matter even though it is expected of us.”

Lianhua limits herself to nodding, filing the instruction alongside the other thousand things she always keeps in order in that head of hers.

After that, I lower my gaze again toward the desk, toward the talisman papers, the bottle of ink, the brush and the small row of Freezing Talismans that rest finished on the wood. And however much each of them represents a quantity of money that, if I stopped to add it up, would probably give me vertigo, the truth is that, with a sigh, I decide that today I no longer feel like continuing to create even one more.

There are days when discipline can wait, and this one, with this heat and with Xia’s good news floating in the air, seems to me one of them.

“I am going to leave it for today”, I announce as I begin to tidy up. “Tell me, can you think of anything to do for the rest of the day? If possible something that involves being somewhere where we are less hot than here.”

Lianhua, who seems to have an answer for everything, does not disappoint me.

“As I told you before, there are several places in the Imperial Palace where Temperature-Regulation Formations have been installed”, she replies. “And I know with certainty that one of them is the Imperial Theater. If you wish, I can find out whether there is any performance scheduled and, in case there is, we could go to see it.”

I weigh the idea a moment, since the prospect of spending the afternoon in a cool place, seated and entertained without having to move a finger, strikes me as most tempting. And, now that I think about it, not so long ago my mother insisted to me that I should let myself be seen more, that a princess who spends her life shut away in her pavilion gives rise to all kinds of gossip. To appear at the Imperial Theater at a public and respectable event would kill two birds with one stone, coolness for me and gestures for the gallery for my mother.

“It seems fine to me”, I decide at last. “Go check it, and depending on whether it can be done or not, we will decide.”

Lianhua nods, draws back the bolt and leaves the study with her customary discretion, leaving me alone with Xia and with the pile of half-tidied utensils.

The girl, faithful to her nature, does not wait to be asked to set about helping me. She goes gathering the talisman papers that still remain unused, caps the bottle of ink taking care not to stain anything, cleans the brush and leaves it in its place, and between the two of us we go storing each thing in its corresponding box while she tells me, hurried and happy, the details of her morning of glory. By the time we finish leaving the desk cleared, she has already related to me, in great detail, the exact sensation she had upon noticing that the last step of the Tempering of the Bones completed itself.

And just then, as if she had timed it, there is another knock at the door and Lianhua returns.

“Yes, Zhāohuán Wen”, she tells me the moment she enters. “The Imperial Theater has a performance on the bill. And, according to Guifei Xiang, it is not just any play, but one that has become very famous recently. What’s more, your mother has expressly charged me with recommending it to you, because apparently she had intended to mention it to you herself so that you would go to see it.”

That catches me by surprise. That my mother, who ordinarily only takes a true interest in her painting, should bother to recommend me a play is something unusual enough to pique my curiosity immediately.

“And what is that play that even my mother wants me to go see?” I ask, no longer bothering to disguise my interest.

Lianhua holds my gaze an instant, and then, on her lips, almost always so measured, a slight smile is glimpsed that I had not seen on her all morning.

“The play is called The Adventures of the Monkey King”, she tells me without abandoning that smile.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!