Chương 106: Chapter 104

Lianhua, without my needing to add anything more, approaches Xia and, with a measured gesture, indicates to her to once again pick up the two mops that are propped against one of the walls.

"Take the mops again", she tells her in her usual tone.

"And carry them the same way as before, without dragging them and without bumping them against the walls." Xia nods with a curt gesture and without protest, which by itself already tells me how much she has learned in recent years, and grasps the two poles together to rest them on her right shoulder with that same slightly tilted posture she adopted upon bringing them here.

Lianhua, for her part, positions herself behind my chair and begins pushing it toward the exit of the room, while the bucket, after a few seconds, rises off the floor and stays floating at the same prudent distance it maintained before as it followed us.

We cross the threshold and return to the corridors of the Pavilion, which we travel through toward my mother's quarters while the sidelong glances of the handmaidens once again accompany us all the way, but once we arrive there Lianhua stops near a couple of handmaidens.

"Excuse me", Lianhua tells them from where she is.

"Do you know where Guifei Xiang is at the moment?" The two of them stop at the same time and bow hurriedly, first toward me and then toward Lianhua, and the elder of the two replies.

"Guifei Xiang is in the courtyard, Fei Yi Lianhua", she replies with that well-rehearsed courtesy of someone who has been doing it for years.

"She has spent all morning there along with Fei Yi Lingxi."

"Of course", I say in a low voice after listening to the handmaidens, more to myself than to anyone in particular.

"Where else?" Lianhua thanks them for the information with a polite gesture and, without wasting time, we resume our path through the corridors of the Pavilion, advancing toward the courtyard where my mother is. Upon crossing the threshold that gives access to the courtyard, I'm surprised at not finding the usual image of my mother dedicated to painting, since strange as it may seem, my mother isn't painting.

Instead she is seated at the table, on which there is a series of finished paintings, meticulously arranged on clean cloths along with several cases internally lined with dark velvety material. And my mother, assisted by Lingxi, is busy carefully storing each painting in the cases, verifying that they are properly packed before closing them.

She takes a couple of seconds to turn her head toward the entrance upon noticing our arrival, and only when she does, she carefully sets the painting she had between her fingers on one of the clean cloths. Her gaze first slides toward me, with that softness she reserves for whenever I appear, and then, almost in the same movement, shifts to Xia with her two mops, to the bucket floating at mid-height, and finally settles back on me with a question drawn in her eyes.

"Wen, dear", she tells me with that warmth with which she always receives me regardless of what she's doing.

"I wasn't expecting you this morning." She makes a brief pause before adding what is clearly inevitable.

"I have no choice but to ask", she continues with a gaze deliberately suspended on the objects accompanying me.

"Those strange contraptions you bring with you wouldn't happen to be the reason Lianhua has been going in and out of the artisans' area during the past few weeks, would they?" I can't help smiling upon hearing her, because it's clear that my mother finds out, in this Pavilion, about absolutely everything that moves.

"They are, Mother", I reply with a small bow.

"And I come precisely to explain to you what they are." My mother nods slowly and makes a small gesture to Lingxi, who steps aside with her usual discretion, without leaving but freeing the space in front of the table so I can approach with the chair. Lianhua understands the gesture without anyone needing to tell her anything and pushes the chair until I'm at a comfortable distance from the table, after which she steps back half a pace and remains in her usual position.

Xia, for her part, carefully lowers the mops from her shoulder and props them against one of the walls of the courtyard, taking advantage of a stretch of wall without flowers so as not to ruin anything, while the bucket descends gently and settles on the floor. Once everything is in place, my mother again fixes her eyes on the three objects with an expression that is no longer just curiosity but also a more focused attention.

"I'm listening", she tells me simply. I inhale and begin to explain to her what the mops and the bucket are for, as well as their use and how it can help to make life easier not only for the palace handmaidens but also, if their use spreads enough, for everyone in the Empire. My mother listens to me in silence, and as I advance, I notice a change in her expression.

At the beginning, what shows in her eyes is the kind curiosity with which she receives most of my eccentricities, but as I advance in the explanation, that kind curiosity begins to fade and gives way to a greater attention, the attention of someone who has begun to realize the potential of what they have in front of them. By the time I finish, her face has no trace whatsoever of that amused initial curiosity.

What I see is pure seriousness, the seriousness of the noblewoman she is and not of the mother she most of the time tries to be with me.

"Have you tested them?" she asks me with a tone that indicates how seriously she has taken my invention.

"Do they work as you say?" Instead of answering myself, I slightly turn my head, just enough for my words to reach both my mother and the woman behind me.

"Lianhua, you answer, please", I ask her.

"You're the one who has tested them, not I." Lianhua advances half a step, positions herself to one side of my chair, makes a brief bow directed at my mother, and, with that professional neutrality she carries off so well, gives a short and clean report on the result of the tests. My mother listens to her without interrupting once, and when she finishes, she nods once, slowly, as if to indicate that she has understood her explanation. I take advantage of that moment to introduce a nuance that seems important to me.

"In any case, Mother, this is still a first version", I tell her as I intervene.

"I'm sure that with time better versions than the ones I've come up with myself will appear. Without going further, a version with a metal bucket and wringer would be considerably more resistant and durable, but the drawback is obvious, its cost would put it out of reach for the vast majority of people, in addition to being much slower to manufacture." My mother nods again upon hearing me, this time as a small gesture acknowledging that my reflection is correct.

"Good", she tells me after a brief silence.

"What is it that you want to do with it? And more importantly, what do you expect to get out of it?" I inhale slowly before replying.

"I only want two things, Mother", I tell her calmly.

"The first is for it to be something the majority of people can use and not become another luxury object that only nobles can afford. That seems to me the most important." I make a pause before continuing.

"And the second is to make as much money as possible from it, but without you or me having to waste our time managing a company dedicated to its manufacture or its sale. I have no interest, nor do I think you do either, in spending the next few years arguing with foremen, accountants, and suppliers." My mother smiles very slightly upon hearing that last sentence, although the smile doesn't quite fully unfold.

"Which is why I've already thought a bit about the structure", I continue.

"For the imperial palace, what has occurred to me is to offer the invention to the Department of Household Affairs. It's where everything having to do with the maintenance of the Pavilions, the allocations for the staff and, by extension, the cleaning tools is managed, so it seems the natural place to deliver it.

And for the rest of the empire, my idea is to look for some commercial company with a good reputation and sell it to them, letting them be the ones who handle manufacturing and distributing it on a large scale." If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. My mother listens with the same attention as before, and when I finish, she nods with a gesture of approval.

"The idea of giving the invention to the Department of Household Affairs is good", she tells me after a few seconds.

"Especially if you do it in a more orderly way than how you did with the matter of the Office of Military Affairs and the backpack." I can't help making a grimace upon hearing her mention that matter.

"I see you found out about that", I reply.

"Of course I found out", she replies without altering her expression.

"The Emperor told me about it on one of his visits." The grimace I'm wearing becomes more pronounced when I hear my mother.

"How curious", I say in a tone that is probably more bitter than it should be.

"Because to me, in none of the visits he has paid me, has he commented anything about the matter." My mother doesn't say a single word at this comment and the only thing she does is smile. It's a small smile, contained, and above all, perfectly understandable to me, because it's clear there are a thousand small conversations between them that I'm never going to have access to, and because it's equally clear that my father will have his reasons for not having said anything to me.

But I don't feel like exploring that terrain now, so I decide not to keep tugging at the thread.

"All right, all right", I say lifting my hand a bit with a deliberately capitulatory gesture.

"Let's leave it there. If on the matter of the Imperial Palace it seems we agree, let's move on to the other one. What do you think of the idea of looking for a commercial company to sell the invention to so we don't have to worry about it any longer?" My mother doesn't answer immediately, and instead remains silent for several seconds while her gaze drifts slightly toward an undefined point of the courtyard, not because she's distracted, but because she's thinking.

I respect her silence without opening my mouth as I wait for her to finish thinking. Finally, her eyes return to mine with a new clarity, the clarity of someone who has made a decision.

"For your invention, beyond the walls of the Imperial Palace, I have another idea", she tells me with a firm voice.

"One that probably won't bring you as many monetary benefits as a well-chosen commercial company would, but that can help us in other ways." The intrigue spikes immediately upon hearing my mother's words.

"What exactly are you referring to, Mother?" I ask her, leaning slightly forward in the chair. My mother raises a hand with a very soft gesture, as though asking for patience.

"Before I tell you that idea, I have to first tell you something I had been planning to leave for when you were of age", she tells me with a serious tone.

"But you have demonstrated, over and over again, to be quite a bit more mature than the average for your age."

"Moreover, and as an added factor, there is your recent condition", she adds, and the word condition she pronounces with a deliberate inflection that almost puts a smile on her lips as she does so.

"So it's better that I tell you now."

"I'm going to tell you about the three factions that have the greatest possibilities of attaining the throne", and here her tone becomes more serious.

"Above all, because of the reasons two of those three factions have at some point tried to kill you." The smile I had on the verge of my lips from the jab about my condition vanishes abruptly upon hearing my mother's last sentence.

"I beg you to tell me, Mother", I tell her with all the seriousness in the world.

"I've always found it strange that they would try to assassinate me considering that I have never intervened in any important act of the palace and that I have made clear to anyone who wished to hear it that I have not the slightest intention of participating in the race to be Empress." My mother nods with a very slow gesture at my words.

"I'll begin then with the faction that, in reality, has nothing against us", she tells me.

"And that, as far as I know, has never made any move against us." She makes a brief pause before continuing.

"It is the faction of the second prince, Sun Rui. His mother is Fei Ming and belongs to the Kang family." I nod slowly as I place the name of the consort and that of the family in their place within the puzzle that is the harem.

"The Kang family possesses the second largest army of the Empire after the Imperial Army", my mother continues.

"And, due to that reality, the second prince's faction is focused on a policy that allows for the increase, both of the Imperial Army itself and of the private armed forces of the noble families, for which it has the support of many of those same houses."

"The most important of all of them is the Liu family, which also has Fei Yan within the Imperial Harem", my mother continues.

"Which also has several important generals within the Army itself, so, as you can deduce on your own, the majority of the Imperial Army supports this faction." I nod again as I add it all up, and here my mother makes a brief pause, since Lingxi, with that silent way she has of moving, has served her some tea. My mother accepts the cup with a grateful gesture and brings it to her lips to take a prudent sip, and I take advantage of that small parenthesis to look around me.

Lianhua remains right behind me, with her impeccable posture, but as I look at her I notice that she has moved Xia slightly to one side, near the two mops propped against the wall, and that Xia herself, far from being bored, is completely attentive to my mother's words, with that slightly furrowed expression she gets when she's concentrating, trying to memorize something that seems important to her.

Lianhua, for her part, maintains that neutrality of hers, but in her eyes there is a small absence of surprise that tells me everything, since I'm fairly certain that she knows, if not all, almost all of the information my mother is giving me and that she has not told it to me because she has been ordered not to tell me. I look away before it becomes evident and return my attention to my mother, who at that very moment is setting the cup back on the table.

"Let's move on to the next faction", she continues, picking up the thread.

"That of the third prince, Sun Quiming." Here her tone hardens a bit, just enough to indicate that we're moving from the neutral faction to one of the two that have indeed wanted to see me dead.

"This faction has several supports", my mother continues telling me.

"On the one hand, the most obvious is from Sun Quiming's own mother, Fei Nuo, and her family, the Hong family."

"On the other hand, it also has the support of Fei Xue and the Cheng family, which is the strangest part of all", and here my mother puts on an expression of doubt.

"And it's strange because, when one looks at it carefully, it makes little sense for the Cheng family to support the third prince, which makes me suspect that behind that support there's some shady deal, or even some skeleton in the closet that the Hong family holds over the Cheng one and uses to keep them in line." I nod with a small wrinkle in my brow as I try to follow my mother's words.

"And, additionally, there is one other thing", my mother continues.

"As was discovered later, that faction also had the support of the former Taijian Li Ming, which was precisely the reason he lost his post when the moves he was making in favor of the third prince became too evident." I stop for an instant to process that piece of information, since for me it finally clarifies the fall of Li Ming.

"But all of that, however important it may seem, is not what is truly decisive about that faction", my mother continues suddenly when I thought she had finished breaking down my third brother's faction.

"Sun Quiming's real support is that of your grandfather, the Emperor's father, who being currently an Elder of the Sect has voice and vote in the choice of the next Emperor." Here my mother sighs, and it's one of those sighs any mother would make when she's about to say something she would have preferred not to have to tell her daughter.

"And, unfortunately, Wen, that grandfather of yours is the one who not only sent the assassin who almost managed to kill you on the night of your seventh birthday", my mother tells me without trying to hide anything from me.

"What's more, you have to know that he ordered another assassination attempt when you were two years old, although on that occasion the guards managed to catch the assassin before he could enter the Pavilion." I sigh after listening to my mother and then I ask her the question I had been wanting to formulate for years since that sincere monologue my father had on the night of my Man Yue.

"Mother", I tell her with a voice that comes out lower than I expected.

"Why does my grandfather want to kill me? And please, don't tell me it's only because of my disability, because I don't believe it." My mother looks at me for a long instant, and when she replies, she does so with a sincerity that tries to soften it.

"Yes, Wen. Unfortunately, that is the only reason", she tells me.

"And for you to understand it, you have to know how your grandfather was when he was the Emperor and, therefore, the head of the Sun family. He was a proponent of the idea that the imperial family had to be superior in every sense to the others.

And that if anyone within the family, whether one of his children or any other member, was not up to par by not having sufficient talent in cultivation or by having any other kind of problem, they had to be expelled or dealt with so that they wouldn't stain the name and reputation of the family." She makes a brief pause so that I can take in her explanation, which makes more than clear the reason why my grandfather would want me dead.

"And as you can suppose, your grandfather supports Sun Quiming because he is, for everyone, the son of the Emperor with the greatest talent for cultivation", my mother concludes. I snort upon hearing that last assertion, and then, just behind me, I hear a small giggle. It's very brief, almost a contained puff of breath, and I recognize the voice perfectly as Xia's, who has probably covered her mouth an instant after letting it slip out.

I don't turn around to look at her, not because it bothers me, but because I know perfectly well that in this moment the two of us share exactly the same reaction at the assertion about Sun Quiming. My mother, for her part, also doesn't make any comment about it, so she continues as though she had heard nothing.

"In any case, and in the short term, we have nothing to fear from your grandfather", she continues.

"And before you ask me why, that's what I'm going to tell you now." I nod without interrupting.

"Shortly after we were exiled to the city of Xi'An, the Emperor paid a filial visit to his father at the Sect", my mother tells me, and I notice how a small smile escapes her here.

"And in the course of that visit they both had what is referred to, euphemistically, as a small exchange of advice." My mother rests her two hands on the table while looking at me, her smile now more evident.

"That is the polite way of saying that they fought", my mother continues telling me.

"The result of that encounter was that the Emperor gave the old man a beating, and then made it sufficiently clear to him that if he tried anything against you again, he would return. And that on the next visit he wouldn't settle for a small exchange of advice." I process that for an instant, and without being able to help it, I feel a strange combination of retrospective pride and silent gratitude toward my father.

"Since that visit, your grandfather has been calmer", my mother continues with her smile.

"And by extension, so has the third prince's faction, since without the backing of your grandfather they don't dare make direct moves against you." Here she makes a brief pause, and when she speaks again she does so with a different tone, a lower tone, more careful, the tone of someone who has already described two known dangers and is preparing to address the third, the one that truly matters.

"And, for that reason, Wen, the real problem, the real threat we have at this moment is none of the two factions I have just told you about", she tells me looking me directly in the eyes.

"The real threat is the faction of the first prince, Sun Liang."