Chương 116: Chapter 114

We cross the threshold of the hall where we had breakfast and Lianhua pushes me down the corridor, but before going out to the courtyard, there is something I need to know, because between the abrupt awakening and the conversation with my mother I still haven't bothered to ask it.

"Lianhua", I tell her turning my head a bit so that my voice reaches her better.

"Where exactly are they keeping Xia?"

"In the Tàiyīyuàn, Zhāohuán Wen", she replies without hesitating, as if she had been expecting the question for a while. I nod slowly as I try to mentally locate the place. I know vaguely where it is, because I have passed by it a couple of times on my walks through the Imperial Palace, but I have never been inside.

"Then that is where we are going", I tell her, and I let the tone close the conversation like a decision made.

"As you order, Zhāohuán Wen", Lianhua replies with her habitual bow. We go out to the outer courtyard and the fresh morning air strikes my face, something I appreciate more than usual. Lianhua stops the chair for a couple of seconds in the center of the courtyard and, without letting go of the handles, makes a sign to one of the Nei Wei who guard the main entrance. The Nei Wei approaches, bows slightly, and waits.

"We need an escort to go to the Tàiyīyuàn", Lianhua tells her with her habitual professional tone. The Nei Wei nods without saying anything, turns around and heads toward the building where the Nei Wei on guard reside with the same silent efficiency with which she has come. She doesn't take long, since in less than five minutes I hear the coordinated footsteps of a group entering the courtyard, and when I lift my gaze, what I find is not what I was expecting.

I count ten Nei Wei in closed formation, dressed in their service uniforms and with the posture of those who have come to stay as long as is necessary. I lift my eyebrows and, without entirely disguising my surprise, turn my head a bit so that Lianhua can see my face well.

"Lianhua", I tell her in a tone that aims to be neutral and doesn't entirely achieve it.

"What are so many escorts for? Before Xi'An I had two, after Xi'An it went up to six, and now it turns out to be ten. Are you expecting an ambush between the courtyard and the Tàiyīyuàn?" I make a pause to catch my breath before continuing.

"What happened yesterday in the city was bad luck, pure and simple", I continue.

"And I rather doubt that anyone is going to drop a building on me inside the Imperial Palace." Lianhua maintains an expression that is halfway between the professional and the uncomfortable, and takes just enough time to respond for me to understand that it is not she who has made this decision.

"They are the orders of Guifei Xiang", she tells me in a carefully measured tone.

"I learned of it this morning when, upon returning, I asked about the news and what had occurred in my absence." I let out a long sigh, of those that remain halfway between resignation and comprehension. My mother, of course.

Yesterday at night, when we arrived at the Imperial Palace covered in dust, blood, and remains of mortar, I suppose she got a considerable scare, so I try to be understanding and place on the balance the mental image of my mother seeing our stretchers enter the night before, and I place it on the other plate together with the small pride of wanting to walk, metaphorically, through the palace without a regiment behind me.

Surprisingly, the first plate wins, and it has nothing to do with the fact that although I might want the opposite, my mother's orders will always take precedence.

"If it is something my mother ordered, then it doesn't matter", I tell Lianhua with an already softened tone. Lianhua doesn't reply, but I know Lianhua well enough to know that her silence, in this case, is rather closer to a discreet agreement than to real neutrality.

"Then it is time to leave", I tell her, considering the conversation finished. Lianhua nods and, with the hand she has free, makes a sign to the Nei Shiwei who commands the group. The officer inclines her head only once, turns toward her subordinates and, without a single word, places the group in formation around us. Two in front, four on the sides and four behind, after which Lianhua pushes the chair and the entire entourage sets off in motion as a single body.

We leave the courtyard of the Pavilion to head down one of the main paths of the palace, and I don't take long to realize that the groups of officials we pass and the small entourages of nobles passing in the opposite direction do the same thing. They give us a quick look, bow barely as protocol dictates, let us pass, and as soon as they believe that we are far enough away, they turn toward one another and begin to whisper things with an intensity that is not at all habitual.

I see it out of the corner of my eye at least four times before it becomes clear to me what is happening. My small misadventures of yesterday in the capital, evidently, are already public knowledge. And considering how quickly my supposed leg pain spread when I faked it, it doesn't take much imagination to know that for the next month, at minimum, I am going to be the central topic of all the corridor conversations, all the tea gatherings and all the dinners attended by any of the officials we are passing.

For an instant, one half of me is irritated at the idea. The other half, the one that has already resigned itself to being, periodically, the favorite spectacle of the court, simply shrugs mentally. I have been the subject of rumors before and, frankly, as long as the rumors do not imply anything that could affect either my mother or me, what is said in any gathering is exactly the same to me. So I push the whispers out of the realm of things that matter to me and refocus on the path.

We cross a long corridor flanked by columns painted in red, and after a while I realize that we are entering a zone of the Imperial Palace through which I had only passed once, the day I went out to tour it with Lianhua and Xia to celebrate that I had finished the Skin Tempering. That time, I recall, we turned at a crossroads and continued toward another zone of the compound, but today, instead, Lianhua pushes the chair with determination down the path we ignored that time, and finally we arrive at the Tàiyīyuàn.

The doors of the compound are sober in comparison with other zones of the palace and without too many ornaments, only dark wood well-treated and a couple of plaques with characters that identify the place. Two Jin Wei guard the entrance with imperturbable expression, who upon seeing us exchange a brief greeting with the Nei Shiwei who commands our escort and let us pass without further procedure.

But the moment we cross the door, the Nei Shiwei makes a sign and, to my surprise, only half of our Nei Wei accompany us inside, the other five remain beside the entrance in formation while guarding the outer courtyard. I suppose that the Tàiyīyuàn has its own rules about how many armed people can enter its premises and that the Nei Shiwei knows them well.

The inner courtyard is more austere than I expected, since there are a couple of handmaidens tending to some plants in pots that I vaguely recognize as medicinal herbs thanks to my classes in Medicine and Gardening, while an elderly man in a robe crosses the courtyard carrying a tray full of small flasks. When we are close enough to the elderly man, Lianhua stops him with a courteous gesture.

"Excuse me", she tells him.

"Could you indicate to me where the Ruīyī Junning is?" The elderly man stops, bows slightly with the rigidity proper to his age, and immediately points with his chin toward one of the lateral corridors.

"In her study", he replies.

"Third door on the right. She has been there since early."

"Thank you very much", Lianhua replies with a brief bow, and resumes the pace at once. We travel down the corridor with the escort closing formation around us. The walls are decorated with simple paintings showing illustrations of plants, I suppose so that the apprentices of the place can recognize them at first sight, and upon arriving at the third door, one of the Nei Wei steps ahead of Lianhua, positions herself in front of the door, and strikes it with two precise knocks.

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"Come in", replies a feminine voice from within. The Nei Wei opens the door, steps aside so that Lianhua can push the chair inside, and the first thing I think upon entering is that this does not resemble at all a medical consultation room. It resembles more an apothecary. Or rather, the imperial and excessively well-organized version of an apothecary.

The walls are covered, from floor to ceiling, with narrow shelves filled with tiny drawers, each one with a label calligraphed with characters that from a distance I cannot manage to read.

There are also a couple of glass cabinets with flasks perfectly aligned, a long table on one of the sides with a mortar, a small scale and a board covered with dried leaves spread out with an order that suggests a system more than a random drying, and the air smells of a strange but not unpleasant mixture of licorice, bitter herbs, and something lightly sweetish that I am not able to identify. As soon as I think about it for a second, it all turns out to be perfectly logical.

In this world Western medicine such as I knew it in my previous life does not exist, what there is here is traditional Chinese medicine, that is to say, herbs, decoctions, acupuncture, and, for the more serious cases, alchemy. For that reason, that the study of a palace physician should resemble more an apothecary or a herbal pharmacy than the consulting room of a physician from my previous life is not strange at all. Had I stopped to think about it earlier, this would have been exactly what I expected to find.

The woman inside lifts her gaze the moment we cross the threshold. She is of middle age, with her hair gathered in a functional bun without too many ornaments, dressed in a dark tunic over which she wears a sort of work apron. Upon seeing me, she rises, bows formally and, without losing an instant, addresses me with the measured and professional tone of someone who has dealt with the nobility more times than she remembers, or would like to.

"Zhāohuán", she tells me.

"It is an honor to receive you. What does this humble healer's services hold for you?" I return the courtesy with a small inclination of the head, all that my seated position allows me.

"Ruīyī Junning, I don't wish to detain you", I tell her trying not to lose time in unnecessary formalities.

"I have come to ask about the state of my handmaiden, and, if possible, to know whether anything more can be done to improve her condition." The Ruīyī Junning observes me for an instant with her gaze slightly narrowed, as if she were searching among her mental archives.

"Are you referring to the small girl whom the Nei Wei brought yesterday?" she asks me.

"Yes, it is she", I reply. The Ruīyī Junning nods and, before speaking, dedicates to me that brief pause that physicians use in all worlds when they prepare to give a report that is not as reassuring as they would like.

"Her condition is stable, Zhāohuán", she begins to tell me.

"Her external wounds have closed thanks to the fact that we were authorized to administer to her a Blood Regeneration Pill, and that, in her case, has been what has prevented the situation from becoming complicated. However, the most worrying thing is what I already indicated yesterday upon receiving her, which is that she has several broken bones. And given the age and the level of cultivation she has, that is a recovery that is not resolved in a few days."

She stops for a moment and, with a gesture that almost seems apologetic, continues.

"For the moment I have instructed the staff to keep her asleep with an appropriate infusion", she adds.

"On one hand because the pain would be considerable, and on the other, because until it was decided what to do with her it seemed more compassionate to spare her it." My heart contracts a little upon hearing her.

Knowing it in the abstract was one thing, hearing the clinical detail from the mouth of the physician is quite another, since Xia, the girl who only yesterday was laughing with me as we watched the birds picking up coins from the ground, has spent an entire night asleep with several broken bones waiting for someone to decide what to do with her.

"Ruīyī Junning", I tell her with my voice a bit more tense than I intended.

"Is there anything that can be done for her? Some kind of miraculous pill, some cultivation technique, anything." The Ruīyī Junning looks at me for an instant longer than usual, and finally, with a sigh, nods.

"Yes, there exists a pill that can help the girl", she replies.

"It is called Bone Regeneration Pill. Just like the Blood Regeneration Pill, it can be administered to people who do not yet have the Earth Gate open, which makes it suitable for someone at her level of cultivation. But, contrary to the first, the Bone Regeneration Pill is much rarer and, consequently, considerably more expensive." She makes a brief pause and, before I can interrupt her with the obvious question, she continues.

"For someone of the age and condition of the girl, a single Bone Regeneration Pill would be sufficient for her to recover completely in a day", she adds. I nod as I try not to let the mixture of scientific fascination and personal urgency show on my face too much, while I marvel, once again, at how absurdly miraculous the alchemy of this world is. In my previous life, broken bones meant weeks of plaster cast, physical therapy, and, if you had bad luck, lasting effects for the rest of your life.

Here, a pill and the matter is resolved. But the euphoria lasts just long enough for the obvious question to occur to me.

"If that pill exists", I ask her trying for the voice to sound courteous and not accusatory.

"Why has it not been provided to my handmaiden?" The Ruīyī Junning is not perturbed at the question, and I suppose she was expecting it.

"As I have told you, Zhāohuán, the pill is expensive", she replies with the same calm as before.

"Very expensive. And few people can, or are willing, to spend that amount of money on a handmaiden. For that reason, before administering a pill of this type, the protocol always obliges us to request permission and to make sure that whoever requests it is capable of paying for it." I internally prepare myself to hear a figure I am not going to like, but I ask the question all the same.

"How much does the pill cost?" I ask her.

"One hundred and fifty Tael", she replies without blinking. I immediately understand perfectly why they are so cautious upon hearing the figure, since one hundred and fifty Tael for a single pill is, simply, an absurd amount of money, because it is nearly triple what a Qi-gathering formation costs. For a handmaiden, who moreover is still an apprentice, almost no one would be willing to spend such a sum. But, fortunately, one hundred and fifty Tael is an amount that I have.

It will mean a considerable diminution of my capital, enough that I will have to adjust my projections for the next few months, but it is a diminution I am more than willing to suffer for Xia, so I lift my gaze and fix it on the Ruīyī Junning.

"I personally take charge of the cost of the Bone Regeneration Pill", I tell her with the firmness the situation calls for.

"And I wish for it to be administered to my handmaiden as soon as possible." The Ruīyī Junning hesitates for an instant, not in an offensive manner, but with the professional hesitation of someone who knows she has to cover herself no matter what happens.

"It is not that this healer doubts the Zhāohuán", she tells me with a carefully diplomatic inclination.

"But the protocol requires me to make sure that whoever requests a pill with this cost can afford it." I nod without arguing, because the logic of the procedure is reasonable, and I turn my head toward Lianhua.

"Lianhua", I begin to tell her.

"Go at a run to the Pavilion to fetch the money for…"

"It will not be necessary, Zhāohuán Wen", Lianhua interrupts me with a softness that betrays that she was prepared for this intervention.

"As Fei Yi of the Zhāohuán, I can personally attest that she has the capital necessary to pay for the pill", she tells the Ruīyī Junning.

"I will see to it that the payment reaches your study before the day ends." The Ruīyī Junning lets out a small sigh that seems more of relief than anything else, and looks at me again.

"In that case I will send someone to fetch the pill as soon as I can", she tells me.

"Due to its value we do not keep them in the Tàiyīyuàn, but rather in a more secure place, so it will take a bit to arrive." I nod as I feel that something in my chest loosens for the first time since I awoke.

"Thank you very much, Ruīyī Junning", I tell her. And then the physician does something I was not expecting, since she inclines her head with a small and almost shy smile.

"In reality, I am the one who should thank the Zhāohuán", she tells me.

"Very few people would be willing to spend that amount of money on a handmaiden, and much less on one who is clearly still an apprentice. It honors the Zhāohuán that she should do so for one of the members of her staff." I return the smile with one of my own, one a bit more tired than I would like, but sincere.

"It is the least I can do", I tell her. And, now that the matter of Xia is at least on its way to being resolved, I remember the other half of the reason I am here.

"Ruīyī Junning, my visit had another motive", I continue.

"I would like for you to examine the wounds on my legs and, if they are still necessary, to change the bandages." The Ruīyī Junning observes me for an instant and then gestures toward another chair that is in a corner of the study, clearly a chair intended for examination, not for sitting.

"For that, Zhāohuán, it would be more comfortable for you to move to that chair", she tells me.

"In yours it would be difficult to examine your legs." I nod and turn my head toward Lianhua.

"Lianhua, help me move to that chair", I tell her. Lianhua leans down, lifts me up, and deposits me in the other chair. The Ruīyī Junning, meanwhile, has already approached with a small stool that she places in front of me, and begins to release with skillful fingers the ties of the bandages on my right leg as she observes me with the concentration of someone who has plunged fully into professional mode.

And just when she has finished removing the first bandage and leans down to examine the leg, the door of the study opens. It is not a Nei Wei who opens it, nor an assistant of the Tàiyīyuàn, and clearly no prior knock has been heard either.

Through the open door four men can be seen, three with official uniforms I vaguely recognize as belonging to the Yushitai by the cut and the color, and a fourth, who is half a step ahead of the rest, who wears a similar uniform but with a different insignia at the chest that indicates a superior rank. He is of middle age, of lean build and intelligent gaze, and before crossing the threshold entirely he stops for an instant to peer into the interior of the study with a studied courtesy.

"Forgive the intrusion", he says with the measured voice of someone accustomed to being the one who interrupts others.

"I am Yushi Xuang." His eyes travel across the study, pass over the Ruīyī Junning, pass over Lianhua, and finally come to rest on me.

"Is the Zhāohuán here?" he asks, although by the way he is already looking at me I know perfectly well that the question is only a formality.

"I have orders to ask her some questions about what happened yesterday in the Imperial Capital."