Joaquim Augusto Barbosa de Melo - The Great Empire

- I can already see what is happening, my friend. You got an admirer on the way!

In fact, the “figurines” picked up from the ground were nothing but representations from the Kama Sutra. With that episode, Xi was feeling vexed, so shortly after the two friends said goodbye without further comment. On the way to her quarters, Xi was still a little confused, and she was planning what she could do to take advantage of that souvenir she started to call the “box of secrets”. When two weeks later her classes with Zhu ended, she made it clear that the gift he had given her on her birthday had been an irreverence, but that it in no way altered their friendship. Xi, after much thought and evaluation of the “figurines”, decided to leave her “box of secrets” on the main room furniture, after one of her meetings with the Emperor. And if the Emperor asked her about it, she could always argue that they had been left there by accident. But to Xi’s surprise, the Emperor not only failed to tell her about it, but also began to show her that the “figurines” she had left there in the box were, for many years, of his personal knowledge. After that episode, Xi’s meetings with the Emperor became more interesting.

Months later...

For Li, the Emperor, who at other times had represented everything for her, was now a horizon of emptiness - he almost only had attention for Xi. As if all this were no longer difficult enough, Xi’s recent appointment as a concubine, who was given high-level benefits, made Li’s daily life unmanageable. Therefore, taking advantage of her father’s prolonged illness, decided to leave the palace for a while.

When a lady-in-waiting was appointed a concubine by the Emperor, festivities and wedding rituals were held, but in this case, it did not happen, to the surprise of many. Xi’s promotion was not only the beginning of a nightmare for Li, but also represented a setback for the Empress, who saw in the situation a hard blow, hard to bear. If Li’s absence represented an unexpected improvement, Xi’s promotion, with a new status, proved that her entire strategy had failed. It was now necessary to take urgent fundamental measures to reverse the whole situation in her favor. This time, she could not be fooled again. After much thought, she decided to consult Tau, an old magician and her confidant from her youth. Years ago, Tau had predicted that one day she would be Empress and a very influential person at court. The years passed and the Empress had never contacted him again. She hadn’t been attentive to him in the past, but today she recognized that she owed him a debt of gratitude. Through relatives she sought news of Tau. Days later the surprise could not be more painful, not only did she learn of his death, but she also learned that Tau had revealed, in his last moments of life, to be bitter with the Empress, for the latter never again gave him an answer to a request of his own to visit her in the palace. Now, it was too late! The Empress could no longer correct her mistake and that left her with no solution in sight. As the months went by, the human relations between the two women, the Empress and Xi, became more and more tense and difficult. At court, all those who had a relationship with her now noticed a deep sadness, which she could no longer hide. Some time later, one grey morning, the palace was shaken by the news that the Empress had been found lifeless in her bed. The court physicians, called urgently, confirmed the occurrence of natural death with cardiac arrest. By order of the Emperor the funeral act was discreet and reduced to the essential.

Two years later...

The palace has returned to its near normality, influenced only by Li’s absence and the Empress Zizi’s death. During this period the Emperor changed his daily routine a little, giving more emphasis to his public life at the expense of the private. In the official acts, inside the palace, the Empress’ throne remained empty, as if to remind that one day it would be occupied again by someone. This particular one conferred serenity to the court, except among the concubines where a climate of tension was notorious, contrasting strongly with the calm that lived in the rest of the personnel. Among them, the climate of intrigue and envy ran high - on a level of almost explosion. The youngest girls recently admitted and the ladies-in-waiting, were, here and there, making their predictions of who would be in the most favorable conditions to access the favorite places of the Emperor’s preference. This speculative wave extended, however, to other situations of a more serious nature. Rumors began to circulate through the corridors of the palace that the death of the Empress, after all, had not been as natural as the doctors’ diagnosis had admitted. Behind the scenes, especially among the ladies, there was the version of a probable poisoning. This version began to have supporters when it became known of the death of a cat that had ingested liquid, spilled accidentally, from a teapot existing in the Empress’ quarters - since the death of the Empress that her quarters had remained closed. Among the doctors the version was another - according to them, the death of the animal was probably due to the existence of poison that, however, resulted from the long time of permanence of the tea in the teapot that was of metal and had many precious stones embedded.

With the death of Empress Zizi and the absence of Li, the way was free for Xi, who took advantage of every moment to gain more and more influence with the Emperor. As time went by, that influence grew to such an extent that, in the eyes of the Emperor, it began to make sense to grant her a new status. At a certain point, in the corridors, there were talks of preparations for a new marriage. Shortly after, with the death of her father, Li returned to the palace. The first news, unwanted, to which she had to adjust, was precisely that Xi would soon be the new Empress. Among the concubines this event was already admitted, but for Li it was a brutal shock! The atmosphere of tension previously existing between Li and the other concubines had become lessened with time, perhaps because she now posed no threat to the others. The Emperor, busy with his political life, did not appear or claimed any of his concubines, however special they had been in the past. In the corridor conversations between concubines, the eunuch Zhu was now much talked about, both because of the circumstances of Empress Zizi’s death, and because of his influence with Xi. Among the eunuchs, the atmosphere was reserved and little given to corridor conversations. They didn’t externalize what was in their soul. There seemed to be total serenity among them. The concubines’ reading of this environment was, however, quite different, with the version that they were living another calm period before war.

Xi, in the months leading up to her wedding, was coy in her chambers, wrapped in silence, as if preparing some or simply hibernating to renew her poisons, more suited to her future social condition. The beginning of preparations for the festivities now pointed to a modest marriage, without the pomp and circumstance of other times, either because of the Emperor’s age or because he revealed, in recent years, less appetite for social life - a reflection of declining health, far from the vigor of youth. The official invitations, strongly limited in the number of attendances, revealed that same lack of enthusiasm that seemed to be installed in the soul of the Emperor. Had it not been for the commitment and dedication of Zhu, now appointed as coordinator responsible for the arrangements of the imperial enclosures and rooms, the celebrations would have been reduced to a gloomy, almost effaced wedding. The bride’s dress, prepared under Xi’s direct guidance, stood out in contrast to everything else. In this particular, it exceeded all that was predictable. Among the oldest ladies in the palace, it was commented that there was no memory of such a meticulous and pompous dress preparation as that which Xi had just had executed. All the concubines were invited to give their opinion on the dress, with the exception of Li, who was even forbidden to enter those quarters. Xi knew she had to be cautious, now more than ever - her enemy Li had to stay at a distance, not only from the Emperor, but also from anything that might damage the image of the ceremony. Gradually, in the corridors, conversations began to be heard among the concubines, expressing fascination and amazement at the dress, so that at one point there was not a single conversation between them that did not have this subject as the main theme.