Joaquim Augusto Barbosa de Melo - The Great Empire

- My friend Xi has a dress that matches her stardom, don’t you think?! – Observed the concubine Titi, perhaps to make it clear that the future Empress was her personal friend.

- I have been around for many years and I can assure you that to this day I have never seen anything comparable!

- She always knew what she wanted! I’m not surprised by all this.

When the big day finally came, Xi got up much earlier than usual. For her the night had not been quiet at all, she had had restless dreams and nightmares, involving a lot of emotion. After a light and first meal in the morning, she met Zhu to find out once again that everything was ready and compliant. Then she headed to the room where the wedding dress had been made, having noticed, strangely, that the door was half-open. That circumstance made her nervous, as she had given express orders for that door to remain closed at all times. She had been careful, but “despite all the care and recommendations, the result is this” she thought, already a little irritated. Xi took a look around the room, but as everything seemed normal to her, she became calmer, reducing the importance of the incident and ensuring, when she left, that the door was well closed. At the agreed time and with the arrival of the ladies-in-waiting, it was initiated the dressing of the bride. All the women were able to confirm once again that the dress was a real work of art. All that remained was to apply the final part of the veil - a long covering mantle, with pearls and precious stones inlaid, which gave the ensemble an incomparable beauty. For security reasons, this final adornment piece was enclosed in a giant lockable trunk. The bride watched the padlock being removed and was already imagining the greatest compliments with the application of that wonderful cloak. However, with the opening of the chest, the surprise and indignation of Xi was total. The cloak was reduced to rags, torn into a thousand pieces by so many scissors. For Xi, that instant represented an unspeakable humiliation - it was like the dethronement of a feathered peacock to which they had cut off all the feathers of his tail and was reduced, in nonsense, to the insignificance of a hen with raised wings. The pearls and precious stones remained in the chest and, by the number, they made believe, that whoever did that had as his only objective to humiliate her as much as possible. In the first moments Xi was as if petrified, without a single gesture or word, only her expression was becoming disfigured at a dizzying pace. Briefly, she left the room running, deranged, towards Li’s quarters. The door was closed, but that was no problem for Xi, the latch burst, entering Li’s room completely furious. Before she could identify what was going on, she was bombarded by that dark figure just arrived, dressed in red and vociferous with all sorts of impropriety, cries of anger and curses. Xi had poured on Li all the hatred accumulated in recent years:

- May the gods bring upon you and your offspring all sorts of curses! May you be cursed everywhere on earth! And finally when you feel despised by everyone and transformed into a human rag, serve as pasture for the vultures! Cursed, a thousand times!

Before Li could intervene, a bang was heard again. It was the door closing, with all the violence, with the exit of that sinister figure. The moments that followed that Dantesque scene, laden with hatred, gave Li a vision of terror... She couldn’t think about how much she had just seen and heard. In the moments that followed, no matter how much effort she made with her memory, she could not find a single reason that could give rise to such a crazy act. But whatever reason or motive Xi had, that was the drop of water that made the cup overflow. In her heart she pleaded to the gods to reverse all her enemy’s curses back to her, asking for justice for herself. She was fed up with all the intrigue and slander in which she lived. At that very moment she decided to leave the palace. It was time to return home. She wasn’t going to stay there another day! She immediately began to pack her personal belongings in her room, which she left moments later. As she left her quarters, she took the shortest way to the service gate so that no one would see her. On that day and at that hour the corridors and terraces of the palace were deserted. She had no difficulty in leaving the palace in anonymity. She didn’t said goodbye to anyone, for many reasons. That place was no longer hers. Without looking back, Li left with a confident step and decided not to return.

When Xi returned to the room from which she had left untimely moments before, she was delivered a message from the Emperor that the ceremony was about to begin. Her first reaction was to look into a large mirror. Only then did she become aware of how horrible she looked! Her dress in total disarray and her face totally disfigured! Time therefore imposed urgent measures. She looked around the room looking for a last anchor to save her from that distressing situation. She noticed that in one corner, on one of the shelves, there were several silk rolls and embroidery - they were orders from noble merchants bound for the courts of Syria and Arabia. Xi, in a reflection of a wounded and distressed eagle, performing perfectly instinctive acts, approached the shelves and, with sudden gestures, removed all the rolls stretching them out on the floor of the room. Then, screaming, she ordered the ladies to join the ends of two of these silk rolls and fix them, one on each of her shoulders, doing the same with another roll, but this time of lace, demanding that they created with it a small veil and put it over her head to cover her face. With the rest of the rolls she had an extensive trail added as an extension of her dress (all done in a fraction of an instant) and always screaming, while the ladies, stunned, strictly followed all her orders. Time was overwhelmingly running out! The seamstresses had barely begun what Xi had ordered and a second message from the Emperor demanded her presence, reporting the bride’s delay. Some time later, Xi, recomposed in her image, began the bridal march on the way to the imperial hall. With her face half covered in lace and about twenty ladies holding her immense tail, Xi entered the hall with all her pomp. The Emperor, as well as the whole court, was surprised by all that apparatus. The bride entered with a majestic semblance, walking slowly and cadently, wearing a dazzling dress ending in an immense tail held by two rows of ladies.

The wedding ceremony was brief, compared to others held in the palace in other times. The festivities, those lasted all day. In the late afternoon the newlyweds gathered at the palace of Earth Harmony, where they spent the night. In the morning of the following day they went to the summer palace, accompanied by a small entourage. With the departure of the bride and groom the imperial city returned to its almost routine, tranquil and bucolic condition, as in so many other exits of the Emperor. In the corridors, this time, a differentiating factor appeared, the strange absence of Li.

Since the day before, no one else had laid eyes on Li. As the discussion between the two rivals was not witnessed by anyone, speculative versions began to emerge between the ladies and concubines. That mysterious disappearance of Li began to give way. For some, she couldn’t bear to watch the Emperor marry her main rival and ran away. For others, they were facing kidnapping or poisoning ordered by Xi. The mystery thickened. When the Imperial couple returned, there was no talk of anything else but Li’s disappearance. However, conversations between concubines and others were made with great care, fearing reprisals from the new Empress. As time went by the subject was becoming more and more reminiscent of the silence of consciences, now tortured by the growing influence of the new Empress in the management of personnel and generating an environment one could cut with a knife. Early on, Empress Xi realized that, in personnel management, Zhu could be very useful. So, gradually, the Empress delegated powers to her right arm. For some, this delegation was commented on as retribution for the organizational effort at her wedding, for others, she was favoring the eunuchs over the other hierarchies in the palace. Those times were now of transition, no one had any doubts. As the months passed and with the permanent changes dictated now by the new Empress, the uncertainty of the following day reigned among the staff. The times brought silence and bitterness. Hallway conversations were no longer possible, for one never knew which side the person one was talking to was on. A conversation, apparently innocent, could be interpreted by the Empress as opposition to her and this was not tolerated in any way. As time went by, there were strange absences of people whose whereabouts were no longer known. The period of insecurity was followed by another, where fear began to take place. With a growing influence of the eunuchs and a particular prominence in Zhu, terror set in among the smaller personnel. One now looked back to the time of the former Empress Zizi. At that time peace and joy also took place, in contrast to the present moment where there is only room for malevolent insinuation or destructive threat, building a daily life where everything is demanded in exchange for almost nothing. Smiles slowly disappeared to give way to grudges and silent hatreds.