Two Wives
"Seyoung!"
"Father."
Having returned to Chengdu, I was reunited with my father.
"Good. You've come back safely…."
The moment he saw me, Father looked me over carefully, checking every part of my face as if to make sure nothing had been hurt. I had taken injuries all over my body fighting Lü Meng, but fortunately my face had been spared.
Looking at the gray that had spread through his hair, I could tell how much he had fretted over me.
"I'm fine. Everything that was hurt has healed."
"Good. Still, be more careful from now on. Don't throw yourself forward so recklessly."
The first two things I did upon arriving in Chengdu were these.
First, the reunion with my father.
Second, Liu Bei's commendation and rewards.
To put it briefly, Liu Bei bestowed upon me the title of Marquis of Duting—a marquisate.
And after that came the next matter.
"Is Her Majesty the Empress well? Since I've come this far, I ought to pay my respects to her as well."
That was seeking out Liu Bei's wife, Lady Sun. She was Empress now, of course.
"Your Majesty. Left General Jin Cheong presents herself before you."
"Ah, so you've come. How long has it been? It's good to see your face again."
"Yes, Your Majesty. I should have come to call on you much sooner, but affairs of state kept me occupied…. Still, at His Majesty's summons I will be staying in Chengdu for some time, so I should be able to visit more often."
I had seen Liu Bei and my father during the Jingzhou campaign, but Lady Sun—Sun Ren—was someone I had not seen in a very long time.
I had left Chengdu during the Hanzhong campaign and remained in Jingzhou ever since, so it had been years, hadn't it?
"Ah well. Looking at us, I'm starting to show my age, while you look exactly as you always did. Just the same as the last time I saw you."
"Not at all. Your Majesty remains as beautiful as ever, without the slightest change."
Sun Ren had entered her thirties now; the years had passed. When I first met her, we had both still been in our teens.
We sat and talked of this and that after so long, but somehow it no longer felt as easy as before. Honestly, there was a certain awkwardness between us.
Wu's crushing defeat in the Jingzhou campaign, and then Sun Quan's surprise attack during the recent northern expedition—as Sun Quan's younger sister, her position could only be uncomfortable. And yet the idea of the woman who had come all the way to Chengdu and risen to the rank of Empress simply crossing back over to Eastern Wu also felt strange.
On top of that, I had repelled Sun Quan's attacks twice; I was the one who had handed him humiliation on two separate occasions.
Outwardly she treated me warmly enough, but what she truly thought of me was something I could not know without reading minds. I found myself suddenly missing the days when we had practiced archery together in Gong'an.
Relations with Wu were neither one thing nor the other at present.
After the Jingzhou campaign we had somehow managed to keep the alliance going, and for a while it had seemed as though things might improve.
But his surprise attack had effectively shattered the alliance. That open war had not broken out was, if anything, a mercy.
Of course, there had been voices like this as well.
We should use this chance to crush Wu. Now, while they are weakened, is the opportunity.
But the opposing arguments put forward by Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang, and others had been stronger.
To wage war on Wu now would only fatten Cao Pi's belly. It cannot be done.
They were not wrong. Wu had suffered heavy losses, but we too had expended vast stores of supplies on a large-scale northern expedition, and the soldiers were exhausted.
By nature, Wu was weak on the offensive but tended to close ranks and fight fiercely on the defensive.
If we could shatter them in a single stroke and absorb their strength, that would be ideal—but so long as Lu Xun, Ding Feng, and the rest remained intact, it would be no easy task.
And though we had succeeded in expanding our territory through the northern expedition, Wei's power was still greater than Shu's. If Wu were to join hands with Wei again, it would be a disaster. Of course, Wu had been thoroughly thrashed at Hefei more than once, so they would not form an alliance lightly either.
And so relations with Wu remained delicate. That no full-scale armed clash had broken out again was, for Lady Sun at least, something to be grateful for.
I had heard that quite a few people within Shu regarded her with suspicion. Rumors even circulated that she was colluding with another state, though there was no solid evidence.
And for that very reason, she seemed to conduct herself with great caution.
So the two of us spoke not a word of war or of Wu, and simply passed the time in idle conversation.
"I've always thought so, but I truly envy you. Your skin is still so fair."
"Your Majesty's skin is just as it was when I first saw you."
The absence of that old, free-spirited boldness of hers left me a little wistful. Back then it had worn me out, though.
I even wondered whether it might have been better for her if she had returned to Wu, as in the original history—but since she had come this far, she ought to live happily. I no longer knew what the future held for this woman either.
Ah, that's right—Lady Sun had a son, didn't she?
"Come to think of it, is His Highness the Prince well?"
His Highness the Prince referred to Liu Li, the son Sun Ren had borne Liu Bei.
"Ah, of course. You should see his face at least once."
At Sun Ren's command, a maidservant brought in a boy who looked about six or seven years old.
"Ah. Your Highness the Prince. This humble general, Jin Cheong, greets you."
The last time I had seen him he had been a tiny infant; now he could walk and speak.
He was still young, but he seemed to take after both Liu Bei and Sun Ren. His ears and nose especially looked just like Liu Bei's, while his eyes were unmistakably Sun Ren's. With a different mother, he felt both similar to and distinct from Liu Shan.
"Your Majesty, I shall call on you again another time."
"Very well. I've heard you have much to do. If you're busy, there's no need to force yourself to come."
"Not at all. I will make time now and then."
Having met Lady Sun and her son, I withdrew and went to find the reason I had been summoned all the way to Chengdu.
The place I needed to go was the research and development section of the Chancellor's Office. I had been told to meet Lady Huang, Zhuge Liang's wife, there.
Hmm. Lady Sun, and now Lady Huang. Two wives in a row. Other people's wives, of course, but still.
I wondered how she was doing. The last word I had heard of her was that she was hard at work developing weapons.
"Oh my. Welcome, Lady Seyoung. I heard you were coming. It's been so long—I'm truly glad to see you."
"Yes, Lady Yueying. Thank you for receiving me. It has been far too long."
When I arrived at my destination, Lady Huang—that is, Huang Yueying—was there to greet me.
Like Sun Ren, Huang Yueying was someone I had not seen in a very long time.
Though years had passed, her dark complexion and the yellowish tint of her hair were unchanged, and that distinctive, exotic beauty of hers remained just as it had been.
"My husband is occupied with other matters and is not here at the moment. Instead, let me introduce someone else. Master Po Yuan—this is Left General Jin Cheong, who has just arrived. She will be joining us in research and development for some time."
At Huang Yueying's words, a man who had been sitting in the corner rose to his feet. The desk before him was strewn with papers that looked like design sketches.
He bowed his head in greeting, dark circles heavy under his eyes, and his voice dripped with exhaustion.
"Yes…. Lady Jin Cheong, is it…. I am Po Yuan…. I've heard a great deal about you…. I look forward to working with you…."
"Yes. I am Jin Cheong. Starting today I'll be taking part in the research and development work. The pleasure is mine as well…."
Besides Huang Yueying and me, the development team staff, so to speak, included this man named Po Yuan.
For reference, Po Yuan was a figure recorded in the histories as well—said to have crafted all manner of weapons and equipment under the direction of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang.
"Ohh. At last—at last someone has come to help with the work…."
He was something of a legendary figure, the inventor-king of Shu Han, and yet looking at that dejected face, he seemed worn down by overwork….
In modern terms he would have been a renowned engineering professor or research director, but the way he looked now somehow reminded me of a long-suffering graduate student. Hmm. Calling Po Yuan a graduate student—was that going too far?
"Lady Seyoung, this way, please. I'll give you a brief introduction to the work."
"Yes, of course."
Huang Yueying led me off somewhere, while Po Yuan sat back down with that soot-darkened face of his and began fussing once more with the mountain of documents and design sketches piled before him.
In contrast to Po Yuan, Huang Yueying carried herself with bright composure—though I suspected she, too, had become something of a workaholic after her husband. They say couples grow to resemble each other.
"If you look here, you'll get a general sense of what we do."
"Ah."
Huang Yueying showed me a place stacked high with books, bamboo slips, and documents.
Opening one of the books, I found it filled with records of research results, processes, and other materials accumulated over time. Looking at the sheer volume, I could guess how much work they had done.
"When my husband returns, we really ought to hold a welcome gathering to mark your arrival, Lady Seyoung. Though whether we'll have the time is another matter."
"There's no need. If you're busy, please don't go out of your way."
"Oh, how could we not? If it comes to it, we'll just do it among ourselves. Ah—and before my husband arrives, let me show you the weapons we're currently developing."
And so the research and development work at the Chancellor's Office began.
