Hidden Tiger (5)
Having received a firm answer from Sima Yi, I met with Sima Fang one last time before my departure, and the two of us talked. He sat in his seat with his spine straight as a bowstring, without so much as a twitch of movement. His self-command drew a sigh of admiration out of me every time I saw it — discipline of that caliber could not have been built without years of tremendous effort.
Just as we settled facing one another, the door opened and a servant appeared. He set out tea for Sima Fang and me, then vanished without a sound. With not the slightest break in his bearing, Sima Fang drank a cup of the tea before him and spoke.
"I have heard it said that you have grown remarkably close to Sima Yi of late."
"So you knew."
It seemed Sima Fang had been well aware of my approach to his daughter all along. Well, of course he was. With the number of servants milling about this household, it would have been stranger if he weren't. I nodded and took a sip of my own tea.
"...Hmm."
Judging by the taste and the aroma, this was no ordinary leaf. One thing was certain — when it came to receiving guests, these people did not cut corners. Watching me, Sima Fang posed another question.
"Is it true that you counseled her to enter official service when the time was ripe?"
"It is."
"...That is a relief. I thank you, Grand General."
And with that, Sima Fang bowed to me without warning. I hurried to speak, no doubt wearing a flustered expression. "What is this, all of a sudden?"
"My second daughter is gifted with an extraordinary mind, yet she puts that uncommon talent to use in the strangest of places. My worry for her has been beyond all measuring."
"Mmm..."
Even I, who had observed Sima Yi only briefly, could hardly dispute the man's words. She did have a distinctly eccentric streak about her, no question.
"The moment she spies an opening, she schemes her way into idleness, and it has grieved me sorely. That you, Grand General, have resolved what I could not — how could I fail to offer my thanks?"
"Yes, yes, I understand, so raise your head. You're making me uncomfortable here."
"As you command."
Sima Fang lifted his head calmly and straightened his posture. I turned to him again. "Since you already know everything, you've spared me the trouble of explaining. In that case, let her remain at my side until her coming-of-age rite, so that she may lay up a good store of memories."
By the time Sima Yi underwent her rite of adulthood, the state of the realm would begin turning at a breakneck pace. I intended to make heavy use of her, which meant she would likely end up traversing every last corner of the realm. And if it came to that, then however much she might long for her family, seeing them would surely be no simple matter.
At that, Sima Fang shook his head. "There is no need."
"Hm?"
What did he mean, no need?
"When you depart this place ere long, I would have you take Sima Yi with you, Grand General."
"...?"
A bombshell, dropped out of nowhere. I lost my words entirely and could only stare at Sima Fang in open bewilderment.
"This household has already taught her everything it has to teach."
"...She's learned that much?"
"These days, the sum of Sima Yi's occupations is tormenting her younger sisters as they diligently pursue their studies, or lying about the house staring at the ceiling."
She had mastered the full education of a prestigious clan at the tender age of twelve. She was no living onion, but the more layers I peeled back, the more astonishing facets of her kept coming to light.
"A child who ought to be devoting herself further to her learning is squandering her hours instead. As her parent, does that not oblige me to make a weighty decision?"
Every word out of Sima Fang's mouth just now was reasoned, point by point, into perfect sense.
"In this maddening age, no opportunity for learning will ever present itself. All I could do was watch my daughter and grieve."
"..."
"She is a child who, beyond all doubt, bears the talent of a tiger — one fit to hold the breadth of the realm in her command."
So this was where the whole tiger business began.
Hidden Tiger. Unpacked, the word meant a great tiger — and it was also the byname that would come to be pinned on Sima Yi. A nickname bestowed on her by the sort of people with a taste for dashing epithets like Crouching Dragon and Fledgling Phoenix.
Blissfully ignorant of my idle musings, Sima Fang pressed on, fixing me with a grave gaze. "I beg of you, again and again. Will you take Sima Yi with you?"
Confronted with so earnest a plea, I had no choice but to open my mouth. "And what am I to do if Sima Yi herself wants no part of it?"
Going by what she herself had spat out, the girl seemed set not to budge a single inch before her coming-of-age rite.
"Press her along from behind, and she will grumble and grouse the whole way — and follow you in the end regardless."
"..."
"She always shows you the cold shoulder, but she is a child utterly weak to kindness."
"Come to think of it..."
As I listened to Sima Fang, yesterday's scene drifted back to me. When I had spoken with Sima Yi, hadn't she agreed to take up office only after I kept telling her I would come find her again, that I trusted her?
So she was the prim, prickly type whose defenses crumbled before a warm and relentless push?
"It appears something has come to mind, Grand General."
"Mmm..."
"That a girl so weak to kindness accepted your proposal suggests that you, in turn, showed her a good deal of warmth yourself."
With that, a smile spread across Sima Fang's face. "I will speak with Sima Yi separately, so you need only take her with you on the day you depart."
"Well — if you insist to that degree."
Honestly, from where I stood it was an offer with not a single downside to it, so I nodded. Until her coming-of-age rite, I had no intention of assigning Sima Yi any real work unless she asked for it first. I would simply let her observe, in passing, how matters were handled — nothing more. Even that much, surely, and she would shoot up on her own.
When I accepted, Sima Fang bowed to me with deep formality. "I entrust my daughter to your care. Please, look after her well."
"And so it is decided. Sima Yi — you will follow the Grand General and train your eye a little further upon the world."
Sima Yi, sprawled across her room as on any other day, knit her fine brow faintly at her father's announcement. "...Is that the truth, Father?"
"It is."
Thanks to her father's severity, drilled into her since earliest childhood, Sima Yi managed — by the narrowest of margins — to keep her manners about her.
"Yi. I should like to see you look upon a wider world."
Sima Fang called his daughter by her bare given name — a rare thing for him.
"Does not a tiger, by rights, hold sway over mighty mountain ranges, and not some paltry hill behind the village?"
In Sima Fang's gaze lay the plain, unadorned devotion of a father. Sima Yi did not open her mouth. She held her silence.
"Our Sima clan I shall entrust to your elder sister and your younger sisters. As for you — unfurl your ambitions across the wide world."
"..."
"And as it happens, the vast realm itself has come seeking you. If this is not opportunity, then pray tell me what it is."
Sima Yi put a question to the father who was watching her. "Do you believe, Father, that the Grand General is a man capable of taking me into his keeping?"
"I do."
Sima Fang nodded as though it were the most self-evident thing under heaven. "Then let me ask you in turn. What manner of man do you see, when you look upon the Grand General?"
"...I..."
Sima Yi slowly closed her eyes and reached into the past.
"Keep trying ten times, a hundred times, and someday it will work out — won't it?"
The easy, unbothered warmth of a man who knew perfectly well she was keeping him at arm's length, yet took it in stride and kept trying to draw near.
"Meet people with trust, and someday that trust will come back to you — that is what I believe."
The unhesitating boldness of a man who never balked at placing his faith in others.
"And what good is it to suspect and persecute people on mere guesswork?"
The goodness of one who strove to believe in human decency to the very last.
Her eyes still closed, Sima Yi recited a single word, flat and quiet. "...A good man."
A man so soft-hearted it bordered on the strange. At her answer, Sima Fang nodded.
"It is a grievous age, when the lives of the people are handled as nothing more than means to an end."
Picking up the thread of her answer, he went on. "When those who rule will not look upon human beings as human, how is filial piety to stand firm? How is benevolence?"
Confucius had said it: meet the people with love, and all would flourish together in harmony. Yet for a long, long time, this land had known no ruler who lived by those words.
"Yi. I believe he is the man to end this sorrow and open a new age."
"Father?"
Sima Yi's eyes flew wide in astonishment.
"And do you truly believe a man such as that could fail to take you truly into his heart?"
"..."
At her father's question, Sima Yi found herself, strangely, at a complete loss for words.
Sima Fang looked down at her. "So you cannot yet be certain."
"...No."
"Then watch him — from his side."
So saying, Sima Yi's father laughed aloud for the first time in an age.
"A tiger shut within a stifling cage will, in the end, be unable to bear it — and will burst free."
"..."
"Whether the Grand General is a man who amounts to no more than a chain binding you in place, or a realm vast enough to hold a tiger in his embrace — is that not for you to judge with your own eyes?"
Sima Yi answered her father with perfect courtesy. "I understand."
"Good. You have thought it through well."
Sima Yi let a small sigh escape, deep inside. Right. Because if word happened to drift in from who-knows-where that the Grand General had dropped dead on the road somewhere, it would prey on her mind for no good reason at all.
It was most emphatically, absolutely not because she was worried about the Grand General.