Which horse? I don’t understand anything… Why are you talking so strangely? First Chow Li, now you…
– Shut up and thank the governor!
– But why didn’t we thank you when you took us there at night? – Lacius smiled slyly.
– Don’t say that! – Fu Xing was scared. – I am the governor’s servant, – and added louder: – Long life to the governor! – Don’t make me “give you three instructions and explain to you five times’24!
– Why three… – but he didn’t have time to finish, receiving a blow with a stick from another guard. Kneeling, Lacius conveyed the order to the others, and the Romans in discordant voices began to shout out words of gratitude to Bao Shi, who was condescendingly listening to them in a black robe with yellow peacocks on the back and sleeves. Two servants were already bustling around nearby, shaking off the remaining dust from the luxurious silk.
CHAPTER VIII. UNPLEASANT NEWS ABOUT THE HOLIDAY OF THE YEAR
After the river, the Romans were taken to the outskirts of the city, where rich people lived. The house of Governor Bao Shi was located there. They were all pushed into a large empty barn and left overnight. They spent several days there without going outside. On the fourth day, at dawn, Lacius was awakened by two servants and taken to an outbuilding, near which four servants stood. They were barefoot and shirtless, wearing only pants. He was clearly not being taken to the governor or the Emperor. This thought immediately made him feel better.
Along the walls there were two benches and several bundles of brushwood. Everything was carefully cleaned. There was a beautiful screen hiding in the corner. A lake with thickets of reeds and flying birds were drawn on it. In this miserable and gray room, it looked very strange and seemed like a random object, as if they had forgotten to put it away after some special occasion.
However, everything soon became clear. Sitting behind the partition was Chow Li. Next to her were two eunuchs and two maids. Chow spoke in the Xiongnu dialect. She did not want her compatriots to understand her. The news was different, but not all very good: the Emperor ordered an urgent gathering of ministers to talk with them about Chen Tang; the Emperor’s wife was angry that two concubines saw the paintings given to her; yesterday five eunuchs were punished for this; everyone began to prepare for the holiday of the year, and the Romans were supposed to be shown to the entire courtyard during that show. This meant that Governor Bao Shi would have to prepare them for exhibition stick fighting.
Lacius knew that stick fights usually ended in a fight with swords and spears. So, it was necessary to come up with something so that they would not be killed in the very first minutes of the holiday. Although there was no joy in the fact that they would be killed a little later. At that moment, he remembered with regret that no ruler had ever kept his word.
The second bad news concerned Chow’s sister named Yeng. She wanted Lacius to be killed in any case. It didn’t matter where. She said this was her revenge for the fact that Chow was his slave. And Chow could not explain anything to her older sister. She didn’t believe her. At least that’s what Chow Li said, trying to make her words sound sincere.
Lacius also learnt that all the Xiongnu women were taken away from the city. There, beyond the wall, they worked in the Emperor’s distant gardens, waiting until he decided what to do with them. But the most unpleasant thing was that peasant unrest began in the south of the country and none of the merchants wanted to go there. Therefore, Chow could not help Latium disappear unnoticed from Bao Shi’s house and end up in the cart of merchants carrying salt and silk to the south. Moreover, her father, the former chief censor, demanded that she return to the province, since she was now an unmarried woman. The father himself lived in a small provincial town, where the unrest had just begun, and Chow was soon to go to him.
Everything was turning against Lacius again. The escape plan could not become a reality and remained just a dream. He could not imagine that someone was leading him up the garden path. So he naively believed that other people and external circumstances were to blame for everything.
– You promised to help, – Lacius said thoughtfully after listening to her. He did not understand how he could now escape from this city and get to the sea.
– I’ll help, but later. Now you have to stay here. We have to wait. Let everything pass. I’ll let you know.
– How?
– Through Fu Xing, the head of security.
– Can you ask him to bring us more food? We can’t eat just rice and beans. They also give us lentils, but they are tough. We need meat. I understand that it is difficult, but without food we will die.
– I don’t even know… Even Bao Shi’s servants don’t eat meat. – It’s very difficult, – Chow answered carefully, trying not to sound rude about her refusal.
– Okay, can you tell Fu Xing to send us to work? We can carry water, build, dig. Then it will be easier for him to feed us.
– You speak wisely. Okay, I’ll try. That’s it, go, I have to go. There will be guests in the house today.
– Wait, tell me, why are you and your sister so different? – getting up, he asked.
– Have you seen my sister? – there was surprise and confusion in her voice.
– Yes, when the Emperor’s wife came.
– Oh… But this is impossible! Have you seen her face? Erm… Did you like her? – questions rained down one after another.
– Dunno. She’s just not like you. At all.
– No, she isn’t. We have different mothers. She is the elder sister. But she is dearer to me than all the other people in the house.
– Who are the rest? Do you have many sisters and brothers? And you… – but Chow did not listen to him and called the servants. They took Lacius out of the outbuilding and brought him to the barn, where he, with relief, threw the iron ball on the ground and sat down next to it.
All his comrades lay there, staring blankly at the low ceiling. Flies were buzzing everywhere. The walls were made of the same bamboo as in the barn, where they had stood for several days. Lacius came up and pulled the stick in the wall. It didn’t give in. Then another, one more, until in the corner, right next to the pillar, he was lucky enough to pull out a thin bamboo three fingers thick. Such a stick was lighter than a sword and lay a little awkwardly in his hand, but Lacius was pleased.
– Get up, – he called to Mark and Zeno, who were throwing stones on a small area near the door, trying to knock them out of the middle of the circle. – Let’s get down to business.
– You came back changed, – came the quiet voice of Paul Domician. – The red colour comes from you.
– Yes. The gods don’t want to let me go home, – Lacius smiled wryly. – The Fates are playing their weird games again.
The blind singer just shook his head and said nothing. Dissatisfied, Mark and Zeno each pulled out a stick from the wall and began fooling around with Lacius. But, having received several strong blows to the legs and even to the stomach, they realised that he was not joking.
In the evening they were joined by Lucro and three people from his former group. The next day, Tiberius and his people came. They did not believe that they could be killed after the Emperor’s forgiveness, but Fu Xing, who sometimes came to check on their condition, gloomily confirmed Lacius’s words.
Now they began to be taken out to work in the fields and in the yard. The Romans’ ability to work with stone was useful when building a new cellar on the other side of the house and laying out wells. For this, they began to be fed better. However, in the evenings, Lacius