Stroke the wild horse's mane. Her hands move toward each other and diverge, the right hand goes to the side and upward, accompanied by the movement of her torso to the right, the left descends down, the center of gravity smoothly transfers to the front leg. After all, in her past life she had photographic memory, or, if speaking scientifically - eidetic. And now it was helping her, so, for example, she could precisely repeat the tai chi exercise complex "24 Forms" she had seen several times in the "Technology for Youth" magazine, based on movements from the Baguazhang and Taijiquan schools, recommended by the Ministry of Sports of the PRC since 1956 for school pupils and students as health-improving gymnastics, as if it had been carefully stored in the archive of memory since then.
Xiao Tai didn't know whether schools like Baguazhang, Taijiquan or other combinations and complexes existed in this world, how much hand-to-hand combat techniques were in demand at all in a world where gifted cultivators and qi users could fly through the sky and knock down dozens of fighters to the ground with a single blow.
However, the so-called "internal" schools of Chinese wushu even in the past world positioned themselves not as combat, applied styles, but as healing and energetic ones. The latter interested her most of all. Energetic. Even in the past world, a world without cultivators and magical miracles, there were people who claimed they could feel this very qi. They broke boards with their fingers, could withstand blows by strengthening themselves with "stone skin," melted holes in ice blocks with their bodies overnight, and finally - dying, left incorruptible bodies. And science could not explain these things. True, most of them were charlatans who claimed they could control internal energy, but there were also real phenomena, inexplicable, unknown. Miracles.
The crane spreads its wings. Playing the lute. Grasping the sparrow's tail. Single whip. Dispersing clouds. Needle at the bottom of the sea. Flashing hand. Twenty-four forms of tai chi, health-improving gymnastics recommended by the Ministry of Sports of the PRC in 1956.
She lowered her hands, exhaling slowly. Energy is breathing. Pulsation. Whether you feel it or not - it doesn't matter. Don't focus on negative emotions, on what you cannot do. Right now in the Spring Cherry pavilion there is nothing but twenty-four forms of tai chi and breathing. Inhale. Exhale. Energy should gather just below the navel, flare up like fire and only then - spread through the meridians. Breathing can control the movement of energy. The teacher insists on a constant flow of qi, but there is nothing constant, everything in the world is cyclical, everything in the world is subject to rises and falls, therefore - inhale and exhale. A warm feeling spreads through the body. She raises her hands... no, the hands rise by themselves, obeying this warm wave. Stroke the wild horse's mane.
The movements repeat, one after another. Dynamic meditation - that's what it seems to be called, a state of flow, satori. They haven't heard of such things here, although probably someone knows, but considers it a secret and doesn't share it with others. Such is this world, the concept "knowledge is power" has been hammered into people from childhood, so everyone holds onto their secret techniques, useful know-how and other hints, cheats and life hacks like a treasure. Here they might twist your head off for a small technical advice or pour out gold. That's why they cultivate their levels of qi control habitually - sitting in meditation. But the eidetic memory of images from her past life gives Xiao Tai an advantage in the current one. Meditation there was studied from all sides and actively used as a means of self-control, a way to manage pressure and regulate stress levels. And also for emotional control. It was also proven that dynamic meditation is no worse, and in some parameters - even better than motionless meditation.
There were many ways to meditate in movement - simple housework, washing dishes or floors, but with preliminary attitude and breath control, or such formal complexes of "internal" wushu schools, or...
She finishes the "twenty-four forms" complex. Lowers her hands. Exhales. Warmth... yes, warmth spreads throughout the whole body. Is this qi? Or did the body just warm up? Well, there is another way. There are other types of art.
Sanchin-no-kata. Her legs glide across the wooden floor, taking the "hourglass" or "fortress" stance. Inhale. The hand turns at the elbow, together with the exhale. Haaaa... power exhale. Inhale. And as if pushing out a piston with diaphragm pressure, with the exhale - the hand clenched in a fist is pushed out. As Chojun Miyagi said - kata Sanchin should be performed 30 times a day; if someone practiced this kata their whole life, they would practically have no need to learn anything else - everything is in Sanchin.
The leg slides forward, the center of gravity follows, inhale, "morote-chudan-uchi-uke," power exhale. Yoi! Even one who has never experienced internal power - will experience it if they do kata Sanchin at least ten times. This kata forms a rigid power framework for the diaphragm, turns the body into steel... by sensation.
Let her have a small and weak body, strength and speed can be developed. The most important thing that the girl named Xiao Tai has - is will and mind. The will of a person who has lived one life and will live another, not hiding from danger, being ready to die defending their own. A mind that stores the treasures of a civilization older than this one by millennia, a civilization where information freely spread and there were no "secret" teaching techniques. A world of super-speeds, where new disciplines and sciences appeared almost daily, where to be competitive you needed not decades of experience (usually already outdated), but learning speed. Flexibility of thinking. Speed of decision-making. Speed of situation assessment. Speed. Speed. Speed.
She doesn't have ten years to learn to control internal energy at the first level of cultivation. She doesn't have fifty years to meditate in a cave, like the village old man from Weidun's story. But she has dozens of learning methods, polished by millennia. The legacy of humanity. Speed reading, absolute memory, theory of inventive problem solving, brainstorming, synectics, morphological analysis and many other ways to hack any system, find the real thing, separate grain from chaff.
For example, meditation is useful, but the body is unaccustomed to sitting in a motionless pose, it becomes numb and the person gets distracted, and can't sit in such a pose for long, painful sensations distract them, the body weakens, muscles atrophy, internal resistance arises, subconscious unwillingness to sit and meditate.
Dynamic meditation is different. It can be combined with sitting or even lying meditation. This will accelerate the process... no, not twice. Ten times. Because the main problem of meditation is precisely the resistance of the subconscious. The subconscious doesn't care about cultivation, the subconscious is enormous and tens, hundreds of times stronger than consciousness. It's impossible to defeat your subconscious, you can put it in conditions where it will be forced to accept some form. If you sit in meditation for years, then gradually the subconscious will accept this too, restructure the organism so that such sitting doesn't cause inconvenience and only then will real learning begin.
But if you don't oppress it with an uncomfortable sitting pose - then learning will begin immediately. Xiao Tai doesn't know whether she feels her qi or not. Now she is focused on breathing and on how to direct this breathing into the movements of hands and feet. Sanchin. Yoi!
The subconscious is stronger than consciousness and to those fools who think otherwise - she could advise starting to control hair growth. At least on the chin. After all, the subconscious controls it. And not only hair growth - heartbeat, pupil dilation and constriction, hormone release into blood, nail growth and skin regeneration. Until people learn to do this consciously (at least stop hair and nail growth after visiting the hairdresser) - their consciousness is just a small tip of the iceberg. Which means fighting the subconscious is a heavy, dirty and thankless job. You can, of course, since consciousness controls external circumstances, you can lock the body in a cage and not give it food, for example. People can do worse things - to themselves. However, if you don't fight the subconscious and your organism, but act in alliance with them, then the result will be much better and faster. Practically instantaneous.
In this world they don't know this yet. In this world they're used to learning being memorization of huge amounts of completely unnecessary facts and concepts. Memorizing a seven-hundred-page volume of the most boring descriptions of how someone offended someone and someone then killed someone. And this is considered education! Memorizing the poems and songs of teacher Kong-zi, and then quoting from any place, even backwards - is considered a sign of scholarship! And they do teach it!
Xiao Tai remembered another world, where the sign of intelligence was speed of situation assessment and making the right decision, the ability to find non-standard solutions, examine and analyze from all sides, consider the most various factors and do this quickly. The locals are used to thinking unhurriedly, their thoughts flow intricately, like a river through a valley, as if they plan to live forever. However... perhaps some do think so.
"Yoi!" she shouts, freezing in the last stance of kata Sanchin. And there's also Tensho, O-sensei's favorite kata. "Rotating palm."
Xiao Tai relaxes her hands, feeling sweat rolling down her neck. Yes, this body is small and weak. But she will make it strong and fast, even if it doesn't grow! As O-sensei said - if you're big and have long arms - that's your advantage. If you're small and short - that's also your advantage. The main thing is to learn to use it correctly. Any person from the shortest to the tallest, from the strongest to the weakest - can kill another person with bare hands. You just need to know - how. She knows. Eidetic memory.
But, of course, it's still better to have a strong and enduring body. She's a short and fragile girl, which means the bet should be placed not even on strength, but on speed, endurance and coordination. And that means - constantly repeating the same movements, getting used to them, training the subconscious. So that in a critical situation it reacts exactly like that. And also - she needs to learn to move with a weapon in hand. For starters - a short blade. Kitchen knife, dagger, long hairpin, sharp splinter.
Xiao Tai exhales and bends in a bow. To O-sensei, Miyagi-sensei, to all those who developed and polished techniques, methods and approaches, to all those who taught never to give up and always respond blow for blow, to all those who would never have bent under this world, finding themselves in the body of a thin girl. To those who shared their knowledge with the world, making it a little better. Don't waste time, whether you're young or old...
The training is finished. Now - change clothes and wash, fortunately the evening bath is already prepared for her. Still, Head Baoshu spoils me, she thinks, oh how he spoils me. Whatever old Weidun might say, but this won't end well. She needs to get out of here before the harvest festival comes. Get out somewhere far away, as soon as she recovers enough for such an escape.
From the corner of her eye she tracks a shadow at the entrance to the pavilion. Will he enter or not? He's been watching for about fifteen minutes now.
"Interesting movements you have, Xiao Tai." Head Baoshu enters the pavilion and she immediately bows and greets him. Old snake, he stood there, spying. So be it. Unlike the locals, she doesn't make secrets of her skills, let them watch. Maybe they'll learn something. They have different approaches to learning.
"Did teacher Wun show you this? Unusual movements. Very crude. Straightforward." the Head continues. I see, she thinks, he didn't catch the twenty-four forms, the tai chi complex recommended by the Ministry of Sports, but only saw kata Sanchin. Yes, direct, crude and harsh, but it forms a sense of energetic framework like nobody's business - right from the first time.
"No, honorable Head Won Mi. This exercise appeared to this worthless one in a dream." she bows. Knowledge from past life memory? No way, there are enough problems as it is, and such an answer won't solve problems, rather create new ones. A dream - that's understandable. Here they take dreams seriously, ancestors come in dreams to give instructions and express their last will, likewise gods can appear in dreams. Or demons. So even if doubts arise, it's more likely about whether to listen to instructions in dreams correctly, than they'll start doubting the very fact that some instructions "appeared in a dream."
"Interesting. Will you show it again? And what were those sounds you made during the exercise?" the Head asks, looking at her with unconcealed curiosity.
"It seemed to this worthless one that it would be correct that way." Xiao Tai answers. She can't explain about the theoretical basis of power exhalation methods during execution of kata Sanchin and Tensho. Such knowledge can't be explained by a dream. Energy exchange. Breath control.
"Really? Well, show it again..." he watches attentively as Xiao Tai performs kata Sanchin - from beginning to end.
"You're an interesting girl, Xiao Tai." he says finally: "I wasn't wrong about you after all. Sit down. I wanted to talk to you, but I saw you were exercising. Tell me, why do you move like that? These movements are crude and nothing like dance or other movements befitting a girl your age. Or is this a variety of combat forms for fighting? But no one fights like that."
"This worthless one has softer forms as well, Head." she says: "this one is direct and crude, but it fills with power."
"Hm. In that case, perhaps you won't refuse me the pleasure of seeing your soft form?" the Head tilts his head and Xiao Tai obeys. She gets up from the bench, walks to the center of the pavilion. Closes her eyes. Inhale. Exhale. Open eyes. Focus on the soft warmth in the body. Raise hands. Stroke the wild horse's mane. The crane spreads its wings. Playing the lute. Grasping the sparrow's tail. Single whip. Dispersing clouds. Needle at the bottom of the sea. Flashing hand. Twenty-four forms of tai chi. Inhale. Exhale. Lower hands. Open eyes. Silence.
"Where do you know these forms from, girl?" Head Baoshu finally asks and Xiao Tai sees with surprise that the Head is tense. He's trying not to give himself away, but she's never seen him in such tension, such concentration. He always walks relaxed, he's the master here and everything belongs to him, he can not watch where he steps. Usually. But here...
"They also appeared in a dream, most honorable Head." Xiao Tai answers, making an effort not to shrug her shoulders. No, no, no, this is the Head, you can't behave like that with him.
"Appeared in a dream, you say..." he squints his eyes and Xiao Tai suddenly feels herself in danger! She dodges to the side, but a white-blue sphere knocks her off her feet, she flies to the side, barely managing to cover her head with her hands! Darkness flashes in her head, covering the world.
When she opens her eyes, her head spins and at first she can't understand where she is and what's wrong with her. A half-dark room, lamps are burning, pleasantly scented aromatic sticks are lit. She lies on her back, a soft featherbed envelops and pulls down, her head spins, something hurts in her chest, preventing her from taking a full breath. Someone's head leans over her.
"How great that you woke up!" says a girl's voice and she recognizes Min Min, the small servant who works in the house. Min Min quickly changes the compress on her head, gives her water to drink and immediately runs away, stomping with little feet across the wooden floor. Where to?
After some time the door opens. Head Won Mi enters and at the sight of him, Xiao Tai immediately tenses up. This bastard attacked her! What does he want?! Damn, and she has nothing at hand, as luck would have it... and he's much stronger. Except maybe... yes, the lamp. And chopsticks on the table, next to the cooling dinner. Knock over the lamp, he'll look down, grab the chopsticks and drive them into his ear. Use as a lever. Change grip, climb on his back and strangle from behind. Eh, if only she had a knife...
"Don't be afraid, little one. Sorry I hit you without understanding." the Head says and spreads his hands to the sides: "but I was surprised no less than you. Wait." he turns and watches as small Min Min closes the door, nods and approaches the bed. Xiao Tai, convinced that he's not going to attack - relaxes a little.
"Do you know what they call me in the capital?" he asks. She's silent. Shakes her head, thinking that now she has quite valid grounds not to bow after every word and not say "Head Won Mi" and "this worthless one." Moral right, so to speak. Let him justify himself. After all, she hasn't decided yet whether to spare this man's life or not... later, sometime. When the time comes.
"Won Mi Baoshu, Guide of the Eight Trigrams." he answers and carefully watches her eyes. She barely doesn't shrug her shoulders. Well, guide and guide. Trigrams, so trigrams. You can call yourself a mushroom, just don't get in the basket.
"Hm. You don't know. And do you know that some parts of your soft forms are secret forms of the Eight Trigrams?" he asks and she shakes her head. What forms. Although... wait. Eight Trigrams - that's Baguazhang. Tai chi, developed by the Ministry of Sports of the PRC in 1956 - was based on movements from Taijiquan and Baguazhang complexes! She raises her eyes to the Head. So that's what it is!
"Surprised?" he chuckles: "imagine how surprised I am. Although... I think I know where you got such knowledge."
"What?" he knows? For a second Xiao Tai became scared, he knows! So what - Viktor's inner voice calmed her, so what. It's even good if he knows, no need to explain. On the contrary, if he knows, then he doesn't need to be convinced that you'll be useful to him, knowledge of humanity that's ahead of this civilization by thousands of years - will always be useful. It's great that he knows. Keep your tail down and don't twitch.
"Yes. Weren't you surprised that there, in the square - I immediately decided to buy you out, as soon as I got a good look at you? No? I don't usually do that, our house doesn't need servants, especially former thieves. And, sorry, but you're not attractive enough for me to decide to get a concubine. And shackles don't add to beauty. You're a smart girl, weren't you surprised by this? That you're not a servant, but a student in this house?"
"I was surprised. But this worthless one decided that such was your wish. How can this worthless one..."
"Oh stop it, Xiao Tai. Stop." the Head interrupts her, and she obediently falls silent. He's silent too. Heavy silence descends in the room, tangible like dense fog. Finally he starts heavily shifting in his chair. Sighs.
"Your eyes give you away." he says: "painfully distinctive. Until they got you out of the shackles and washed you, I wouldn't have thought. But the eyes... listen, Xiao Tai, how would you feel about the Won Mi family, namely me and Lady Mei - adopting you?"