"How wonderful that I now have an elder sister!" young Lady Liling trills like a nightingale and immediately adds something about what a marvelous day it is, delightful news, and how everything is beautiful and wonderful. Looking at the young lady's flushed face, Xiao Tai thinks that the locals seem to have some kind of switch in their heads - you just need to flip the social rank toggle and that's it - behavior changes. It's like in Chekhov's story "The Fat and the Thin" - as soon as a childhood friend learns that his old pal has risen to the rank of privy councilor, has two stars... he immediately transforms. And yet the East is the East, here everything seems exaggerated, hypertrophied tenfold. Just now he was a serf and everyone wiped their feet on him, but he became "da ren" - a big man, and that's it - those same people who just kicked him and turned up their noses immediately fall at his feet and try to kiss his heel. And neither the first nor the second has any questions about their honor, dignity, and morality. It's supposed to be this way.
Here was some insignificant Xiao Tai, a thief and beggar, so stones could be thrown at her, which, by the way, this little bastard Zhu Won Mi, the youngest brother, was doing. Don't think she forgot - she has perfect memory. Eidetic.
She became a servant in the Won Mi house - stones could no longer be thrown at her, at least not by this little bastard. But whipping her with a lash in the stables for insolence - that was allowed, that was for nothing. Young Lady Liling didn't even raise an eyebrow - to the stables and that's it.
Now she is an adopted daughter in the family, the elder adopted daughter, mind you. If only because the age of this body is unknown to her, and if she had entered the family as the youngest, she would have had to marry later, the locals are strict about this - they must first propose to the elder daughter.
This gives rise to amazing collisions, namely - somehow, mysteriously, inside young Lady Liling's head the switch for determining the social rank of this Xiao Tai clicked - by the way, no longer Xiao Tai, but actually Won Mi Xiao Tai, the nickname "Xiao," used instead of a surname and essentially meaning something like "small" or "little," became a prefix to the name. And after the unknown and mysterious mechanisms for evaluating the social rank of surrounding people in young Won Mi Liling's head clicked and realized that this very Won Mi Tai is now her elder sister - the young lady's behavior changed radically. Where before there was an arrogant and capricious young bitch, now there's a naive and pretty girl, ready to look at her elder sister with admiration. What would have happened if in his previous world such a spoiled daddy's girl had been forced to accept some former servant as an elder sister? There would have been war. A real feminine war, with all the inventiveness and determination of a young bitch. But here, in this wonderful new world for her, everything is completely different. And young Lady Liling, who from now on is not young Lady Liling for her, but Li Li or meimei (younger sister). If briefly, then Li mei. Simply Li. So Li, who grew up in this wonderful world of social standards, accepted the new rules of the game without the slightest doubt or resistance. Although... it's worth checking.
"Now be quiet," she says, no, even orders, and Liling obediently falls silent. Interesting. Here elder children have the same power over younger ones in the family as a senior cadet at a military academy over a freshman. Or a senior soldier in the army. Hazing, in other words. Well, or in their case - "sisterhood hazing"? Right now she, Xiao Tai, is very much needed by the Head, and by bringing her into the family in the position of adopted daughter and elder sister to this Liling - he transferred to her all the rights to such treatment. After all, is she a family member now or not?
"Why do you open your mouth when you're not asked?" Xiao Tai asks a question and carefully watches the expression on the young lady's face. There - bewilderment, then anger, irritation, but only for a second. Then - resignation to fate and submission.
"Forgive me, elder sister," Liling bows her head. "This younger sister completely forgot herself in her joy." She hadn't even managed to straighten up when... smack! A slap to the back of the head. A good slap to the back of the head should go tangentially and not affect the thought processes in the cerebral cortex, but should slightly shake the cerebellum, forming in the recipient a feeling of vulnerability. Such brain surfing, the palm goes from bottom to top, from the back of the head to the crown, as if sliding along the convexity of the skull... a pity she has such thick hair...
"Ow!" Liling's eyes fly open, she blinks in bewilderment and involuntarily raises her hand to her head.
"Didn't you hear me, younger one? I said - be quiet! You're annoying." Xiao Tai presses her, continuing to track the decision-making process in this little head of a spoiled bitch and keeping a second slap ready.
"But I..." smack!
"Get another one. Honestly, Li, you seem stupid. Are you completely foolish, yes? Don't you understand what 'be quiet' means? Say something, come on, well?"
"But, elder sister..." another slap to the back of the head. The perfectly arranged hairstyle on Liling's head becomes disheveled, hair sticks out to the sides. She blushes, pales, clenches her fists and bites her lips.
"And once more. You surprise me, younger one," Xiao Tai continues to mercilessly suppress her. She perfectly understands that she's walking on the edge, that the Head of the family will definitely find out about this. And that this very Head made such sacrifices to protect his daughter from the Azure Phoenix citadel not so that his daughter would be tormented in her own home. However... in his time, Cao Cao calculated the killer of Cao An exactly this way - by inconsistencies in the accounting balance of social connections. To put it simply - people in their relationships subconsciously follow some analogue of the law of exchange. You to me - I to you. And this account should be equal, without bias in one direction or another. Example? Some guy who wasn't so romantic before suddenly bought his girlfriend a gift out of nowhere, took her to the movies and to his parents and... you understand? Yes, his girlfriend would only be happy, but if she understands the balance of relationships - she would immediately ask herself - why did he start thinking he owes her? Of course, maybe he had a catharsis and realized how dear she is to him... but most likely - there's some screw-up behind him, most likely - betrayal. So too with people who deceive you, set you up, prepare terrible traps - they feel a bit guilty and as a consequence, become very, very kind. They buy gifts, comfort, do everything in their power to bring this balance to normal, at least in their heads.
Using this knowledge, she will find out the most important thing - how much truth there is in the Head's words and how he himself relates to her chances of remaining alive and relatively unharmed after this adventure of bride substitution. If he really considers the matter not so risky, and her role not difficult and not so painful and even safe, then she will inevitably be punished for such treatment of Liling. Not severely - stand on her knees for two hours, copy the treatise "On the Family and Its Values" by hand, be deprived of dinner. They won't beat or maim her, she's still needed.
But if Head Baoshu himself is being dishonest and this whole undertaking is a task from the "suicide mission" category, no matter in which part, whether he lied to her about the Phoenix clan's intentions, about planning to rescue her from the fortress or exaggerated his capabilities, lied about the adequacy of the other side... or is still planning to arrange an "accident" for them all on the road - in this case there will be no punishment. The Head will be displeased, the Head will grit his teeth, but he won't do anything. At most - he'll have a talk with her. Scold her. Say "why treat your younger sister like that." Try to arrange life in the high house so that they meet less often and that's all. If anything, organizing life in the high house so that one sister doesn't see the other - costs him nothing.
Therefore these slaps to the back of the head, and moral pressure on the unfortunate young Lady Liling - are not just for nothing, out of pure sadism and desire to take revenge for twenty lashes in the stables and an hour on her knees in her room. Although, it must be confessed - it was pleasant. Xiao Tai breathed in deeply and put her hands on her hips, surveying the downcast Liling.
"That's why you won't be given to the Azure Phoenixes," she says. "You're too stupid, little one. What will they think in the clan if you can't even lift a bowl of rice to your mouth? What? Do you want to say something?" She put her palm to her ear and pretended to listen. But Liling, taught by bitter experience, remained silent.
"Hm. Well, well. Even you can learn something. Fine." She looked once more at the submissive girl. If she simply torments her, this will put this Xiao Tai in an unfavorable light, after all the Head is no fool and might guess that she's simply testing him, but if... if she presents this as teaching - then she can kill two birds with one stone. Even three. First - she can torment Liling quite justifiably, after all here, in this world the teaching methods are barbaric, rote learning and constant repetitions. And of course, bamboo stick from the teacher, standing on knees and copying instruction texts - for nothing. Second - she herself can learn more about cultivation and methods of growing all this "qi." As she understood, social position depends greatly on the level of cultivation, the ability to control this "qi." Combat abilities. Even immortality.
And finally third - teacher status. Thanks to her memory in this world of rote learning and repetitions, she seemed like a pure genius. If not for this, how could she claim such status? What could she teach the same Liling, who has been studying all these treatises and cultivating the Lotus Pearl since the age when she first began to realize herself as a person? But now she knew all these treatises by heart and could recite them from any place backwards, even if woken up at night. And this convinced everyone around that this Xiao Tai is a genius and prodigy. She would, of course, argue with this, after all having eidetic memory, though it is a good aid in learning, is definitely not a sign of genius. Geniuses are those people who see a problem from another side, from another angle and find an unexpected and simple solution where others see only prohibitions and limitations. Geniuses are people who, being in constrained conditions, find a way to make their shortcomings their advantages and succeed.
So, for example, a simple invention once nullified Carthage's advantage over Rome - the monstrous weapon, war elephants, became completely useless after some unknown smart person suggested driving long nails into boards, turning them over and placing them in front of the legionnaire formation. The elephants injured their feet, turned back, attacked their own. She considered such people and such solutions genius. When in hindsight, afterwards the solution seems obvious and everyone slaps themselves on the forehead - it was so simple!
Therefore she didn't consider herself a genius - a genius would have long since wriggled out of this whole rotten idea "let's replace the bride, the Phoenixes are stupid anyway, and soon they won't exist!" As one skinny genius general said - "it was smooth on paper, but they forgot about the ravines."
However - here rote learning was valued, and an independent and critical mind was generally synonymous with rebellion and disrespect, which means she could take advantage of such social stereotype. Especially since young Liling is so submissive. Well then... time for revenge. Xiao Tai knew for certain that calling her kind after she sat in stocks for three days and got twenty lashes for nothing - was unlikely to work. So yes, she's not kind. And her memory is excellent indeed.
"Well, what to do with you," she pretended to think. She looked at Liling once more. She stood silently, head down. A drop fell down, right onto her slippers embroidered with beads and red silk. Crying? Everything is clear about her. Another in her place would have long since burst into hysteria and rebellion. "You're no sister to me, just a thief and beggar! I won't obey you!" - and that would be it. But Liling... she's the youngest, she's the beloved daughter of a powerful father and much is forgiven her, much is allowed. However, her behavior clearly indicates that if anything, she knows her place in the hierarchy to the millimeter. What does this mean? It means that the Head knows how to be authoritative and doesn't like being contradicted. Apparently there were cases in Liling's life when she tried to go against her father's will and she didn't like the result. Simply put, the authoritative Head broke her. Suppressed her. Which isn't hard to do, considering that all power is in his hands, and she's just a little girl. Even the news of the upcoming wedding and move to the Azure Phoenixes was received by her with submission, she didn't rebel against her father's decision, didn't try to play on paternal feelings, though for her such a fate should have been worse than death. The only thing she did was take it out on the servants. There's the answer - if you squeeze too hard in one place, it will inevitably come out somewhere else later.
Xiao Tai looked at her "younger sister" once more and sighed. I don't even feel any anger, she thought, this girl isn't to blame for anything. Of course, if she were smarter - she would behave differently. But she's been raised this way, she knows no other morality, no other ways of solving problems either. She hasn't been taught. Well then. Excellent. As they say in Han - if you want to find Cao Cao, you'll get Cao Cao. In her case - if you want to get Bene Gesserit, you'll get Bene Gesserit. She will teach this girl everything necessary, so to speak, repay her debt to the Won Mi family, pay back with kindness, as is proper. For shelter, for food, for education, for acceptance into the family. For being sent to certain and agonizing death or slavery to the Azure Phoenixes. For everything. And it's not her fault that little Liling, taught everything, will inevitably destroy the Won Mi house, and maybe the entire Empire. Ideas are like viruses - if one appears in the head, it can no longer be eradicated. You people of this world, this era - simply don't understand how dangerous a person from an era that's ahead of yours by millennia is. Dangerous not even with knowledge... knowledge is dangerous, yes. Rapid-fire firearms, tactics and strategy, chemical and biological weapons, mutual funds, mass media, methods of rapid learning and analysis, nuclear weapons - all this is terribly destructive. But even more destructive than knowledge are ideas. Once upon a time, it was precisely the clash of ideas that gave birth to a war so monstrous that hundreds of millions of people died, and the world couldn't calm down for a long time and feared a repetition of the apocalypse. It was as a result of this war that dusty clouds of nuclear explosions rose up over the world.
And this world - it's too naive for such ideas. Too simple. The local people all consider themselves smart, consider themselves skeptics and realists, think they know much, however...
She breathes in the air deeply. New world, I have brought you a new toy. Accept it. This is an idea. You might not like it, you might reject it, you might be horrified by it, you might accept it... but I hope you won't notice it. For now. And when you finally do notice - it will be too late. She remembered exactly how everything happened in old Hassan's order - this is another advantage of the old world, you don't have to be an assassin or cult member to learn what exactly happened there. The world is transparent and it's impossible to hide anything in the future world, but here these technologies are still unknown, and in her time they were simply revolutionary.
"Stop crying," she commands. "Since you're such a bungler, elder sister will teach you everything she knows herself."
"Really?" young Lady Liling raises her head, timid hope in her eyes. Perhaps she should pity her here, but Xiao Tai only nods her head. Just what's needed. Emotional attachment through contrast method. And of course the idea that should be planted in the head, like a seed in soil. Not immediately - if such an idea is placed in unprepared soil, it will be rejected, it's too alien to the local mentality with its Will of Heaven. But gradually... thirteen steps of initiation, at the very end of which this destructive idea, long understood in her old world, is finally revealed. And with her lips alone she whispers the ancient truth, that very seed-idea, the beginning of this world's destruction, the truth that once belonged to old Hassan and his fedayeen.
"Nothing is true, everything is permitted." Xiao Tai smiles. Finally she feels power. To oppose other people and circumstances. To oppose fate itself. To oppose the Will of Heaven, before which everyone here bows - from young to old, from the last beggar to the Son of Heaven. She smiles because foundations and orders, morality and traditions - everything can be destroyed. Nothing is true, everything is permitted.