Chapter 8: Taming Water and Fire, Bathing in Constant Warmth, Tears Fall in Heartache

The Globe stopped spinning.

Lin Xuan pressed the wall switch, and the master bedroom flooded with light again.

The girl raised her arm, brushing her cheek with the back of her hand, leaving a sticky trail of sweat.

After the fever broke, the sticky sweat clung to her undergarments, unbearable.

Lin Xuan noticed this motion.

He pulled open the closet door and rummaged through the clothes.

"You've broken into a full sweat—go take a bath."

The girl froze in place, shaking her head frantically, shrinking back toward the bed corner.

"Mother taught me: never touch water when ill."

"If you catch a chill, your qi illness will flare—no Imperial Physician can save you."

Lin Xuan pulled out a pure white men's short-sleeve shirt.

He turned, holding up the garment in his hand.

"That's in Tang."

"Here, bathing won't make you catch cold."

At the end of the hallway was the bathroom.

Lin Xuan pushed open the door and led the girl inside.

The space was small, walls tiled entirely in white ceramic.

Lin Xuan raised his hand and pressed a button on the wall.

Above, the four heating lamps of the square shower unit lit up simultaneously.

Scalding air gushed down instantly.

In under five seconds, the tiny bathroom swelled with heat.

The girl squinted, instinctively shielding her chest with both hands.

"This place… is unbearably hot."

Lin Xuan walked to the sink, his fingertip touching a white square panel on the wall with a digital LCD display.

"Thirty-eight degrees—water temperature constant."

He turned and pulled open the glass door of the shower stall, twisting the metal faucet handle on the wall.

Water surged through the hose into the large overhead showerhead.

Splash—

Hundreds of fine water jets slammed vertically down, raising a white mist over the bathroom tiles.

Lin Xuan stepped back and waved to the girl: "Come, test the water."

The girl hesitated, took a step forward, and extended one finger into the water curtain.

Warm water enveloped her finger, perfectly matched to body temperature.

She widened her eyes and plunged both hands fully into the stream.

The water flowed continuously, steady and stable in temperature.

"Fire burns outside the wall, air currents fuel it, heating cold water through hidden pipes."

Lin Xuan picked up a plastic bottle from the shelf, catching a glob of white foam in his palm as he pressed it.

"This is shower gel—rub it on your skin to wash away sweat odor."

He shoved the bottle into the girl's hand.

"Wash yourself. Call me if you need anything." Lin Xuan stepped out of the shower stall and closed the glass door.

He turned and shut the bathroom door behind him.

A minute later, the clear sound of the girl splashing water came from inside.

The sweet scent of peaches seeped through the door crack.

Tang, Taiji Palace.

Officials stared upward, eyes fixed on the misty little room on the Sky Screen.

The Minister of Works swallowed hard, fingers gripping the hem of his official robe.

"No servants needed to chop wood or boil water. No buckets to carry or pour."

"Flip a switch, and hot water falls like spring rain—endless, gentle."

"Once the mechanism is activated, hot water descends like spring rain, pouring down without end."

The two most violent, most opposing forces in nature.

In the future, these forces were imprisoned within hidden pipes in the wall, utterly tamed by that small glowing panel.

Transformed into a constant-temperature stream, serving bathing within a tiny space.

Zhangsun Huanghou's vision had long blurred.

Tears slid down her pale cheeks, splashing onto her robe.

She remembered last winter's bitter cold.

Taiji Palace was icy, biting.

Sizi fell ill with fever.

Eunuchs poured boiling water into wooden tubs; she washed her daughter's body herself.

The water cooled quickly; as soon as she lifted her from the tub, a draft swept through.

Sizi shivered violently; that night, her qi illness flared, nearly suffocating her.

Sizi trembled all over, and that night her qi illness struck, nearly suffocating her.

The despair of that night was etched into Empress Zhangsun's very bones.

"Second Son... Sizi is over there; she will never freeze again." She covered her mouth, sobbing softly.

Li Shimin extended his broad palm and gripped his wife's shoulders with force.

He said nothing.

Only extreme shock and gratitude surged in his eyes.

A modern apartment.

Lin Xuan bent down and picked up the Tang Dynasty ruqun a little girl had thrown into the dirty laundry basket outside the door.

It was extremely heavy in his hand.

Three layers of fabric were soaked with sweat.

Carrying the clothes, he walked to the balcony and pulled open the circular door of the washing machine.

He stuffed the clothes in, poured in the detergent, and closed the door.

His finger pressed the start button.

Vroom—

The water valve opened, and water rushed in.

The motor started.

The huge stainless steel drum began rotating alternately in forward and reverse directions.

Water splashed against the fabric inside the sealed door, emitting a dull, powerful roar.

Ming Dynasty, water control construction site.

The famous hydraulic expert Pan Jixun was dumbfounded.

"Not stepped on by human force, not turned by water impact, but it is driving the water itself!"

Pan Jixun suddenly grabbed the collar of the disciple beside him. "Did you see the rotation speed of that axle? If such immense power could be applied to the Yellow River to pump out sand and drain floods, why worry about water disasters not being tamed!"

The era of Dayu controlling the waters.

Dayu, with disheveled hair, dropped his stone shovel and knelt on both knees.

People of later generations, even for the daily triviality of washing clothes, employed steel beasts powerful enough to overturn rivers and seas.

That roaring wheel shattered the fear of flowing water held by the ancient ancestors.

The Ministry of Works officials knelt on the ground, frantically sketching the shape of that cylinder on wooden boards, trying to analyze the method of leveraging force within it.

The sound of water in the bathroom stopped.

"Lin Xuan, I am done washing." The little girl's slightly shy voice came from inside the door.

Lin Xuan walked to the door and knocked twice.

He passed a men's short-sleeved shirt through the crack in the door.

"Wear this and come out."

A moment later, the bathroom door pushed open.

A wave of warm air carrying the sweet scent of peaches rushed toward him.

The little girl stood barefoot on the absorbent mat.

That pure white men's short-sleeved shirt covered her body, the hem reaching directly to her feet, like a loose, long dress.

She pinched the hem with both hands, looking down and examining it repeatedly.

The instant she dried her body and put on this garment, she was startled by the texture.

The fabric clung to her skin.

No roughness of hemp cloth, no chill of silk.

It was soft and light, carrying a dry, breathable feel, wrapping her small body tightly and seamlessly.

She tugged at the collar and sleeves.

Discarding the hard, stiff frog buttons, discarding the complex binding straps.

Her limbs moved, completely unbound.

Great Tang, Weaving Bureau.

Dozens of the Great Tang's most elite Weavers and Embroidery Maids stopped their wooden shuttles.

They looked up at the white clothes on the little girl in the Sky Screen, their faces bitter.

An old Embroidery Maid trembled as she spoke, "A seamless whole, without a single trace of stitching."

"The texture is extremely fine, showing no silk sheen, yet it is supple and crisp."

"Such fabric... the Great Tang cannot weave it!"