“We are Chen FangYan and Chen JieMin, to see Chen Zumu. We are expected.”
The young woman checked a schedule in her heads-up display before answering.
“Of course. Please follow me.”
JieMin was astonished. Once again – twice in two days! – his mother had a meeting with Chen Zumu.
He was beginning to understand what it meant to be Chen on Arcadia.
The young woman led them through the security doors, down a hallway, then left down a hallway, and through a door she unlocked in her heads-up display as she approached.
They turned down another hallway with sliding panels until she came to one such door and knocked. She slid the panel aside and bowed into the room.
“Chen FangYan and Chen JieMin, Chen Zumu.”
“Show them in, ChaoLi.”
Chen ChaoLi bowed again, then stood aside and waved FangYan and JieMin through the doorway. She slid the panel closed behind them.
JieMin was in Wonderland. Chen Zumu sat on a pillow facing the door by which they had entered. Behind her, through a large teak-beamed doorway, a large garden was being tended by young men and women wearing lavalavas. Chen Zumu was very old, with hair gone white. She wore a silk robe on which silk dragons danced.
JuPing looked curiously at Chen JieMin. His Chinese ancestry had reasserted itself in this generation and, unlike his mother, his hair was ebony black and straight. It was cut in the peasant style used in Chagu, which in the city was only used by children. That and his slight stature made him look like he was ten or eleven years old. Both FangYan and JieMin wore lavalavas in the city style, though JuPing suspected that, in the country, in the fields, they wore them tied up like dhotis.
“Please, be seated,” JuPing said, waving to two pillows that faced hers across a low table.
JieMin took the pillow to his right – the one to Chen Zumu’s left – leaving the position of higher honor to his mother. It must have been correct, as Chen Zumu nodded as he and his mother sat.
A pretty young woman wearing a lavalava entered from the garden carrying a teapot. She knelt to one side of the table and poured tea into cups that waited on the table. She served FangYan first, then JieMin, then JuPing. That is, JieMin was being treated as an adult, and an honored guest, by Chen Zumu. JieMin began to see how Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu had earned such respect within the family.
True leadership was not arrogant.
The young woman finished pouring tea. She set the teapot in the center of the table, bowed to a spot between the three, and departed without a word.
“Please drink with me,” JuPing said, and lifted her tea cup.
FangYan sipped the tea, but JieMin waited for Chen Zumu. She looked at him and raised one eyebrow, and JieMin realized she was waiting for her guest to drink first. He sipped his tea, and only then did Chen Zumu sip hers.
“I have heard many things about you, Chen JieMin.”
JieMin didn’t know what to say to that, so he merely nodded – once, like a bow.
“Even at your age, you have accomplished a great deal,” JuPing continued.
“Thank you, Chen Zumu.”
“You’re welcome, Chen JieMin.”
JuPing sipped her tea again.
“It has been reported to us that you have designed a better water system for Chagu,” she said. “Chen GangJie says it will allow for better water distribution with less work, and open up some areas we had not been able to plant. Chen Zufu has authorized the construction to proceed.”
JieMin goggled at her. That his little project would attract the attention of the mighty had not occurred to him.
“Tell me, Chen JieMin. How did you see this solution?”
“I don’t know, Chen Zumu. I looked out across the valley, and I could see the water flow as it was, and as it could be. It was there, in my mind. It was not something I thought about. I simply saw it.”
JuPing nodded.
“So I had surmised. You have a gift, Chen JieMin. A gift to see such things. We will see if we can develop this gift further, so that you can apply it to bigger things.”
“Thank you, Chen Zumu.”
JuPing nodded.
“For the immediate future, though, we must get you situated here. You will have rooms in this building, near your dabo, Chen JuanTao, and his family.
“You will have no chores. No assigned tasks. I have also prepared an account for you, so that you may purchase whatever you need to be most productive. If you wish to eat in the restaurant, or pick up something in the market, or buy something downtown, you will use this account. Use it to buy those things you need or wish in order to be most productive.”
“How is this account paid, Chen Zumu?”
“The account bills against my own funds, Chen JieMin. I am your sponsor.”
JieMin blushed heavily.
“I am honored, Chen Zumu.”
He bowed deeply to her.
“Do not hesitate to use this account, Chen JieMin. For food or drink. For drawing supplies. For a comfortable chair to sit in, or table to draw at. Use these funds to ease your way, so that you may be most productive in the use of your gift.”
“I understand, Chen Zumu.”
“And the university, Chen Zumu?” FangYan asked.
“I have already spoken to the president of the university, FangYan.”
JuPing turned back to JieMin.
“Tomorrow morning, you will go to the university, Chen JieMin. You will ask for the president, Anders Connor. Do you need any instructions to get to his office?’
JieMin consulted his heads-up display, and searched Anders Connor. He had an address and a room number, a precise location in the three-dimensional coordinate map of Arcadia
