Chapter 287: The Struggle

The orchestra’s performance was even better than the last time, but the audience did not show the same fervor as they had in the garden. However, the atmosphere had been freed from the awkwardness created by the governor’s secretary. The Baroness seized the opportunity to announce that a wonderful play would be presented for the guests. With a few claps of her hands, the servants quickly moved away the extra tables and chairs, clearing a space and setting up a simple stage and scenery. The musicians began to play a melodious pastoral song, for the performance of the great poet Juan del Encina’s Cristino y Febea.

The actor playing the friar Cristino had just appeared on stage when a burst of laughter erupted. The audience could all see that “he” was actually a girl. The girl’s darker skin, the contrast between her soft face and sharp facial features, all showed her mixed-blood characteristics. Her cunning, flirtatious, and wandering eyes completely transcended the role. Her flirtation with the nymph Febea seemed reserved but was in fact very experienced. When Cristino finally decided to succumb to love and abandon his ascetic life, she sang affectedly:

The life of a friar, Though holy, Is only because they, Are all old.

As she sang, she coquettishly took off her friar’s robe, revealing her slender figure wrapped in men’s tights. Cheers and applause swept in like a storm. Many people’s eyes were fixed on the girl’s slender thighs, wrapped in men’s tight stockings.

“Flora is very clever,” the Baroness said. “She is the most quick-witted of all the girls who serve me.”

Esteban Sanavria heard the hostess’s words and felt that the long-awaited opportunity to show off had arrived. “Good! Bravo! Bravo! Take your reward!” he cheered enthusiastically, raising his money bag and throwing it at the feet of Flora, who was playing the friar. With a thud, the girl retreated in fright, and gold coins rolled out of the money bag, shining brightly all over the floor.

The guests stirred. The colonial merchant was triumphant, completely oblivious to the Baroness’s frown.

The Count shook his head. “It is my fault for not having prepared a gift for such a lovely girl. Madam, if you permit, I would like to make up for this oversight.” He stood up, took a few dendrobium orchids and jasmine flowers from a vase in the corner of the living room, took off the ring from his hand and put it on the bouquet, and threw it to Flora. The girl skillfully caught the precious bouquet, hugged it, ran off the stage, and kissed the Count on the cheek on tiptoe. Then she pretended to be shy and hid behind the hostess, not forgetting to give the Count an amorous glance.

The governor’s secretary cried out. He forgot to maintain his self-proclaimed noble image and stared at the sparkling ring on the bouquet. “Oh, my God, such a large diamond, it must be worth at least a thousand pistoles!”

The crowd immediately stirred. Everyone knew of the Count’s great wealth. The so-called “spending a thousand gold coins in one go” was probably nothing more than this.

Eugenio had greatly overestimated the value of this “diamond ring.” The gem resources in Hainan and Lechang, Shandong, were quite rich, and various gems were not highly valued in the Ming Dynasty. Lechang sapphires were even ignored until the early 20th century. Such rich gem resources naturally did not escape the attention of the industrial sector. In addition to using diamonds for cutting tools, Dr. Zhong of the Ministry of Science and Technology had also spent a lot of effort on developing gem-based watch movements, but the debut of the Lingao version of the “24-jewel mechanical watch” was still far off.

However, by a stroke of luck, the Ministry of Science and Technology had figured out a method for heat-treating Hainan’s native red zircons. The quality-adjusted and decolorized zircons, cut and polished using modern methods, were good enough to pass for real diamonds. Because the Chinese at the time did not value gems very much, the sales prospects for similar zircon jewelry in the Ming Dynasty were bleak. The trade department was preparing to send them to Macau to be displayed in the sample cabinet of the Zizhenzhai Macau branch for foreign sales. The ring Weiss had just taken from his hand was one such ring. He glanced at Sanavria out of the corner of his eye—the colonial merchant’s face had turned pale, his eyes darting between the Count, Flora, and the hostess in a panic.

Many guests were very interested in this added sideshow, especially when the hostess ordered her servants to pick up every single gold coin that had fallen on the floor and return them to Sanavria. The colony’s top merchant’s face turned from pale to ashen. Malicious chuckles rippled through the crowd. For the rest of the evening, Sanavria refused to dance, instead burying himself at the card table in an attempt to regain his dignity. By the time the banquet began, his money bag was empty, not a single gold coin left.

The Baroness’s home banquet was much more high-end and fashionable than most banquets in Manila. Many guests, while intently observing the Count’s movements, clumsily fumbled with their silver forks. The Italians had been accustomed to eating with two-pronged forks for over a hundred years, but for the Spanish, it was still a novelty. As for the remote Manila, Weiss Lando had seen many high-ranking Europeans still grabbing meat from their plates with their hands and wiping their mouths with their sleeves, oblivious to handkerchiefs and napkins. The dishes were served in a continuous stream. Some were exquisite, while others made Weiss frown: the chef had pointlessly stuck the feathers back onto the roasted duck after it was cooked. As for famous dishes like stewed calf thymus, mixed sheep’s brain, and celery braised oxtail, Weiss politely declined them all. He just kept sipping the sweet Madeira wine. This wine was truly excellent, even better than the famous sherry.

The effect of the fine wine and food was quite rapid. The clinking of glasses was everywhere, and every few moments, someone would shout a toast to the king’s health or the hostess’s beauty. The wine made people fall into a drunken fervor. Alfonso was hitting it off with his neighbor, a beautiful mixed-blood young woman whose husband was still far away in a castle in Cebu. Another older, gray-haired city councilor came straight to Lucrezia’s seat with a wine glass, professing his passionate love for her, pouring out his admiration, to which she responded with a charming laugh. Sanavria also came over, asking the hostess if she was satisfied with his gift: a pair of huge Chinese porcelain vases with colorful patterns.

To celebrate his promotion, Lieutenant Colonel Alfonso had drunk a lot of wine, and he was convinced he had won the heart of the beautiful Creole woman. He laughed loudly, “Sir, it would be best to have His Excellency Fananova open your eyes. In his private residence in Malate, the entire washroom is tiled. Not with these rough clay tiles,” he said, pointing at the Portuguese painted mosaic tiles on the walls of the Baroness’s living room, and continued drunkenly, “but with authentic Chinese porcelain, as smooth as ice. The washbasin is a large porcelain basin fired in one piece, without a single flaw, its glaze as lustrous as crystal.”

“Isn’t that a palace washroom that only the Emperor of China would have?” the Baroness asked in surprise.

“I’m afraid even the Emperor of China does not have such a luxury. If the Count doesn’t mind, I’ll continue. Near the porcelain wall of his washroom, there is a strange large porcelain jar, the highest quality Chinese product. Guess what this beautiful porcelain is used for?”

The Creole young woman whispered a few words, which earned another burst of laughter from Alfonso. “Wrong guess, madam. Let me tell you, that porcelain jar may look strange, but ladies and gentlemen will find it very comfortable to sit on, and men will be very at ease standing in front of it.” Facing the mixed gazes of reproach and curiosity from the female guests, Alfonso twirled his mustache, seemingly very pleased to be the one to reveal this great secret.

“And there’s no need to worry about dirt. After His Excellency Fananova has relieved himself, he only needs to pull the handle of a machine, and that machine will spray clean water, instantly washing all the filth into the sewer and cleaning the porcelain commode as good as new, whiter than the snow on the Sierra Nevada. So his washroom is always clean and fresh. Now, Mr. Sanavria, what do you think of using porcelain as a commode? Is His Excellency Fananova living too extravagantly, or is Chinese porcelain no longer so noble?”

“The Count doesn’t value porcelain much,” Andrade said. “Once, to test his marksmanship, he used a whole set of Chinese porcelain dinnerware as targets. At a distance of 25 varas, he shot those beautiful butter dishes, condiment plates, and soup plates to pieces one by one with a pistol. If I were to do the same shooting practice, I admit I’d be bankrupt after a few times.”

Sanavria had drunk too much, and his face was flushed. Thinking he had found a straw to save his face, he roared, “Nonsense, complete lies! No one, with any pistol, could possibly hit a dish at a range of 25 varas. Only the most shameless liar would boast so absurdly. I believe he couldn’t hit anything even at half that distance, even if the target was a dining table.”

“Hey, be careful, Mr. Sanavria, you are slandering the honor of a nobleman, perhaps two.”

The colony’s top merchant paid no heed to the warning. The resentment he had accumulated throughout the evening erupted along with the alcohol. “An Italian noble title is only worth 100 ducats! And a forged family tree costs even less.”

“That’s not untrue,” the governor’s secretary began his endless stream of sharp commentary again. “I spent a good while in Naples. By the time I left, my guest list already included 119 princes, 156 dukes, 173 marquises, and as for counts, there were no less than three hundred. A broker from Genoa, or a gambler from Venice, could buy a piece of barren land in the Mezzogiorno with the money he won at the card table, and he would have earned himself a title. It’s a truly profitable business, worthy of much boasting.”