With a clatter, Jiang Changbai placed the chopsticks in her hand on the edge of her bowl. An indecipherable emotion flashed in her eyes. She stared fixedly at that lacquered greeting card, and felt her heart tremble. "Bixia—" Song Juguang's words were interrupted very quickly by Jiang Changbai. "Ready the carriage," Jiang Changbai rose suddenly, the hems of her clothes sweeping against the edge of the table, "to the Xie residence." Song Juguang raised a hand, about to halt the maid who was about to convey the imperial message, and picked up an umbrella herself, following after. "The swell of water in the city's centre has yet to retreat; I fear the carriage will be delayed." Jiang Changbai was just in the midst of leaving the hall, and rain water dripped down from the eaves and fell onto her forehead. "Then I'll ride a horse." At this moment, it had been a bit of time since morning court, and where He Leyong and Xie Qianbing...

Seeing the Emperor's fury, the ministers held their breaths, not daring to make the faintest sound for fear of they, themselves, becoming the chicken that would be killed. Jiang Changbai swept a cold glance over She Qiang, and asked, "You say troops shouldn't be mobilised—then, what of the common people at the border?" "An envoy could be—" She Qiang had only spoken a few words before she realised she'd misspoken and hurriedly stopped speaking, cold sweat rising along her spine. "Xie-daren was the Envoy!" Xu Shuqiao grasped onto the subject, not letting go, and when she raised her head to glare at She Qiang, her eyes were violently bloodshot. "Going upright and coming back laying down—She-daren, do you mean we should send another few living people to lose their lives for nothing?" She Qiang's face flushed red; in the past, she'd never gotten into an argument during court, needing only to stand behind Xie Qianbing. When Xie Qia...

The rain in the capital grew heavier and heavier. The dark clouds pressed against the roofs, the rain as torrential as if the dam of the Milky Way had burst, hammering against the tiles with a clamour. Murky, frothy waves rolled in the city's moat, each wave, larger than the last, striking against the dikes. On the streets, water ran through the cracks in the pale flagstones, as thick as fingers, carrying the dried and rotting leaves towards lower regions, and when converging at crossroads, they became rapid eddies. Xu Shuqiao, clad in a raincoat, hastily urged her horse towards the Imperial Palace. A sudden, muffled clap of thunder startled her horse, and it froze in place, refusing to move any further regardless of how the whip struck it. Xu Shuqiao, helpless, dismounted, and then, fearing the horse would run and injure someone, tied it to a tree by the roadside which was almost bent in half from the wind, and only then left. The winds made her raincoat flutter, and the hems of h...

"Head back," Wei Xiren ordered, suppressing the grief in her heart; as she was about to rise, Xie Qianbing, chained and in her embrace, shifted. She reached out, about to grab the short dao at Wei Xiren's waist, and Qi Shou'an, who'd been watching the entire time, startled, rushing to stop her, but Wei Xiren's gaze halted her. The dao fell to the ground with a clang, and a wan, shaking hand reached out towards it. Xie Qianbing had held a brush for many years, and a layer of callouses had arisen on her fingers from the brush's handle. The typically easy, effortless motion in this moment took a long, long time for Xie Qianbing to complete. Her hand trembled the entire time, as if she were fighting with something. Finally, she grasped the short dao, bringing its blade to the nape of her own neck. Wei Xiren finally saw something, and, in a rush, cupped her cheek. "You're still awake, aren't you? Can you hear what I'm saying?" Xie Qianbing...

The day that Xie Qianbing departed the Great Li, it was a typically bright, clear day in the desert. The sand curled around the convoy, and Wei Xiren, hand on the dao at her waist, stood outside the door, her cloak flapping loudly in the wind. Xie Qianbing rode at the front of the convoy, the hems of her dark black clothes stained with grit. "Do you really not need me to send soldiers with you?" Wei Xiren brought her horse to Xie Qianbing's side; this was the third time she'd asked this today, and when she spoke, her fingertips unconsciously stroked the hilt of her dao. Hearing this, Xie Qianbing merely smiled, swinging the red strings of the Talisman of Safety on her wrist. "When I left the capital, her majesty already sent me with three hundred elite guards. In the end, it's a diplomatic mission; the more people there are, the more of a hassle it'll be." Her words weren't wrong. Typically, a few dozen people would be enough for a diplomatic con...

But, regardless of how ominous the situation at the border was, the capital grew busier and busier by the day. In the past decade, there hadn't been a single rebellion that had broken into the capital, and even if there had been disasters in the surrounding areas, the refugees had been settled locally, and they hadn't poured into the capital again as they had in the previous regime. The common people of the capital had calmly and rapidly evolved in these ten years, and the degree to which the capital flourished now had already exceeded every prior year of the past century. The sun had just crawled above the eaves, and the streets were already crowded with hawkers carrying their goods. Children crowded before the stalls selling sugared preserves, and two women selling flowers fought over the refreshing shade beneath the eaves. The assistant at the silk shop was standing on a ladder, hanging up the newly arrived silks, whose surfaces were embroidered with gold thread which dazzle...

Six years ago, when Wei Xiren had returned to the capital to give her report, the two had met eyes separated by the great distance of the crowd of senior ministers at court; since then, Wei Xiren had guarded the border and never returned to the capital. Xie Qianbing had never been to the Western border, and so, the two had only met each other again after six years. Actually, Wei Xiren had never seen Xie Qianbing as a good friend. When they'd first met, Jiang Changbai had only just become Emperor, and all of the Great Li had been in turmoil and on the verge of crisis. At the time, Wei Xiren hadn't understood why Song Juguang had surrendered the territory she'd conquered so painstakingly to another without resistance, nor did she understand why Song Juguang had been so utterly willing to bow her head and submit. At the time, Xie Qianbing had been the only person Jiang Changbai had trusted. Back then, Wei Xiren had disdained Jiang Changbai, feeling that she'd ascended her ...