Early autumn brings frequent rain. The weather in Jizhou suddenly turned cool and refreshing.

Li Chi knew that Gao Xining loved to swing, and with the light rain falling it was impossible for her to enjoy it. So he found some spare time and personally built a rain awning over the swing.

This is why there is no such thing as a man too busy to do something for the woman he loves — it all comes down to whether, even when already exhausted, he can still find the will to carry on.

This is why there is no such thing as a woman too busy to say a few sweet words to the man she watches working for her sake.

Only mutual giving can sustain something long.

When two hearts are willing, whether man or woman, both are easy to make happy.

But if two people simply cannot get along, or if the love is one-sided, then not mountains of gold and silver — nor even an entire kingdom — would be enough to earn even a single glance of genuine regard.

Gao Xining told Li Chi to go and rest. Li Chi said that today he had a window of free time, and if he didn’t seize it now, the next opportunity would be indefinitely postponed.

Gao Xining said that staying by his side while waiting through that indefinite postponement was actually fine too.

Two people with not a trace of shame between them, exchanging the most terribly old-fashioned sweet nothings in the light rain.

Li Chi’s skill with his hands was beyond question. Building the rain awning took him only about half a shichen.

He peeled off the long robe that had gotten soaked through, and used it to wipe down the swing. In Gao Xining’s eyes, countless tiny stars were on the verge of spilling out.

She sat on the swing; he stood behind it. The swaying arc of the swing suited this light-rain autumn day perfectly — just as he and she suited each other perfectly.

“In a few days we’ll be heading south. There should be even more rain down there.”

Li Chi said.

Gao Xining said: “We’ll be heading south in a few days, yet you’re still going to the trouble of building a rain awning. Who knows when we’ll next come back to Jizhou and sit on this swing.”

Li Chi said: “What else can I do — I’ve got a wife who adores swings more than anything, and loves the rain just as much.”

He looked out at the fine, dense rain falling beyond and said: “Even if this is the only rain we catch with it, the awning has already served its purpose.”

Gao Xining: “We’re both so good with words. Let’s write a book together.”

Li Chi laughed heartily: “A book teaching people what, exactly?”

Gao Xining: “Courtship — but not entirely courtship.”

Li Chi: “Why only partly?”

Li Chi said: “Because the people we teach won’t know how to have children.”

Gao Xining: “Hmph!”

Li Chi: “I’ll dodge.”

Gao Xining: “One more!”

Li Chi: “I’ll catch it.”

Gao Xining: “You…”

Li Chi laughed heartily again, and mimicking Gao Xining’s manner, placed his hands on his hips and laughed along with her.

“Though speaking of which, after we head south this time, there’s no telling when we’ll be back in Jizhou.”

Li Chi pushed the swing forward, then waited for it to drift back so he could push it again.

He said: “Even so, I still want us to be married in Jizhou.”

Gao Xining nodded: “So do I… but you’re pushing me so high — it’s almost as if you’re telling me that if I don’t agree, you’ll just launch me off.”

Li Chi waited for the swing to drift back, then leapt nimbly and landed beside Gao Xining with such precise control that the swing’s arc was barely disrupted at all.

“I pushed it high precisely because I wanted more time sitting here swaying alongside you.”

Gao Xining: “That’s a somewhat less clichéd piece of sweet talk — it even sounds ever so slightly sentimental. I should probably feel touched, except you’re sitting on my flesh!”

Li Chi: “…”

Gao Xining: “You really are a block of wood. A golden opportunity to take advantage of someone, and you can’t even seize it.”

Li Chi: “What opportunity?”

Gao Xining: “I just said you’re sitting on my flesh — shouldn’t you have offered to rub it for me?”

Li Chi blinked. He hadn’t realized that sort of thing was possible, and then he smiled: “How about I blow on it instead — blowing on it makes the pain go away.”

Gao Xining shoved Li Chi clean off the swing with one well-placed push: “You actually wanted to lift my skirt to blow on it…”

Li Chi sat on the ground and sighed: “The heart of a woman — fathomless as the sea…”

—

At that same moment, Daxing City.

The Empress had been feeling unwell for several days. She couldn’t keep food down, and the sight of anything to eat made her nauseous. Sometimes she would even retch at a sip of water.

Not wanting to distract the Emperor, she had said nothing about it, until the day the Emperor returned from the military camp and saw her in such a miserable state.

He immediately summoned the imperial physicians to take her pulse. The physicians did not dare be careless, and after confirming their findings three times over, one of them swept his robe aside and dropped to his knees.

“Congratulations to Your Majesty — joyous tidings! Her Majesty the Empress is with child.”

Upon hearing those words, Emperor Yang Jing’s eyes flew wide open. In the next breath, his shoulders began to tremble.

He instinctively reached out his hands, though he wasn’t sure what he was reaching for — both hands hovered in midair, trembling as well.

He had long been telling himself it was time to have an heir, yet when the news actually came, his heart was flooded with feelings he could not begin to describe.

Unbridled joy. Elation. Utter helplessness.

“Say that again!”

The Emperor looked at the physician and demanded loudly.

“Congratulations to Your Majesty, and to Her Majesty the Empress — the Empress is with child.”

“Ha ha ha ha ha…”

The Emperor threw back his head and laughed — a laugh verging on the unhinged. He turned and burst out through the doors, ran outside, and laughed on with his head thrown back toward the sky.

As though he were announcing to all the ancestors of the Yang clan that the legitimate bloodline of the Imperial family would continue.

The news quickly spread throughout Daxing City. Even the common people celebrated along with the court — many took to the streets, beating drums and striking gongs in jubilation.

At some point, it seemed, the people had come to feel a deep attachment to the Emperor and the Empress.

And Yang Xuanji, who had now been besieging Daxing City for over eight months, found his mood at that moment extraordinarily complicated.

No matter how he tried, he could not fathom how the food supplies inside the city had lasted this long. From before the new year all the way through to early autumn — more than eight months — and still not a single person had opened the gates to surrender.

Once again he felt the sensation of riding a tiger with no way to dismount. To withdraw now would be to throw away all he had accomplished.

But if he did not withdraw, and continued the siege, the morale of his forces had already grown restless — there was precious little fighting spirit left among them.

Just as he was brooding over this, a soldier came rushing to the entrance of the command tent and dropped to one knee: “My lord, the Military Governor of Liangzhou, Lord Du, seeks audience outside the camp.”

Upon hearing those words, Yang Xuanji’s eyes lit up at once.

This campaign had seen him bring nearly every soldier from Shu Prefecture — he had truly intended to seize Daxing City in one decisive strike and proclaim himself Emperor in this capital city of hundreds of years’ standing, as quickly as possible.

But he was not one to stake everything on a single gamble. He had the means to scheme on two fronts simultaneously.

And the second front was not aimed at Prince Ning’s forces — even in his most confident moments, he had no certainty of easily defeating the Ning Army right now.

When he marched out of Shu Prefecture, he had brought not only nearly six hundred thousand soldiers from Shu, but also two hundred and fifty thousand troops under Liangzhou Military Governor Du Ke.

Yet Du Ke himself had not come. Neither had Shu Prefecture Military Governor Pei Qi.

Yang Xuanji was no fool. When Li Xionghu had sent people to contact Tang Pidi in an attempt to convince Prince Ning Li Chi to divide the realm along the river, Yang Xuanji had also been forced to carefully consider the current shape of the world.

Prince Ning Li Chi’s foundations in the northern frontier were firmly established. Holding Jizhou, Yuzhou, Qingzhou, Yanzhou and surrounding territories, the north could provide a steady, inexhaustible stream of recruits for Prince Ning.

And Li Chi’s resistance against the Black Warrior invaders had won him the hearts of the northern populace entirely — an unassailable position.

Yang Xuanji had held many councils with his advisors, deliberating over how the landscape of the realm would unfold, and every scenario they played out arrived at the same conclusion.

If he wished to take all under heaven, he must first take the Jiangnan region to the south, establishing a standoff between north and south.

Leveraging Jiangnan’s far greater wealth and resources, and the advantage that the roots of so many great families lay in Jiangnan, he would proclaim himself Emperor in Daxing City and then launch his northern campaign from a position of strength.

It was a bitter thing to accept — but Yang Xuanji had no choice but to face this reality.

The Yanshan bandit he had once dismissed as utterly beneath notice now held advantages even greater than his own.

See things clearly for what they are, and use that clarity as the foundation for your ambitions — only then will your goals feel attainable rather than impossibly remote.

So before he marched his forces into Jingzhou, he had charged Liangzhou Military Governor Du Ke with finding every possible means to make contact with Zhai Li, the sworn brother of Li Xionghu.

Li Xionghu’s defeat and flight to Yangzhou only confirmed one thing further.

If Li Xionghu and his sworn brother Zhai Li were truly without any rift between them — as close as flesh and blood — then why had Li Xionghu not retreated to Yuezhou?

Zhai Li commanded several hundred thousand troops. If Li Xionghu had gone there to join forces with him, the two combined would still have had the power to contend for the realm.

That Li Xionghu did not go there meant that something had gone wrong between the two men.

So Yang Xuanji had sent word to Du Ke, explaining the situation and telling him that there was certainly an opening to be exploited on Zhai Li’s side.

After nearly a year of contact, during which Du Ke had accommodated Zhai Li’s every demand, Zhai Li had at last relented.

Du Ke entered the command tent and strode forward to kneel: “Your servant Du Ke pays his respects to my lord.”

Yang Xuanji quickly went to help him up: “Rise, rise. You have traveled far — you must be weary.”

Du Ke smiled: “Your servant is not weary. To have fortunately not failed the task my lord entrusted to me — that alone is enough that I feel no weariness at all.”

Yang Xuanji’s expression brightened immediately: “Tell me everything!”

Du Ke said: “Your servant met with Zhai Li on multiple occasions. He put forward his conditions: if my lord, upon proclaiming himself Emperor, would grant him the title of King and cede Yuezhou as his domain, he will be willing to pledge his allegiance to my lord and lead his forces here to reinforce us.”

Yang Xuanji listened and then laughed: “The man must have lost his mind — demanding the entirety of Yuezhou as his domain. No matter. Agree to it for now. Once the greater situation is settled, he will have to recalculate his own worth for himself.”

Du Ke laughed: “My lord speaks wisely. Zhai Li, unlike Li Xionghu, has no ambition to proclaim himself Emperor. He only wishes to be a regional governor with real power. Men like him — as long as you satisfy their conditions, they will be at my lord’s disposal.”

Yang Xuanji thought for a moment and then said: “Very well. Send word to him that I will first grant him the title of Marquis of Ten Thousand Households and Grand General. Once Daxing City is taken, I will grant him his kingdom and domain — that should give him face enough.”

Du Ke bowed: “Your servant will remember this. I will arrange for someone to ride back immediately.”

Yang Xuanji let out a long breath: “If Zhai Li’s several hundred thousand troops can be brought into play, we can finally move on Daxing City.”

Du Ke asked curiously: “How is it that there are still provisions inside Daxing City? By rights, that shouldn’t be possible.”

Yang Xuanji said: “I imagine they’ve been confiscating the wealth of quite a few households.”

He sat down and poured tea for Du Ke himself: “Let us set aside Daxing City for the moment. You have resolved my worries for me on this front and turned a liability into an asset — I intend to reward you generously…”

“My lord.”

Du Ke promptly rose: “My lord’s grace and favor leave your servant deeply grateful, but with the military situation as it stands, the rewards can wait. I ask that my lord defer that matter.”

Yang Xuanji was greatly pleased. With a subordinate so loyal and devoted, how could he not be?

“Very well, as you say.”

Yang Xuanji said: “Once Daxing City is taken, we shall make a proper, grand occasion of it.”

With that, he looked toward a trusted subordinate at his side: “Go yourself to the northern reaches of Jingzhou and recall Grand General Shi Fenghui. Tell him he must return to the main camp within one month — no delays will be tolerated.”

The man acknowledged the order immediately.

“We will consolidate all our forces. With a million-strong army bearing down on this solitary city, I refuse to believe Yang Jiju has the power of heaven and earth itself — I refuse to believe he can hold Daxing City any longer!”

Yang Xuanji brought his fist down hard upon the table.

His heart surged with boundless, sweeping ambition.

—