Strong winds arose and violent rain was imminent.

Above Tai City, the night sky was filled with low, frozen dark clouds. The sky had become a strangely-shaped dark beast, glaring with angry eyes, as if ready to devour all living things below at any moment.

A blinding bolt of lightning suddenly tore through the dark haze, striking down from the clouds and hitting the curved eaves of the highest Golden Tower in the imperial palace.

The glazed emerald tiles collapsed with a thunderous crash.

Xiao Yongjia walked swiftly past the vermillion pillars of the palace corridors, her footsteps echoing in her ears as she entered the chamber where the Emperor lay.

After lingering on the edge of death for several days, tonight the Emperor had finally reached the end of his life.

After that day’s audience in the Eastern Pavilion, the imperial command to change the heir had been mounted as a seemingly supreme and sacred edict.

Palace messengers had left Jiankang.

Prince Dongyang and his wife should already be on their way to Jiankang.

As for Xiao Yongjia, she had left the palace after that day.

Not until tonight, when palace attendants came with word that His Majesty was restless and agitated. After multiple attempts at guessing, the palace staff finally understood what the Emperor wanted.

The Emperor wanted the Eldest Princess’s company.

The imperial physicians, palace attendants, and close ministers all withdrew.

The chamber was spacious and dim. Xiao Yongjia stood before the dragon bed, staring at the man lying there with half-closed eyes, seemingly gazing back at her. Suddenly she raised her hand and with a sharp “slap,” struck him across the face.

That face was knocked to one side, his neck maintaining a strangely rigid posture, motionless.

“A’Hu!”

She called the Emperor by his childhood name.

“Do you know why your sister struck you?”

“Not because you deceived your sister that day in the Eastern Pavilion! If anyone is to blame, it’s your sister for being careless! Your sister always knew what kind of person you are!”

“The reason your sister strikes you is because I hate your uselessness. Not only did you destroy your own life, but even at death’s door, you still won’t spare my husband who has struggled to maintain the court for you all these years!”

“Your sister knows you resent him. You resent that when you tried to reclaim power years ago and faced military pressure from the Xu and Lu families, he didn’t step forward to protect you. You even suspect he wanted to usurp your position. Your brother-in-law indeed couldn’t do certain things. But why don’t you consider that this court, your position and Father Emperor’s and Grandfather Emperor’s positions, all the nobility of our Xiao family, were originally supported by these aristocratic clans? How could you expect him to break with the entire aristocratic class for your sake? Moreover, not to look down on you, but as an emperor like you, are you worth such a price from him?”

“You wanted to accomplish great things, but your sister sees not half the ability to match your ambitions. Back then when I knew your intentions, I strongly advised against them, telling you to keep a low profile to avoid harming others and yourself. The Xiao family cannot compete with them. Naturally you wouldn’t listen to me. After your failure, besides nursing grievances and indulging in pleasures, what else have you accomplished these years? The court has been in turmoil time and again, with natural disasters and human calamities year after year – when has there truly been peace? And which time wasn’t it your brother-in-law cleaning up the mess for you?”

“Your sister knows you feel wronged, that you feel helpless, that you also hate, but this is the fate of our southern-exile imperial family, inherent from birth – it’s not your brother-in-law who harmed you to this extent. This time, you didn’t listen to his advice and finally destroyed your own life. Seeing that you’re about to die, can’t you spare him? Why must you still trap him in the quagmire of this court?”

“A’Hu, where is your conscience?”

Xiao Yongjia asked this final question almost through gritted teeth.

Outside the palace hall, another blue lightning bolt split the night sky above Tai City.

The Emperor’s face, filled with the aura of death, was suddenly illuminated by the lightning.

He didn’t want to die, but he knew he was certain to die.

Fear, regret, hatred. Everything was already too late.

Just before death, his sister’s arrangements for his affairs after death let him catch a whiff of Gao Qiao’s desire to withdraw and leave.

The imperial instinct in his bones made him stage that scene in the Eastern Pavilion that day.

Prince Xin’an was from a collateral branch and existed only through dependence on him. Only by establishing Prince Dongyang could he bind Gao Qiao and make him continue maintaining this Xiao family realm.

Dying thus, he wouldn’t be too ashamed before the Xiao family ancestors.

He resented Gao Qiao, feared Gao Qiao, yet at death’s door, had to continue relying on this brother-in-law.

In the end, the person he trusted seemed to be only him.

As emperor for nearly twenty years, he had always been suppressed by this brother-in-law.

Before death, he had finally checkmated him.

In the Eastern Pavilion, when he temporarily changed his previous decision, when he and Gao Qiao looked at each other and saw the defeat and helplessness in Gao Qiao’s eyes, it actually gave him an unprecedented sense of achievement.

He was the emperor. And he could only be his subject.

He felt the life force in his body continuously leaving him along with his breath that seemed only to go out, never in.

From his half-closed eyes that gradually became like those of a dead fish, two tears slowly flowed.

“A’Hu!”

Xiao Yongjia wept as she straightened his head and held his body tightly in her arms, like when he was small. She called loudly for the imperial physician.

Sister’s weeping, the chaotic footsteps of physicians and palace attendants rushing in, the faint thunder and lightning splitting the sky above Tai City…

Gradually all left him behind.

In the Emperor’s final moment before death, a name suddenly jumped into his mind.

Li Mu.

That kite he had released had once brought him great satisfaction.

In the past, the Emperor couldn’t help but secretly merge himself with that man.

In his imagination, he was Li Mu, and Li Mu was him.

He was merely completing, on his behalf, dreams that were unreachable in his reality.

That kite might soar even higher in the future.

But he could no longer hold the string.

…

The letter was sent by A’Niang, eight hundred li express delivery.

“What did A’Niang say?”

Seeing his expression become somewhat grave, Luoshen worried, guessing whether A’Ye was forcing her to return again?

She looked at him nervously.

Li Mu glanced at her, picked her up, and placed her sitting on the bamboo couch by the window.

“His Majesty has passed away,” he then told her.

In just a moment, he seemed to have already recovered from this news. His tone was calm.

But Luoshen was shocked.

She immediately snatched the letter from his hands and read it quickly.

After finishing the letter, for a long while, she still couldn’t quite recover.

A’Niang’s letter had been sent half a month ago.

The letter said that her Imperial Uncle had suddenly suffered a stroke, deposed the Crown Prince, established Prince Dongyang as heir, then passed away, with the nation in mourning.

A’Niang said she knew Luoshen was close to her Imperial Uncle, but considering the long distance and sudden nature of events, even if she set out immediately upon receiving the letter, she probably couldn’t make it for the grand funeral ceremonies. She told her not to return to the capital for mourning, but to remain in Yi Cheng.

From childhood, Imperial Uncle had always been good to her.

Except for later forcing her to marry Li Mu against her wishes.

But thinking of this matter now, it was also a fortunate mistake that turned out right. How could she blame him?

Hearing this tragic news, holding the letter in her hand, after being stunned for a moment, she sadly reddened her eyes.

She leaned into Li Mu’s embrace, burying her face in his chest.

Li Mu held her, gently patting her back, comforting her.

When her emotions gradually recovered, he instructed A’Ju and others to accompany her first, while he went to convey the news to Jiang Tao.

Mourning banners were hung on the city walls, the entire city mourned for three days to grieve for the late Emperor.

He also informed Hou Ding. Hou Ding sent envoys with funeral gifts, and Li Mu also wrote a mourning memorial in his capacity as a provincial governor serving outside the court, having it sent to Jiankang together with Chou Chi’s funeral gifts to observe proper protocol.

Yi Cheng’s location had far exceeded the geographical scope of Dayu court’s effective control.

Strictly speaking, before Li Mu’s arrival, this place couldn’t really be considered Dayu territory.

Li Mu’s reaction to Imperial Uncle’s death made Luoshen feel very comforted. After her mood gradually stabilized, she picked up her brush to write a reply to A’Niang, saying that she and Gao Huan were both well here, asking her to be sure to restrain her grief and not be overly sad. She also asked her to convey greetings to A’Ye on her behalf, telling him to take care of his health and not just focus on state affairs to the point of damaging his body.

A’Niang’s letter mentioned that Prince Dongyang had been established as heir.

Although she wasn’t very clear about what exactly had happened in Jiankang during her time in Yi Cheng that led to such upheaval in the palace.

But since A’Niang said so, the matter must be settled.

Prince Dongyang was a year younger than her cousin.

After his mother died, Prince Dongyang remarried, and consequently loved his new wife’s family too.

As the heir apparent, his position had once been threatened by his younger brother.

Fortunately, in early years, his mother had arranged an engagement between him and her cousin. And his maternal clan also had close relations with the Gao family.

After he married her cousin, the threat to his position was finally completely eliminated.

When Prince Dongyang died, he inherited the prince title, with capable Sister managing the prince’s mansion affairs perfectly.

Luoshen had seen him a few times before.

Her impression of him was that he completely obeyed her cousin. Beyond that, she had no other deep memories.

Now that he had succeeded to the throne as Nanchao Emperor, how court affairs would develop was unknown, but for now, everything would definitely still rely heavily on her father.

Luoshen worried somewhat that A’Ye’s body couldn’t handle it.

She gave the letter she’d written and Li Mu’s memorial together to the messenger to send to Jiankang.

After three days of mourning, Yi Cheng returned to its original appearance.

Soldiers spent half the day drilling and half the day reclaiming wasteland and farming with the citizens. Every day, refugees who had heard news and gathered from all directions, waiting outside the city gates to enter and request protection, came in endless streams.

Luoshen also gradually cast off the sadness brought by news of her Imperial Uncle’s death.

As the city’s population grew daily, she could no longer spend her time as she had in Jiankang, reading for half the day and playing the qin for half the day to pass the time.

Recently, there were things waiting for her to handle every day.

Li Mu was always busy. Civil affairs in the city were originally all handled by Jiang Tao. At first, even if Luoshen wanted to share some duties, she had no way to intervene – Li Mu had instructed Jiang Tao not to trouble her with miscellaneous matters.

Given his previous experience of taking Luoshen to Chou Chi behind Li Mu’s back and encountering that frightening night, Jiang Tao naturally didn’t dare make his own decisions again.

Until some days ago, when he encountered a difficult matter he couldn’t handle that was resolved by Luoshen, things began to change.

A woman gave birth on the very day she entered the city, before even finding lodging.

Her husband had been captured by barbarians, and her only remaining family member had died on the journey. The woman had traveled here with fellow travelers through great difficulty.

The baby in her womb wasn’t yet full-term, but after arriving, she crouched by the roadside unable to walk and was carried into an empty house by kind people to give birth. Unexpectedly, the woman was weak and had difficult labor, actually fainting away.

The city had military doctors who also treated residents’ minor ailments, but no midwives could be found. When Jiang Tao learned of this, fearing loss of life and having no solution, he thought of how the lady had many servant women with her – perhaps they could help with such matters, so he had the girl A’Yu seek the lady’s assistance.

He was merely desperately seeking any help then, but unexpectedly hit upon the right person.

Before sending her daughter to Yi Cheng, Xiao Yongjia had secretly prepared for two possibilities.

Among the servant women chosen to accompany her, besides cooks who could prepare meals, seamstresses who could make clothes, and strong women for odd jobs, for safety’s sake, she had carefully added an old woman who had previously done midwifery work.

Luoshen didn’t know this, but A’Ju was aware.

Upon hearing the news, she immediately led people there. They boiled water, awakened the unconscious woman in labor, fed her sugar water and food to restore her strength for delivery.

When the woman awakened and saw seven or eight people suddenly around her, including that beautiful young woman whose face still carried girlish innocence who was actually the governor’s wife and had personally come out of concern for her, she couldn’t help but shed tears. Her heart, which had already given up all hope, gradually renewed its will to live. With the old woman assisting beside her, she used all her strength and finally successfully delivered the child.

It was a baby boy.

Also the first new life born in the city since Yi Cheng’s land reclamation began.

Many nearby people rushed over upon hearing the news, beaming with joy.

Only after coming to Yi Cheng did Luoshen learn that in those northern regions constantly at war, even if newborns could be delivered, most couldn’t escape the fate of early death.

Hunger, disease, killing, even cannibalism – the number of children was decreasing.

In such chaotic times, the birth of any new life was precious beyond measure.

Seeing the woman holding the baby in her arms, nursing and feeding it, Luoshen was also moved, her eyes slightly warming.

After that incident, she began doing things according to her own thoughts. Jiang Tao never again voiced objections.

Now the city had gathered dozens of children. Being young, while adults reclaimed wasteland during the day, the children had nothing to do and no supervision, running wildly throughout the city. One mischievous child had crawled into an uninhabited ruined house and been trapped under a suddenly collapsed broken wall, fortunately without serious injury.

To prevent such accidents again, and thinking of how the Gao family traditionally established schools to educate children from poor families, selecting and promoting those with both good character and learning to serve as officials, so that more children in Yi Cheng could also learn to read, Luoshen cleared out a large empty courtyard in the back of the governor’s residence, opened a school, and sent people to households with children to announce door by door, asking them to send their children to study at the governor’s residence.

Having such an opportunity arranged by the governor’s wife, and with rumors spreading that the governor’s wife was actually the daughter of the famous Minister Gao of Nanchao, who was willing to lower herself to teach their children reading and writing – who wouldn’t agree?

Within a few days, the back courtyard of the governor’s residence, which had always been quiet during the day, began echoing with the sound of reading aloud.

Little A’Yu was Luoshen’s first student.

When she came to study, she always brought a bundle of fresh wildflowers tied neatly together, placing them in a corner of the teaching area.

The identity of the new governor’s wife and this previously unimaginable way of life gave Luoshen a feeling of being in her element.

Although each day was much busier than before, she lived very fulfillingly.

She no longer spent her days idle as in those early days, always eagerly waiting for Li Mu to return.

As school affairs gradually stabilized, besides herself, Qiongshu could also teach these children reading. Luoshen began planning another matter.

Li Mu’s number of soldiers was gradually increasing. She had heard Gao Huan mention that it seemed to have expanded to twice what it was when he first arrived. And the number was still constantly increasing daily.

This brought the problem of military supply.

For rations, besides the military provisions carried when the first group set out, later supplies couldn’t be expected from the court. This year’s first crop from newly cleared land would take some time before harvest. But fortunately, with Hou Ding’s grain loans, supporting the city’s military and civilians until harvest shouldn’t be a big problem.

Besides rations, another indispensable military supply was clothing.

Luoshen had seen more than once soldiers walking the streets in ragged clothes, worn shoes, even some walking barefoot directly.

In hot weather now, this wasn’t a big problem. But she heard winters here were much colder than Jiankang. When weather turned cold, it would probably be a major issue.

Although by then, she believed Li Mu would also solve this problem.

But if she could mobilize the city’s women to spin yarn and weave cloth together, preparing as early as possible, even if their strength was limited, helping even a little would be good.

However, there was a lack of spinning wheels and looms here.

Previously, old machines left by former weavers had been dug out from the governor’s residence ruins, repaired and usable, but there was only one of each, far from enough.

Even if people could be called, without spinning wheels and looms, even skillful women couldn’t make something from nothing.

Luoshen wanted to consult with Jiang Tao, asking him to help think of a way to see if they could obtain some from somewhere, or have people make new ones, which was also possible.

Jiang Tao’s place for handling civil affairs was set up in the front office of the governor’s residence.

Luoshen immediately went to find him.

He happened to be there, bent over his desk writing documents, busily occupied. Seeing Luoshen arrive, he quickly put down his brush and rose to greet her.

Luoshen explained her idea.

Jiang Tao appeared very pleased, saying: “If the soldiers knew of Madam’s concern, they would surely be grateful. Madam can rest assured, I’ll find a way immediately.”

Luoshen thanked him and was about to leave when she saw the gate guard running in hurriedly. Seeing Luoshen, he knelt down, saying: “A group of people from Jiankang just arrived, saying they were sent by the Empress, bringing a letter for Madam, along with many rewards!”

After speaking, he held up the letter in his hands high above his head with both hands.

Luoshen was startled.

After a pause, she understood. The so-called “Empress” should be her cousin Gao Yongrong.

Counting the days, cousin’s husband Prince Dongyang’s succession as emperor shouldn’t have been long ago. With old and new changing at this juncture, Sister who had newly ascended to become Empress should have plenty of affairs.

She was far away in Jiangbei and hadn’t yet had time to write congratulating her and her husband, but unexpectedly, she had remembered her first and written so quickly.

Luoshen hurriedly took it and opened it to read.

The letter was written in Sister’s own hand.

In the letter, Sister said that the sisters hadn’t seen each other for a long time. When she first arrived in Jiankang some days ago, she immediately wanted to see her younger sister, but upon inquiry learned she was now with her husband in Yi Cheng, a thousand li away. She was extremely concerned. Fortunately, knowing that her brother-in-law was an outstanding man who made a perfect match with her sister, having previously followed the late Emperor’s command to expand territory in Yi Cheng with loyal heart and righteous courage worthy of praise, and now having her sister willingly remain together in Yi Cheng, the two working together to open Jiangbei territory for the Dayu court, she was infinitely comforted. Therefore she immediately picked up her brush to write this letter. Not in the name of Empress, but as family, sending people with modest gifts to supplement the wedding congratulations that couldn’t be sent earlier due to inconvenience.

At the end of the letter was attached a long gift list.

Luoshen glanced at it.

A cart of silk and satin, a cart of delicacies, a cart of fine grains, plus a box of gold, silver, pearls and gems, agate and jade articles, all precious items.

At the letter’s end, Sister asked Luoshen to convey encouragement to Li Mu, saying the new Emperor also greatly appreciated him, hoping he could establish a stable foundation in this Jiangbei region and secure a foothold for Dayu, making future northern expeditions twice as effective.

With deep sisterly affection, from childhood Luoshen had always greatly respected Sister.

Luoshen especially wouldn’t forget that childhood incident when she was chased and stung by wild bees – it was Sister who sacrificed herself to save her, sparing her from poisonous injury, though she herself nearly lost her life.

Now that she had become Empress, not only did she have no airs, she still remembered her, and the letter’s tone also praised Li Mu considerably.

This letter from Sister greatly improved Luoshen’s mood.

She had people go to the gate to unload things from the carts and arrange lodging for the travelers. When things settled down, she had no mind for other matters and began looking forward to Li Mu’s return.

In her heart, she had never forgotten Li Mu’s promise to A’Ye: “If the court doesn’t pressure or obstruct northern expeditions, he would serve as Dayu’s subject.”

Conversely, this could also be understood as: if the court pressured him or obstructed his northern expeditions, he would still rebel against the court.

In her heart, she had always harbored some hidden worry.

Now, seeing Sister’s letter, Luoshen finally felt relieved.

Although Imperial Uncle’s death saddened her whenever she thought of it, from another perspective, Prince Dongyang and the reasonable Sister succeeding as the new generation of Emperor and Empress for Dayu, plus with Father there, the originally stagnant, hopeless court might finally see some change.

She was eager to convey Sister’s final words to Li Mu, so he too could set his mind at ease.