Half a day passed, and the torrential rain showed not the slightest sign of letting up.

Yu Tao came in from outside, shaking off his rain cape before hurrying to report. “Leader, Miss — the river is rising very fast. The two marks it had dropped have come back up.”

Only half a day… Hua Zhi and Gu Yanxi exchanged a glance. “Any word from Wu Xing?”

“The rain is too heavy. He’s gone into the mountains — he says he’ll get the materials finished as quickly as he can.”

“Even if he does manage to finish them, it’s probably too late. That substance can’t get wet, and right now the one thing we have no shortage of is water.” Hua Zhi looked at the dried-up channels on the sand table and shook her head slightly. She had been thinking too simply. When had things in this world ever gone smoothly one after another?

But Gu Yanxi smiled. “Not too late, A’Zhi. It doesn’t matter when this is finished — it will never be too late.”

Hua Zhi’s mind went briefly blank, a moment of silence ringing in her ears. Of course. Of course. She had underestimated Yanxi after all. She had been thinking only of using this substance to blast open channels and dig rivers — Yanxi had already thought far beyond that. For instance… warfare.

In an era without firearms, she could not begin to imagine what the appearance of this substance would bring. Perhaps… she would become guilty of a great wrong.

Gu Yanxi paused and stepped closer. “A’Zhi?”

Hua Zhi looked up. She wanted to ask what Yanxi intended to do with it — whether he would initiate war — but in the end she only shook her head at him and lowered her gaze back to the rivers and embankments on the sand table. How had she forgotten? This was the Gu family’s territory. And the man before her wielded power that stood far above any imperial prince.

Gu Yanxi waved the others away and gently drew A’Zhi against his chest. “No one desires war. But only war can put an end to war. Da Qing today is beset with troubles from within and without. The princes have ambition but not the backbone to sustain it; the imperial in-laws hunger for more power; His Majesty grows more suspicious by the day and yet his decisiveness steadily diminishes. Meanwhile, the nations surrounding Da Qing have spent these years recovering their strength and now show signs of wanting to expand. Da Qing holds the most fertile lands, the most prosperous cities — all of it will inevitably become their target. A’Zhi, beneath the surface of peace, Da Qing is far from secure. If this black powder truly has the power you describe, I need it to protect Da Qing’s territory and her people.”

Gu Yanxi lowered his head and pressed an almost imperceptible kiss to the top of Hua Zhi’s head. “I know you dislike war, A’Zhi. I’m sorry.”

What could Hua Zhi say? Given the choice between invading and being invaded, she would always prefer to be on the side that struck first. The guilt was a burden she’d carry — but it was better than being a subject of a fallen nation. Being the one who caused harm was still better than being the one harmed. She could think of it as repaying the years of prosperity she’d enjoyed under Da Qing.

Repaying — leaning against the man, Hua Zhi exhaled a quiet sigh. Who said that standing in a position of power was any easier? Her grandfather had been exiled; the man holding her was burdened with the weight of the nation; even those princes whose eyes held nothing but that dragon throne lived without a single day of peace, each terrified that the other might one day take the high seat and have him killed. In the end, they were no better off than ordinary people living at the bottom of society.

“I alone cannot change the course of history. Every invention appears when it is time for it to appear.” If not for the need to blast open river channels, she would never have thought of it. And she only knew what materials went into black powder — not the precise proportions. Even if she had been willing to work out the formula step by step, knowing nothing of the craft, she likely never would have managed it.

She had come to this world without reason or cause. Perhaps it was precisely because this world needed her? Hua Zhi laughed silently at herself, trying to find some comfort in the thought — but no matter how she tried, she could not make herself feel any lighter.

In the sound of rain, the two leaned against each other. Gu Yanxi felt a weight of guilt, and found himself wanting to say more to A’Zhi. “The Chao Li people are a fierce and courageous nation — and precisely because of their courage, they have always disdained to resort to underhanded methods. Yet my journey to Yu Prefecture revealed that they had been laying groundwork there for many years. Had Hao Yue not stirred up the Seven-Star Sect and drawn me there — where I discovered that Yuan Shifang was of Chao Li origin — the consequences would have been difficult to fathom.”

Hua Zhi let herself be drawn away from her thoughts about the black powder and picked up his thread. “If Hao Yue knew Yuan Shifang was Chao Li, she likely knows more than just him alone.”

“Before coming here, I had Chen Qing go back to Yu Prefecture to make contact with Hao Yue — to draw out as much as possible. That Hao Yue unsettles me.” It was instinct. She was not a harmless person, not in the least. If there were conditions he could meet, he was willing to meet them. What he feared was that what she wanted was something he — or Da Qing — could not offer.

“I won’t place all my hope in her. The Seven-Lodge Bureau has existed for many years — we’re not useless enough that we can’t dig up at least something.” He drew her over to sit down and poured water, placing the cup beside A’Zhi. “We’d been keeping a watchful eye on the Chao Li before, but it was Yuan Shifang’s appearance that made all those precautions concrete and real. A regional governor who turned out to be a man of an enemy nation — that was a blow to Da Qing like a sudden strike to the head.”

Hua Zhi drank her tea, her thoughts still circling Hao Yue. She couldn’t explain why, but this person weighed on her mind. She had the persistent feeling that… this woman had set her sights on her man.

Gu Yanxi watched the rain outside. All he wanted was to sit like this with A’Zhi — talking, drinking tea. But for now, this was all the time he could give himself.

He refilled her cup and said, “I’ll handle things outside. You rest properly — you can’t afford to lose any more weight. You’ve been gone, what, this long, and you’ve already lost another measure. We’ll still be heading north after this. When your grandfather sees you, how distressed will he be?”

“With you here to watch over me, I can’t be bothered to do it myself.”

Gu Yanxi lightly touched her cheek. This person — good enough that she always made him want to ask for more.

***

If Hua Zhi was the backbone of this endeavor, Gu Yanxi was its steadying anchor. His arrival immediately tipped the stalemate decisively in their favor.

The officials of Da Qing held the Seven-Lodge Bureau in awe, but their contempt for women ran down to the bone. Xiangyang’s county magistrate, Chen Hong, had maintained a surface respect for Shao Yao while quietly undermining her and obstructing her authority at every turn — which had Shao Yao grinding her teeth in fury. But she had no recourse; she couldn’t simply dismiss everyone and leave only Xu Yangjun to run errands.

None of this was a problem for Gu Yanxi. He took direct control of the yamen, placed his own people in every position, and issued commands from the top down without any reduction or delay. In half a day’s time, all residents in low-lying areas along the river had been relocated to higher ground, and every flood prevention measure Xiangyang possessed had been activated. His firm and unyielding manner quieted the previously grumbling populace — they followed instructions to the letter, more cooperative than they had ever been.

When the rain eased somewhat the following day, he enforced the continuation of all corvée labor on the river channels — but at the same time, he opened the granaries and arranged for the workers to receive full cooked meals, with a piece of meat for each person. It wasn’t a large piece — but such treatment, across all the dynasties anyone could recall, was absolutely unprecedented. Grievances became strength. The pace picked up noticeably.

“Still too slow. Post notices — anyone willing to join the river clearing will be fed to satisfaction and given a piece of meat. As for the cost of the meat…” Gu Yanxi gave a cold smile. “Magistrate Chen turns out to be quite wealthy. This official will simply commandeer those funds.”

Author’s Note: I’ll try to go back to double updates tomorrow. Your sun-scorched author, now charcoal-black, sends her regards.