Hua Zhi blinked, her expression one of perfect innocence. “What is jealousy?”

Gu Yanxi gave a low laugh. “Something sour. I had a taste of it just a few days ago.”

Hua Zhi shot him a sideways glance.

“When Jiang Huanran was fawning all over you, I was practically soaking in a vat of vinegar.”

Hua Zhi laughed and nuzzled against his shoulder, offering no explanation. Her impression of Jiang Huanran was indeed quite good, but it had nothing to do with romantic feeling.

Gu Yanxi had only said it in passing — he knew A’Zhi well, and would never think less of her for it. He lightly rubbed his cheek against hers and said: “Xiao Liu has made great strides. That is your doing.”

“Is there a reward?”

“There is.” Gu Yanxi pressed a kiss to her forehead. “There is your reward.”

Hua Zhi wrinkled her nose and pushed him away. “Who wants that kind of reward? Xiao Liu is highly moldable — even without me, he would not have turned out poorly. Oh, that reminds me — when you see Hao Yue, remember to ask about what she foresees for Xiao Liu. I am curious what prophecy she would give him.”

“I’ll remember.” Gu Yanxi smiled softly. Xiao Liu would likely never know just how thoroughly A’Zhi looked out for him. “And what about me? You think about Xiao Liu — do you not think about me at all?”

“Aren’t you already in Hao Yue’s thoughts?” Hua Zhi smiled. “Whether that Hao Yue is a genuine mystic or a fraud, her faith in you is beyond question. Given that, I expect your future will not be lacking either.”

“What is your read on Hao Yue?”

“Use her if she can be used. Keep her at a distance if she cannot.” Hua Zhi nestled closer into the warm embrace. “She may not truly excel at prophecy, but the fact that she dares display the ability suggests she has a certain degree of confidence in herself. Be careful around her.”

“I do not underestimate her.”

Hua Zhi tilted her head back, looking up from below at the man’s resolute jaw. This man — powerful as he was, unyielding as he was — was always gentle in her presence. If this was what love looked like, she thought, she would be willing to pay the price for it.

“Yanxi, if one day the throne were to be right before you — would you take it?”

“At that moment, where would you be?”

“…I don’t know.”

Gu Yanxi smiled. “I will be wherever you are. No matter where that is.”

Hua Zhi lowered her head and wrapped both arms around the man’s waist, remaining silent for a long while. She had always felt she was merely the passive recipient of this love — yet in this moment, she knew: she had genuinely fallen for the man who stood above ten thousand others.

Even with a thousand mountains and rivers between them, even with layers of grievance and enmity, love had still found its way.

The moonlight gradually faded. Gu Yanxi carried Hua Zhi on his back down the mountain.

Hua Zhi’s room was halfway up the hillside. The family had cleared out their finest quarters for their guests and laid fresh bedsheets — washed so many times they had turned white and were mended with patches — putting forward the very best they had. Hua Zhi felt they deserved at least that basic dignity, and so she did not ask Bao Xia to replace the bedding with her own things.

The very next morning, Hua Zhi asked Xu Ying to go and bring Tao Laoda and Liu Da.

The two men arrived promptly. Hua Zhi went straight to the point: “Are there any other places where that self-igniting substance appears, besides the site of the landslide?”

Tao Laoda and Liu Da exchanged a few words, after which Liu Da said: “There are two more spots. But they are both underground, not far from the landslide.”

Hua Zhi understood. That entire area was likely a coal deposit. She thought of the fact that the final canal route they had decided upon already steered clear of that region, and her mind was set at ease. Since this substance was not presently of use, it was better to leave it undisturbed where it lay — wasteful though it would be to let it sit.

Gu Yanxi, who had already taken note of A’Zhi’s movements, merely smiled. From A’Zhi’s reaction when she first saw that handful of material, and from the way she had quietly but persistently insisted on routing the canal away from that area while drawing up the plans, he had come to suspect that A’Zhi was not quite as unfamiliar with the substance as she had claimed. She likely not only recognized it, but knew how it could be used — yet since A’Zhi was not speaking, she must have had her reasons. Knowing her character, those reasons would be ones that posed no harm to the Great Qing, and that was all he needed to know.

When they departed, they brought Tao Laoda with them. Everyone inside the stone houses came out, and the whole group lined up in a deep bow before their departing guests. Having had little contact with outsiders, it never occurred to them that these people, once gone, might never follow through on their word. They simply and sincerely believed that these people would lead them out of their suffering.

The Sixth Prince’s lips trembled. He called out in a clear voice: “Pack your things and be ready — it won’t be long before you can leave.”

Those people could not understand his words, but they dimly grasped his meaning. Some covered their faces and began to weep. Life in a place like this had been too hard. No one had ever dared to dream of leaving before, but now that the chance stood before them, they discovered just how desperately they had been longing for it.

Hua Zhi gave Xiao Liu a gentle pat on the shoulder. “Let’s go.”

The Sixth Prince reached up and grasped the hand resting on his shoulder, murmuring quietly: “I don’t understand — this was clearly not a difficult thing to do. Why has no one managed it all these years?”

“Probably because it was none of their concern. Relocating these people is only the beginning — having lived together and depended on one another for so long, they will surely form a tight-knit group once outside, and will be slow to learn the rules of the outside world. From a yamen official’s perspective, all of that spells instability. Of course they would not want to take them in.”

“But these are problems that can be solved! They will adapt. They will gradually learn the rules of the outside world and find their own way to get by. How can anyone have simply ignored them all these years for reasons like that?”

Hua Zhi met his bewildered gaze, and for a moment she did not know how to explain it to him. In the end all she could do was heave a quiet sigh and offer a catch-all answer: “You will understand when you’re older. Take this to heart, Xiao Liu — when you have grown up, do not become the kind of person they were.”

In that instant, the Sixth Prince understood what should have been a lesson only age could teach. He turned back for one last look at those indistinct figures still standing outside to see them off, and thought: if growing up meant becoming that kind of person, he did not want to grow up at all.

From Ling Prefecture to Li County, Xiao Liu did not say a single word the entire way. When Shao Yao tried to tease him out of his silence, Hua Zhi pulled her back. Let him think. Thinking is good.

A matter this straightforward was not something Gu Yanxi needed to handle personally. He sent Yu Tao to take care of it, then made to lead the group to settle at an inn — and Xiao Liu took the initiative to follow along.

They stayed two days in Li County. Hua Zhi spent her time simply resting and letting her mind wander, asking nothing and managing nothing — yet everyone seemed happy to come and tell her things, and so she came to know that all the people of Ling Village had been fully relocated to a scenic, picturesque hillside below Xiuxiu Township, where the new settlement had been named Ling Village; and she learned too that the Seven Lodges had already submitted a memorial to incorporate Ling Prefecture into Li County’s jurisdiction, and had begun construction along the banks of the Wei River within Ling Prefecture’s boundaries — excavating lower-lying ground so that when floodwaters came again, the sluice gates within Ling Prefecture could be lowered, diverting the water into the uninhabited lands of Ling Prefecture to protect the downstream areas…

Looking at Xiao Liu — who had grown several shades darker than when they had left the capital, and was visibly more composed with each passing day — Hua Zhi did not quite know whether to feel glad or to sigh. She had said she wanted to let him have a lighter time of things, yet somehow, without meaning to, she had hastened his growing up.

For someone with his identity, she supposed that was a good thing.

At long last they could return home. After more than a month away, she was eager to get back.

Every day, Hua Zhi sat contentedly nestled against Gu Yanxi as they rode at full gallop, sometimes burying her face entirely in his cloak. Resting her cheek against Yanxi’s warm chest as they jolted along, after enough time she even managed to doze off — an absolute trust laid bare for all to see, one that made Gu Yanxi’s heart go soft with something close to anguish. He wished he could mount a bed on that horse so she might sleep in comfort.

In the early days of the seventh month, the day before Hua Qin’s wedding, Hua Zhi returned to the capital.