Shuya appeared by Mei Hua’s side in a flurry of flower petals. The petals weren’t necessary, but she insisted on making them when she appeared because “it’s part of my aesthetic”.
“Little Sister!” She called out affectionately after appearing and gave Mei Hua a big hug. While she was smothering Mei Hua in her exuberant embrace, she noticed Ye and Mei Hua’s two sons watching with grave expressions. Her carefree expression stiffened and she let go.
Straightening herself to look somewhat proper, Shuya asked, “It’s been a while since Little Sister called me, what did you need?”
Mei Hua had to rearrange her clothes and hair, which had been dislodged in Shuya’s excitement. She gave a chuckle and asked, “Can you put up a barrier so Jin can’t snoop on our conversation?”
Shuya raised an eyebrow and nodded. A faint blue glow surrounded them and then faded. This little trick was something Shuya devised after an argument with Jin about giving his wife some proper privacy. They couldn’t come to an agreement, so Shuya invented a yin barrier that specifically kept Jin out. This had naturally caused a whole new argument, but that never stopped Shuya from doing what she wanted. She would occasionally use it just to irritate him.
When the barrier was up, Mei Hua slumped slightly in her seat. It was difficult to control one’s emotions on a spiritual level and she was only able to do it for short periods of time. She handed the note Ye had given her.
“Ye found some news you’ll be interested in.”
Shuya eyes widened at the news. Her mouth and closed a few times before she turned to Ye in disbelief.
“Is this true?”
Ye nodded.
Shuya rubbed her forehead, biting her lip. “No wonder I lost contact with her. It was difficult to get my children that far west. And the ones that managed, ended up chopped up and burned even before she was kicked off the mountains. Ah, now that I think about it, the one furthest west got cut down and turned into prayer beads and good luck charms by a particularly ambitious monk.” She stared at the note again, her grip wrinkling the paper and eyes watering. “I want to talk to my Master’s husband.”
“I know but,” Mei Hua looked at her Big Sister sympathetically, “before that, I’d like to set some precautionary measures before telling Jin…”
The war between responsibility and desire showed clearly on Shuya’s face. After a moment pacing back and forth, she practically threw the note on the table and put her hands on her hips, sighingly gustily.
“Fine. As long as he doesn’t implode, I’ll have my chance. I’ve waited all this time, what’s a little more?” She gazed off in the distance, her eyes reflecting sadness, then looked back at Mei Hua and smiled slightly. “What do you want to do?”
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Shi Ji had not been idle over the years he’d forsaken society like a hermit and studied arrays. He’d modified, created, and tested thousands of arrays that did a wide variety of things. Sometimes when he’d get bored, he would sit down and think of all the various ways his family could be endangered and the best array would be in response to the threat.
The first on his “danger list” was devils but second on his list was always his Old Man.
He can’t be blamed for viewing his own father as a potential threat. He and his brothers were connected to the mountains and could feel the undertow of madness in them. It was only that their father had a prodigious amount of self control that the madness didn’t over-take him even after all these years.
That his Old Man was able to control himself to such a degree was an admirable quality. But the four oldest siblings weren’t naive enough to entrust the wellbeing of their family solely to their Old Man’s self control. Each sibling would, in their own way, think about how they might be able to restrain their Old Man in a worse case scenario.
Shi Ji had thought a lot about what to do should his Old Man, one day, lose control. Originally he only had to worry about his Mother, but now he had an entire nation. This increased the difficulty by leaps and bounds. When it came to the nation, the best Shi Ji could come up with was what amounted to an escape plan.
The first sign of loss of control from his Old Man was always earthquakes. He’d been in the process of creating a series of stabilizing arrays that could be put around a large area and reduce the earthquake to a “gentle” rumble for a certain period of time. Along with that, he’d also modified movement arrays to give large groups of people a chance to get to safety. This sounded simple only in theory. Making arrays that could deal with severe power fluctuations that would be causing the earthquakes and move untrained citizens wasn’t easy at all in practice.
He’d been experimenting and modifying for years, trying to perfect a reliable system. He more or less completed the array stabilizer and was just waiting for a real life test, but the array for moving large groups of people wasn’t safe yet.
“It will be good enough,” his Mother said after listening to his explanation, “we just need something to keep the earthquake from doing serious damage. I don’t believe your Father will be so far gone that we need to evacuate the entire nation. And even if I’m wrong, I’ve got my own backup plan.”
“If you’ve got the arrays, I can have some of my brothers and sisters set them up.” Shuya added.
Shi Ji gave a hesitant nod. On the one hand, this would be a good way to test the array stabilizer. On the other hand, he’d hoped for a more controlled study that wouldn’t risk citizen’s lives. The weight of the responsibility he was given was making him feel very uncomfortable.
“Very well,” Shuya didn’t move, but instantly a group of tree spirit appeared around them. They had serious expressions, indicating they already had some idea of why they’d been called. Shi Ji had no idea how they knew, as Shuya hadn’t told them, but this ability was fairly well known at this point. They were somehow able to instantly relay information to each other, even while an event was happening.
“Help my Lil’ Nephew here,” Shuya commanded while Shi Ji glowered at the nickname he couldn’t shake no matter how old he got, “and make sure that guy doesn’t sense you. Less he knows the better... for now.”
The group of tree spirits nodded in understanding and then they all turned to stare at Shi Ji for instructions. He felt himself break out in a sweat at suddenly having so many eyes looking at him once. He really hated crowds of people, much less crowds of people staring at him. Even though this was a family emergency, he couldn’t help selfishly wishing he hadn’t stepped outside today.
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Quietly and without any warning, tree spirits began appearing in every town and city in Lanhua. Tree spirits didn’t often go into populated places, preferring the forests and quiet places. Shuya was the only exception to this and it was thanks to her heavy influence that they ventured out and bothered to learn things that were unrelated to being a tree.
The few times they’d go into a city or town, they didn’t make it obvious they were tree spirits. People more often confused them with a type of beastie. But today their eyes blazed blue and blue petals continually circles around them, making it obvious they weren’t any kind of beastie.
One tree spirit went to the center of the town or city. In some cases this meant they stood in the middle of a street, while in other cases they’d appeared in the middle of a stranger’s house. They paid no attention at all to the puzzled and shocked reactions of the people around them.
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Three more tree spirits positions themselves outside the towns and five outside the cities. If they saw anyone coming in or trying to go out, they would seriously warn them, “Don’t leave, stay in the town. There will be an earthquake today, and if you’re outside the town, you only have yourself to blame for being injured.” This sort of ominous warning from mystically glowing strangers scared most people back home or to their hotels, with word quickly spreading through the population. But a few ignored the warning.
The tree spirits in the center locations set down the pre-made arrays they’d been given and watched to make sure it functioned as designed. The array hovered over the ground, shining brightly for a moment, and then sank down and began to expand. As it expanded, the light dimmed until it vanished.
At the same time, the spirits positioned outside also placed down pre-made arrays. Unlike the center array, these were smaller and only grew a few feet. A shining line expanded from them, one to the right and one to the left, and two going toward the center. When the lines eventually met, they blazed for a moment before disappearing into the ground.
The center tree spirit went back to report to the Third Prince, while the others remained to warn away anyone attempting to leave.
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Fourth Prince Lu Shao and Eighth Prince De Tongran walked up to the Lanhua officials and dignitaries who’d just started leaving the Hall of Serenity. It was late afternoon and the sun was already low on the horizon, dropping the winter temperatures even further.
The dignitaries, many of whom came from dryer plains areas, weren’t accustomed to the cold humidity or the thin air. Not only were they breathing heavily doing ordinary tasks, the biting cold soaked through their many layers of clothes. They were having a hard time not shivering even indoors. The moment they exited they planned on rushing over to their sedans and hurrying to their well-heated rooms with only the minimal pleasantries to the Lanhua officials, despite knowing how rude it looked.
Alas, two Princes showed up and forced them to go through a series of tedious greetings while they were slowly turning into human icicles. They bitterly resented the Lanhua officials for looking so comfortable and unbothered by the hold up.
Official Wu was closest to the royal family, and was thus the undeclared spokesperson.
“Hope this official isn’t being too brazen in asking why Fourth and Eighth Prince are here?” Official Wu asked. The princes took after the Emperor and avoided the mundane aspects of government as much as humanly possible. If a prince showed up without any warning, there was definitely a reason.
Fourth Prince laughed pleasantly. “Not at all. Eighth Prince was going to speak a word with Imperial Father and this Prince thought to escort our guests for dinner and entertainment.”
Official Wu bowed in apology. “This official didn’t mean to detain Fourth and Eighth Prince.”
“Not at all,” Fourth Prince waved his hand and turned to his brother, “Go speak with Imperial Father, I will continue here.”
Eighth Prince gave a solemn nod and turned to the Hall of Serenity.
Official Wu watched the Eighth Princes behavior and his brows furrowed slightly. Was it just him or had the Eighth Prince grimaced as he left?
Fourth Prince continued talking. His tone was friendly but his words carried a heavy warning, “Lanhua’s officials have worked hard today. It would be very good if all the officials quickly headed straight home tonight and spent time with their families. This will give all the officials a chance to relax and unwind, so their minds will be sharp tomorrow.”
Not to mention Official Wu, all the other officials stiffened. The prince wasn’t recommending, he was commanding, them to leave quickly and stay in their homes until tomorrow. This would be alarming enough, but it was done in such a way that meant he didn’t want any deeper questioning about the matter. Otherwise, he would have straightforwardly kicked them out and told them to stay home.
The officials all bowed again, with Official Wu stating: “We humble officials will take Fourth Prince’s advice to heart and leave immediately to enjoy good rest and time with family.”
Then all the officials left without another word. Their feet moved at a fast clip, to the point of almost running away. The dignitaries watched this with some astonishment and alarm. They’d planned on speedily leaving too, but not at almost a run.
Lu Shao turned his warm smile towards those left behind. “Guests, please alight your sedans. This Prince will follow.”
“As Fourth Prince commands.” They agreed in relief and immediately went to the prepared sedans.
With everyone leaving, Lu Shao looked towards the Hall of Serenity and made a face. He felt a little bad for his younger brother.
His job was to get both the men and women guests into a room and then use his musical arts to put them into a deep sleep. From there, they’d be unceremoniously hauled off to the border. When the worst had passed they’d be brought back and put into their own beds. Hopefully, when they woke up tomorrow, they’d have no idea at all what had happened.
But someone had to distract the Old Man in the meantime.
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Jin saw his eighth son walk into the Hall of Serenity just as he was planning to leave and paused.
“Father,” De Tongran called out while widening his steps, “I’d like to have a word with you.”
Hearing this, Jin eyes brow shot up. Firstly, what son called him “father” without a reason? He definitely wanted something! Secondly, De Tongran was a dangerous son to get stuck in a conversation with, very dangerous.
Shi Ji was brilliant, but disliked socializing. He prefered to hide away and keep to himself. De Tongran was also brilliant, but had no problem with socializing. He could talk with anyone about anything without batting an eye. In fact, it could be said he was too good at talking.
Jin distinctly remembered that when this son was a baby, he would babble at Jin in the cute way little babies did when they were learning to talk. But unlike cute babies, if Jin dared turn away during the babble-monologue, Baby Tongtong would immediately start screaming. Not crying, not whimpering, screaming. And he wouldn’t be satisfied until Jin just sat there and listened to the entire babbling-speal all the way to the end. Only after Baby Tongtong had finished, was Jin “allowed” to leave.
Fortunately when he got older, he stopped screaming. But that was the only thing that changed. He was still long-winded. And if a person was unfortunate enough to get caught in a conversation with him, there was no way to leave. He’d keep a person trapped in his conversation until he decided the conversation had ended. His power with words was brilliant and somewhat terrifying.
Jin never got angry at De Tongran for such outrageous behavior. It turned out this son openly liked him from the very beginning. Even as a baby he would want to cuddle with Jin instead of Mei Hua or the nurse maid.
This had stunned and baffled Jin, who’d always taken a hands-off approach to his children when they were babies. Usually the nature his children and him were such that there was a natural repulsion that occurred between them. As babies, his sons didn’t want his affection and that was fine by him. It was only when they got older that this was reduced and they could get along better. Yet De Tongran either didn’t feel it or just ignored it.
Of course Shan Hui, that headache, had still found the time to teach De Tongran to call him “Old Man”. How his oldest managed to do that with every single one of his siblings still remained a mystery to Jin. He wasn’t even around half the time, but he’d look ever-so-smug when his brothers started talking and calling him an “Old Man”. So Jin was absolutely certain Shan Hui was behind it all.
Jin didn’t usually mind having conversations with his eighth son. But there were times he definitely didn’t want to get “trapped”. This was one of them. He’d spent all day listening to a bunch of political posturing and annoying negotiations. Going home and snuggling with his Mountain Flower a bit, having a nice family dinner, and then rolling in the sheets to top it all off… he’d been looking forward to it.
But now De Tongran was here. Who knew how long this conversation would go? If it was a short one, that would be fine but if not….
He was just thinking about whether he should just put away his face and run away, when De Tongran was there and pulling out a stack of papers from his sleeves. A shiver ran down Jin’s spine at the sight.
“Father, have you heard that a new town will be opening up to the far north?” De Tongran began talking, despite the fact that Jin hadn’t said a word yet. “As you know, I have just gotten back from my apprenticeship with the famous Li Family. I have to say, it’s most fortunate they still remember the good deed you did for their great-grandfather Li DingXiang. Did you know they consider him a venerated ancestor now?”
“I didn’t know that.” Jin looked at the papers pointedly.
“They do. He brought a great deal of wealth and fortunately one of his brothers was good with business, so that wealth remained in the family and even increased. Not only that, they thought you were some kind of mountain god.” His eyes crescented in amusement as he ignored his Old Man’s visual cues to talk about his main reason for being there. “They didn’t actually believe I was related to you when I first arrived.”
Despite himself, Jin got curious. They hadn’t fully discussed his time out-of-country yet, so there were gaps in what he knew. “It couldn’t have been hard to convince them though?”
“Naturally, but then I thought… maybe I shouldn’t try coming as your son at all.”
“What do you mean?” Jin frowned. “You are my son, and they should feel lucky that you came to them to learn.”
De Tongran chuckled, “But at the same time, if I’m your son, the results of my hard work should show prove as much, shouldn’t they? Since I am your son, anything I put my mind to doing, I’ll master. And won’t that be more impressive? Though I didn’t use any of your reputation, your glory was evident through my success. And then, when I proved that I was your son at the end, it made my actions even more amazing and your reputation increased as well. Not bad, don’t you think?”
It was at this point that Jin was “hooked”. There was nothing he liked more than people knowing he was amazing, and when his son’s acknowledged it he liked it even better. Even though he wanted to know what the paper’s were about, their existence was put in the back of his mind.