[Editor: Ajax_Flameborn, Rain, Author]

A tiny replica of Dalu and Jianghu sat on a table. The details were so extraordinarily accurate that even the clouds and waves moved. Above this three dimensional map, as if on an invisible flat surface, was a series of round game pieces colored black, white, and red. On each piece was a word. The words ranged from ‘King’ to ‘Soldier’ to ‘Pawn’.

Currently, to the west of the tiny mountains that split the tiny Dalu continent replica in half, there was a cluster of black game pieces. There were two large red pieces sitting squarely in the center of the black pieces labelled ‘Marshal’ and ‘Prince’. Every time either of these red pieces touched a black piece, it flipped over and turned white, with the character ‘demise’ written on it. While these pieces were flipping over one by one, a new red or white piece rose up to replace them. Over time, all the black pieces turned into a white ‘demise’ and sank into the map, disappearing completely. When everything was done, a majority of red pieces with a few white dominated the area that had once been almost completely black.

The young man watching this spectacle scratched his nose, eyebrows raised slightly. He was staring at the large, red ‘Marshal’ game piece in admiration.

The ‘Prince’ pieces got the job done, but not very well. There was always some chaos and disaster when they were involved, which the young man enjoyed watching. But when the red ‘Marshal’ was involved, everything was methodically, boringly, put into order. This process was longer but less destructive. If the ‘Marshal’ and a ‘Prince’ piece worked together, it combined the intensity and orderliness of both pieces, sinking black pieces at an alarming rate.

It wasn’t good to have the red ‘Marshal’ piece around his black pieces. But at the same time, the young man couldn’t help but admit he was an excellent pawn for the red ‘Queen’. He was a little envious. It was hard to find good pawns like that.

Could he be brought over?

Hmmmm.

The young man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. It would be a lot of fun corrupting the ‘Marshal’ but it required knowledge to do it. These kinds of pawns couldn’t be won over with regular tricks, it had to be tailored to the individual or it wouldn’t work.

He didn’t know much about this ‘Marshal’. When he appeared in the east, he was called General Jing and the Princes also referred to him as ‘Uncle Fu’. He was a cultivator, a strong one, which meant he came from Jianghu. Because he was put in charge of the Imperial Army, it was clear the Queen really trusted him.

A person that powerful leaving for Dalu would definitely cause a stir in Jianghu… But the young man didn’t know of a cultivator who matched this man’s description that had left Jianghu. He thought through all the strong cultivators in the Righteous Faction but General Jing didn’t match those. Then he thought of the much bigger group, the Neutral Faction, but couldn’t think of anyone from there either. That only left the Evil Faction...

Was it someone from the Evil Faction who’d converted? There had been that spy from the Snake Clan who switched some years back, after all…

And General Jing could have changed his face and name when he went over. That was easy enough to do. Though it was unlikely,it was possible…

For several minutes he didn’t move, ruminating.

He suddenly brightened as a better idea came to him, one that wouldn’t require as much work but would still have an entertaining result. Reaching out, he tapped the large black horse piece and said, “Task Completed. Retreat. Further instructions soon.”

———

“Mooooooommy!!!”

The youngest son, De Qiang, ran at full speed straight towards Mei Hua, toppling her over on impact. Fortunately she’d been outside when she’d been unceremoniously head-butted by her son, otherwise she might have broken something in the landing.

Face filled with tears, De Qiang demanded, “Mommy! Do you not love Father anymore?”

Mei Hua was still flat on her back and struggling to breathe. Hearing such an outlandish question, she raised her upper body using her elbows and looked at her youngest son in shock. She still hadn’t gotten the wind back in her lungs so she could only have an expression of confusion on her face.

Seeing her confused expression, De Qiang wiped his teary eyes with his arm and demanded, “Everyone is saying Mommy is replacing Father with Uncle Fu! I don’t want Uncle Fu as a father, Mommy! Even though Father isn’t awake, you can’t just replace him! That’s mean!”

It happened that just as he finished saying so, Mei Hua could breathe again. Taking a deep gulp of air, she gasped and was finally able to say, “I’m not replacing your Father with anyone, much less Fu Jing!”

She properly sat up this time, circling her arms around the smaller De Qiang so he didn’t fall off her lap.

“Really Mommy?” De Qiang sniffled, “You really aren’t replacing Father?”

“Even if your Father slept one hundred years, I wouldn’t replace him. Brother Fu Jing is very nice, but your Father is the best man in the world. Wouldn’t your Mommy be an idiot if she replaced ‘the best’ with just ‘nice’?” Mei Hua silently apologized to Fu Jing. Sometimes crude explanations like this were the best way to explain things to a child.

De Qiang gave a slow nod of understanding, saying “Yeah… Mommy’s no idiot...”

Mei Hua stroked her son’s back, chuckingly slightly, and asked, “Where did you hear such silly nonsense?”

De Qiang noticeably stiffened in her arms. “I… I just heard it…”

“But from who exactly?” She asked again, looking down at the top of her son’s head with a frown.

“...just… just everyone…”

This time her eyes narrowed suspiciously. There was no way he heard something so crude at home. “De Qiang… did you sneak out of the palace again?”

Burying his face deeper into her chest, he shook his head in staunch denial. Usually, as the youngest, someone was always watching him. As he’d been born under heavy supervision, he’d never thought anything of it. But now his Father and— most of his— brothers were asleep, all the fairies seemed slow and sleepy too. His Fairy Nursemaid didn’t have her usual vigor and sometimes stood around in a daze. Even his Mommy was too busy to see him much.

De Qiang discovered that without everyone carefully watching, he’d gained a freedom he didn’t know he was lacking before. And how glorious this newfound freedom was too! He could go anywhere, do anything, and no one could stop him!

De Zhou, the brother seven years older than him, was in a similar situation. At first they both went out and explored Lanhua together, seeing all the places they’d never seen, going to all the places they weren’t previously allowed to go.

But later, De Zhou began to do only boring things.

It started with a bookstore that let you rent to read, instead of buying. De Zhou thought this was a novel idea, having only heard of buying books before, and went in. There were lots of books but most of the ones in topics De Qiang was interested in, he’d read already, so he was a little bored. But De Zhou found a section of strange books about wrestling and became obsessed.

De Qiang really didn’t understand why his big brother was interested in these wrestling books. First of all, they were always men and women wrestling together. Secondly, the wrestling wasn’t well thought out— it left vulnerabilities all over. There weren’t even step-by-step guides for these poorly thought out moves either. Thirdly, if there were any words in them, and there often wasn’t, the words that were there he had never seen before. He tried asking De Zhou about them, but his older brother just got angry and made him promise to never tell anyone about these books.

After that, De Zhou would head straight to bookstores, looking for wrestling books. Whatever he could get, he’d buy and then find a corner somewhere to read them while blushing furiously. He didn’t even take these books home, but hid them all over the place. It was so bizarre, De Qiang didn’t know what to make of any of it.

At least in the regular bookstores, De Qiang could go into the back and watch people make books. They used wood block stamps to make copies of the most popular books and pamphlets in-house. The adults making the books were always surprised when he’d be there, but they didn’t shoo him away but instead explained the process and answered any of his questions.

He found out all sorts of fascinating things about making books from them. Like how they carved each wood block or the kind of paper they’d use or how to bind books. He even discovered that only big bookstores would have bookmakers in the back, most didn’t do that. They’d either buy directly from the big bookstores or from a smaller bookmaking company. Big bookstores made them in house, because it was faster and they had better control over the quality.

Though De Qiang liked learning how books were made and distributed, the novelty wore off after seeing it over and over again. When he felt like he couldn’t learn anything new, he got bored. Soon he found all he had left was reading and buying books.

How was that any fun!? He could do that at home!!!

So De Qiang stopped hanging out with his boring older brother. He was now independently exploring Lanhua. Sometimes he’d find a city or town and just wander around the streets , watching and listening. There were so many different people doing things he’d never seen before, he found it very interesting!

Best of all, when he wandered around, there were so many aunties and uncles, big sisters and big brothers, who wanted to give him food. They’d give him sweet tea, meat on a stick, stuffed bean buns, freshly baked bread… he once stood in front of a candy-maker’s stall and got a hard candy shaped like a deer for free! De Qiang really didn’t understand why everyone in the palace told him going outside alone was dangerous. Everyone was so nice!

But of course he wouldn’t admit to any of this. Even if his own mother beat him to death*, he’d never admit to leaving without permission. As long as he stayed in denial, what could be done to him? He firmly believed in the ‘unmoving mountain’ method of disobedience.

[Note: “No matter how a man kicks and punches, the mountain will not move or bend. Eventually the man faints in exhaustion, but the mountain remains.” is the complete saying. The point being, don’t bother with stubborn people, you’ll only be wasting your time.]

Mei Hua sighed heavily and flicked her son’s forehead, “How many times must I tell you not to run outside without an escort?”

Lanhua had just recovered from a huge forest fire in the south. With everything being so unstable outside, it wasn’t safe for her youngest sons to be wandering around as they pleased.

De Qiang sniffled loudly, denying again, “I didn’t run outside.”

Mei Hua pursed her lips in annoyance. Her youngest son had always been a little stubborn, but lately he’d become intolerable. He wouldn’t admit to doing anything wrong, even if the evidence was right in front of him. When he was like this Mei Hua thought….

This boy definitely takes after Jin!

———

Ye coughed into his hand and said awkwardly, “So I checked and it really does seem like there’s an outrageous rumor going around about you and Shu Fu Jing. I couldn’t go anywhere without someone mentioning it at least once. I’ve been busy in the palace lately and that’s why I didn’t notice sooner...”

Mei Hua looked at Ye in astonishment.

“And people are believing such obvious lies?!”

“...not exactly.” He looked grim. People tarnishing his MeiMei’s name wasn’t something he took lightly. “I would say most people consider it malicious gossip or slander. But the topic is so scandalous… eh… well… people just can’t help themselves… even if they don’t believe it, they’ll talk about it…”

Mei Hua looked to her side, a white fox was standing by. Though they’d originally sworn loyalty to her, they usually followed Ye around instead.

“Get me a pillow. The fluffiest, thickest pillow. Quickly, please.”

The white fox was startled by the request but nodded, leaving quickly as instructed.

Ye watched the fox leave and then looked back at his MeiMei, eyebrows raised.

“What do you need a fluffy pillow for?”

Mei Hua raised her hand, face dark, as if telling him to wait.

The fox came back a little while later, holding a cylindrical pillow. It was both fluffy and thick, the perfect combination.

Mei Hua took the pillow, inhaled deeply, then pressed the pillow to her face and screamed. The pillow vibrated slightly from the intensity of her scream.

Both Ye and the white fox opened their mouths into an O shape as the scream extended for an astonishingly long time.

When she was finally done, she gave the pillow back to the white fox. Other than a slightly flushed face, her expression was completely normal.

“Alright then, I’m not in the habit of restricting people’s speech. It wouldn’t do any good trying that in this case anyway. People might think there’s some validity to the rumor if I try to suppress it too hard. Since someone is spreading such outlandish rumors about me, I can only counter them with the truth.”

“...uh… right.” Ye was still suffering the aftershock of surprise from what she’d just done.

“Let me think… Lu Shao sponsors a lot of musicians and artists, right?”

Ye nodded decisively, having an idea what she was going to do.

“Let’s get in contact with them. Have them…” Mei Hua blushed slightly, embarrassed she had to even request something like this. “... have them heavily push those sappy stories and songs people have made about Jin and I to the public. If they can think up anything new that will catch people’s interest, that’s even better. Naturally we’ll pay them.”

“Why should we pay them? It’s just singing and telling stories. It’s not like they’re building something for us.” Ye clicked his tongue in disapproval. “Isn’t it their patriotic duty to support their Queen?”

“It’s the duty of soldiers to fight for our country but we still pay them.”

“Yes, because they’re putting their lives on the line.”

Mei Hua raised an eyebrow, “Lu Shao has his own rules in place. If he finds out his people were working without pay on Imperial order, he will throw a fit. I will direct him towards you when that happens. Let’s see how you like having him wax eloquently for hours on end about the moral degeneracy involved with asking artists to work but not pay them.”

Ye raised his hands, as if fending off the argument preemptively. “No, no, let’s pretend I never said any—”

A burst of petals interrupted them.

“Lil’ Sis!!!!” Shuya began speaking excitedly, “I just heard you’re making a green hat for Jin to wear! And with your brother-in-law no less! Tell me, when did it start? Who made the first move! I must know all the dirty details! When did you become so scanda— hey, why aren’t you reacting?”

Mei Hua was staring at Shuya with a slightly worn out expression.

“Because I know already.”

“Aw……….” She pouted, vexed. “Here I was hoping to be the first to break the news…”

Ye wrinkled his nose, muttering, “Aya, I forgot how much trees like to gossip...”

———

Fu Jing was eating with De Tongran in the Royal Capital of Senlin when he sneezed several times in a row, almost choking on his noodles in the process.

De Tongran looked at his Uncle in concern.

“Uncle Fu, how many times has it been? Are you sure you’re not getting sick?”

Fu Jing coughed trying to dislodge the noodles and drank several cups of water before he felt better.

Finally he croaked out, “How could I be getting sick with my cultivation?”

“I don’t know, but sneezing this often isn’t normal.”

Fu Jing said with a great deal of sarcasm, “It’s more likely someone is talking about me behind my back than that I’m sick.”

“Eh?” De Tongran’s eyebrows rose, “But wouldn’t that be worse? Look how many times you’ve sneezed already! At this rate, it’s got to be an entire nation talking behind your back…”

“More like cursing. We did just wipe out most of the royalty here, after all.”

“In that case, wouldn’t I be sneezing too?”

“Ah…” Fu Jing realized his nephew was right.

“Uncle, if it gets any worse, I’m sorry but I’m going to insist you see a doctor. We’ve got some good ones in the army here with us, not like the crummy local doctors, so if it’s something serious you don’t need to worry.”

“There’s really no way…”

“There was that big plague that just swept through, so you can’t be too careful.”

Fu Jing hesitated and then nodded.

He supposed that his nephew was right. It wouldn’t hurt to check, at the very least.

———
*Author’s Note: It goes without saying, Mei would never beat her sons to death. De Qiang was just exaggerating. ?

Extra Note: Concerning Shu Fu Jing’s name and why the “young man” isn’t making the connection with the Immortal Emperor, Chinese names can look the same in latin spellings but have completely different meanings or be pronounced slightly differently in Chinese. The name “Fu”and “Jing” have at least four different spellings each. But in English, you have no way of knowing the meaning, much less the pronunciation. This is why a Chinese person, when speaking to another person who understands their language, will often say their name PLUS explain how it’s spelled, using the meaning of each character for reference. :)

———
Tiny Theater:

Jin stares at Fu Jing while cracking his knuckles: …

Fu Jing: *sweats nervously*

Ye: *Cackles madly while eating melon seeds*