Chyou awoke with a start as a rooster’s crow shattered the still silence of the morning. It was incredibly loud yet unexpectedly melodious, echoing and resonant. The cry spoke to some part of her, gently commanding her to wakefulness.

She stretched in the comfortable bed and pushed herself up to stare around at the rustic room. Beside her, Bo was stirring in his bed, awakened by the same cry.

Chyou had spent nights in luxurious palaces and sumptuous beds yet last night was possibly the best sleep she had ever had. She rose feeling refreshed. Her mind whirled as she thought over the events of yesterday. It had been spent mostly on business, with a bit of interest. Today, though, they would receive a tour of this strange place. A courtesy afforded them by Master Jin before Chyou left with her brother with the promised rice.

She sighed, she supposed she would have to get up and get her own water, usually at this point a servant would greet them and prepare everything.

To her surprise there was a short knock on the door, and that part of the script played out.

Except when she opened the door for the maid, instead of greeting a humble maid, she had to look down. There was no maid. There was a pig. A pig with a steaming tub of water tied to her back.

‘Young Sir. Young Miss.’ The pig greeted, with razor sharp diction. Her voice whispered in Chyou’s mind, sending shivers down her spine. Like Wa Shi last night, she spoke without actually speaking, the meaning conveyed to her without words.

Chyou gracefully nodded, as was custom, giving the help the minor acknowledgement that they were to receive… and then decided better of it. Best not to repeat the mistake of her brother. Pi pa as she called herself might act as a servant but she was still a spirit beast that spoke.

“Thank you.” Chyou said. The pig moved with odd grace, somehow managing to untie the tub of water from her back and set it down without a drop spilling.

Pi Pa nodded back before stepping to the side. ‘When Young Sir and Young Miss are ready, This one shall escort you to breakfast.’

Pi Pa bowed to them, and exited the room. The door closed behind her without a single touch from Chyou.

Chyou looked to her brother who, now fully awake, simply shrugged.

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Dressed properly with her face washed and hair braided. Chyou and her brother left the guest house to meet the patiently waiting Pi Pa. They followed in her wake traveling through the still lush, if slightly damp grass, across a bridge back towards the main house.

Already the smells of breakfast wafted in the air making her mouth water.

They were permitted entry quickly and taken to the long table where they had had dinner the previous night. It was already packed with the inhabitants of Fa Ram. Both people and spirit beasts. When the pair entered with Pi Pa they were given nods of greeting from everyone and guided to an empty spot. There was the rooster, Bi De, who was preening the little rat Ri Zu. Liu Xianghua, the Young Mistress of the Misty Lake Sect was sitting with Lady Meiling and a snake, who she remembered was named Miantiao, pointing at a scroll. She and her brother were near the middle of the table. Her brother was seated close to Gou Ren and Bowu, who he greeted before immediately talking about how nice the beds were to the enthusiastic approval of Gou Ren. Her brother thus occupied, Chyou looked to the other side, to see if she could converse with anybody.

Beside Chyou’s seat there was a jar. And within it a fish, staring at her.

Wa Shi slapped at the side of his vessel happily.

“Good morning.” Chyou greeted the strange creature politely. The fish nodded his head in response.

‘Good morning!’ he returned, enthusiastically. ‘Today shall be a day of firsts for you, Wa Shi declares!’

Chyou froze at the statement, as the fish seemed smug and expectant.

Right then Master Jin came out, carrying the food.

It was strange to have the master of the house serve the guests, so opposite to how the rich and powerful did things, with legions of servants to do the work.

Once more though, Grandmother’s advice rang true: “The truly strong do as they wish. Just smile and nod, granddaughter.”

Besides, he had cooked pancakes for her before.

The morning's offerings for breakfast were “hashbrowns”, deer “bacon”, fried eggs and a thick, crusty bread— the entire ensemble made her mouth water.

It was just as good as it smelled.

“What are these?” Bo asked, curious, as he inspected the golden brown and crunchy… Thing.

“Hash browns, they’re made from Earth apples from Yellow Rock Plateau.” Master Jin said.

Chyou had heard of these “Earth apples” before. There had been some attempts at importing them, but they had been unpopular although she supposed that they hadn’t been cooked like this.

She glanced at her brother, and he gave her a quiet signal with his eyes. Another object to look into. It would be added to the vast pile of work they would have. Still, this was breakfast… and grandmother so loathed work at breakfast.

Instead, Chyou simply savoured the food, taking her time until Wa Shi slapped his fins on the table suddenly, catching her attention.

‘Try the reeds upon the bread.’ the carp recommended, using his strange appendages to put a rather stringy looking collection of reeds on her plate. They didn’t look wholly appetizing, if Chyou was honest, but Master Jin was distracted by Tigu braiding the girl’s orange hair.

With nothing to rescue her from her predicament, she took the reeds. One did not refuse a Spirit Beast lightly, or so she assumed. Honestly, there was no real standard etiquette for dealing with the creatures, other than to “run”. Rarely was a spirit beast aware enough to have a conversation with.

The reeds were placed onto the bread. The stringy, damp reeds, yet Chyou was trapped. She hesitated for a moment, then took a bite. She chewed… And then her eyes widened as the flavour hit her tongue.

“...what other manner of reeds go well with this bread?” she asked him.

The fish stared back at her, somehow managing to smile proudly.

‘Little Sister Chyou—let Wa Shi recount to you his discoveries.’

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“By the heavens, that's got a kick!” Bo exclaimed, looking at the clear liquid after taking a generous sip of it. Chyou too sipped it politely, firmly keeping the disgust from showing on her face. The drink burned on the way down most unpleasantly but Bo seemed like he was a fan. He would know his spirits, she had never been much for them.

Chyou looked up instead, focusing on the copper edifice, her eyes taking in its curves. It looked so simple… yet, it had produced this. The amount of copper in it was large, but once production started, each individual contraption would be much cheaper than any pill furnace. It would certainly be another sound investment… if Master Jin allowed them to use the blueprints to reproduce them. He seemed easy going but there was always the chance he could take offense especially if they took without asking. Chyou knew they could likely wait and ask him for permission for his secrets another time. For now just the rice would do. A good merchant had to know when to quit when they were ahead.

The tour of Master Jin’s home was an odd mixture of utterly mundane and completely fantastical. The simple looking fields were contrasted with these tools of industry. There were machines here that put Pale Moon Lake City’s industrial districts to shame in some respects. The glass in particular was a wonder. It was of a quality Chyou rarely saw—only Grandmother had pieces that were comparable, yet she had always seemed sad when she looked at them calling them “the last remnants of a place that was no more”.

Despite how much space the various projects took up, the farm was still enormous, and Master Jin was using barely any of the leftover space. There were the buildings of the main house, on the island between two rivers, along with a large red barn. There was Gou Ren and the Young Mistress of the Misty Lake Sect’s smaller, yet no less impressive, home complete with glass windows across the river and atop a hill. Near the hill and the forest Master Jin had beehives, another wonder to ask about, as well as several large storage buildings. The guest house was on the other side of the river, headed away from the road. They had traveled to the still, bordering the smaller of the two rivers.

She shook herself out of her reflections, and turned back to Lady Meiling, paying attention to her host as she made a considering sound.

“It's not made just for drinking.” Lady Meiling clarified. “The alcohol, when refined properly, has a powerful disinfecting property.”

“What do the doctors in the capital use to clean their tools, anyway?” Master Jin asked, turning away from her brother for a moment, sounding curious.

Chyou had the answer ready.

“Water and soap for the most part, but some use an expensive alchemic solution—though this is rather rare due to the ingredients.” She explained. “There are also some scholars who believe that it may have adverse effects, but the discussion is ongoing. I am inclined to agree with them, however. Doctor Shenlong had a treatise on the subject that was convincing—” Chyou paused, wondering if she had spoken too much, but Lady Meiling just seemed intrigued.

“You’ve read the scrolls you gave us?” she asked.

“Ah, yes, and the doctors do like to talk, Lady Meiling. I don’t think they thought I could understand most of what they were talking about, but I did read most of the texts I prepared for Master Jin, to make sure there was no duplicate information…” She ventured. It had taken a fairly long time to read through most of it, reviewing the quality, and performing a quick check to see if the scrolls truly were the right ones.

Soon, however, they wrapped up their time at the still. Master Jin currently wasn’t interested in selling the drink, which left Bo disappointed. He said there were too many kinks to work out. Though he seemed to hint that things might change in the future.

So they trekked across the grass and towards what looked like a house made of glass. Master Jin had explained it to her in the city… yet it was something else to see it partially completed. It would truly be a marvel when it was done, as her mind conjured images of lush greenery, even in the depths of winter.

While he showed Bo around, Lady Meiling paused and signalled to Chyou to step to the side.

“I never did get to thank you, for the medical texts.” Lady Meiling finally said. The shorter woman smiled up at her. “They were an enormous help.”

“It was my pleasure, Lady Meiling.” Chyou said with a little bow. It had been an interesting task, all told.

“We should trade letters, you and I.” Meiling continued. “It would be nice to hear tales of the city and how the preparations are going for your expedition.”

Chyou looked back at the freckle faced woman. She had spent the day watching as was proper, learning the patterns of how this strange group of people interacted. Every instinct within her told her a contact with Master Jin’s wife would be worth quite a bit. That, and hopefully she could ensure the woman wouldn’t bear any grudges, for both her brother’s slip ups…. and her own grandmother’s machinations. Best to have a cordial relationship, before such things were brought up.If there was one lesson she had taken from the day it was this, if she was to succeed as she hoped, it was best not to underestimate anyone. Who knew where a kind offer would lead?

“Of course, Lady Meiling.” Chyou replied as they continued the tour.

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It was always fun showing off your house and seeing the impressed faces of people as they looked at what you had built. I’ll admit, I was proud of it.

From the drop hammer to the beginnings of the greenhouse, Noodle finally seemed to have gotten a mix in the glass he was happy with.

It kind of really puts things into perspective, you know. Going through the progress of the farm before winter hits and seeing the visible, tangible growth. My stores had been pretty full last year— but now I had dedicated buildings and warehouses that looked like an entire army of people had filled. The village of Hong Yaowu in its entirety hadn’t produced as much as I did, and I didn’t use a quarter of the land for rice as them.

Two years in and I could picture many more to come.

My guests were appropriately curious. Bo and Chyou wanted to know everything—and while yeah, they were motivated by profit and wanted to market everything new I put out… well, I didn’t mind that too much.

Everything comes to an end though. The siblings couldn’t stay much longer on account of the long journey south, and so soon enough we packed up the cart and bid them farewells, though Chyou had looked flabbergasted when Washy had given her one of his scales.

The woman thanked him awkwardly before she settled in on her horse.

Chunky saw them off, carrying the massive cartful of rice for them back to Verdant Hill, while they would take it the rest of the way back. The Guan siblings’ horses marched along with him down the road and back to the town.

Taking a breath I sighed, letting the crisp, cold air fill my lungs. We had perhaps a month, maybe half that, before winter truly set in.

I waved at Yun Ren, as he wandered down from the hill he had climbed up, stretching and looking disheveled and sweaty. Despite his beat up look he seemed to be in a good mood.

Everyone was, really.I couldn’t help staring around the farm, at everybody’s smiling faces and their carefree expressions.

It warmed my heart knowing that I had created a place where all of them could be happy.

I let my Qi flow out of my body as I relaxed, giving back to this wonderful place.My heaven on earth.

===========================

A little girl pounded reeds into fiber. Each motion slow and full of fatigue, as golden cracks in her body shimmered.

She was tired. So tired.

The rock came up, then down it slammed into reeds, trying to make them into an uncomfortable bedding.

There was a final slam, and she started to pant, turning to the hole in the ground.

She had barely made any progress.

She opened her mouth, to ask for help—

Hands grasping tearing help me helpmewhyarent you helping me?!

Her mouth clicked shut.

Wearily she raised the rock once more.

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Editors:

Massgamer

Ayje

Brandon “Philosophysics” Zhang-LeongOshi