act31side

Never thought I would be helping the Sui Regulator clean up their mess... I'll do it this once. Won't happen again.

Wh-Where are we? Tianshi Arts? Who could be so powerful?

Look!

The sky's clearing up...

Sigh...

Everyone's exhausted. Dahuang can't afford another disaster.

I suppose this qualifies as extenuating circumstances.

Phew...

Go away.

A breeze sweeps across the land.

Vast expanses of farmland undulate like breathing, cutting the surging torrent into smaller streams that flow along planned routes.

Standing on the edge of the plate, the lucky stockbeast watches the flood subside, then digs out a patch of clean grass with its nose and begins to eat.

The sun shines through the clouds, upon a land that has survived disaster—barely.

Plates A-9 through C-3 successfully moved. All accumulated water is now being drained.

End of report.

What is the extent of the damage?

Varying levels of pollution on Plates A-9 through B-3. Less impact to the other plates, but further inspections are called for.

Crops from polluted fields must be disposed of. The summer harvest will be significantly impacted, on top of a year that has already seen disappointing results.

Almost a year of the people's hard work washed away... will there be enough to fill this year's quota?

How many will go hungry?

There will be enough, thanks to the efforts of countless generations.

But we can't afford another surprise.

This is bigger than just Dahuang. We must report to the capital and coordinate food supplies across all of Yan.

Yumen is closest to Dahuang, but it was also struck by Catastrophe earlier this year. Repairs are still ongoing, and it's unlikely they could spare anyone.

Indeed. The Ministry of Works indicates that Catastrophe frequency has been rising in recent years.

This has been a bad year...

Dahuang is already the country's biggest food producer. We can't ask for aid from other cities.

Plate repairs can wait. Dahuang's first priority is food production. There are still many experimental fields close to bearing fruit that have not yet been moved to safer plates...

We'll need to delay work on the Twelve Pagodas and Five Cities. We need to bring back the Tianshis who were reassigned there to save the remaining farms and grain.

We can't afford to delay the summer planting.

I understand your difficulties, but can we not discuss a delay of the Twelve Pagodas and Five Cities?

Food is important, of course, but the Twelve Pagodas and Five Cities is also an important national defense project. The imperial court has reason to order it completed by autumn. We must consider the benefits and drawbacks carefully.

You want to consider it carefully, you'll write to the capital, have the Council of Ministers meet for ten days, and come back to us with a result.

A food shortfall doesn't mean people pay a few more coins to buy their grain.

It means that many thousands will go hungry.

How many will be driven from their homes if there is a war?

Never forget where the Twelve Pagodas and Five Cities project came from.

Across the river...

You know it's more than that.

Beyond the issue with demons, there is—

Excuse me.

This is not the right time or place for this topic.

Watch your words.

Gai si.

It's not easy to quantify benefits and drawbacks, but our priority is clear.

The summer harvest and planting involve years of research and food for millions. There can be no delay.

We should ask the Tianshis to help inspect and repair affected areas. This is our immediate priority.

As for the schedule of the Twelve Pagodas and Five Cities, I'll request instructions from the Tianshi Bureaus in the name of the Ministry of Rites. Perhaps something can be done, with the help of the Chamber of Heaven's Designs.

I'll take responsibility if the imperial court determines that the matter was not properly handled.

Well, if they want to chop someone's head off, they can make it mine. Just say I put a sword to the Assistant Minister's neck here. You stay out of this.

How do we get anything done, if we're already talking about responsibility before we've gotten any work done?

It's the people of Yan who will pay the price for a mistake. We're merely three insignificant specimens thereof.

If both of you insist... I will defer to your decision.

I ask that you remember the promises you just made.

Hmph.

No problem. Everything goes well, everyone's happy. Things go wrong, you can pin it all on me.

Er, that's not what I meant. All I meant to say is that, given the urgency of the situation, it would be prudent to communicate with the Chamber of Heaven's Designs—

I most certainly concur. I will draft a detailed report for Assistant Minister Ning to deliver to the Chamber.

I'll need to prepare for that. I take my leave.

Excuse me, ladies—eh.

Ugh.

Well, at least my Ministry of Works won't be taking the fall.

Let's hope the supplies arrive on time.

Kick and roll... kick and roll...

Grain Buds absent-mindedly kicks the dirt in the fields.

The lumps roll haphazardly, while Grain Buds walks with her head bowed, swinging wild grass that she picked from the roadside.

Wonder how long the power outage might last this time. It's so hot, and the stockbeasts are scared. Disease could spread too...

They're not eating or sleeping. Are they comfortable in their new home?

Xiaohe, too. Haven't seen him at dinner for days. Doesn't he know that he needs to rest when tired? He's dumber than a burdenbeast...

The weather is getting worse each year, and the crops don't grow well...

Has Shennong really abandoned this land?

She winds the grass around her finger, then rolls it up.

She makes a motion to throw it, then she remembers how Shu weaved the grass into a foal with a few deft movements of her fingers.

Shu could make so many things if I brought this grass back. But she's so busy, and even Candlestick is nowhere to be seen.

I guess I should bring some more back and weave it up. Maybe it'll make them happier.

And where the heck is Mianmian?

Grain Buds lifts her feet and kicks a piece of dirt hard.

It hits a rice stalk, spins, and comes to a stop.

Splat.

It leaves no mark on the rice stalk.

A flood.

The crops in the fields bow their heads, just like everyone has.

Only a single rice plant stands tall in the carnage.

It holds its grains high and proud, almost in scorn of everything else that has fallen, as though it has absorbed the lifeforce of everything around it.

When everything else goes dark, it alone blooms bright like life.

Grain Buds could not resist reaching out to touch it.

It is bright red.

A burdenbeast strolls by the edge of the paddies, the sun shining upon it.

It is bright red too.

Here at last.

The tired one closes her reddened eyes.

The river has drowned her mouth, the mud glued her eyes shut. Trees and weeds sway lifelessly in the wind, and she tries her hardest to identify the sound.

Sigh...

She brushes her hand against a fallen seedling, and it stands back up in the mud, enervated.

She closes her eyes. The river flows past her hair, and the roots of the trees are like lines on her palm.

There was a time, many years ago, when Catastrophes were frequent as they are now...

There was nothing I could do. I watched as rice ready for harvest fell in the fields, leaving nothing but a tiny patch that could barely fill a single bag.

You said to me, your face full of mud, that there was nothing to worry about. Keep at it, year after year, and it will come.

There were no wrinkles on your face back then.

And you weren't Shennong yet.