act31side

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.

So many years have passed. Why is the dream still so distant?

The earth beneath her feet undulates like her breathing, as though there is a warm heart deep below that continues to beat, slowly and heavily.

Now its shallow footsteps become recognizable.

Hm...?

The rumble of motor vehicles, only heard once every few months.

Caravans from afar deliver new supplies, new things, and news from other places, bringing some excitement to the life of monotonous labor in Dahuang.

It does not take long for the dust cloud to close the distance, and a figure comes down from the lead vehicle.

He is wearing a light, spotless shirt, and wind and smoke follow him for ten thousand li.

You're back.

Long time no see.

My dear sister.

My dear sister.

Traveling with the gentleman has taught me that the lands beyond are very different from Dahuang. Humans have invented many new things in just a few decades.

There are all kinds of cities in Yan, more than just fields as far as the eye can see. There are glamorous palaces and busy markets, and so many more fascinating things.

I'm just coming back for a little break. Then I'll go out on a long journey again. I don't know how many years it will be.

Dahuang isn't the backwater hovel it once was. There are many people who can take care of these fields for you. Are you sure you don't want to go and see with me?

I realized that the world outside isn't so different from Dahuang after all.

How long has it been? Decades? Centuries? Perspectives change.

The more you see, the more you realize that people are the same everywhere. Devious, but predictable.

Yes. Now I fully understand what the gentleman said before he died.

Just how long do you plan to stay here, my dear sister?

Wei—

Why do you still shut your self away like this? It took us so much effort to get you out of that hill. Shu's not here. Wanna go for a walk with me?

There's nothing new here, but the produce is on another level compared the agricultural plates in the other cities. Say, have you seen how they make booze out of grain yet?

Ugh.

Did the Tianshi Bureaus come looking for trouble?

I'm not afraid of the Tianshi Bureaus!

I'm just... I...

With skills like that, you should be dealing with that big guy outside who refuses to move.

All the Tianshis are out there for the relief effort. What can I do on my own? It's not like I could do it with my own two hands...

I'm so bored! C'mon, lemme see what you're drawing...

No!

Oh, don't be like that. I could give you ideas, if you've got art block or whatever.

Get, out—

Why so nervous? Looks like you're hiding something.

No I'm not. Something's just bothering me.

The folks at the Tianshi Bureaus might be annoying, but they can't actually do anything about you. The imperial court has already given us a guarantee. The worst they could do is complain.

So you're bothered about... <i>him.</i>

I can feel his presence. He never hides. Are you sure you don't want to go and see him? We're family, after all.

No.

Wow, you really are cold... I heard how he always brought you the best paintings of the era whenever he passed by your hill. Don't pretend you didn't like them.