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So I got back into it.

I carried water to the bathhouse and refilled our bamboo drinking containers. Gramps tended to use the water up. He really seemed to enjoy a good soak and had taken to getting smacked with leaves with gusto.

I chopped wood for my building projects and planted trees for the future in areas I didn’t want to be thinned. While I worked, I carried my son on my back, showing him the seeds I was covering with soil. His little hands reached for them curiously—babies usually couldn’t see well, as young as he was, but I still wanted him to learn a little of what I did.

I reduced more boulders to gravel and cobble to use in experimenting with my concrete. Huo Ten actually sat around watching as I worked, bringing different dirt samples to me to see which one made the most stable compound, his eyes alight with interest.

With Gou Ren, Yun Ren, and the rest of our eclectic looking family, I sowed the seeds that would feed us, my heart and soul focused on the task that I had decided to dedicate my life to. Lu Ri, who was staying with us now, normally watched from the sidelines asking questions about how I planted things and why I decided to do what I did.

I answered them all, of course, as best I could. We cut quite the pair—a pristine, textbook cultivator, talking to a farmer with worn hands covered in dirt and a chicken on his shoulder chiming in with his own wisdom.

At night, we played board games, cards, and mahjong. I’ll freely admit I lost more than I won, but a few people started getting too big for their britches.

So I introduced Risk.

The board ended up getting thrown in the fire after the first game, but only after the Empire of Jin swept through everything before it.

For some reason people kept expecting me to hold to my word… even after I backstabbed the last three people who I made deals with. The look on Xiulan’s face when I conquered the Verdant Kingdom after swearing I would help her was absolutely priceless. The only person who gave me a real challenge was Xianghua—and she too fell to my wrath.

Hey. I play wargames for keeps. This calm, fair, and mild-mannered every day persona is just a ruse!

Other than games, we had other entertainment. With no TV or radio, you had to sing your own songs and make up your own stories. We used the pipa, my banjo, and the flute Gramps brought out that he was really, really good at playing. He had never shown me that when I was learning from him but I took the opportunity to listen now.

And then tune out him and Meimei trying to compose a new song about a farmer and his fair maiden.

Most days I followed a routine of work in the morning then downtime in the evening and night, the most important part of it all was taking care of my son. It was still kind of surreal, being a dad. Although it was way, way less work than I had been expecting, between never really getting tired and how many people were around to lend a hand.

I even got to have a date night with Meimei, up on our rock, with just the two of us. We came back to Gramps and Tigu taking turns to make funny faces at Little D, who hadn’t missed us at all.

Time passed. Most days, Lu Ri went back to Verdant Hill to pal around with the Lord Magistrate. Babe went off to help on the road; Hong Yaowu got used to their new normal, as they started up the new farming techniques Gou Ren was teaching them. It was pretty fulfilling, watching everybody doing the inter-row tilling using the tilling machines Bowu had made. They were still powered by hand—no steam yet—but our Misty Young Master was out in the fields, already one of the villagers.

He and Ty An did bicker like a married couple whenever he was in Yao Che’s forge, though. There was a bet to see if they would either try to beat each other up… or sneak off behind Yao Che’s shed for a different kind of physical activity.

Today, though, was different. Today I got the message I had been waiting for. It was time to reap what I sowed and make a little cash.

The Guan siblings were back. Bo and Chyou had better be prepared for a big old shipment of maple syrup!

“I’ll be back soon, love.”

Meiling kissed me, grinning. “Have a good time,” she said as she pulled back, our son on her hip, and her smile turned vicious. “Remember, city folk are for ripping off.”

I laughed, promised to heed her advice, and collected another kiss on the way out the door.

I set out with Chunky on the cart and Washy in his jar. The dragon was surprisingly enthusiastic about seeing the merchants again. He’d spent the morning preparing several of his newest experiments for Chyou to try out. Our great dishwasher had a particular fondness for sandwiches of all things—and today his piece de resistance was a super-scuffed kind of egg salad sandwich.

Honestly? It was pretty good.

I was all prepared for a day of talking business with two merchants when I arrived in Verdant Hill, walking through the door to the newly constructed Azure Jade Trading Post. It was warm and inviting, being fully furnished now, not just the shell it had been last year. I must have made a strange sight with a fish jar in my arms and a boar trotting beside me.

I was expecting Bo and Chyou to greet me, and yeah, they were there, but what I wasn’t as prepared for was three young men to be lined up with them, with a familiar, fluffy-haired girl off to the side.

“We pay our respects to Master Jin!” Rags, Loud Boy, and Handsome Man chorused, and I raised an eyebrow at them.

I had said they could come over, and Tigu had been writing to them, so I probably should have expected this. Rags looked as scuffed as always, but Loud Boy—Wei, looked a lot better than he had looked when we left. His back was straight and his eyes were full of life.

“You managed to fix your cultivation?” I asked the kid after we’d done our greetings—well, honestly, he wasn’t that much younger than me. None of them were.

“Yes, Master Jin!” Loud Boy said, his grin widening. His pride was clear.

I studied them all for a moment, these boys who had come to Tigu’s defense, and smiled.

“Listen, I’m going to be here for a while, so how's about you boys head on down the north road. I’m sure Tigu’er will be happy to see you.”

“We can just…?” Handsome Man ventured, seeming a bit surprised I was just letting them come over.

In my mind, they had proved themselves and then some. Besides, these were Tigu’s friends. That made them welcome twice over.

There was a look of excitement in their eyes, but Rags shook his head. “We’re supposed to guard Miss Biyu as well—”

A muted squeal of joy pulled our attention to the other guest I was sure we were going to have—the only one who couldn’t run back to our place under her own power. Biyu was crouched over Chunky, who was laying on his back. She had her face and fingers buried in the fur on his stomach, scratching away while his leg kicked.

“Oh heavens, you’re much cuter than the images Yun recorded! I’m going to make you the most dapper hats and cloaks and eeeeeeeee!”

“Yeah, go on, boys. I doubt Biyu will mind sticking around for a while.”

When she heard her name, Biyu glanced up from her position… and then started to turn tomato red from her neck to her scalp. She coughed, then pulled up her weird gas mask thing and pulled her hood over her face.

“Master Jin,” she said stiffly. “Mengde’s Crystal Emporium pays their respects; my masters have sent me to apprise yourself and Honoured Customer Yun Ren of recent developments.”

Well. There certainly wouldn’t be any shortage of interesting things to see to this year, would there?

I was rather intrigued by the stuff Biyu had to show me, but I’d have to contain my curiosity until we were home and Yun Ren’s beau was all set up.

Of course, only after I collected his parents as well.

Yun Ren deserved his time in the hot seat—and it wasn’t like Hu Li and Ten Ren would be mean to her. Biyu had that lost, fluffy creature look down pat. So, while Biyu went off with Chunky to explore the town, I sat down with my merchant friends.

Last year had apparently been very good to them, as I got a bunch of paperwork detailing their exploits. I knew markups were pretty nuts, but some of the prices? Holy shit. And the bidding wars. Honestly, it did make me feel like I should have asked for a higher price… but, well, there were other things to this arrangement that would hopefully make up for it.

“So, have you found anything interesting?” I asked as we finished going over the financial charts.

“Of course, Master Jin.” Guan Bo said as he took me into the next room, where a bunch of sacks and pots were waiting. “Our Azure Jade Trading Company has been hard at work fulfilling your requests. We have leveraged our contacts in Yellow Rock Plateau to their fullest, and we anticipate by the end of summer we will have inroads into the Howling Fang Mountains and Green Stone Forest.”

That got my attention as they brought out seeds and plants. Quite a few of them had seen better days, but even so…

There were a bunch of strange looking medicinal plants and mushrooms for Meimei. There were a bunch of rice and wheat strains that I could mess around with. Berry seeds made up another chunk, along with dried potatoes. But the thing that really caught my eye were the bags of kernels from Yellow Rock Plateau.

Again and again, the province seemed to be analogous to the mountains of Central America. And this time, in addition to potatoes, they had the last of a trinity—corn.

Of course, it wasn’t the modern yellow stuff. There were three varieties: one that was a dark blue black about the size of a fingernail, one the size of a knuckle and almost translucent, and a pink one in between the two sizes. Pink! It looked so interesting!

“It's mostly used as animal feed, I’m told,” Bo said with a shrug, “but some people grind it up into flour. As you can see, you don’t get much from it, but you did say anything and everything.”

With this, I had another piece of what I had been looking for. The Three Sisters. Corn to form a trestle for the climbing beans. Climbing beans to fix nitrogen into the soil. Squashes to shade the ground and prevent evaporation of moisture from the soil.

“This is the best deal I’ve ever made,” I mumbled to myself. Both of the merchants perked up even more at that. “Keep up the good work.”

The Guan siblings bowed, before we got to the last point: the expedition, where we reconvened in the main meeting room.

“A good portion of this expedition isn’t really exploring,” Chyou explained. “We have many safe ports mapped out, as well as places we can go for resupply, thanks to the Archives. Some of the maps are several years or even decades out of date, but we devised a workaround using a transmission stone relay. It's quite expensive to send messages that far, and it took over a month for everything to be transmitted there and back—but we’ve managed to narrow down which towns still at least exist. One of the cities, Diamond Shoal City, was destroyed ten years ago by some manner of giant wave, but the city has since been rebuilt in another location. One we’re… not entirely certain of, but the men of the Wave Piercer Trading Company seem to be confident in their ability to find it.”

“And they’re fine with loaning out their ships?” I asked.

“There were some concessions, but they’re amenable to working with us in exchange for some of the products we’re selling. Gold Grade Rice… it opens quite a few doors that would otherwise remain shut.”

I nodded. I had been a bit worried that in my haste to have new flavours, I may have asked something completely and utterly unreasonable of Chyou. The woman had proven herself and taken it as a challenge, full steam ahead.

And judging by the look in Washy’s eyes, as Chyou ate her egg salad sandwich with gusto, she would likely have a tag along as well.

What better to guard some ships than a dragon?

“Man, Master Jin is a pretty laid back guy,” Tie Delun heard Rags say as they ran along the road. “We gotta have a drink with him. Bet he has all sorts of awesome stories where he kicks everybody’s asses!”

“Maybe we’ll get to hear some of them! Master Jin was so busy last time; maybe he’ll impart some wisdom to us, eh?” Loud Boy enthused.

Delun kept quiet, even though he privately agreed.

Honestly, despite the horror of seeing these two bastards crashing his visit to Tigu, they hadn’t been that bad. It had actually been rather good to see that Loud Boy had repaired his cultivation. He may have been a rival, but Loud Boy had been ready to give his life in the defense of his comrades. Same with Rags, and that deserved some respect.

They were their normal, boisterous selves that Delun didn’t particularly know how to handle, but he didn’t miss their attentiveness to their work. It was surprising that the two vagabonds had such a prestigious assignment, though. Guan Chyou was apparently Master Jin’s woman—and Biyu was some bigshot in the Crystal Emporium, coming to deliver to Master Jin a prototype.

What could Delun do after that but offer his services as the Young Master of the Hermetic Iron Sect? They were, after all, heading in the same direction, and while Delun could have stolen a march on the other two, that would just be dishonourable. Especially if Miss Guan and Miss Biyu came under threat from anything. He never would have been able to forgive himself.

He shook his head, dismissing the last of his thoughts, as they passed by a village. It was a quaint, quiet place—if one had merely mortal eyes. Delun knew his sensing abilities were not the best, but there was something going on with the little village.

And…

“Does the air here feel weird to you?” he asked his companions.

Rags and Loud Boy both paused in their inane nattering to consider Delun’s question.

“You noticed it too?” Loud Boy said surprisingly.

“It's gettin’ a little hard to breathe. Like the air is thick.” Rags observed.

Delun took a deep breath, letting the air settle in his lungs. It felt thick. Strange

. Invigorating, but at the same time… almost like he had to be a bit careful not to get drunk on it.

As soon as he thought that, the feeling faded, as the spring breeze blew. He could swear that he could hear an amused chuckle on the wind.

Delun set the odd feeling aside. It obviously wasn’t anything harmful.They travelled past the village and through a forest until they came to what Delun assumed they were looking for.

A fence and a gate, upon which were two signs. A maple leaf… and a warning that would be utterly hilarious if one were not personally acquainted with the chicken who would most assuredly defeat him without blinking.

All three of them paused before the gate.

“So, do we just walk in or—” Rags started, before he was cut off by a strident female voice.

“Halt! Who goes there!” a voice demanded, and all of them froze. There was an explosion of motion as a young woman landed on top of one of the fence posts, her eyes gleaming.

The world started to fall away as Tie Delun looked at Tigu and her bright, enthusiastic smile. There was no strain this time. No little frown or any sort of tenseness. Her sharp eyes gazed down on them all, and her smile spread across her face.

“What’s good, Tigu?” Delun heard Rags say from beside him, but he only had eyes for Tigu.

“Rags! Loud Boy! Handsome Man!” she shouted joyously as she leapt straight from the top of the post and wrapped them all in a hug.

And just like that, putting up with Rags and Loud Boy was suddenly all worth it.

Delun was still in a daze as Tigu led them through the gates and towards the manor on an island between two rivers. The air smelled sweet; there was a gentle chime in his ears to accompany the bees. He felt like the few times he had gotten drunk, as she looked them all over content with their health.

“Come in, come in!” Tigu demanded as they reached the door, the girl half dragging them onwards. “I need to get you all tea, and introduce you to everybody! Mistress! Mistress! We have guests!” Tigu called, and the words snapped Delun out of his daze.

He only hoped she was of similar disposition to her husband—Master Jin was benevolent and generous!

“Oh? We have more guests?” a voice from further in asked. Delun finished taking off his boots, before entering the house proper, and saw who was waiting there.

The woman was quite short—she would come up to perhaps the middle of Delun’s chest, and sitting as she was on a couch, she seemed even smaller. She had a babe cradled in her arms. She, like him, had an unfortunate amount of freckles on her face, but Delun could never call her ugly—Tigu thought the blemishes were handsome, and he was getting better at ignoring the insults himself. No, she was quite the stately woman. She looked like a sheathed blade; sharpness that was currently concealed.

Her gentle amethyst eyes roved over them all, and Delun stepped forward, ready to make a good first impression. He collapsed his hands and bowed low.

“This Tie Delun, Young Master of the Hermetic Iron Sect, pays his utmost respects to Lady Meiling.”

The other two miscreants started and approached as well, bowing politely.

“My, my, such polite boys!” The woman said, clearly amused. “Well, come in, I’ve heard much about you. Thank you for taking care of my girl.”

Lady Meiling bowed in return, and Delun felt himself calm further.

“If it pleases you, Lady Meiling, I have with me the best our sect has to offer. I understand you use many tools for your healing, and I would give you these for allowing this Delun into your home.” he said while presenting a wrapped buddle.

From the strangled noises of Loud Boy and Rags, they didn’t have gifts. Lady Meiling gently set her son down on the couch and rose, accepting the gift.

“Thank you. I humbly receive this gift,” She said, completing the words for the ritual that meant they truly were well-received.

Everything was going fantastically! Delun smiled brightly at the small woman.

“Tigu, be a dear and go prepare some tea for our guests,” Lady Meiling commanded. “And get some of the sweets from the cupboard.”

“Yes!” Tigu called and shot off into the back with a smile on her face. It was a little surprising that they had no servant to prepare the tea for them… but honestly? It fit the rough and tumble girl to take care of herself. He kind of couldn’t imagine Tigu in a dress. It would be wrong for her not to be wild and free.

Tea, prepared by Tigu. His life was complete.

Lady Meiling got them seated at the table, her smile never wavering.

“I appreciate everything you all did in looking after her,” the woman began conversationally. Her words were sweet—like the worst kind of poison. Delun suddenly felt fear fill his heart, as Lady Meiling’s eyes sharpened into swords, and her intent gently settled along their shoulders. “But that is another matter than this. Now. What are your intentions for my Tigu?”

Her voice never wavered from its calm tone. Her body language never shifted.

And yet, she went from a diminutive mother to a vicious hell beast ready to drown him in a thousand poisons.

Delun came to a sudden realization about why Master Jin was so relaxed and permissive around Tigu.

The woman who was undoubtedly Tigu’s mother was terrifying enough for both of them.