The course of Song Ruyi's life was clear as day.
Before she was sixteen, she was only the daughter of an herb gatherer.
Because of the dangers of the wilds, herb gatherers earned generously. Some of the old ones, having learned the movement trails of the mountain beasts, the fierce beasts, and even the demonic beasts, wandered the hills as freely as if strolling through their own garden.
But an accident came all the same. Her father, fleeing a fierce beast that had suddenly crossed its bounds, tumbled from the mountain and broke both his legs.
Song Ruyi had no way out, so she had to go to the herb shop where her father had long sold his wares, to beg the owner for some silver to seek treatment for her father.
Her father used to say that the Jiang Family Apothecary dealt most fairly. And so she carried with her a faint, desperate hope.
But to her surprise, the master Jiang actually agreed.
To repay the debt, she went to work at the Jiang Family Apothecary.
Jiang Chang not only did not press her wages; every few days, he sent a little something for her crippled old father.
Little by little, she came to understand Jiang Chang's intention.
Toward Jiang Chang, she felt nothing but gratitude — but to call it love was something else entirely.
It did not matter, though. She did not know what love was, after all.
She decided to marry Jiang Chang.
To be entirely frank, the match still counted as rising above her station.
Jiang Chang was in the prime of his life, owning no small amount of property — a leading figure of Phoenix Creek Town. Though he still had a son left by his dead wife, quite a few young women were willing to marry into the Jiang family.
And she was only the daughter of an herb gatherer.
Jiang Chang was delighted, but they could not marry at once, because his son objected.
One rarely heard of a marriage requiring the son's consent, yet the Jiang family was indeed an exception.
Song Ruyi understood that Jiang Chang was a man who knew how to respect others. He respected his son's thoughts, just as he respected her own.
In all the time they had spent together, although he had grown fond of her, he had never once made things difficult for her.
Song Ruyi had seen Jiang Chang's son. The boy was clean-featured and clever, if a little stubborn.
At first he used to run to the herb shop and would even talk with her. Later, when he learned of the two of them, he never came again.
With the marriage stalled, Song Ruyi could not quite say whether she felt relieved or disappointed.
Perhaps both.
The turning point came with an accident.
One day, passing the little river outside Phoenix Creek Town, she saw the boy flailing in the water. Terrified, she cried out for help at the top of her voice. The commotion drew townsfolk passing by, and the boy was pulled from the river.
After that, the boy no longer opposed them.
And so she became Jiang Chang's second wife, the stepmother of Jiang Chen.
The marriage seemed a happy one. Jiang Chang treated her extremely well and personally provided for her aged father. Even the funeral for her father, later on, was handled entirely by Jiang Chang, sparing her a single ounce of worry.
Though Jiang Chen was not close to her, neither did he hold her in enmity. Especially later, when he threw himself into cultivation and no longer spent much time at home.
After she gave birth to Jiang An'an, she felt that perhaps life was like this — and this was good enough.
But fortune is fickle. Jiang Chang fell gravely ill. He had sold medicines his whole life, yet fallen sick with a disease beyond the reach of any medicine. He could only drag out the time, living one day at a time.
She tended him day and night without unbinding her clothes, as if repaying all the care she had once received.
Later, Jiang Chang said he would stop treatment. The family had little money left, and he wanted to leave it for her and Jiang An'an.
At that, Song Ruyi asked him, weeping, what was to become of Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chang said, with no small pride, that his son was capable — that he would live very well indeed even if his father left him not a single thing.
Afterward, Jiang Chang died.
Jiang Chen was admitted to the Maple City Academy and almost never came back.
She had thought the rest of her life would go on like that — tending the apothecary, watching over Jiang An'an, waiting for her to grow up and become an adult.
Until she met Lin Zhenglun, a young man of graceful bearing and excellent family.
Well-spoken and highly capable, he kept the people beneath him in perfect order.
Song Ruyi was smitten.
Without a doubt, she fell in love with him. For the first time in her life, she felt love's burning heat, love's madness, love's reckless disregard for all else.
She abandoned everything to follow him.
Not only that.
She discarded everything that might possibly "interfere" with their love — including Jiang An'an.
And she carried away everything that aided their love — including the Jiang family's property.
She married into Riverview City.
She rushed heedlessly into marriage in Riverview City — and was it for a time such as this, a scene such as this?
In the empty courtyard, upon the ice-cold ground, Song Ruyi felt her heart... go out.
...
...
On the road back to Maple City, Jiang Chen learned the full details of the great purge of Jade Balance.
"So — who was that mysterious strong one on Jade Balance? Were the fierce beasts on the mountain truly connected to Zhuang Ting?"
Zhao Yan said coldly: "The first question, I do not know. As for the second — is the answer not obvious?"
"Enough." Li Yun said. "Let this matter end here. Discuss it no more."
As the senior brother, he had to cut the topic short. It was his responsibility to those present.
If something unsuitable were to be said abroad afterward, all their futures would be finished.
Jiang Chen found it hard to accept.
The State of Zhuang was his homeland, and barring accidents, its sovereign Zhuang Ting was the one he would one day serve. Yet was not the domain of the Three Mountain City the soil of the State of Zhuang? Were not the folk of the Three Mountain City subjects of the State of Zhuang?
What kind of thing was it, that the Three Mountain City domain had been sacrificed for so many years? Two successive city lords, the husband dead and the wife succeeding him, exhausting nearly everything — only to be forced back at the final pass?
What manner of great secret was it, that the victims were not even granted the right to know, that those who sacrificed did not know why they had sacrificed?
The discussiondied there in silence.
These pride of the Dao Academy, heaven's favored elites, were beginning, little by little, to feel the weight of reality.
Back in Maple City, they each went their separate ways.
Only Zhao Yan lingered before parting to give Jiang Chen a careful warning — to keep that Cloud Command Token well hidden.
For Ye Qingyu's background was intimidating beyond measure.
She was the beloved daughter of Ye Ling, the lord of the Lingxiao Pavilion — a pearl among pearls.
And the Lingxiao Pavilion.
That was the very foundation upon which the so-called State of Yun existed.
The Lingxiao Pavilion was an extremely mysterious sect, with its seat in Cloud City.
At first it had been but a gathering of mortals who survived under the Pavilion's protection. As the years accumulated, it grew, and eventually became a nation.
With Cloud City as its capital, the leaders of several great powers joined in governance, ruling by joint council.
Amid the international situation of contending lords, the State of Yun remained steadfastly neutral — and gave birth to an exceedingly flourishing commerce.
It was how, for instance, Fang Zesheng had secured his position as master of the Fang clan: by opening a new trade route to the State of Yun.
As for the Lingxiao Pavilion itself.
It did not rule the State of Yun, nor did it concern itself with what the folk of Yun believed or did. But this mighty sect was the fundamental support by which the State of Yun maintained its neutrality.
In practical terms, the Lingxiao Pavilion could fully represent the State of Yun. It represented the strength of an entire nation.
And so the value of this Cloud Command Token could well be imagined.
Of course, in Zhao Yan's telling, the most precious thing about this Cloud Command Token lay in the fact that it had been taken out from Ye Qingyu's bosom.
"Ye Qingyu of the Lingxiao Pavilion — by all accounts, she is said to be a beauty of the first order!"