55. A Slow, Inescapable Flood

The following two weeks were surprisingly quiet.

Lan Qiren recovered enough to walk out of the healing ward and park himself in the Nie war room, much to Nie Popo’s amusement and Nie Mingjue’s obvious relief. Yanli herself attended a few meetings when asked, usually to discuss river traffic and possible disruptions the Wen might cause.

Sometimes she felt like the war was less “starting” than it was seeping into their lives like a slow flood, getting into every crevice and corner of her world no matter how hard they tried to dam the waters. They all shared the weight of knowing that despite everything that had happened so far, it was just beginning, and was inescapable.

A’Yao’s health remained precarious and he became a ward of the Nie healers in all but name, as they fussed and argued about his meridians and golden core (“fiercely debated,” he corrected; “they were shouting, A’Yao,” his mother countered; Yanli stayed out of it).

The disagreement stemmed from the fact that they could not decide what had really happened to it: had it partially “melted” away, or was it intact but in pieces? Or something else? They could not determine which was the case without unlocking A’Yao’s spiritual energy, which would put him at risk of his golden core destroying whatever remained by trying to heal itself and likely throwing him into a fatal qi deviation.

The fact that he was not wilting away or committing suicide also baffled the Nie, as that was previously the only history written about survivors of a Wen Zhuliu core-melting attack. Yanli could tell he was enjoying letting them stew in the mystery.

“They cannot conceive of a cultivator valuing his life without a golden core. I spent the majority of my life without one, and living among commoners.” He shrugged, when she finally asked him about it one night as they cuddled together. He had been warned against “strenuous activities” by the doctors, and Meng Shi, all-knowing, had given both of them a hard look that Yanli felt they did not deserve. (Much.)

So, they spent time cuddling and kissing, but mostly talking, under the covers. It almost felt like being married, except for how A’Yao snuck out before dawn so neither Meng Shi or, worse, Ying’er might catch him leaving her quarters.

Although most of the time, Ying’er was not there either. Once he got clearance to work, he absconded with Nie Huaisang to the Nie library to wrestle with The Nie Problem. Apparently, Nie Mingjue’s bonding with Baxia-the-Xuanwu, and the fact that she was now regularly “eating” the resentful energy he generated, had given them a course to pursue, and pursue it they did for most of the hours of the day.

Fortunately, Meng Shi and Nie Popo had teamed up to become, as Nie Huaisang dramatically exclaimed with dismay, the Twin Terrors of the Unclean Realm and used their powers to hustle the boys back to bed and force food down their throats. They did not, however, pull them off their mission. Yanli did not even complain about that, since it gave Ying’er a focus for his worries and anxiety.

Unexpectedly, Yanli found her time taken up by a strict regimen of political studies. Of a kind.

“But the He and Guo clans get along?” She squinted in thought.

“No, they are allies. But the brother of the previous leader of the He deflowered the youngest sister of the previous Guo sect leader, very much against her will, and resulting in a child and a predictably rushed wedding that neither party wanted. The groom then spent their marriage visiting brothels and refusing to sire any more children after their daughter was born. Both families blame the other, and the child was essentially sold off to a rich, mundane merchant as soon as she completed her hair pinning ceremony.”

Yanli sat with her jaw hanging open indecorously. While her mother had always made sure the He and Guo clans never sat near each other during meetings, Yanli had never thought for a minute it was over something so sordid and venal.

“That poor child!”

“As I hear it, she’s now a grandmother and well set up in her old age, having birthed four sons and outlived her husband.” Meng Shi smiled at her. “Sometimes the worst of situations can result in happiness, if left alone long enough.” She side-eyed the door to Yanli’s room, causing Yanli to blush for absolutely no reason.

The story of the He and Guo falling out was about the dozenth such tales, stories of intrigue and outrageously improper behavior across all the jianghu.

“How do you know all of this, Second Mother?” Yanli despaired over a candied melon slice. Liu Peng at least kept the treats flowing, she thought gratefully.

A soft expression of sadness swept over her face, but only for the briefest of moments. She smiled at Yanli. “I told you the story of the Lan Sect Leader…former sect leader, I suppose by now. I knew about the He and Guo gossip in the same way I knew about such a disastrous tale from a place as far away from Yunping as Caiyi. Stories travel through the underbelly of the jianghu, and we are accused of being uncultured gossips for the fun of it, but for many sisters, it can mean our lives and livelihood. We have to know which men not to seat in the same room, which men should not share mistresses, and which men hold the real power in the region. It is often not the one holding the highest title.”

Yanli thought of Jin Guangshan and Wen Ruohan, and frowned.

Meng Shi seemed to pick up on her thought. “Oh, sometimes, yes. But even then…for instance, it took me a long time to understand why Jin Guangshan never came for me or his son. I lied to myself often enough about it.” She glanced over at where A’Yao usually sat when he wasn’t napping or being prodded by the doctors. “He came, once, when A’Yao was nearly a year old. Held his son, praised him, praised me. I thought it meant something, but now I don’t know why he did it. Perhaps he actually hoped at one time to bring us into Lanling. But even before you dropped in our laps, I realized he was not coming for me. Because of Madam Jin.”

“Oh, yes, she is quite fierce.”

“I would not know. What I do know, however, is that like most high-ranking wives of the jianghu, she keeps spies in the brothels her husband frequents. Sometimes servants, sometimes other courtesans.” She leaned forward. “Jin Guangshan runs his sect, but Madam Jin runs his household. She undermined every attempt he made to bring in concubines, sometimes lethally. It only takes one poisoning for every sister to reign in her expectations.”

Yanli sat with that for a horrified moment, and Meng Shi let her. She understood then that what she was being taught was the real history of the cultivation sects, not the clean and erudite stories she had grown up reading in the Jiang library.

“Perhaps I should make you my seneschal,” she said with a wry smile.

Meng Shi returned it with a dainty smile of her own, her eyes filled with mischief. “I mean no offense, and you have my support as any daughter of mine should, but I have set my sights a bit higher than that.” She patted the guqin next to her.

Yanli laughed brightly. The official correspondence flying between Wen Popo and A’Yao had been getting thicker every day, and she wondered what on earth they could be negotiating, given how poor the Yiling Wei sect was. (She figured when she needed to know, A’Yao would tell her.) They were having extremely amusing “family” dinners with the Nie nearly every night, where Nie Mingjue tripped over his tongue, Nie Huaisang and Ying’er laughed at him about it, and Meng Shi smiled charmingly at him.

But during the day, Meng Shi ran Yanli through over 200 years of cumulative gossip, included stories about Wen Ruohan’s former family (“he loved his wife and children dearly, but they were assassinated by his younger brother in a coup attempt”) and even the Jiang (“Wei Changze was a cousin, yes, but rumor holds that he was actually the result of an illegitimate coupling of Sect Leader Jiang’s paternal grandfather—that he was brought in as a servant to prevent any battles for succession. Impossible to say, but we were always warned never to let anyone with the family name ‘Wei’ share a room or a courtesan with any of the Jiang men. It has always made me wonder about the so-called friendship between your father and Sect Leader Jiang, honesty”). It put so much of the odd relationships she had observed as a young girl into a new light.

If nothing else, Yanli was getting a lot of time to embroider the Yiling Wei oleander motif all over everything she could grab.

Fifteen days after A’Cheng had departed, Nie Mingjue made a formal visit. Fortunately, he had been working with Baxia to allow him to travel out of her sight, otherwise he could never have made it deep into the heart of the section of the Unclean Realm their guest pavilion was located.

He looked very uncomfortable, with a grim looking Nie Popo at his elbow. Lan Qiren was noticeably absent.

After formalities, he sighed gustily. “We have word that Wen troops are on the move again, headed this way.”

“Ah.” Yanli tried not to grimace. “Are they…substantial?”

“At least 50,000 strong.”

Meng Shi gasped and covered her mouth.

“What we pulled off with Wei Ying’s assistance was astounding, a legendary triumph, but I doubt even with the yin shards he has in his command that he could meet such a force and survive. Nor would I ask it of him, or you.”

“But if you stay—A’Jue!” Meng Shi reached out, worry etched across her face. Nie Mingjue looked at her softly and took her hand in his. Nie Popo gave them a disapproving look, but Yanli shook her head at the elder. It seemed fitting for the two, who were (nearly?) betrothed, to have a moment.

“I will not be staying,” he promised, then turned to Yanli. “We plan to abandon the Unclean Realm and turn to guerrilla warfare, as we can. I have 20,000 troops I can spread out to cause trouble for them, along with Baxia. You, along with your clan and A’Sang, will finally make that trip north to the coast for Tangshan. My mother’s summer manor there is still ready to receive you all.”

Yanli nodded. What else was there to say? War was coming to them, and they must flee or be wiped out. But the presence of Nie Popo was perplexing, as she was likely going to head out with Nie Mingjue to fight the Wen.

“What is it that you must bring your honored grandmother here to say?”

He let out a long sigh, finally dropping Meng Shi’s hand, and turned pleading eyes on Nie Popo.

“Scouts picked up a rag-tag group running east for the coast.” She paused, grimacing. “It was a few Jiang, along with Madam Jiang.”

Yanli stood there for a long moment before pulling her thoughts into order. “Has she given birth, yet?”

“Not yet, shockingly. But the travel has taken a toll on her, and she is not well. The Jiang escorting her have surrendered, and offered to fight on our side against the Wen as opposed to sitting in our dungeon waiting for the Wen to show up and execute them. I don’t trust them, but they have an incentive to live, and we need the manpower. As for Madam Jiang,” she stopped there, shaking her head.

“You cannot leave her behind, of course. Won’t further travel be even worse for her, though?”

“Probably. No: almost assuredly,” Nie Popo added. “Jiang Fengmian keeps falling in my estimations, even when I think he can go no lower—but on the other hand, his only real option was Lanling Jin, and as we have discussed, the mother and the child likely would not be safe there either. Madam Jiang claims he was trying to send her to a safe house on the coast while he returned to Yunmeng. Be that as it may, he’s missing and unwelcome here, but I will not leave her to the cruelty of the Wen. If you agree to shelter her, I will send a midwife along with you, someone I trust, as chances are good she’ll drop that baby before you all make it halfway to Tangshan.”

Nie Mingjue’s face scrunched up when she said “drop that baby” but he kept his mouth shut.

Meng Shi looked at Yanli, waiting for her decision. They could leave Madam Jiang behind, and let her fend for herself. Some would say she was justified in doing so.

But in many ways, Yanli was not her mother’s daughter. She was not so cold-hearted, and furthermore, she was a sect leader in her own right. She knew that she must model righteousness in all ways if her sect and her clan were to garner the respect of the jianghu.

“We will be glad to assist Madam Jiang in her plight. When do we leave?”