Local Specialties

For a brief moment on her pillow, the tower ship sailed thousands of li across Jiangnan.

The boatman shouted that they had reached Suzhou and Hangzhou. The River Water was clear and warm, its green hues still lingering. At the end of a thousand sails stood the famed Wangjiang Tower on the riverside slope beside the ancient city. Tourists flowed like a weaving stream, peaceful and at ease, as though the bloody battles in the Northern Lands had nothing whatsoever to do with Jiangnan.

Bai Yujun yawned, her hair loose and disheveled, white cloth socks on her feet as she stood by the window and gazed at the resplendent Golden Mountain Courtyard in the distance.

After washing and dressing, she leaned alone against the window, watching the water drift on and on.

Painted bridges, wind-blown curtains, emerald screens; voices murmured by the post-station bridge.

Everything beyond the frontier felt like a dream. As Bai Yujun looked upon the exquisite scenery, she was suddenly seized by a sense of unreality. In her sleep, she would always recall the barren, cold lands beyond the frontier—snake demons and spirits lying motionless amid wind and snow, staring toward the southwest. It twisted her heart, leaving a suffocating knot within her...

Her foul mood turned the clear sky overcast. Fine rain drifted over the river, and passersby held up umbrellas as they hurried along.

The unbroken fleet left the canal and entered an ancient river channel, turning southwest. Within Suzhou and Hangzhou, the officials overseeing the canal bustled about coordinating the ships' passage. The advanced great ships from the Southern Wasteland had novel designs and excellent seaworthiness, yet were still criticized as heretical and unconventional. Among the spectators onshore, some pointed and gestured as though deeply angered.

She yawned, shut the window, lay on the