Grown in Algae

The lacquered surface of the long table gleamed, green smoke curling upward.

Liang Qu ground the ink.

Xu Wenzhu held the brush.

From cause to effect, from beginning to end, he wrote two full pages in a sweeping flow. The letter ended with a date, and senior River Conservancy Office officials such as Su Guishan, Yang Dongxiong, Wei Lin, and Xu Yuelong each stamped their red seals upon it, filling another page with vermilion.

After the ink had dried.

Xu Wenzhu rolled up the letter, stuffed it into a metal tube, affixed red chicken feathers, sealed both ends with wax, and swept his gaze around the room.

"Who should deliver it?"

"A Shui, you go!" Su Guishan did not hesitate.

"Me?"

Liang Qu was not particularly willing.

Running errands to deliver a letter would certainly count toward his merits afterward, but not by much. Yet it would consume at least two or three months—undoubtedly a waste of his time.

"Refining a great pill takes quite some time. The less extra time we spend, the better. You have a second-rank Dragon Blood Horse. Going there and back, even including rest days, will take less than a month.

"You are also the Sea Market Master's primary contact. You know many of the details better than we do, and if anyone asks, you can explain them more conveniently. Since you are going to the Imperial Capital anyway, bring that Dragon Girl of yours along."

"E Ying?"

"Listen to me. It will benefit you."

Su Guishan was brief and to the point.

Liang Qu's eyes flickered.

At the end of October, the two had confirmed their relationship. Su Guishan seemed to have specifically written a letter about it; after three months, it had surely reached the Imperial Capital.

Things having reached this point, it