"Your subject offers ten thousand thanks to Your Majesty!"
Liang Qu held his hands level before him and bowed deeply.
The chief eunuch waved his whisk, drying the ink on the painting before rolling it into a gilded Painting Tube. As he handed it to Liang Qu—
"Lord Liang..." The Sacred Emperor spoke again. "It is merely that the men of the realm are the ones who make it."
With that, the tips of his shoes vanished from sight.
Liang Qu was slightly taken aback. Before he could even raise his head, his hand grew heavy—the Painting Tube had arrived.
Crack!
Lightning boomed across the sky once more.
Without the slightest hesitation, the court diarist turned to a fresh page and began recording.
"On the first day of the intercalary eighth month in the seventy-first year of Shun, Bing Fire Day faded, and heavy rain descended from the heavens. Earl Xingyi advanced to True Image at the age of twenty-two, in the prime of life... His Majesty highly praised him, thus bestowing a painting upon Earl Xingyi, saying, 'It is merely that the men of the realm are the ones who make it.'"
Whoosh—the rain poured in sheets.
Above the lofty tower, the Cloud Plate rang out in a lingering melody.
The prosperity and grandeur of the Imperial Capital were shrouded in hazy Water Mist. Accumulated Water Pond reflected light like a mirror; pavilions and towers linked together in silent stillness. On the crisscrossing streets, carts and horses became moving black dots, concealing an inaudible clamor. More than a hundred Painted Boats hung colorful lanterns, dragging shimmering ripples across the water.
Drip.
A bead of water from the railing splashed onto the back of his hand. Atop the more than two-thousand-meter-high Moon Gazing Tower, apart from eunuchs and Palace