"Where am I?"
"Mount Tai."
Qing Niao sat up in bed and leaned against the headboard. After calculating how much time had passed, she laughed. "It's been so many years. I really did get tired from all that traveling. Damn Heaven actually showed some sense for once and sent me to Mount Tai. Sigh... I slept for sixteen years. It was pretty comfortable."
"Hong Luan, I'm hungry."
Hong Luan got up and headed outside, but stopped at the door and looked back. "Roast meat?"
Qing Niao thought for a moment, then shook her head. "I feel like something home-cooked."
On Mount Tai's Jade Emperor Peak, wisps of cooking smoke rose once more, after not having been seen for four hundred years. Smoke curled into the warm sunlight.
The two of them ate a meal.
During the meal, Qing Niao said, "After all these years, how is your cooking still this bad?"
Hong Luan replied, "As long as it's edible."
As Qing Niao ate, she suddenly said, "I'm going to Jiankang."
"Okay."
Qing Niao reminded her, "Remember to bring plenty of food."
"...Okay."
On the first day of the first lunar month in Sui Kaihuang Year 9, the Sui Army crossed the Yangtze River and swept straight into Jiangnan. The Chen Army's defenses collapsed at the first blow, and in a matter of days, the Sui forces had reached the gates of Jiankang City.
On the twentieth day of the first month, Jiankang fell. Sui general Han Qin Hu led his troops into the city.
Cries and wails filled the Jiankang Palace.
In the unseen world above, the Sui's Auspicious Fortune took the form of a Golden Dragon and swallowed the Southern Dynasty's long-faltering fortune whole.
Qing Niao sat atop Taiji Hall, gazing out over the entire Jiankang Imperial Palace. Chen