"On the ninth day of the seventh month, Dao Calendar 3928, the main branch of the Li Clan of Yan City was massacred, and its collateral branches divided the family estate."
"On the sixteenth day of the eighth month, Dao Calendar 3928, the Wu Clan head of Han City was found dead in his study, blood streaming from all seven orifices. He had no heir, and no collateral branch succeeded him, so the line was extinguished."
"On the fourth day of the ninth month, Dao Calendar 3928, the Song Clan's legitimate son vanished..."
In the Bai residence of Langya City, in what had once been Bai Pingfu's study.
Bai Yuxia sat before the desk, pressing slips of paper bearing different intelligence reports onto its surface. As he placed them, he read them aloud. Every slip was aligned precisely, neat and orderly.
Everything in the study remained as it had been. After Bai Pingfu's death, no one had used this room again—until his only son returned.
Bai Yuxia still remembered how, back when he had not even been as tall as the desk, his father had lifted him onto it with delight and made him recite essays. His father would dip his brush in ink as he drank wine, his cursive racing wildly across the page, calling it, "My son adds to the mood."
When he grew a little older, such moments became rare. His father placed ever greater emphasis on rules, demanding that he become a Bai Clan noble son who perfectly conformed to every standard.
He knew that, at the very end, his father had been disappointed in him.
Because he had cast aside the responsibilities bestowed upon him by his family, thrown all the rules he had lived by to one side, and wandered the world just like