Two Years Gone, Xie Yuan's Wager

[At the end of that year, Great Sui and Great Qi resumed peace talks and redrew their border.]

[The people of Great Qi voiced their discontent, and four of the Nine Great Surnames called for war.]

[The emperor of Great Qi issued an edict blaming himself, but it did little to calm the turmoil.]

[When spring returned the following year, the Academy's Third Master came back with a letter written by the Master himself. It said, "War should not be lightly begun."]

[Only then did the court, the martial world, and the common people gradually settle down.]

[In the third month, the two states formally signed an alliance.]

[The army returned in triumph, but the court posted Xie Ling to the western frontier, leaving him unable to return to the capital.]

[That same month, a Demonkind uprising erupted in Jiannan Circuit. Led by Green Ox, Mountain Python, and Carp—who proclaimed themselves the Great Sage Who Levels Heaven, the Flood Dragon Demon King, and the Heaven-Reaching Bodhisattva—they gathered more than ten thousand demons and ran rampant across the region.]

[The following month, several uprisings broke out in Longyou Circuit. They were suppressed fifteen days later.]

[You were eleven this year. Though you had not set foot in a classroom, you had taken the essence of the Confucian School's Four Books, Five Classics, and scholarly canon to heart.]

[Dong Shao came six times in all. Each time, you received him with courtesy, never showing a trace of impatience.]

[You had practiced the calligraphy copybook Dong Shao left you for over a year.]

[Yet Dong Shao had never taught you directly. He left you to study the words in books on your own, and when you occasionally brought him a question, he answered in only a few words.]

[Life in Xie Manor had