Jing Kingdom.
As the New Year approached, the capital showed not the slightest joy or festive spirit. More than ninety percent of its households took down the red lanterns and red couplets they had already prepared, replacing them with white lanterns bearing the large character for "mourning."
The cold wind blew, its chill cutting to the bone.
The capital's soldiers raced like madmen through its streets and alleys, tearing down certain distinctive couplets written in black ink on white paper whenever they found them on a doorway.
The green hills were blessed to bury loyal bones; innocent white iron was cast into treacherous ministers.
After news of Fang Yun's death spread the day before, the entire city donned mourning hemp and white and surged toward Spring Garden, exhausting the supply of black and white cloth within a single day.
Built by a Half-Sage, the capital was a vast city with more than three million residents, yet the millions heading toward Spring Garden brought every road around it to a standstill.
For ten miles around Spring Garden, weeping filled the air and lingered without end.
The previous afternoon, after the announcement that Saint Zong would temporarily serve as Eastern Sage, the Left Prime Minister, who had stayed home pleading illness, suddenly convened a meeting of the Grand Secretariat. With thunderous speed, he removed the City Guard general responsible for security in the Inner City and installed a trusted follower. Then, in the emperor's name, he forbade anyone from going to Spring Garden and dispersed the crowds nearby.
The two sides stood on the verge of clashing, and bloodshed could erupt at any moment. Great Scholar Jiang Hechuan was forced to intervene personally, urging everyone to remain calm and guiding the crowds away. Only then did the situation subside.
But the matter