After nearly a year without updates, so many readers were still following this book. I was deeply moved, especially by the generous support of readers such as riversidem.
I haven't been in good form lately, and I wasn't satisfied with how the later plot was developing, so I had to scrap tens of thousands of words of draft material. I've now worked out a direction I'm happy with, and I'm striving to give you all a story with flesh and blood.
I left too many loose threads early in this book, and the background exposition was somewhat stiff. You can read the passage below as a prologue to the book, or simply as a writing exercise of mine...
A red sun slowly rose in the east, spilling golden radiance across the land.
The mist gradually thinned, revealing the faint outlines of Luoyang City's palaces in the distance.
The early spring wind was still bitterly cold. Dead grass coated in glittering white frost trembled in the wind, while the shimmering Luo River wound eastward. Golden light spilled across its surface, like countless golden snakes twisting and leaping.
The Luo River was exceptionally broad, and most of Luoyang City's supplies arrived by river transport. Many cargo boats lay moored along the bank, their decks piled high with goods. Two or three elegant pleasure barges lay farther away, distinctly separated from the cargo boats.
The pleasure barges' vermilion windows were loosely closed, their crabapple-patterned curtains still unrolled. Like distant Luoyang City, they remained asleep, not yet awakened.
North of Luoyang City lay mountains winding along the southern bank of the Yellow River, while the waters of the Yi and Luo flowed through the city from west to east. Since ancient times, Mount Mang had been considered an auspicious place to lay the dead