Rain was falling over Jiankang.
The rain at the turn of spring and summer might have been called spring rain, but it already had the lingering persistence of summer rain.
This gave Liu Cheng every justification to hole up at Fan Wang's house.
His original plan had been simple: stay here for a few days, ideally until Wang Tanzhi came to deliver his marquis's seal and ribbon and was finally directed to Fan Wang's house. If that set the Prince of Kuaiji's household suspecting shadows and deepened their unease, he would have come out ahead. Then he could extricate himself and attend to other matters, leaving his next move until after the Wuchang Military Review, when he returned from Kuaiji.
And now?
Now he had won big-very big indeed. Having learned Luo You's fundamental intention in pointing him toward Fan Wang, Liu Cheng naturally meant to ride the current and form a united front with Fan Wang. They were all working for the country, for the court, for the integration of Jing and Yang, and to promote the great harmony of feudalism, weren't they?
Though their positions and identities differed, at this moment their objectives and interests coincided: they all wanted to unite for the Northern Expedition.
There was no need to keep it under wraps.
So he would still leave once Wang Tanzhi delivered the seal and ribbon, only he would leave two Black-Clad Guards here to carry letters back and forth and communicate privately about this and that.
Of course, Liu Acheng had one little personal wish as well. He put it to Fan Kang, now his "dearest family friend": he wanted nothing else, but before Wang Tanzhi delivered the seal and ribbon and he left, could they let him climb Stone City once? He had never been