The Jin Region in February was half cold and half warm. Snow still lingered on shaded slopes, while grass grew and flowers bloomed on sunny ones. Most people had no leisure to notice any of this, for everywhere in the fields outside the cities, people were hard at work tilling the soil.
That day, the weather was clear. In the afternoon, the westering sunlight stained a bank of clouds red.
It was then that Bai Yousi entered the Regional Commander's residence.
When she saw her father, Bai Hengqiu, Duke of Ying and Regional Commander of Taiyuan, was playing chess and drinking tea in the pavilion in the rear garden with his old friend Zhang Shijing, the newly appointed chief commissioner of Fenyang Palace. They looked thoroughly at ease.
"You're in fine spirits, Father." Bai Yousi seemed to appear out of thin air, leaning against a garden corridor pillar with her sword in her arms. "And you look very comfortable too, Uncle Zhang."
"Ever since I learned you'd left the Eastern Capital, I've been wondering when you would come. Yet you dragged it out an entire winter." Without even turning his head, the Duke of Ying lifted his tea bowl and took a small sip. His words sounded reproachful, but his expression was relaxed.
It was as though he had sensed his daughter's arrival long before.
Only then did Zhang Shijing look up. He abandoned his chess piece and laughed. "You must think us ridiculous, my dear niece. It's only because your father became Regional Commander of Taiyuan that I can be a palace commissioner who leaves everything to others. Otherwise, I'd have been impeached long ago."
"In times like these, once you're three hundred li from the Eastern Capital or Jiangdu, it's hard even to get impeached." Bai Yousi answered