Ningzhou bordered Ruizhou. Farther to the northwest lay the Mount Mistveil region, its territory almost entirely mountainous. The "Ning" in its name meant peace, but it had not been chosen because the place was particularly peaceful. Rather, its people were so fierce that the Imperial Court considered it the hardest region to civilize.
When Xie Jinhuan had traveled south several years earlier, he had passed through Ningzhou, but mostly along the official roads at its edges, never venturing deep inside. Now, accompanying Sister Ye back to her home, he looked down from high above and saw many terraced fields among the mountains, worked mostly by local natives. The occasional towns they encountered were small, nestled against mountains and beside rivers.
After watching for a while, Xie Jinhuan grew a little bored and asked, "Sister Ye, have you been living in seclusion around here all these years?"
Ye Yunchi rode the wind beside him. Her bearing was less that of a wicked auntie luring a young boy home and more that of a schoolmistress taking her student on a tour of the mountains and rivers. Looking around at the endless landscape, she said, "I haven't stayed here the whole time. I go traveling for a few months every year. You're not very familiar with Ningzhou, are you?"
"I only passed through before. I heard the people here are fierce, and neither the men nor the women are easy to mess with?"
"Ah, really, it's just a lack of education. I-my mother opened a school here while living in seclusion precisely to spread learning among the people. Once people can read and understand the sages' classics, they naturally understand propriety, righteousness, integrity, and shame-"
Ye Yunchi had been speaking quite seriously, but realizing the subject was rather dull, she stopped. She glanced