This gesture relieved King Zhaoxiang of the worries that had troubled him for days. Having also experienced life as a hostage, he began to regard Ying Yiren, an obscure member of the royal family, in a different light and felt a father's tenderness toward him.
As it happened, Ying Yang also wanted to visit the Zhao State, so King Zhaoxiang asked him to enter the Zhao State in secret and look after Ying Yiren.
Ying Yang agreed.
And so, several years earlier.
He arrived in Handan, the capital of the Zhao State, and bought a comfortable little courtyard home in a quiet part of the city.
He personally cleared a patch of earth in a corner of the courtyard and planted a jujube tree.
Behind the courtyard, he even made a small plot himself to grow vegetables.
He had never experienced such a leisurely pastoral life before.
And then he remembered the promise he and Ania had made beneath the stars, sitting above the Refuge before the apocalyptic war of the Fifth Epoch.
Being in a mortal body, what he did not know was this.
When he first planted that jujube tree.
In a tavern not far outside his door, a beautiful woman with long, golden-brown hair was leaning against the railing, gazing into the distance.
Her eyes were gentle and full of longing for the past.
The jujube tree grew little by little, until its branches were thick with leaves.
During that time.
He also gained a basic understanding of Ying Yiren's circumstances. A royal grandson of the Qin State had come to the Zhao State, at a time when Qin was strong and Zhao was weak, and the two states were enemies. As a prince of Qin, the impression Ying Yiren made on the people of Zhao was