Leaving Stone Bridge Village, Xiao Mo went to take up his post in Beihai Province.
Beihai Province bordered the North Sea, and that was where its name came from.
Over the years, whenever he had a spare moment, Xiao Mo would leaf through the local gazetteers and check them against Great Qi's maps of mountains and rivers, meaning to draw up a River-Journey Map.
If Ruxue, once she woke, chose to walk the rivers,
the best route would begin with Ganyue Lake as the entrance, then into Siming Lake, on up the Chunsong River, and at last through the Luo River and the Yunya River into the North Sea.
From the records he had pored over all these years, Xiao Mo knew that the further the river journey went, the harder it became; so this last stretch, the Yunya River, was exactly what he had to survey well, and make ready for Ruxue.
Three months later, Xiao Mo arrived in Beihai.
Zhang Qianzhi had served several years there as governor and had built up no small amount of prestige.
And Xiao Mo was Zhang Qianzhi's student—to say nothing of the fact that Xiao Mo's name had long since spread through the whole of Qi.
So when it came to Xiao Mo taking up the post of governor, Beihai Province's great clans and its officials cooperated with him in everything.
But in the second year after Xiao Mo came to Beihai Province, a letter reached him.
Old Master Zhang felt his end was near and had sent for Xiao Mo, wanting to see him and Fang Ling one last time.
Xiao Mo traveled day and night and reached the Zhang residence within half a month.
When Xiao Mo walked into Old Master Zhang's mansion, every face he met was stricken with grief.
At the old master's door, sons, grandsons, servants and maids were all quietly wiping their tears.
"Xiao Mo, go in. The teacher is waiting for you inside." Fang Ling had just stepped out of the room, and he said to Xiao Mo,
"Yes, Senior Brother."
Xiao Mo bowed to Fang Ling and went in.
On the bed, Old Master Zhang saw him come in, and his aged eyes suddenly lit up. "Xiao Mo, you're here."
"Teacher." Xiao Mo hurried forward, sat down at Old Master Zhang's bedside, grief plain on his face.
"Heh heh..." Old Master Zhang looked at him and smiled. "When we first met, you were a lad not yet twenty. And look at you now—white at the temples, nearly fifty, and still not married."
Xiao Mo shook his head and mocked himself. "Gone old like this, on my own, and I've gotten used to it."
"You..."
Old Master Zhang sighed.
In the past, Old Master Zhang had said he would betroth his daughter to him, but Xiao Mo had politely declined.
The late emperor, too, had several times meant to find Xiao Mo a wife, and each time Xiao Mo had politely declined.
After that, Zhang Qianzhi knew the man was set on waiting for that woman to come back.
"Immortals are, after all, immortals, and people are, after all, people. 'Immortals and mortals live in separate worlds' is not just a saying." Old Master Zhang held Xiao Mo's hand. "But most of a lifetime has gone by, and telling you this now—you won't hear it, and it does no good."
Xiao Mo bowed his head and said nothing.
Old Master Zhang went on: "This old man believes it won't be long before His Majesty puts you and Fang Ling to use again. Our present sovereign is only young, his nature not yet settled; but in truth, if His Majesty sets his mind to it, he is in no way inferior to the late emperor. His Majesty can see the accumulated ills of Qi.
You need only do your own work well, with your whole heart on the people."
Xiao Mo nodded. "Your student understands."
Old Master Zhang lifted his head to look at the ceiling, his pupils slowly spreading:
"Xiao Mo, a hundred years of life is truly too short. This old man has lived long enough, and still I always feel there is so much left undone.
Don't you end up like this old man...
Walk on well.
Bring no shame to the people.
Bring no shame to heaven and earth.
Bring no shame to your own heart."
As Old Master Zhang's last words fell, the hand holding Xiao Mo's slid down to the edge of the bed.
"Father!"
"Father!"
"Grandfather!"
Old Master Zhang's sons and daughters wept without restraint.
Xiao Mo stood up and bowed deeply to his teacher.
Four years later, Xiao Mo had passed fifty.
A great flood struck Beihai Province!
Xiao Mo at once braved the pouring rain to go to the worst-hit districts and the endangered stretches of dike, inspecting the disaster, the force of the water, the places where it had broken through, and how far the flooding had spread.
He set the yamen runners and post riders to work, and even conscripted fishermen and boatmen who knew the water, to carry word of the disaster, the water levels and the state of the dikes up and down the rivers and between the villages. He quickly had sketch maps of the flooded districts drawn, marked with danger zones, high ground, supply points and the main roads, and he personally took charge of opening the granaries for relief, settling the displaced, and above all of guarding against sickness.
Beyond that, Xiao Mo gave relief in the form of work: digging diversion channels, narrowing the channel to scour the silt with the current, and building cofferdams section by section.
In a flood rarer than any in ten years, the refugees were calmed faster and the damage kept smaller than at any time since Qi was founded.
Afterward, Xiao Mo made a thorough survey of every river in Beihai Province, and built irrigation works, drawing off water to the fields.
Land that had been a hell on earth, ready to be washed away at any moment, became acre upon acre of good farmland.
Xiao Mo also wrote a book, the Essential Arts of Water Conservancy in Qi, setting out methods for managing rivers of every kind, measures for dealing with floods, and even fairly detailed standards.
From then on, Xiao Mo's fame in the mortal world stood at its peak.
In his fifty-third year, grievous news came to Xiao Mo: his senior brother Fang Ling had died of illness at his old home.
Holding the letter that had come, Xiao Mo sat in the courtyard and said nothing for a long while.
The next year, word came that Magistrate Sun was gravely ill. Xiao Mo set out at once, but in the end he never got to see Magistrate Sun one last time.
In the twelfth year of Jianle, Xiao Mo, now past fifty-five, received an imperial decree.
The Lord of Qi summoned Xiao Mo back to the capital.
In the thirteenth year of Jianle, Xiao Mo became Chancellor of Qi, and the reform began anew!
Xiao Mo cleared the road with his own reputation. Whatever the great clan or the old family, all of them had to be wary of a chancellor who had brought benefit to the whole realm and already bore the name of "sage."
And Great Qi was not yet sick past curing. With His Majesty's support, Xiao Mo gathered men of purpose far and wide and set about reform.
I haven't much time left. In this life, I'll do as much as I can—enough to bring no shame to the trust the late emperor, my teacher and my senior brother placed in me.
In the sixteenth year of Jianle, the new laws were put into practice throughout Qi.
In the twentieth year of Jianle, four years after the new laws took effect, the realm already wore a wholly new face; Xiao Mo was by then sixty-three.
In the twenty-fourth year of Jianle, Xiao Mo was sixty-seven, and the storms at court had all died down.
The following year, at sixty-eight, Xiao Mo submitted a memorial to His Majesty asking leave to retire to his hometown.
The Lord of Qi pressed him to stay several times, but Xiao Mo's mind was made up.
He could feel it. I have less than two years left. I just want to go home.
In the end the Lord of Qi had no choice but to consent.
But Xiao Mo's post of Chancellor was not abolished; Zheng Mohan, Minister of Personnel, would act as Chancellor for the time being.
The reason Xiao Mo's post of Chancellor was not abolished
With the post of Chancellor still in place, the protection of mountain-and-river fortune would cover him, and Xiao Mo could pass his remaining years in peace.
One day, just as Xiao Mo had finished packing the household's belongings and was writing a last memorial to leave for His Majesty,
his brush stopped.
The old man of nearly seventy, as if he had sensed something, turned to look in a certain direction.
In that direction there was a mountain.
Outside a cave halfway up the mountain, Ziyang Grass and Qinglong Flower bloomed thick.
Inside the cave, a white boa was slowly changing.
At last, a woman in a white dress lay on the ground.
Her eyelashes trembled faintly.