She stood at the end of one regime and the beginning of another, looking down on the surging current from where the great wind rose. Circumstances turned as her mind turned. Causes and conditions arose and ceased, the sun rose and the moon set, and the land itself could be overturned. All of it rested on a single thought of hers. And no one stood in front of her anymore. This was what people called the highest, the supreme. She shivered without meaning to, struck by a reverence she had never felt before, and by a loneliness she had never felt before either. In this moment Yu Wanyin suddenly understood what "the lonely sovereign" meant. Perhaps everyone who reached the very top had passed through this turning point. Some turned away, some cast people aside. They loosened hands that had gripped theirs and threw themselves into a vast emptiness. But why her? Why did it have to be someone like her, a lazy, weak office drone whose only pleasure in life was squeezing onto the ...
"I no longer have a hometown. You are my hometown. That was what I had planned. But I never expected this day to come so soon. I had hoped to take Prince Duan with me for you. Tomorrow I will do my best, and if I succeed, your burden will be lighter. If I fail, do what the last page says and you should be able to escape with your life. After that, you will have to walk the road alone. It is a long road, and the world is a dangerous place. Be careful. I told you many lies, but this one is true: you are the strongest and bravest person I have met in either of my lives. You will surely be the one who laughs last, and you will fight your way through to a land at peace, its mountains and rivers clear. When that day comes, if you have forgiven me, eat a little hotpot on the holidays. Think of it as me keeping you company. Zhang San ……" Besides this, the envelope held a page covered in writing, and one small object. Yu Wanyin read the last word just as the sunset faded from...