Chapter 12: The Slowest Fall
Shen Qingwu was certainly not insane. Back in Tokyo, the invitations descended on her like weather. Banquets from her employer. An invitation from a certain prince consort. An invitation from a certain prime minister. The Shen family's servants came again and again and again, wearing different faces but carrying the same message. Everyone in the capital was curious about this General Zhenxi who had appeared from nowhere, and everyone wanted a closer look. Shen Qingwu ignored all of them. Bo Rong had told her before she left: she represented the Yizhou army, and her purpose in coming to Tokyo was simply to explain the war situation clearly. Nothing else mattered. But then she watched Yang Su — who had accompanied her — get swept up immediately into a current of banquets and gatherings, perpetually busy, perpetually attending, and Shen Qingwu reconsidered Bo Rong's advice. Perhaps he had been tactful. Perhaps what he had actually meant was not that she didn't need to social...
