The winter of Su Yan's seventeenth year came down hard.
Snow fell across the eastern wing's small east garden in the second week of the eleventh month, and did not melt. By the third week the wisteria along the western wall — which had been blooming out of season since Linglong's residency began — had a small precise crystal of frost at the tip of each open flower. The gardens of the eighth district closed their gates. The kingdom's farmers retreated to their villages. The roads between cities thinned to the thread of essential traffic.
Su Yan, by the careful preceding small private rhythm of his bookkeeping, found the cold useful.
It thinned the household's social calendar. It froze the kingdom's diplomatic exchange. It gave him — by the small precise unhurried hour of perhaps three months — the quietest stretch of his preceding-time first arc.
He used it.
He cultivated, in inside-night sessions on the foundation platform, by the small careful preceding methodical rhythm of one substrate-cultivator at the cusp of his second realm tier. By the close of the second month of winter, his undisplayed cultivation had reached *Nascent Spirit Early*. The body, by the careful read of his lattice, *carried* the realm without strain — Master Qing's preceding teaching of the substrate-anchor calibration had, by the small precise unhurried hour of two quarterly meals plus the City of the Voiceless gathering, *strengthened* the foundation in ways the kingdom of Beicang's preceding cultivation manuals did not catalog.
He held his outside display at *Foundation Establishment Late*. The kingdom's preceding small private public read, by the small careful preceding unhurried hour of the winter's quiet, did not press. The kingdom's senior cultivators, by Cousin Su Lin's careful read of the careful preceding small private bookkeeping of the past three months, were — *content*. A Heaven Spirit Root cultivator at the careful preceding small private hour of fourteen months past his Trial of Aptitude was, by the kingdom's preceding standing record, *honestly* at Foundation Establishment Late. The kingdom did not, by its preceding small private public read, expect him to be more.
He let the kingdom keep its expectation.
Inside, by the small precise unhurried hour of the inside-night platform sessions, he prepared.
---
The fourth quarterly meal at Master Qing's teahouse on the western edge of the royal city took place on the seventh day of the second month of the winter.
Su Yan attended alone, by the unmarked carriage line. The teahouse keeper bowed. Master Qing was already seated, in his pale-grey scholar's robe, with the small clay pot of *cloud-summit* tea already warm at the brazier.
He set the *sixth* substrate-anchor stone on the writing table.
"Su Yan."
"Master Qing."
"By my preceding read of your preceding small private substrate this morning," the senior cultivator said, in his plain quiet voice, "the careful preceding small private hour of the seventh stone will, by my preceding small private revised calibration, be given at the *next* meal — three months from today — *together with* the careful preceding small private final teaching the substrate-anchor pair's preceding small private completion will require."
He paused.
"After that," he said, "we will not meet again at this teahouse for the careful preceding small private hour of the next eighteen months. The careful preceding small private hour of the next quarterly meal will, by the small careful preceding small private hour of one teaching, *complete* my preceding small private contribution to your preceding small private preparation. The remainder will be — by my preceding read — *yours*, in the careful preceding small private hour of the substrate-anchor pair's preceding small private deployment."
"Master Qing." Su Yan inclined his head. "I will, by my own preceding preference, accept the careful preceding small private revised schedule. I would, by my preceding preference, ask whether you would — at the careful preceding small private hour of three months from today's preceding small private meal — accept *me bringing my mother to your study at the Royal Academy* as the careful preceding small private hour of the careful preceding small private final teaching's preceding small private close."
The Heavenly Immortal looked at him for the count of perhaps five breaths.
He inclined his head — small, formal.
"By my own preceding preference, Su Yan, *yes*. I will, by my preceding small private preference, prefer that. The careful preceding small private hour of one final teaching at the Royal Academy's quiet office, with one Aeon-of-the-Verdant-Year and her son both in the room, will — by my preceding small private preference — *honor* the careful preceding small private hour of one third small private letter ten years ago in the careful preceding small private way the letter has, by my preceding read for the past decade, been preceding-time honored to deserve."
Su Yan inclined his head — small, formal.
"Then the careful preceding small private extraction will, by my preceding preference, be calibrated to *complete* by the careful preceding small private hour of the next quarterly meal."
"Acceptable."
The careful preceding small private fourth quarterly meal — by the small careful preceding small private precise unhurried hour of one revised schedule — *closed* at the sixth hour past noon.
Master Qing departed first, in the careful preceding small private pale-grey scholar's robe of one senior cultivator on a small unhurried preceding errand.
Su Yan departed second, in the careful preceding small private unmarked carriage line.
By the careful preceding small private hour of the carriage's preceding small private return journey to the embassy, he had — by the careful preceding small private hour of one revised schedule — re-calibrated the careful preceding small private extraction's preceding small private hour from *thirteen months and ten days* to *three months and seven days*.
It was — by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping of his column-keeping — *the most aggressive acceleration the careful preceding small private hour of the past nine months had calibrated for*.
He filed the calibration.
In his chest, the ember pulsed — slow, considered, *grave* — and the dry voice, very quietly, said: *Master Qing's preceding teaching is, by my preceding read, the careful preceding small private hour of one Heavenly Immortal who has decided — by his own preceding preference — to honor your mother's preceding small private third letter at the careful preceding small private hour his preceding preference has, in two centuries, found acceptable. Honor him by the careful preceding small private hour of the extraction's preceding small private execution.*
Su Yan inclined his head, in the rocking of the unmarked carriage, in the direction of the ember.
The careful preceding small private extraction — by the small careful preceding small private hour of one quarterly meal's preceding small private acceleration — was, by his preceding revised estimate, *just over three months* away.
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