Governing the country, enriching the people, an unparalleled imperial tutor

That night, after the submission of the Shi Kingdom's pledge of allegiance was completed, Lin Yanzhou did not rush back to his house. He sat on the stone bench in the center of the courtyard for a while, looked up at the sky, and saw that the clouds were gathering, blocking out the moonlight. An oil lamp sat on the windowsill, its flame small, illuminating a thin layer of dim light on the small brick surface inside the threshold.

He glanced down at the short black stick in his hand, then stood up, walked to the center of the yard, and pressed the switch.

A beam of white light shot out from the tip of the short stick, piercing straight through the top of the courtyard wall and sweeping across the outline of the row of rooftops opposite. The curvature of the tiles, the ridgelines of the roofs, and the wind-eroded cracks on the walls revealed details invisible in the daytime.

The beam of light continued to move, sweeping across the canopy of the old tree outside the courtyard wall. The gaps between the branches formed layers of dark patterns of varying shades in the light, as if something was gradually returning the details that the night had taken away to the ground.

The beam of light moved upwards a bit further, sweeping across the top of a tower further away beyond the courtyard wall. There was a crack in the middle of the tower, the edges of which had turned black, as if it had been struck by lightning long ago. When the beam of light stopped moving, it stayed on the edge of the crack and continued to illuminate it, completely revealing the outline of the tower from the night, as if it were using that light to remeasure its height and weight.

Footsteps sounded from outside the courtyard; someone stopped at the gate. Lin Yanzhou didn't turn around. The beam of light retracted from the tower and moved horizontally along the brick surface above the courtyard wall. The footsteps sounded again at the gate, as if someone had taken a half-step back. More footsteps came from the end of the corridor, faster than the night patrol's, landing more urgently on the stone floor.

Lin Yanzhou turned off the flashlight; the white light disappeared, and the courtyard returned to the dim light cast by the oil lamp. The people standing at the gate didn't disperse immediately. Someone whispered a few words in the local language, their tone tinged with urgency. After a while, a figure in a dark robe walked through the gate and into the courtyard.

The Stone King stood about three steps away from him, his gaze not meeting his first, but following the direction the man's flashlight had swept across the outline of the roof, the direction of that section of the tower, and the blackened crack in the middle of the tower. Then, he slowly looked away, his gaze falling on the flashlight in the man's hand, which had already been turned off: "What is that?"

"This is my magical artifact," Lin Yanzhou said. "It doesn't need fire or oil; it just lights up when you press a switch." He held the flashlight up in front of him, without pressing the switch, keeping it about an arm's length away from the Stone King. "It stores light during the day and is used at night. It doesn't need an open flame or oil. The switch is here; just press it and it lights up."

The Stone King took two steps forward and stopped about a step away from him. He didn't reach out to touch the flashlight's face, but simply looked down at it, as if he were re-measuring the relationship between that distance and that metal casing in his own way.

"Your ministers didn't seem to change much in expression when they were signing the surrender document with me during the day," Lin Yanzhou said. "Just now, when you pressed the switch, they stood outside the door for quite a while without leaving."

The Stone King said, "The tower that your light just shone on is the tallest building in the Stone Kingdom. In the past, when there were battles, the sentries could see very far from there. But no one has spent the night on that tower for a long time. When you shone your light on it tonight, the light fell on the crack in the middle of the tower, which has not been illuminated by anything for many years."

Without saying much, he stretched his hand out from his sleeve, palm open: "Can this light stick be kept?"

Lin Yanzhou didn't hesitate and placed the flashlight in his palm. The King of Shi held the flashlight for a while, without turning it on, just holding it for a moment: "The Kingdom of Shi recognizes you." He put the flashlight into his sleeve, "When you leave tomorrow, no one will stop you at the city gate."

Lin Yanzhou had packed his things before dawn the next day. When the car drove out of the city gate, there was no one standing at the gate, and the stone slabs inside the gate were still wet. The powerful flashlight was no longer in his car; it was tucked away in a sleeve, in standby mode, slowly adapting to the body heat at room temperature.

After crossing the border of the Stone Kingdom, the road began to head into the mountains. The fields on both sides gradually narrowed, replaced by scree slopes and sparse shrubs. The road surface changed from a dirt road to a gravel road, and then from a gravel road to a layer of hard soil eroded by mountain torrents.

Xiaolan spread out a map in the passenger seat and ran her finger along the paper: "If we keep going forward, we should reach the territory of Jieshi. Caravans used to use this as their last rest stop. After passing here, we would enter the Pamir Plateau."

Lin Yanzhou slowed down the car and began to climb the winding dirt road. He knew that the place he was going to was called Tajikistan in modern times, and it was also the place where he had first traveled abroad, so it was like revisiting a familiar place. As the altitude increased, the vegetation began to change, from shrubs to low meadows, and then to bare rocks and scattered moss. The air was thinning, and each breath was shallower than the last.

After crossing the last ridge, the road began to descend. Ahead lay a gray-green valley, with several rows of low earthen houses scattered in the center, and a small river flowing between them.

Lin Yanzhou slowed down, letting the wheels continue rolling along the widening road. He stopped the car in a relatively flat spot and turned off the engine. A person stood by the roadside, wearing an old robe and holding a bowl, as if he had just come out of a house.

Lin Yanzhou rolled down the car window halfway: "Hello, I came from the east." The other person looked at him for a moment, put down his bowl, and tilted his head towards the house behind him: "It's windy outside, let's come inside."

Lin Yanzhou got out of the car and followed him into the house. The house was simply furnished, with several bags of grain piled in the corner and a wooden shelf next to them. The man brought over a ceramic bowl from the stove, filled with freshly cooked meat broth. A thin layer of oil floated on the surface, and a few grains of coarse salt that hadn't completely dissolved could still be seen around the edge. Lin Yanzhou took the bowl and took a sip. The broth was scalding hot, but the aroma of meat was very strong.

"Not much can be grown here in Jieshi; the soil is poor and there's not enough water. But meat and fruit are good things." The man also filled a bowl for himself. "You've come at the wrong time of year. If you come in autumn, you can catch the grapes when they're ripe."

Lin Yanzhou finished his soup and said, "Then save a few skewers for me, I'll take them with me next time I come." The man chuckled, a small laugh, but it was clear it was genuine. "Okay, I'll save them for you."