Threads 427-Shenglu 6

“Gui would like to take a walk. Scholar friends, you can go back to the town if you like.”

“None shall dare trespass against those with my blessing,” Zhen added haughtily.

The old scholar bowed again. “As you wish, young master Zhengui. We will discuss today’s observations and present you with our findings on the morrow.”

Meng Duyi looked out over the lands between the Boiling Deeps Hill and the settlement growing on the lakeside, mostly farms and pastures.

“I think a walk through the farmlands first would be a suitable start,” Ling Qi proposed.

“Gui has helped Miss Lake find all the right places for the little irr-ig-ation thingies to go,” Gui boasted.

She hadn’t known that.

“Yes, that will do,” Meng Duyi said thoughtfully. “Please lead on, Baroness.”

They descended from the higher rocky hills down to the winding dirt roads that wound through the pasture land. With winter beginning to roll in, the wandering flocks of cloudlike sheep were kept to the lower slopes by the shepherds. The farmlands were in a similar state of preparation. The fields had been harvested and were lying fallow, the work of processing and storage underway.

The neat lines the farm plots were originally set up in had softened, small touches of personalization beginning to appear. In some, it was the color of the house. In others, a shed or a barn had been erected out of place, or a smaller field had been set aside for personal use, perhaps meant for herbs or lower output crops. Here and there, she saw animals: a goat, a cow, a handful of chickens, a dog, or a cat sleeping upon a windowsill. They were all the little signs that the people traveling to take up land in their fiefdom had come from somewhere else and had things and lives of their own.

“Do you see the wells? I, Zhen, have already made arrangements with Miss Snowblossom. There is much water under the earth, but much of it is filled with fire and poisonous to the mortals. This wise young lord saw to it that only clean reservoirs were pierced.”

“Many forget that not all waters are sweet nor able to be cleansed with only an hour bubbling over a fire,” Meng Duyi said agreeably, trailing at Zhengui’s side. “Still waters especially are often poisonous in one way or another. It pleases me that this has been watched for. It shall make the mining in the region dangerous though, if there is truly so much fire under the earth.”

“The stinky air that goes bang when there is a spark, yes,” Gui grumbled.

Ling Qi grimaced despite herself, remembering their early experiments with creating gardens.

Meng Duyi stroked his beard. “It is not only the burning which is dangerous. When air stoked with fire ignites and burns itself out, a hollow is left. Emptiness rushes to be filled, and what once rested around and above will collapse inward. However, this is not as bad as a sustained burning under the earth, which may taint lands for generations. In the same way, land too saturated with water will sink all that rests upon it. One must be careful of the balance of elements beneath their foundations and in their soils. So, too, may opposite elements clash…”

“Miss Snowblossom is nice, even if Gui thinks she is a little clammy.”

“Hold your insolent tongue, foolish Gui,” Zhen hissed. “She has been most kind in showing us how to weave fire and water. Next, you will say Big Sister is bad because she is cold!”

“Big Sister is brisk! It is different!”

“Less of a problem here, perhaps,” Meng Duyi said quietly, turning to her as Zhen and Gui fell to bickering. “Tell me, what is the intention for irrigation through this region?”

“We have held off on more than planning. Lady Cai has spoken of a trunk and branch arrangement. It will probably be a dug channel to divert waters from the lake down along the outer lines of the farmland with smaller branches for each farm.”

“Hmm, I do not know that this is well. Waters once poured into the lake have changed their nature,” Meng Duyi said. “You would do better to imitate what you have done with the manor of this place. Create a dike above, dividing a section of the river, a dug channel to create another fall, and carefully arrange for a smooth flow of energies in the resulting stream as it wends through these hills and rejoins the river further north.”

“I am surprised you would suggest the larger deviation from the natural state of things, Sir Meng.”

“The way of our ancestors is not to make no changes,” Meng Duyi corrected. “It is to follow the principles of natural shape and flow. Here, a brief detour of the river’s waters is more natural than a stiff canal thrust through the land. It is a shape the land knows and one which it will accept with proper care and speech without the struggle of forcing it to follow an artificial shape. The smaller irrigation channels for individual fields are less disruptive and should not be a problem with…”

“With I, Zhen’s, guidance over the earth.”

“Gui’s guidance.”

“… Yes.” Meng Duyi gave her junior brother an amused look. “Young lord, this one would ask, in your own words, how far does your realm extend?”

She could practically see Zhengui starting to puff up. If he did it anymore, he might start to float away. She gave him a stern look.

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Qiyi giggled as he deflated.

“Gui’s place goes from the cliff to where the mountains bite together around the road, to the sobbing mountain in the west, and to the place where gods bicker in the east.”

So, his authority extended to the Weeping Mother’s mountain and the summit grounds? That was further than Ling Qi had thought.

“But Zhen has not fully tamed the marshlands further from this place,” Zhen admitted. “Authority takes time to root.”

“So it does,” Meng Duyi agreed.