Read Chapter 24: — LETTERS SOUTH

Su Xiaoxi remained in Zhenjiang with her brother.

Su Shanhe returned to work after his name was cleared, though he refused promotion.

“I have seen what happens when people begin enjoying rank more than duty,” he told Zhou Yunqing.

The prefect did not argue.

Xiaoxi returned to the Red Boat Rescue Association. After the river-god conspiracy, public trust in the waterways was fragile. The rescue crews became part lifesavers, part educators, explaining currents, flood warnings and the simple truth that not every sound under a hull belonged to a god.

Tang wrote to her weekly.

His letters were terrible.

The first began:

Honoured Miss Su, Beijing remains full of officials and lacking in women of good judgement.

She replied:

Honoured Mr Tang, Zhenjiang remains peaceful and therefore improved by your absence.

The second exchange was worse.

By the fifth, both stopped pretending formality.

Tang wrote about training, cases and Lin’s impossible standards.

Xiaoxi wrote about rescues, her brother’s temper and children who now mocked the old river-god stories.

Neither wrote the word love.

They did not need to hurry.

They had both seen what happened when people forced stories to move faster than truth.