Xui Shi hadn’t boasted in vain about his abilities at their first meeting. He intuitively understood what his Master liked and disliked, needing only the smallest nudge in a direction and very little information to go on when completing tasks asked of him.

Mei Hua had originally just wanted some help figuring out how to stabilize Lanhua’s culture and form a proper government. Xui Shi took these two goals and went in directions she really hadn’t expected.

Using Mei Hua as his backer, Xui Shi could go around and collect any and every bit of information he needed. To get his information he talked to the fairies of the Palace, to the Princes, to Ye ,who sent him to the most disorganized mess of official documents he had ever seen, honestly who lumps tax documents and a report on Xiafeng’s sewer system into the same pile! Then he went into the the two towns and talked to the Mayors. He was even able to talk to the Fairy Emperor and use the scrolls in the Traveler’s Cave freely by simply dropping Mei Hua’s name at strategic intervals. While others slept, Xui Shi read and studied.

Xui Shi didn’t need sleep or food, working through the night for six days straight. After he was done, he had Mei Hua look over what he’d come up with:

First, he modified and codified popular traditions, holidays, and ceremonies already in place. He modified events so that anything that was contrary to established Lanhua morality (read: Mei Hua’s morality) were done away with and emphasised the parts that were uniquely “Lanhuan”. Once he was finished, he wrote out each event in detail, with the intention of having it followed nationally. By having everyone follow these events as he wrote them, it would give villages and towns a stronger sense of national identity and cohesiveness.

Second, he wanted to have a national census distributed and completed by every Lanhua citizen, regardless if they were literate or not. The purpose of this census was to have a solid idea of their population size, family clan names, place of origin, and general education level. He’d already created the census he wanted to use.

Third, he set up an entire structure of the government. In his model, the government was setup by Departments and underneath them were Ministries. Each Department, Ministry, and subdivision was carefully detailed and explained. He defined the authority structure, with Jin at the top, followed by Mei Hua, going all the way down to local Magistrates.

People within the Palace had been given roles that were parallel to what they were already doing: Yan Li was in charge of the “Department of War”, while his twin Shi Ji worked under him as a “Minister of Inquiries”. The Fairy Doctor found himself running the “Ministry of Health”, which surprised Mei Hua a bit. When she asked, apparently the Fairy Doctor was willing as long as he was appropriately compensated. The “Ministry of Foreign Affairs” was for spies and naturally included Longwei and Guilei. Ye became the “Duke Chancellor” and Xui Shi gave himself the title of “Secretariat”.

Fourth, he created a series of laws that blended traditional human law with Mei Hua and Jin’s specific sensibilities. These laws were split into five categories: Imperial Law, Royal Law, Official Law, Merchant Law, and Common Law. Depending on the person and subject would depend on what law was to be followed.

The Imperial Law was very light in what it required of Jin. In fact, whenever anything mentioned the Fairy Emperor, it was stated more as a suggestion than a demand. For Mei Hua, it was more about clarifying her role as a leader within the nation than telling her what to do. The Princes, however, were not so lucky.

Perhaps Xui Shi could sense his Master’s annoyance at her sons behavior while she wasn’t around, because the required behavior of the Imperial sons and their descendants was written in excruciating detail. Every possible thing that could happen, Xui Shi seemed to have accounted for and written a rule about it. And since every rule was in line with how Mei Hua herself would deal with it, with some rules and punishments being even better than how she would have done it, she approved of everything without batting an eye.

Sixth, he created a Primer for children between the ages of five to twelve. This Primer would teach them to read, write, and basic math. Alongside these things, it would also teach basic Lanhua history and philosophy, and something called the “Precepts of the Emperor”. Mei Hua skimmed over most of the material but did read the Precepts out of curiosity. These Precepts were essentially Jin’s list of “how not to make me angry”, spruced up and refined thanks to Xui Shi’s clever writing.

Seventh, he proposed creating something called an Imperial Examination and Imperial Academy. The government was sorely lacking personnel. The Imperial Examination would be for recruiting current talent within the Lanhua Empire and Nation. Meanwhile, the Imperial Academy would be for future generations and anyone who graduated from there would be pre-qualified for a position in the government. Naturally, he’d already made the test and study guide for the Examination and curriculum for the school.

Secondary to this was an advanced curriculum designed for those who couldn’t attend the Imperial Academy but still wanted a chance to further their education. Not only that, it could also be used as a base for independent Academies in the future. Something Xui Shi anticipated as the population grew.

If it weren’t for the boosts being the Master of the Bloodstone Seal gave her, Mei Hua would not have been able to read through all the stacks of paper. Even with the boosts she decided to skip some sections after she almost had a mental hernia trying to get through the Official Laws, which concerned taxes and land management. The Primer, curriculums, and test were mostly skimmed over after that, just so she could retain what sanity she had left.

Whether she meticulously examined it or skimmed over it, Mei Hua saw enough to be extremely impressed. The Bloodstone Seal had not only refined and magnificently articulated ideas she’d only vaguely understood herself, he also managed to think about things she’d never even considered.

When she was finishing reading most everything, Xui Shi tapped his fan against one of the piles and said glumly, “The only problem I’m running into is a lack of manpower.”

“Manpower?”

“Hn, there’s simply no getting around it. Even though I actually did the bare minimum, we lack the people to execute what I’ve created. For instance, even doing something small like distributing the census. Who will we get to do it? They need to be able to read and write so that the illiterate citizens can be included.”

“....ah.” Mei Hua nodded slowly. “I wonder if there are any fairies left?”

“Fairies left?” Xui Shi cast her a puzzled glance.

“Well, all the fairies on the mountains were made by Jin, except for Ye. They start out… um… empty, I guess you could say. Jin takes them and imbues a will into them, and then gives them all the knowledge they needed to do whatever job he sets for them.”

Xui Shi eyebrows shot up and he snapped open his fan, fanning himself excitedly. It turned out that fairies and Spirit Craft Items were indeed very similar. It’s no wonder his Master put them under the same umbrella.

“I didn’t realize that’s something he could do.”

“Hn. It’s pretty amazing right? As long as he knows about it, he can put the knowledge into the fairies so they know it too. Of course reading and writing, he can do that. I’m thinking he could maybe make fairies to distribute the censuses.” She then muttered to herself, “I know they can make them visible to adults now too so it should be doable...”

“Could he make fairy teachers?” Xui Shi asked eagerly.

“Teachers?”

“If you want true national cohesiveness, you must start with the children. Using the Primer, we can completely change Lanhua culture to what you want within a generation. But only if we educate all the children in Lanhua at the same time. Jianghu people have made many mistakes, but at least in this area they’ve always been correct. There, even slaves can read and write. I noticed for people from the Main Land, that’s not the case.” He sighed and shook his head. “Thus the only people who could teach the Primer in Lanhua are those who are already literate, which would be the Merchant and Scholar families. What good would it do us to only teach the wealthy families? Farmers and working families always make up the bulk of a society. If you want to really unite a society, you must include all of it, not just the glamorous portions.” He nodded pointedly to emphasize his words. “Frankly, I was puzzling over how to educate the illiterate portion of Lanhua, but if the Fairy Emperor can make fairy teachers…”

Mei Hua rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “I think that should be doable too? If he reads the Primer he can put that information into the fairies.” She frowned slightly, “He might not want to bother with it though… hm…”

“As long as the fairies can read and write, they can study the Primer themselves and then turn around and teach it to others. It would take longer that way but it is perfectly doable.”

“Right… then I’ll ask him and see if I can’t get him to read the Primer then make some fairy teachers for us.” She smiled and then paused. “I wonder if we should combine the fairies used for the census and for teaching?”

“I don’t see why not? And depending on how many fairies he has available, perhaps we can use them in other areas too. As I said, we’re short on people.”

Mei Hua stared at the large stack of papers and nodded slowly. “How many do you think we’ll need?”

“Let me see, we’ll need…” Xui Shi began calculating on the spot.

They talked a little bit more before Mei Hua left, taking the Primer and a small stack of papers with her. If Jin read both of these things, it should be enough to give any fairies he created the basic ability to teach. And for government workers, they should have a rough idea of what was required of them that some minimum teaching from Xui Shi should be all that was needed to get them going.

With a little persuading from Mei Hua, Jin was talked into making fairies as laid out by Xui Shi. He actually didn’t need much convincing, he still had hundreds of fairies in their empty semi-moth forms. Many years ago he discovered that while he could give faires wills they got extremely depressed without some extra guidance in their lives. A job was the easiest way to give them a day-to-day purpose and prevent them from falling into despair.

Jin wondered how his Sister got around this problem. He knew Ye hadn’t been given a purpose in the same manner he’d given his own fairies purpose. But when he examined Ye-- who didn’t appreciate the attention at all--he didn’t really understand what he was seeing. It not like he wasn’t aware, but the way his sister made fairies was far far more advanced than anything he knew how to do. Compared to her fairies, the way he did things was amateurish.

Since his Sister wasn’t there to ask for help, he had no choice but to keep giving fairies vocations so they didn’t end up despondent and sluggish. But that meant finding professions for them, and that wasn’t as easy as it sounded. So rather than being annoyed with the request, he was quite grateful.

It wasn’t difficult for Jin to read through the list of jobs and their descriptions, but it took some weedling on Mei’s part to get him to read the Primer. In the end, she brought the simple curriculum to bed with her, snuggled up close to her husband, and then gave him a pleading stare until he gave in and read the Primer out loud to her.

Since it was a curriculum for children, it wasn’t a difficult read. It was, however, surprisingly thorough. Besides reading and writing, Xui Shi’s math lessons also included an extremely precise time keeping and measurement system. And, to both her and Jin’s surprise, a revised calendar.

Mei Hua was extremely embarrassed to discover the year count started when she arrived on the mountain. Anything before her arrival was classified as the “Yuxian Period” and counted backwards. The current year was written as: Huang Dynasty, Year 61. She was relieved that Xui Shi had at least done her the favor of not naming a Dynasty after her. Jin, being naturally full of himself, didn’t bat an eye at having a Dynasty named after himself.

Xui Shi also included something he called “The Six Great Festivities”, which tied big holidays back into the Imperial Family. Each of the six festivals represented someone in the Imperial Family. And between the Six Great Festivities were smaller celebrations and festivals.

The smaller holidays were: Children’s Day, Lantern Festival, Parent’s Day, Harvest Moon Festival, and Deer Appreciation Day. Jin nodded in approval at the last one while Mei Hua almost choked laughing.

The New Year, or “Sun Festival”, was based on the Fairy Emperor. It started in late winter, early spring and lasted sixteen days. There were quite a few similarities between the Sun Festival and how people in surrounding regions practiced New Years, but also some notable differences.

Rather than praying to their gods for a good year and harvest, people prayed to their gods for the Emperor’s continued health and favor (which would naturally bring about a good year). The tenth day was treated as the Fairy Emperor’s actual birthday, rather than that of the Celestial Jade Emperor. Instead of decorations being red, everything was gold and blue based, with the sun as the major motif.

Next was Mei Hua’s birthday celebration, now a national holiday, “The Thousand Flower Festival” and it lasted a week. She mostly tried not to think about how an entire week was devoted to her.

Then there was the summer holidays. Shan Hui’s holiday was called the “Festival of Victories” and was three days long, and was associated with him because it was said he never lost a fight. Each day was set aside to celebrate a different kind of victory: national, family, and personal. Lu Shao, to no one’s surprise, got a holiday called “Festival of the Arts”. It was essentially an excuse to hold a two day party, naturally including a heavy music component, but also allowing various artists to display, perform or otherwise practice their specialty.

Her twin sons holidays weren’t as fancy. Sh Ji got one called the “Twin Star Festival”, which was a one-day holiday involving a large dinner and late-night star viewing and took place during Autumn. The logic behind why Shi Ji got this holiday was basically because he was clever and smart. Yan Li’s holiday was during the early winter and called “Remembrance Day”. It was essentially a day to honor the dead and remember one’s ancestors.

Mei Hua immediately felt sorry for Yan Li.

“Poor Yan Li, he doesn’t deserve to have his name associated with death like this. I should have Xui Shi change it to something else.”

“Why? Yan Li is the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Army and a strong fighter. Of our sons, he and Shan Hui caused the most amount of death when conquering the Eastern countries. So as far as a lot of people are concerned, their names are already intimately connected with death.”

“R-really??” Mei Hua knew her oldest twin son was a commander, but she hadn’t thought about it too deeply. As a Mother, she found it extremely difficult to envision either of her sons killing anyone.

Jin lifted his chin, looking pleased. “Oh yes, they both made me proud and were brutal to their enemies. In fact they once went to scout out the enemy position and ended up ambushed, the enemy lost a whole patrol to those two.” He paused. “Actually if we’re talking numbers, Shan Hui should have this Remembrance Day instead of Yan Li. But I suppose that Xui Shi fellow is smart enough to know that brat’s pride won’t allow it. Ah well, Yan Li will do fine as a replacement.”

Mei Hua frowned at her husband, feeling troubled, “I wish neither had to kill to begin with...”

Jin set the book down and gently hugged his wife. “I know, I know… if it were up to me, I’d have gone and done the killing instead. But I can’t leave here, so they went for me.”

“I don’t want you killing anyone either!”

“But it’s fine if someone else tries to kill you, your sons, me?”

“I didn’t mean it like that...”

“Mei, they tried to destroy this family. They tried to kill you.” He reached out and traced a finger across her cheek. “If someone tried to kill your sons in front of you and almost succeeded, would you just let that go? Would you risk them coming back to try again?”

She hesitated and then shook her head. If someone tried to murder her sons, she’d definitely go after them without any mercy.

“See? That’s how Ye, your sons, and I felt too. How could we let someone harm you like that and just passively sit by and give them a chance to try again? No, no… obviously we couldn’t allow for that. So your sons went out to find who plotted against you, against us, and made sure they’d never do it again.”

She was quiet for a moment, “I know… I know assassins were hired but… who hired them and why?”

Jin sighed as if annoyed, loosening his hug, “You’ll have to ask Shan Hui for that information.”

“Shan Hui?”

“I promised him I would let him explain.”

Mei Hua’s forehead wrinkled, the corner of her lips lowering. A vague sense of something began to take solid form in her mind.

“Was it just you that promised?”

“I believe he got everyone else to promise as well.”

“I thought so...” Her lips pursed as she thought about what everyone had not been saying. “This is just… I’m not that fragile. I can talk about the people who did this without falling apart.”

“Ah… that’s not why he made us promise to let him explain.”

She looked at her husband in confused, “Why then?”

Jin sighed again, then leaned down and kissed her forehead. “That he’ll explain to you as well, once he’s here.”

“Why is everyone making stupid promises while I’m gone, ah?” She muttered, before saying out loud, “I wonder when he’ll come home…”

“Another week or so at most.” Jin managed to keep his face neutral despite a sense of impending doom looming over him at the thought of his oldest son returning.

“If that’s the case,” She huffed, annoyed. “I don’t see why you can’t tell me at least a little something.”

“Hm…” He picked the Primer back up. “Perhaps we can read about it? That wouldn’t be breaking my promise.”

Mei Hua blinked and stifled a laugh, trying to cover it with a cough. At times like this, she could really tell that Ye and Jin were “cut from the same cloth”. But of course it wasn’t good to encourage such slither-out behavior so she didn’t dare laugh openly.

They continued reading through the Primer, focusing on only the bits that interested them. The History of Lanhua started much like a creation story:

“Within Blue Flower Mountains dwells two great spirits, the Yang Spirit and the Yin Spirit. They lived in harmony, growing and strengthening the mountains and all that lived on them. The Yang Spirit loved the deer, the Yin Spirit loved the trees…”

“Is this alright?” Mei Hua cut into Jin’s reading of the text.

“Hm?”

“It’s mentioning your Sister.”

Jin was quiet for a moment, his hand running across the neatly written characters.

“I gave the Stone permission.”

Mei Hua, who’d been lounging like a cat next to her husband, sat up straight in surprise.

“You did?!”

His face was emotionless as he explained, “For years now I’ve let those in the Palace talk about her.”

“You have--ah!” Mei Hua eyes widen and her mouth dropped open, “THAT’S IT!”

“What?” He replied with a confused look on his face.

“It’s been bugging me since I woke up, but I couldn’t figure it out! But that’s it! I’ve heard people talk about your Sister!”

Something almost like amusement flashed through Jin’s eyes.

“Wow…” Mei Hua touched her cheek, still a bit shocked. “...I can’t believe I didn’t notice before now. I guess there’s been too much going on... Wow…” She stopped being flustered after a bit and stared at her husband carefully, “It’s good that you’re allowing this, but is it really alright?”

“It’s… acceptable.” He said, a look of discomfort on his face and his body tensing. “Only those that knew her can speak her name, the others… her name must not be mentioned but they can still speak of her. The Stone, I told him the same thing. Her name is taboo, and even then I don’t want her spoken about casually by people who don’t know her.” A sort of pained, guilty expression flashed across his face. “I… I wanted to do as you said all those years ago, but I can not-- I tried but I can not-- this was the only compromise I could… could tolerate.”

Mei Hua reached out and held each side of his face softly. “Thank you Jin. I know how hard this is for you. Thank you. Truly, I appreciate it.”

“...you do?”

She cocked her head slightly, “Of course?”

His body relaxed and he gave her a small smile. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be happy with just a compromise.”

“Bah, am I that mean and rigid in your mind?” She eyed him in mock anger.

“No, I just… ah.” He gave a slight shrug, “I’m just being silly I suppose.”

“You are, but you’ve always been a bit silly so--”

“Haha, is that so?” There was a dangerous gleam in his eye as his hands starting to snake around her body.

“Wait, wait, we’re not done read--” She let out a squeal of surprise and never got to finish what she was saying.