In recent days, Lin Rui had begun to understand something about himself that he had not noticed before.
The work of ruling a kingdom had not become easier since he took the throne. If anything, the weight was heavier. Reports from the tribes arrived every morning like a tide that never stopped. Disputes between nobles needed his judgment, and the ministers always had a list of "urgent" problems that needed the Khan's seal.
Yet, despite the mounting pressure, Lin Rui found that the hours he looked forward to most were not the ones spent in the council chamber.
They were the moments he managed to steal away from it.
At this particular moment, he was sitting beneath the shade of a larch tree in one of the palace's quietest courtyards. He watched Lian Zhi with the relaxed attention of a man who had successfully deleted his to-do list.
