Thousands of miles away in Shu State, the sky was overcast, and a light rain drizzled down.
But here in the north, above the Capital Prefecture, the sky was clear for a thousand miles.
At noon, sometime after the Beginning of Autumn, the bright sun blazed down, making the two-hundred-year-old Wind and Rain Pavilion south of the Imperial City shine as if it were brand new.
Shafts of hazy light streamed through the glazed, latticed windows.
It bathed the spacious room deep on the third floor in a brilliant golden sheen.
A man wearing a white tiger pattern mask stood before a long table, holding a thick-tipped White Jade Wolf Hair Brush.
He dipped it in Hui Ink, then flourished it across the soft Smoke Water Paper, writing the three words: "Post-rain Reflections."
Following that were four lines of a poem: "At dawn, I leave Bai Di, draped in vibrant clouds; a thousand miles to Jiangling, I'll return in a day."
