(Scrolls piled as high as mountains, a lone lamp flickering)
Pei Yun (shoving a map across the desk as saltpeter purchase orders and military dispatches from Fanyang scatter across it): "The blades of Hebei are already ringing, yet the court is still drunk on the Pear Garden!"
Cui Qing tears open the lining of her ramie robe, revealing a finely traced map of the Silk Road trade routes: "Three thousand li of trade routes can become our lifeblood. All I ask is one promise from you, my lord."
The fading strains of "The Song of Rainbow Skirts and Feathered Robes" drift in from beyond the window, breaking against the night watch drums.
