After Xiang Dongning died in the Taihang Mountains, the Keepers of the Flame did not stop their work.
Six years later, the realm had settled and the flames of war had receded, but new trouble came to the old Taihang granary. The Qingliang Commandery government demanded that every privately held old granary be registered. Its location, keys, grain stores, and medical methods all had to be entered into the records. Some believed peace had finally arrived and that the Keepers of the Flame should hand over the granary doors in exchange for government protection. Others insisted that once lifesaving grain and routes fell into the hands of those in power, they would become new shackles.
At this time, a wooden tablet appeared, supposedly bearing Xiang Dongning's final order.
It read: After peace comes, the granaries belong to the government, and the name belongs to the Xiang clan.
Xiaoman had written Xiang Dongning's death record with her own hands, and had seen her buried on the southern slope. She knew her teacher would never use her name after death to command those who came after her. But the Keepers of the Flame began to waver, while waterborne disease and famine erupted in the city. The old granary, medical methods, government, and people were all swept into the same storm.
Once the land is at peace, the hardest thing to protect isn't the granary.
It's whether people are still willing to be honest.
