“Well, that was a lot better than we were expecting, wasn’t it?” Bi De’s Great Master asked as his feet pounded across the now bare stone of the road. His hands flashed out as he scooped up branches of fallen trees, either tossing them off the path, or in the case of an entire tree, kicking it up to carry it upon his shoulder without breaking his stride.

Bi De hopped beside him, copying his movements and using precise gusts of wind to fling off the leaves and smaller debris that had accumulated. Gou Ren, Yin, Bei Be, Wa Shi and Tigu raced along with them, cleaning up the debris they missed. A wave of water followed in their wake, blasting off any dirt that had been swept onto the road. Chun Ke brought up the rear pulling the cart with Uncle Xian, Liu Bowu, little Xian and Ty An. Zhuge Tingfeng had already been returned to his home.

“Indeed, Master. It was good to see that everyone escaped undue harm. The Healing Sage and Uncle Xian were both concerned about the storm, but it appears the howls of the wind were worse than the damage inflicted.”

Fa Ram had escaped nearly unscathed, save for some downed branches. Indeed, Bi De had found the storm… pleasant, even. While the storm raged they were untouched. They had spent the entire second day in the greenhouse. It was far enough away from any trees, so the chance of the winds being strong enough to break the reinforced, Qi forged glass was slim.

They had all gathered to watch the raging rains and sleet as they lashed against the windows as if it was the height of summer. They played board games, and his Great Master, for the first time, managed to defeat Chun Ke at Go.

Which was a great victory, for his Master to defeat one beyond him. The boar had always been surprisingly good at the game, despite his difficulties and injury.

They also watched the flights of bees, as they too felt the coming spring and were starting to truly awaken.

The Great Master, upon hearing how destructive these “Devil Storms” normally were, had raised the question of seeing if anyone needed aid, and The Healing Sage had bid the Great Master to check on Hong Yaowu and Verdant Hill. Loath though the Master was to leave his child… he had, in the end, followed his instinct to help and set off with the cart and supplies, ready to give his aid.

He had delivered Hong Xian to his people… but they too had escaped nearly completely unscathed. A few roof tiles were missing, but that was about it.

The only true casualty was the final collapse of the snow golem, who had been looking haggard anyway. His body was now a tiny slush pile.

The Great Golem’s fall was surrounded by inconsolable children, and Hong Xian the Younger holding a funeral service… complete with a funerary tablet.

The children seemed to think that The Warden that Sends Forth the Flying Ice and Snow had something to do with the lack of damage, and there were already plans to build another next year. They had even managed to find the golem’s hat from where it had blown into the trees.

They had picked up a few other helpers along the way, and thus departed to Verdant Hill. The road here had been in much worse condition. It was covered in hip high slush and hundreds of fallen branches, but they were cultivators. They simply bulldozed through each and every impediment.

Verdant Hill was a bit worse off, but again, to Hong Xian’s befuddlement… it wasn’t as bad as storms had been in the past. It certainly looked bad, and there was trash everywhere… but the people of Verdant Hill were already cleaning it up. Compared to the devastation he had seen at the Dueling Peaks, it was nothing.

Indeed, the Lord Magistrate had been in as fine spirits as Bi De had ever witnessed him, a bright smile on his face. He was mildly injured, several rope abrasions on his body, but that was to be expected. He was aiding the men of Verdant Hill, along with Archivist Bao, in setting up a crane, the rope and pulleys letting them lift up the numerous roof tiles they needed to replace.

From preliminary reports delivered by minor transmission stones, the outriders were reporting similar circumstances in the closest villages.

“It's all due to the Warden’s help!” Little Xian had decided. The Lord Magistrate’s face fell for a moment, until it was explained exactly who the Warden was.

“Yes, the snow golems.” The Lord Magistrate said, his earlier cheer back. “My messenger mentioned the one at Hong Yaowu, and the men built their own, small one. Next year I hear that there's going to be some kind of competition between the outriders and the guards, something about not being beaten by the villages.”

The man chuckled and then stood tall, forming the gesture of respect.

“Thank you all for coming. Your willingness to lend our Verdant Hill aid is both appreciated and speaks to your virtuous souls. If you wish to give us any help, I am not a man to refuse your benevolence— but we do have things well in hand. I would like to have a drink with you however, my student. I hear things have gone well?”

And thus, after a day of putting roof tiles back on buildings and sweeping streets, as well as lunch with the Lord Magistrate… they were on their way back home.

Past the fields, bare dirt now visible. Past the earth and rock, now exposed once more. And past the first little shoots of plant life. Active as soon as the sun hit them, they raced to be the first to bloom.

It was close. It was so close now he could taste it, as the beating heart within the earth thumped louder and louder.

As it thundered stronger and stronger.

===================

After a long day of clean up duty, we finally got home. It had been harder than I thought to sally forth and go see what was up… but in the end I wanted to be a man my son could look up to. So I went to see if my neighbors needed any help.

Seeing the hell that weather could wreak up close was always something.

I knew how bad storms could get, and this had been quite the nasty one… but it hadn’t turned out too badly. And it was always great to see the community banding together. I had been a part of enough clean up operations after flooding and ice rain, so it was old hat to me.

A few roof tiles? Nothing. Cleaning up the roads would take a bit longer, but it was doable.

So instead of funerals and sorrow, we got the good feeling of a job well done. Sure, there was damage, but like the road, it was more an exercise in community bonding than anything strenuous.

We came back through the gate in high spirits, ready to relay the good news to those who had stayed home… And I instantly noticed something. The yard was completely clear, the wood of fallen branches stacked up.

And I knew the culprit.

The good thing about super medicine is that your darling wife heals fast, without any scarring or stretching.

The bad thing about super medicine is that Meimei was, upon being given her clean bill of health, trying to do strenuous activity. The polar dip she had done during the storm was fine, but she should still be resting!

I wanted to pamper her, damn it! But Meimei was bringing down planters and sorting out some of the soil I had made for her, Xiulan and Rizzo her assistants. Her eyes were gleaming as she prepared everything for spring, our son tied to her back so she could carry him around wherever she went.

But I wasn’t one to be out done by my wife.

I sent out my dutiful disciples and we started on our last preparations.

The tools were inspected and sharpened. The fields staked out. Commissions for my drop hammer were given to Bowu, who grinned like a loon as I entrusted him with the task and Ty An, who was visiting Tigu, rolled her eyes and her sleeves up as she started pumping the fires of the forge.

We were a well oiled machine now. All the kinks of last year had been mostly smoothed out, and once more we would be expanding. Expanding with new fruits and vegetables, new experiments, and new… things.

Like a drill we moved forward bit by bit, each and every year.

One of the more tedious things was to finally put the General to rest as well. Part of me wanted to see just how long he would take to melt… but in the end, I decided to give him a send off like last year.

Namely by shoveling him into the river. He was basically pure ice from the storm, but it didn’t really impede me any… At least until I got to the middle of him.

‘....again, it is some form of ice crystal, but I have no idea what kind. Ice crystals are hexagonal in shape; this one is a sphere.’

Huo Ten scratched his chin as he held the perfect sphere in his palms. Last year it had looked just like another piece of ice, a diamond shaped fragment. Now, it was a perfectly smooth sphere, and dark like the freezing pond water. The globe was flecked through with gently drifting motes of white—like stars or gentle snowfall. ‘If I had not seen it before, I would even say that this was already cut… but it's already ready to be used. Of course, some crystals grow ‘perfect’, but it is very rare… In short? This Huo Ten had no idea! It is interesting though…’

The monkey handed it back to me, and I stared, completely nonplussed, at the sphere. I shook it.

The little motes within went wild, like they were caught in a storm.

….my giant snowman had formed a snowglobe in the middle of his body.

I licked my lips, and stared at it for a moment longer.

“You know what? Not the weirdest thing.” I decided, even as I wondered if little Xian’s theory had some merit. It wasn’t actually commanding the winter was it? ”Thank you for your service, General. You sleep tight now, okay?”

I stared at the globe for a moment longer, before taking it back to the cold storage. It had already been packed with river ice, so our fridge would last until next year… and we had added another room to it. A room with a door, beyond which Tigu’s sculpture collection lay.

We now had the full set. A naked ice sculpture of literally everybody who lived on the farm.

It was amazing what Tigu could get people to do by just asking them nicely…. With no hint of any bad intent.

And honestly, they were getting a lot better.

I shook my head, as I started out of the cold storage.

Last year, a wedding. This year…?

Well. I was excited to find out.