14. A meeting

The soft creak of wood echoed as Li Sining closed the lid of his notebook and rubbed his eyes. His mind had spent the last two hours processing various designs for wooden housings—light covers, essentially—for the Sun Capsules now gently glowing on the side table.

Each one glimmered with gentle golden light, casting overlapping shadows across the floor. In the daytime, they weren't necessary, but at night—without proper housing—they glowed like miniature moons.

"I can't have glowing pebbles lighting up the entire house while people sleep," he muttered, yawning.

He stretched lazily, then stood, rolling his shoulders. He needed something functional. A housing that allowed control over the light—something that could be closed like a lantern hood, shielding the glow when not in use.

"Maybe a sliding shutter," he mused. "Wood frame, narrow slats... like a night cage."

He filed the thought away. Once he refined the mechanism, he could commission the guards to carve them.

Out in the courtyard, the low rhythmic sound of wood against wood rang out.

Li Siyuan knelt beneath the shade of the plum tree, guiding a long, slim blade along the length of a pale wooden rod. Beside him sat Li Siheng, brows furrowed in concentration as he tried to mimic the motion, his own block of wood still awkward and splintered.

"Let the grain guide your blade," Siyuan said softly. "Don't force it. Follow it."

Siheng nodded, adjusting his grip.

Sining watched from the corridor for a moment, smiling faintly. Siyuan rarely spoke much, but he had infinite patience with his siblings. The quiet, unshakable sort that made others naturally trust him.

From the kitchen pavilion, laughter drifted on the breeze.

"Yan-ge, this is too good!" someone said. "You're putting the guards to shame!"

Inside, Lu Yan, apron neatly tied, was adjusting the garnishes on a set of dishes laid out on the low serving table. Three guards—the household chefs, temporarily reassigned from the Shadow Guard—stood nearby, awkwardly impressed and somewhat nervous as Lu Yan plated the final dish.

One of them whispered to the other, "He's too polite, but look at that glaze. Did you see the way he stirred the sesame oil—"

"It's terrifying," the other whispered. "He's too perfect."

Lu Yan, unaware of the stir he was causing, smiled brightly as he presented the final two dishes—honey-glazed root crisps and red braised bean curd in citrus sauce.

He'd prepared them based on the handwritten notes Li Sining had shared earlier that week—recipes "from a friend's house," as he'd casually explained.

(That "friend" being a certain self-sufficient base commander from a distant apocalypse.)

Lunch was promptly served in the central dining hall. The siblings, one by one, filtered in—some muddy from sword practice, others fresh from studying or garden duty.

"Is this new?" Li Sixue asked, sniffing the air.

"Yan-ge made it," Li Sitao chimed proudly, already chewing.

"Who?" Sixue blinked.

"Who else?" Siyuan said quietly, helping Lu Yan set the final plates.

Li Sining arrived last, after having jotted his lantern design down. He scanned the table and raised a brow at the presentation—each dish not only arranged with skill, but also subtle elegance.

He leaned toward Lu Yan, murmuring, "You used both recipes?"

Lu Yan nodded, cheeks slightly red. "They sounded so good, I couldn't pick one…"

Sining smiled and ruffled his hair once, causing the poor boy to nearly drop a bowl.

"You did well."

Across the table, Li Silan whispered to Sixue, "I feel like I'm watching a romance drama unfold in real time."

Sixue sipped her tea with a sigh. "You're not wrong."

Meanwhile, in Yanling Town, Li Siming stood outside the soon-to-open restaurant that would bear the name Apricot Garden.

The plaster walls were freshly painted, the wooden beams polished, and the new signboard hung neatly above the entrance. Craftsmen were adding latticework to the windows, and a faint smell of varnish lingered in the air.

Satisfied, Siming nodded to Guard 7, who stood nearby.

"It's shaping up well. We'll be ready to open in two weeks if nothing delays the kitchen setup."

Guard 7 said nothing—until someone hurried down the side street, brushing past a corner cart and stepping directly into Siming's path.

A soft gasp.

Then a body lightly collided with him.

"Oh!" a voice exclaimed.

Siming instinctively reached out and caught the person by the elbow.

The figure stumbled slightly, then regained composure.

She wore a flowing lavender robe embroidered with fine lotus thread. A veil covered her lower face, but her eyes were wide and surprised, framed by long lashes. She bowed slightly.

"I apologize. I wasn't watching where I walked."

Siming, still holding her arm, gently let go. "No harm done."

She bowed again. "I hope your day continues peacefully."

Then she turned, composed and elegant, and walked toward a shaded carriage parked at the edge of the square.

Guard 7 watched her go, then leaned toward Siming and said in a low voice, "That was Qin Yanyue."

Siming raised a brow. "You know her?"

The guard nodded. "She arrived in town three days ago with her elder brother. Our squad has been tracking movements of all non-locals near the county's core district."

"Squad 4?" Siming asked.

"Yes, Sixth Prince. We screen all newly arrived outsiders. Our duty is to protect the master, after all."

Siming watched the girl's figure disappear into the carriage.

"She seemed polite."

"She's from the Qin family of southern Yanzhou. Quiet reputation. Her elder brother's the one you'll want to remember."

Siming shrugged lightly. "I doubt we'll cross paths again."

Guard 7 didn't reply, but he gave Siming a strange look.

As the sun dipped into late afternoon and Siming returned to the village, the house buzzed with the usual post-meal energy. Li Sining was busy sketching prototypes for lantern shells, Silan was still sketching food layouts, and Siyuan was now watching Lu Yan carefully hem the edge of a robe.

Li Siming walked into the main room and paused, taking in the sight.

"Did I miss anything?"

"Yes," Sining said without looking up. "You missed Lu Yan accidentally making the guards question their career choices."

"Also, Siyuan smiled," Sitao said dramatically. "Twice."

Siming set down his cloak and dropped into a cushion. "Now that I regret missing."

Lu Yan, blushing, looked away.

Guard 112 whispered to Guard 76 in the corner, "Are they always like this?"

"Worse when there's wine," she replied flatly.

That night, the house glowed softly—not with oil lamps, but with three gently humming Sun Capsules, each set into makeshift wooden frames that filtered and softened the light.

In the main study, Li Sining turned off his oil lamp, set a new capsule inside a hand-carved box, and watched the glow filter through the slats.

Gentle. Controlled. Elegant.

He smiled.

"Next: attach a hook for wall-mounting," he murmured, already thinking of improvements.

Outside, the stars hung lazily in the sky, and inside, the Li family moved quietly through the hallways lit by captured pieces of the sun.

And somewhere across town, a girl in a veil sat in her carriage, speaking softly to a man whose eyes were sharper than swords.