Chapter 23: On a Blistering Summer Day, You Need Shaved Ice! The sun over Chang'an City beat down with vicious intensity, as though ten suns hung in the sky, threatening to bake the inner palace into human jerky. Cicadas in the treetops screeched until they were hoarse, making one's head throb. This miserable corner of the Imperial Kitchen backyard lacked even a single shade tree, and the dirt along the base of the wall had baked until it cracked. Barefoot with his trouser legs rolled up to his…