No matter how unwilling Lian Jiyingsong was, he had no choice but to hand over the flower reward. This agreement had been made before the Ming Emperor himself, and they were the ones who had proposed it first. If he didn’t comply, not only would he be in the wrong, but it could even spark a diplomatic incident. So in the end, Lian Jiyingsong handed over the Japanese sword-making technique to the Li family.
Of course, the Li family couldn’t keep such a sensitive item to themselves. Therefore, after Zhenniang made a copy to keep for Luo Wenqian, she handed it over to the imperial court.
Once everything was properly transferred, Lian Jiyingsong hastily departed. Instead of returning to the Maritime Trade Commission where the envoys stayed, he left directly with several ronin.
Losing the ink competition and losing face was a minor issue; more importantly, losing the Japanese sword-making technique meant someone would have to take responsibility before their lord, and Lian Jiyingsong would be the perfect scapegoat. If he returned, the final result would likely be seppuku.
Lian Jiyingsong didn’t want to die—not because he feared death, but because he couldn’t accept it. He needed to preserve his life first, and as for this defeat at the Li family’s hands, he would surely seek revenge one day.
His destination now was naturally the sea, where the Lian Ji family had their hunting grounds and where he could find refuge.
Thus, Lian Jiyingsong disappeared with his men, but let’s leave that aside for now.
Back at the Maritime Trade Commission office.
The grand event had finally come to an end. The Emperor and Imperial Consort bestowed many gifts upon the Li family. Particularly Imperial Consort Li, upon learning that Li Zhenniang was already betrothed—and would have been married by now if not for Old Master Li’s sudden passing—awarded Li Zhenniang two carriages of dowry.
These included premium spices, fabrics, and various jewelry.
Zhenniang naturally expressed her gratitude profusely, after which the Emperor and Imperial Consort happily returned to the palace.
After their departure, the crowd outside the Maritime Trade Commission gradually dispersed, but everyone’s expressions remained excited. The ink makers of Nanjing, who had been suppressed by Lian Jiyingsong all this time, finally breathed a long sigh of relief.
It was said that within that short time, several theater troupes in Nanjing had already been booked.
However, the Li family members didn’t share in the post-victory celebrations, but instead deeply mourned, with the “World’s Finest Ink” calligraphy now displayed beside Old Master Li’s memorial tablet.
“Zhenniang, we’ll return to Huizhou in a few days. We must at least visit your grandfather’s grave to burn some paper money. We should tell him everything that has happened, so he can rest in peace, and your Seventh Grandmother is now waiting for you to bring this ‘World’s Finest Ink’ calligraphy home. This is unprecedented glory for the Li family,” Li Jingfu said with some emotion.
“Mm,” she nodded. They were still in the mourning period for her grandfather, and the previous ink competition had been to fulfill his final wish. Now that the wish was fulfilled, the Li family’s eighth branch would naturally return to Huizhou to observe the mourning period.
As for Nanjing, with the right to make tribute ink and now the title of World’s Finest Ink, business would flourish. However, precisely because of this, they needed to pay more attention to management and quality issues. Zhenniang planned to suggest to her Seventh Grandmother about letting Uncle Jingdong come over to manage for a while.
Although Uncle Jingdong had difficulty walking, his stern face and uncompromising manner made him perfect for management at this time. It would help keep the ink workshop staff grounded.
After all, with the Li family achieving such successive victories, both the managers and workers would inevitably become somewhat complacent.
Speaking thus, the Li family group headed toward the Li Ink Workshop.
In a nearby teahouse, Young Master Qin Four sat by a second-floor window, drinking tea while watching the departing Li family group.
There’s a saying that mourning clothes make one attractive, and this is indeed true. At this moment, Li Zhenniang in her plain white mourning clothes, with clear eyes and dark hair, had lost the sharpness from her earlier ink competition with the Japanese. Now, set against her mourning attire, she displayed a kind of independent grace, making it seem as though her slightly thin shoulders could bear the weight of heaven and earth.
“Impressive. Who would have thought Li Jingfu would have such a daughter,” Young Master Qin Four muttered to himself while sipping his tea. This wasn’t his first time seeing Li Zhenniang, but previously she had seemed merely like a refined young lady who knew how to make ink, nothing particularly eye-catching. It wasn’t until this ink competition that he saw her striking qualities.
This Miss Li somewhat had the bearing of a major household’s matriarch. Usually unassuming, but when trouble arose, she could shoulder the burden. It was just a pity that Luo Nine had acted first.
Young Master Qin Four pondered this, his heart still somewhat stirred.
This Miss Li rather had the bearing of the Li family’s Seventh Madam from years ago. He had heard about the Seventh Madam’s story—she too had risen to the occasion in a crisis. If not for the Seventh Madam holding things together, the Li family might have scattered more than twenty years ago.
“Young Master Four, we just received the news,” one of his attendants hurriedly came up at this moment and whispered in his ear.
“Ha, Sifang Bank is in trouble,” Young Master Qin Four wore an expression of someone watching a show.
The sun was setting.
When the Li family returned home, the entire ink workshop was naturally filled with joy.
Even Ugly Aunt, with her usually cold expression, now somewhat squinted her eyes: “Not bad, girl. You didn’t shame your grandfather.”
“Thank you for the praise, Grand-aunt,” Zhenniang naturally replied with a smile.
“By the way, where’s that Wenqian boy? Such a joyous occasion, yet he’s nowhere to be seen?” Li Jingfu walked around the room and received congratulatory visitors from Official Street, and even the Tian family sent people to congratulate them, but Luo Wenqian was conspicuously absent.
This wasn’t normal.
Speak of the devil—at this moment, Luo Wenqian hurriedly arrived with bombshell news: “Uncle Jingfu, Zhenniang, Minister Xu has retired!”
“Ah, what happened? Wasn’t the Emperor refusing to approve it?” Zhenniang asked curiously. After Hai Rui had impeached the Xu family, Xu Jie had been continuously submitting retirement memorials, but Longjing never approved them.
“This is quite complicated. Hai Rui impeached the Xu family at Songjiang, but Minister Xu’s influence in court was substantial, so it was all thunder with little rain. Many court matters couldn’t proceed without Minister Xu, so naturally, the current Emperor couldn’t just let Minister Xu retire. Minister Xu understood this too, so after submitting several memorials without a response, he quieted down. But while Minister Xu quieted down, his faction didn’t. Especially those censors—the Emperor’s private trip to Nanjing for the ink competition gave them another weakness to exploit. Those censors’ impeachment memorials have piled up a whole table, and scheming Chief Eunuch Chen Hong gathered all those memorials and had them rushed to Nanjing by express messenger. Today after the ink competition, Li Ink won universal praise, and the Emperor was in high spirits, but unexpectedly, upon returning to the palace, he received all these memorials—it was like a bucket of cold water over his head. The Emperor’s temper flared up. He simply dug out Xu Jie’s retirement memorial and approved it. Additionally, the Emperor issued another decree reinstating Lord Gao Gong, and the imperial messengers have already set out.”
Luo Wenqian sat down, took a sip of tea, and explained the whole situation clearly.
His expression wasn’t too good. With Xu Jie’s retirement, the support he had been providing would likely collapse, and with the Emperor reinstating Gao Gong, this further cut off the Xu family’s path.
Everyone knew that Gao Gong had originally been forced out by Xu Jie’s people—the two sides were mortal enemies.
Zhenniang hadn’t expected that Xu Jie’s retirement would have even this slight connection to her Li family’s ink competition.
Of course, this couldn’t be blamed on the Li family. If anything was to be feared, it was the group of imperial censors in the Great Ming. They were a special existence who feared no one, not even the Emperor himself, and this made weaker-tempered emperors very frustrated—Longjing was one such frustrated emperor.
Now taking this opportunity, he had also dealt with the censors, and thus Minister Xu met his tragedy.
Of course, these matters had nothing to do with the Li family.
But as a result, Wang Sifang’s side would likely face trouble.
Previously, Nanjing’s official and commercial circles could maintain stability mainly because Minister Xu served as an anchor. Of course, this didn’t mean Xu Jie would support the Textile Manufacturing Office, as he opposed their corrupt practices, and Hai Rui’s appointment as Yingtian Inspector was also supported by Minister Xu.
In other words, everyone understood that Hai Rui’s appointment was targeting the Textile Manufacturing Office, but Hai Rui was not easy to control. Although his task was to investigate the Textile Manufacturing Office’s affairs, he also had to handle local injustices, and thus his investigations eventually extended to the Xu family.
In the end, the Xu family’s affairs became entangled with those of the Textile Manufacturing Office. After all, the Textile Manufacturing Office’s connections were too extensive, naturally including people from Xu Jie’s faction. Setting aside other matters, even though the Xu brothers themselves knew the Textile Manufacturing Office was a pit and didn’t get involved, they couldn’t prevent involvement through their wives’ and concubines’ family relationships.
Therefore, although the Yingtian Prefecture had long known about problems in the Textile Manufacturing Office, and the court wanted to deal with it because Hai Rui was currently impeaching Xu Jie, they remained in a wait-and-see position. After all, officials as fierce as Lord Hai were extremely rare in the Great Ming.
Now with Minister Xu’s retirement, Nanjing’s situation would likely fall like dominoes.
“What about your uncle’s side?” Zhenniang looked at Luo Wenqian with some concern.
“Let’s observe for now. Sifang Bank’s shareholding structure is complex, and given my relationship with him, it’s not appropriate to get involved at the moment,” Luo Wenqian said calmly, though his expression suggested he had some plans.
“Mm,” Zhenniang naturally nodded.
Although the Li family had long harbored ill feelings toward Wang Sifang due to his kicking the Han family while they were down, plus his competition with Hu Zonglin for the position of Hui Merchants Association chairman—with the Li family supporting Hu Zonglin—Wang Sifang was still the chairman of the Hui Merchants Association.
Even though Wang Daokun was currently working for Hu Zongxian’s rehabilitation, showing signs that Hu Zongxian might be vindicated, thus restoring Hu Zonglin’s position in the Hui Merchants Association, and with the triennial chairman election approaching, Hu Zonglin now seemed to have the upper hand over Wang Sifang, the election hadn’t started yet. Currently, Wang Sifang was still the chairman of the Hui Merchants Association, and Sifang Bank was the leader among Hui merchant banks—even Luo Nine’s Yihou Bank couldn’t compare.
Therefore, Sifang Bank was crucial to the survival of Nanjing’s Hui merchants.
So, the current situation depended on whether Wang Sifang could weather this storm. If he couldn’t, not just Luo Wenqian, but even people like Hu Zonglin would have to get involved.
If Minister Xu’s retirement only brought uncertainty to Sifang Bank, then the next day’s bombshell news pushed Sifang Bank toward a bottomless abyss.
This news was—that the two officials from the Textile Manufacturing Bureau had fled with embezzled funds. Being experienced officials, they were quite savvy. As soon as the Emperor approved Minister Xu’s retirement, they knew their backing was gone and decisively fled.
By afternoon, news came that the Yingtian Prefecture office had sealed Sifang Bank.
“They say Chairman Wang coughed blood and fainted upon hearing the news, and depositors and pawnshop customers have surrounded the Wang residence. Ninth Uncle heard the news and went over with the bank’s guards. Fortunately, these guards helped Chairman Wang protect his household, otherwise, Chairman Wang’s home might have been looted by now.” By evening, shops that would normally be closed were still brightly lit.
Sister Ping’an now stood at the entrance of the Li Ink Workshop, telling Zhenniang about the day’s events.