“A passenger ship in the Yangtze River waters took on water and capsized during the night. The captain and boatmen were first to seize a small boat and escape, all rescued safely. Another twenty-seven passengers fled on another small boat, and a newlywed couple removed a door panel and two oars, also successfully escaping.

The remaining fifteen passengers went missing. Of these, ten were on a small boat that capsized due to their excessive panic and lack of boating experience. Eight bodies of the missing have already been found.

The recently retired palace Supervisor Fan who left the palace for health reasons has not been found and is currently listed as missing. However, given her weak constitution and inability to swim, it’s estimated there’s no possibility of survival…”

A thousand li away in Kunming, Mu Chun was awakened in the middle of the night by an urgent report. After reading it, he immediately became alert and woke his wife Hu Shanwei as well.

Upon seeing the contents of the urgent report, Hu Shanwei felt a sudden chill in her heart despite the sweltering heat of the dog days of summer.

Hu Shanwei was instantly transported back three years ago when she resigned from her official position and left the palace, recommending Fan Gongzheng to become the palace supervisor. Fan Gongzheng’s words from that time seemed to echo in her ears:

“Once you go out, you’ll discover that the outside world is actually no different from the rear palace, perhaps even more ugly. You’re still young, but at thirty-five, you’re already considered an old woman outside the palace, only fit for retirement and waiting for death. But in the rear palace, you’re in your prime. You want to leave, and His Majesty has agreed, so I have nothing to say. However, if you go out and walk around, finding it all rather ordinary, and want to return, I’ll give you back the position anytime. Just like officials who resign during mourning periods – they return after a few years and continue serving as officials.”

“…I’ll serve as palace supervisor for a few years first. When the new emperor ascends the throne… with each new emperor comes new ministers. Who becomes palace supervisor will depend on the new emperor and new empress’s decision. When that time comes, I won’t cling to my position and make people dislike me either. We old palace women will all go find Supervisor Cao, freeload food and drinks, and when idle, play leaf cards, betting on who lives longest.”

But after only three years, she and Supervisor Fan were separated by life and death.

That ship was bound for Yangzhou. Hu Shanwei knew what Supervisor Fan was going to do – she wanted to fulfill her wish of spending her later years with retired colleagues. Having served as female officials in the palace for most of their lives, they had strategized and worked at the very center of the Ming Dynasty’s power, enjoying glory and wealth, supporting themselves, fighting for their own social status, and providing for their own old age. Their lifestyle habits and ways of thinking had long been different from traditional women in large families. Returning to their hometowns, no one understood them, and they had no one to talk to.

Moreover, they knew countless palace secrets. Rather than take these to their graves or bring them home to create family problems, it was better to huddle together for warmth and become each other’s comfort.

When Hu Shanwei completed the handover that year, she even bowed to Supervisor Fan, saying, “Thank you for your recognition and kindness back then.”

Without Supervisor Fan’s promotion, there would be no Hu Shanwei of today. Even though Supervisor Fan’s original intention was merely to push forward a capable helper who could handle situations and take blame, to avoid being at the center of conflicts and use her as a pawn. Still, Supervisor Fan gave her danger but also opportunity, and whenever challenges came, Supervisor Fan never retreated. She helped when she could, serving as Hu Shanwei’s major support in the palace.

Supervisor Fan could be called Hu Shanwei’s mentor-like figure in the Ming palace.

After reading the report three times and memorizing every word, Hu Shanwei said, “Supervisor Fan showed me recognition and kindness. I cannot sit by and watch her die in obscurity. I must make a trip to Yangzhou. You stay home and take good care of little A’Lei.”

Mu Chun was reluctant to part with his wife. “Chen Xuan will inform us if he discovers anything.”

Hu Shanwei replied, “Chen Xuan is a court official who only manages water defense. If he oversteps his authority and pays too much attention to Supervisor Fan’s death, he might expose his stance. Now that a new emperor has ascended the throne, it would be good enough for Chen Xuan, an old minister, to keep his position as naval commander stable. He mustn’t let people catch him in any wrongdoing and lose his position or even his life.”

Mu Chun took his wife’s arm. “If we go, let’s go together. We can temporarily entrust little A’Lei to Captain Shi to take home and raise. He already has eight children – one more won’t make a difference.”

Hu Shanwei paused and sighed, “Mu Chun, to outsiders, you’re a dead man who’s been gone for three years, while I’m someone who wanders the world with uncertain whereabouts. When Great Ancestor Emperor died, he had so many people killed as burial companions, yet he lightly spared you and me. We retreated to the mountains and forests, living in seclusion here, enjoying three years of peaceful days. But the documents we read most often are still court gazettes. With the recent continuous heavy rains, you check the water levels at the upstream Tangchi Canal daily, reminding Mu Sheng to open the floodgates for drainage in time. This shows that some matters remain close to our hearts and cannot be abandoned just by saying so.”

Mu Chun said, “Supervisor Fan encountered such misfortune. If it were an accident, that would be one thing – you could go to the Yangtze River area to hold several religious ceremonies for her, to help her soul find peace, and send her off. That would be natural human sentiment. But if Supervisor Fan died unnaturally, if someone deliberately killed her and then scuttled the ship to destroy evidence, leaving no witnesses, what would you do? Given your temperament, you’d surely seek the true culprit and avenge her. Supervisor Fan spent her life in the court, so whoever killed her must also be in the court. But you finally escaped from court intrigue – do you want to be drawn back in? Can you bear to leave little A’Lei and me?”

“Of course I can’t bear it.” Hu Shanwei grabbed her daughter’s chubby little foot and kissed it. “I’d rather sacrifice myself than leave you and my precious daughter. But if I don’t go look, I’ll feel guilty for the rest of my life. Mu Chun, I won’t act impulsively. If it’s just an accident, I’ll join Supervisor Cao and Supervisor Cui to send her off and erect a memorial tomb for her. Supervisor Fan has no children, and the Fan family has declined now – we can’t let her become a wandering ghost. If it’s not an accident… there are still Shen Qionglian and others in the court, and Supervisor Fan has her own trusted confidants. They won’t let the true culprit go either. I’ll just look for some clues along the Yangtze River. I won’t enter the palace again.”

Hu Shanwei spoke sincerely. Both emotionally and logically, she had to go to Yangzhou to investigate. A’Lei was still small, and Mu Chun had long been “dead.” The father and daughter couldn’t appear beside Hu Shanwei, otherwise the secret marriage and Mu Chun’s faked death would be exposed, leading to endless future troubles.

Mu Chun agreed, holding her tightly and sniffing at her neck like a little dog. There was a pleasant milk fragrance there. “Go quickly and return quickly. A’Lei and I will wait for you at home.”

Hu Shanwei hugged him back. “I know. Anyway, A’Lei is most attached to you. If she weren’t hungry and needing milk, she wouldn’t pay attention to me at all.”

Mu Chun treated his daughter like a son, and A’Lei knew who spoiled her most and who was best at making her happy, so she loved her father most. Hu Shanwei, her birth mother, had to take a back seat.

To protect Hu Shanwei’s safety while not exposing her secret marriage and maintaining her persona of wandering the world, Mu Chun ordered hidden guards to follow her from a distance.

Mu Chun spent half the night rummaging through boxes to pack her luggage, wanting to bring everything including the chamber pot. Hu Shanwei was exasperated. “I said I wander the world, even collecting salary requires traveling all over the country. My luggage should be as simple as possible, otherwise it won’t look right.”

Mu Chun gave her a stack of banknotes. “If you’re searching for someone in the Yangtze River, hiring water ghosts is very expensive.”

Hu Shanwei didn’t take them. “My salary is limited, and traveling expenses are high. I need to save half for my father’s old age. Suddenly having so much silver would raise suspicions.”

Mu Chun said, “This won’t work, that won’t work – do you plan to search for people with love alone? How long would that take?”

Hu Shanwei produced a small seal. “Money makes the devil turn millstones. I have no money, but the Shen family does.”

This was the emergency item Shen Qionglian had given Hu Shanwei. With this seal, she could withdraw the portion of family wealth the Shen family had set aside for Shen Qionglian. The Shen family had once been the wealthiest family in the Yuan Dynasty. Their ancestor Shen Xiu, known as Shen Wanshan, was truly wealthy enough to rival nations. Although they gradually declined after the Hu Weiyong rebellion case and Lan Yu rebellion case, the Shen family had divided their assets long ago. As the saying goes, “a centipede dies but never falls down” – Shen Qionglian’s father’s branch still lived quite well.

During the Lan Yu case, the Shen family was spared from implication because Shen Qionglian served as a female official in the court. They practically worshipped this daughter. Though they knew she would never leave the palace, they still set aside a portion of family wealth for her emergency use.

Three years ago when Hu Shanwei left the palace, Shen Qionglian gave her the seal for withdrawing money, saying “even a hero can be stumped by a penny.” Hu Shanwei thought she’d never need to use it, but unexpectedly it would come in handy so soon.

Hu Shanwei held A’Lei while Mu Chun embraced both mother and daughter. The couple didn’t sleep for the rest of the night, nor did they talk, quietly waiting for dawn.

When dawn came, Hu Shanwei reluctantly kissed her daughter’s chubby little hands countless times, wanting to devour them. Mu Chun said, “Stop kissing her. If you keep kissing, you’ll wake her up. If she’s woken before sleeping enough, she’ll cry and throw tantrums, and even scratch her own face and pull my hair.”

Especially forgetting her wife. Hu Shanwei felt a bit jealous. Mu Chun pushed his mouth toward her. “If you want to kiss, kiss me. I don’t mind being kissed however you want.”

When Hu Shanwei left, both her lips and eyes were slightly swollen. Despite countless reluctances, what needed to be done still had to be done.

Now for the Yangtze River. The Yangtze River waters were under Naval Commander Chen Xuan’s jurisdiction. When the passenger ship had casualties, the Yangtze River naval forces sent troops to conduct large-scale salvage operations along the river. No one understood the situation better than Chen Xuan. Originally he didn’t know such an important figure as Supervisor Fan was involved. He thought Supervisor Fan, having resigned for health reasons, would at least charter a large official vessel for comfortable travel. He never expected Supervisor Fan to be so low-key, mixing with common people.

Actually, Supervisor Fan did this deliberately. She felt that chartering a large ship alone made her too much of a target and prone to incidents. It was better to hide in plain sight, mixing with a group of common people. With many eyes around, it would actually be safer.

Unfortunately, Supervisor Fan had been shrewd and worldly all her life, skilled at passing blame. She truly exemplified “scheming too cleverly, she calculated away her own life, wasting a lifetime of anxious scheming, like a drifting dream at the third watch.” The mastermind behind this simply wanted her dead. No matter what means of transport she chose to leave the capital, she would die.

At Yangzhou’s Guazhou Wharf, Supervisor Cao and Supervisor Cui, who were waiting to receive Supervisor Fan, immediately suspected something had happened to her when they heard news of the passenger ship from Nanjing capsizing during the night.

To maintain secrecy, Supervisor Fan had only written in her letter that she was coming to Yangzhou to recuperate, without specifying when she would arrive or what vessel she would take. But these two female officials in Yangzhou had seen all kinds of storms. Their intuition told them that Supervisor Fan must have been on that ship.

Although they didn’t know why Supervisor Fan had suddenly fallen seriously ill and resigned from the palace, she had lived such a refined life that she would even apply light evening makeup for nighttime meetings. For her to travel on an ordinary merchant ship with fleas and bedbugs to Yangzhou surely meant she had some unspeakable difficulties.

The two female officials personally visited Chen Xuan, revealing their identities. Chen Xuan didn’t dare neglect them and immediately ordered the navy to search along the river. Every time a female corpse was recovered, the two female officials had to go identify whether it was Supervisor Fan. Additionally, he immediately sent messages by carrier pigeon to Mu Chun in Yunnan.

Chen Xuan comforted them: “Perhaps Supervisor Fan wasn’t on that ship and took another vessel to Yangzhou.” The merchant ship owner only cared about collecting fares and boarding passengers, never inquiring about passengers’ identities or names, so no one could confirm whether Supervisor Fan was on that ship.

Actually, Supervisor Cao and Supervisor Cui also hoped they were overthinking, but no one at Yangzhou’s Guazhou Wharf had ever received Supervisor Fan, causing hope to gradually turn to despair.

Just as the two were sinking into despair, sudden commotion arose outside the inn. Looking out the window, people were running frantically toward the wharf like madmen.

“Did they find the sunken ship?” The two quickly had a maid go inquire. Soon, the maid returned excitedly, gasping as she said: “Silver… silver! Mountains of piled silver! Gleaming white – this servant has finally opened her eyes to see what a silver mountain looks like!”

“Someone… a woman, quite good-looking, directly pulled silver from the Shen family bank’s treasury, filling ten whole carts. She piled it at the wharf like stacking firewood, saying a relative went missing on that sunken merchant ship, and this silver was reward money for those who salvage the sunken ship or bodies. The water ghosts or Nanjing navy sailors who previously recovered other passengers’ bodies immediately got a shovelful of silver ingots with an iron shovel—”

The maid waved her hands, making shoveling motions. “Each person got a shovelful of silver, enough to last three lifetimes. Oh, and this woman is also looking for Supervisor Fan.”

Supervisor Cao and Supervisor Cui exchanged glances. Having been colleagues for years, they understood each other perfectly and said in unison: “Hu Shanwei has arrived.”

This was Hu Shanwei’s style – no underhanded tactics, confronting things head-on. Once she decided to do something, she didn’t know how to write the word “low-key.” She would beat drums and gongs openly, acting with complete integrity. That spirited energy could truly overcome any Buddha or god, unstoppable.

Supervisor Cao and Supervisor Cui went together to the wharf to observe. The wharf was already packed with people. In the center stood a high platform like those used for opera performances, covered with red carpet and silver piled into a mountain, radiating silver’s unique sacred brilliance.

Beside the silver mountain was a black iron shovel with rust stains on the handle, forming a stark contrast with the snowflake silver, making the silver appear even more seductively alluring.

Around the high platform were about fifty reward notices – for salvaging ships, bodies, or even providing clues, all with corresponding rewards of silver, and only silver.

By now it was evening, and someone had lit giant sea lanterns the size of water barrels on all four sides of the platform. One could imagine that when night fell and the sea lanterns lit up, how alluring this silver mountain would be.

Those skilled in water work who specialized in salvaging were called water ghosts, and the outstanding ones among water ghosts were called river gods. Money could make devils turn millstones, and even gods could be moved. For a time, various experts at the wharf were rubbing their hands together eagerly, planning to risk trying their luck.

It was summer now with swollen rivers and rapid currents. To salvage anything, they absolutely needed these specialists who made their living underwater.

Besides this, Hu Shanwei had also requested Naval Commander Chen Xuan to dispatch a thousand-man unit to help guard the silver mountain and maintain order.

There were simply too many onlookers. Supervisor Cao and Supervisor Cui, two elderly women, couldn’t squeeze through at all. They had to show their identities to navy soldiers before being led to Hu Shanwei.

When old friends reunited, none showed joy – all saw sadness and confusion in each other’s eyes.

Hu Shanwei had deliberately tanned herself during the journey and brought only half-worn clothes, presenting an appearance of being travel-worn from wandering the world.

The three spoke on a boat where no one else was around, making conversation convenient. Supervisor Cao showed Hu Shanwei the recent correspondence from Supervisor Fan.

The previous letters were mostly routine greetings, because all mail entering and leaving the court had to be reviewed by the Bureau of Court Etiquette and couldn’t reveal any court secrets or even daily matters to outsiders.

Since Great Ancestor Emperor’s death, Supervisor Fan had written three letters to Supervisor Cao. The first described how sad she felt after Great Ancestor Emperor’s passing. The second said that as she aged, her energy declined year by year, and organizing Great Ancestor Emperor’s funeral had somewhat overwhelmed her, making her fall ill. The third said her illness kept fluctuating, causing frequent sick leave, and she felt embarrassed occupying a position without contributing in the palace. She had requested to leave the palace for recuperation and would soon come to Yangzhou, asking Supervisor Cao to send someone to wait at Yangzhou’s Guazhou Wharf to receive her at any time.

Having been colleagues for fifteen years, Hu Shanwei knew very well that for Supervisor Fan, changing emperors just meant changing bosses – not enough to make her sad to the point of illness. So there must be hidden meaning in the letters.

Reading through again carefully, Hu Shanwei found the last letter had a hesitant, reluctant-to-speak quality. Supervisor Fan said her chronic illness wouldn’t heal and she feared her days were numbered. She had dreamed of dying from illness, with someone digging her grave while singing poems by her grandfather Fan Peng, one of the Four Great Literary Masters of the Yuan Dynasty, specifically his “Grave-Digging Song.” This frightened her and she woke from the nightmare.

Grave-Digging Song? The title sounded familiar, but Hu Shanwei couldn’t remember the content. In recent years, besides the “Solitary Hermitage Collection” written by Chan Master Dao Yan whom she had always admired, she hadn’t found any other poet whose every poem she could recite.

Seeing Hu Shanwei’s puzzled expression, Supervisor Cui understood and handed her a “Poetry Collection of Fan Deji,” saying, “I’ve also read through these repeatedly – there’s a bookmark on the page with ‘Grave-Digging Song.'”

Fan Peng, courtesy name Deji.

Hu Shanwei opened to find: “Yesterday’s old grave was dug, today’s new grave is made. Before the grave stand two stone guardians, seeing off the old and welcoming the new. The old soul hasn’t left when the new soul enters, the old soul still weeps facing the new. The old soul earnestly speaks to the new: this good land needs not many descendants. If descendants continue endlessly, great-grandsons won’t dig but great-great-grandsons will. I dig today, how pitiful it is – I wonder when you’ll dig again?”