Yu Weiwei pulled Hua Zhi over and made a brief round of introductions. The others waved a hand in acknowledgment. “Hurry up and get in— play a few rounds and you’ll be acquainted soon enough. What’s the point of all this pleasantries.”

There was too much sense in that. Yu Weiwei rolled up her sleeves and joined the game. “Hua Ling, watch me play a few rounds first. Join in whenever you feel like it.”

Hua Ling settled herself behind Yu Weiwei and watched them play dice— guessing high or low. Fortunately, all of them had been well raised, and nothing about their manner resembled the ferocity of seasoned gamblers. Even when tense, they only widened their eyes; when they lost, they buried their faces in their hands; when they won, they jumped up in excitement. Here, stripped of all the usual constraints, every one of them was entirely at ease.

Even the Zhu family girl was nowhere near as quiet as she had been at first acquaintance, her mood rising and falling freely with the wins and losses.

After watching for a while, Hua Zhi began placing bets along with the others. She won some and lost some, and showed no particular emotion at the losses— which gave everyone a clear sense of just how composed her confidence ran.

A group of women at play had none of those underhanded tactics. Wins and losses came down purely to luck. Hua Zhi did not hold back or play small, and her bets were refreshingly generous. By the time they left at dusk, she had earned herself a full circle of goodwill, and they pressed her to come again the next day before she had even gone.

On the way back, Yu Weiwei’s mood had still not fully settled. Now that she considered herself quite well acquainted with Hua Ling, she linked arms with her quite naturally and began pestering her with all the charm she could muster. “Come again tomorrow, please? We’ll play something different tomorrow. Will you come? Will you? Say yes.”

Hua Zhi leaned against the carriage wall, tilting her head to look at her. “You’re in a very good mood?”

“Of course— I won so much.” Yu Weiwei held up eight fingers. “I haven’t won in such a long time. I finally turned my luck today! By the way, Hua Ling— did you win or lose?”

“I didn’t keep count.”

Yu Weiwei stared at her. “You don’t even care about winning or losing? Quickly— count it up now.”

Hua Zhi, without much concern, pulled out all her banknotes. Compared to the few she had set out with, there were now considerably more.

Yu Weiwei counted them up eagerly. “Three thousand eight hundred and eighty taels. How much did you bring?”

“Five thousand taels even.” Hua Zhi smiled slightly. “It looks like everything you won came from what I lost.”

To lose over a thousand taels and remain this unruffled about it— Yu Weiwei became even more convinced that this person had deep reserves. Even so, she felt obliged to explain. “None of us joined forces to take your money…”

“I never thought that for a moment. Not to put you down, but looking at the people there today, I genuinely could not see a single one who was skilled enough to control the outcome of the dice.”

“…Could you leave me some dignity?” Yu Weiwei shot her a mortified look. “We’re just playing for fun. As if we’d go and learn those underhanded methods. We’d have no right to call ourselves decent people.”

Hua Zhi smiled. “Do your families approve of you doing this every day?”

“Not every day— only occasionally when we’re in good spirits. Usually I come once every seven or eight days, maybe ten. The others are about the same. Otherwise, even by Jinyang’s own standards, it would be unacceptable.”

Hua Zhi nodded with understanding. “Fair enough. In that case, take me again tomorrow.”

“Done!”

The next day, Hua Zhi went along with Yu Weiwei again. They played different things, and she lost a bit of money as before. In a game no one controls, losing a little money is not difficult— you only have to follow whoever’s luck is running worst and bet against them.

Losers, after all, are always more welcome than winners. By the third day, when Yu Weiwei was no longer able to come, Hua Zhi had already earned the standing to go on her own.

Over the course of several days, wins and losses traded places, though she lost more often than not. The silver she had let go amounted to seven thousand taels, and she had become the most popular person of late in this gambling house built for women.

So when she announced she would rest for a few days, the others were very sorry to hear it, though they could not very well press her. They only urged her again and again to be sure to come back in a few days.

“Miss, have some soup.” Early one morning, Nian Qiu brought a steaming bowl of broth and set it in front of her. The soups and broths had been coming without fail these past few days, yet their young mistress had visibly grown thinner— and that made Nian Qiu feel quite wretched about it.

She managed half the bowl with some effort. Hua Zhi lay back languidly against the chaise and found that she had little desire to move. For someone who genuinely disliked gambling, spending every day in that place had been genuinely torturous— more draining, somehow, than conducting a major business transaction.

“This servant just saw Young Master Little Six outside, Miss. Shall you see him?”

Of course she would. These past few days the two of them had each been going their separate ways, with Little Six returning late, and they had had very few chances to exchange words.

She went out, and there the boy was indeed, sitting in the courtyard.

“Sister Hua Zhi.” Little Six hurried over. Seeing that Sister Hua Zhi did not look well, knowing it was the recent business wearing on her, he felt a swell of unhappy feeling. She should never have had to bear any of this.

“Why are you sitting out here? Aren’t you cold?” Hua Zhi felt the layers he had on. They were a little thin— November’s cold was already biting, and the first snow was probably not far off now. “We’ll be here waiting for Yanxi— it looks as though we’ll be staying a while longer. Nian Qiu, go and buy us all a few sets of warmer clothes later. Get some for everyone.”

“Yes, Miss.”

Little Six took the opening to interject, “Let’s go inside and talk.”

The inn where they were lodging was the best in Jinyang, with underfloor heating in the rooms that made it far warmer than outside. A cup of hot tea and the chill had settled out of their bones.

“They’ve specifically put together a place for Jinyang’s young women and ladies to enjoy themselves. I’d imagine they haven’t overlooked the men of Jinyang either.”

“Quite right. That place is like the horse track— you need someone to bring you in. Zeng Xiangyan seems to have thought I’m young and harmless, and since I’ve been generous with my spending, he’s been taking me along these past few days. It’s been quite an eye-opener.” Little Six smiled. “I’ve learned for the first time how little use money has.”

“The bets are very large?”

“What we play is not even the largest. The wins and losses run to about four thousand taels at a time. I’ve heard them mention, in passing, that a single round among their fathers’ generation can go in and out for tens of thousands of taels.”

At stakes like that, the final win or loss being in the hundreds of thousands would not be unusual. The women’s gambling house did not seem to have a rake— she was not sure about the men’s side.

“A five-percent rake. Not low.”

Indeed not. Just from that alone, whoever was behind the operation was earning a considerable amount.

“Sister Hua Zhi— can Jinyang’s situation be changed?”

Hua Zhi did not soften the truth. “It would be very difficult. Jinyang has already developed into what it is on too great a scale, and the local people take pride in it. They do not feel that their kind of gambling is the same thing as gambling anywhere else. Whoever is behind all of this is far too clever.”

“Then what are we supposed to do? You can’t just keep letting it go on forever!”

What could they do? When something has taken deep root in people’s hearts, changing it is no small matter— and besides, she could see no solution. Hua Zhi let out a quiet breath. “Let’s wait for Yanxi.”

“Should we not tell His Imperial Father?”

“And even if we did— what then? Ban it? How would you ban it? If you shut down the gambling houses, they can gather a few friends and run a game in someone’s private home. You can’t very well stop people from having a pastime in their own house.”

“I just want him to see this. I want to tell him that there is no such thing as a golden age of peace and prosperity. I want him to feel some sense of danger, so he stops causing so much reckless trouble.” Especially trouble for you, Little Six thought, biting down silently. This was a matter that threatened the very foundations of the realm, and yet it was being pressed entirely onto Sister Hua Zhi’s shoulders. She gained nothing from it and was liable to be reprimanded without warning. He was furious on Sister Hua Zhi’s behalf.