With most of the dishes eaten and a full bowl of broth downed, Gu Yanxi gestured for Ying Chun to come and clear the table. He helped Hua Zhi to her feet, and the two of them moved to the daybed, where he spread the blanket over her legs again. He hooked a low stool with his foot and drew it close to the side of the bed to sit on.
He was about to say something when he suddenly remembered his grandmother’s gift. He rose again, retrieved the bundle he had set aside earlier, and unwrapped it. “From Grandmother.”
From Her Highness the Empress Dowager? Hua Zhi moved at once to climb off the daybed. Gu Yanxi pressed her back down and set the brocade box in her lap. “Stay seated. It’s just the two of us here — no one will say you’re being disrespectful.”
Hua Zhi thought about it and agreed. With no outsiders present, there was no need to stand on ceremony.
She opened the brocade box carefully. A full set of ruby jewelry met her eyes — the style was not of what was fashionable in recent years, yet for important occasions, pieces like these carried unmistakable presence.
“I love it. I ought to go and give thanks to Her Highness the Empress Dowager.”
“She very much wishes to meet you, and has said she is sorry the timing is not right just yet. But Her Highness has made it clear — the tribute owed to her must not fall short. It must be on par with Shao Yao’s.”
Hua Zhi’s eyes curved into a smile. “I’ve been sending meals to Shao Yao all along, though it wouldn’t do to send something over to Her Highness the Empress Dowager in the same way. I’ll have Fu Dong prepare a few more appetizing dishes — there are always fresh mushrooms delivered each day. Have your people come every day to collect a small basket to send over. Mushrooms are good for the body.”
“Good.” Gu Yanxi took the box from her and set it to one side, then took hold of her hand — a little cold — and quickly clasped it beneath the blanket to warm it. “Today is the nineteenth. The mourning period of a full year is almost done.”
“Tomorrow I’ll send the steward to the Qin Family to discuss the matter.”
By old customs in the Great Qing, when the mourning period drew to a close, the maternal family was to send over a spirit house to be burned before the mourner could formally exit the period of mourning. Those who were considerate would also prepare many additional items to be burned along with it as offerings to the departed. Over the past year, relations between the Qin Family and the Hua Family had remained tepid and neither close nor distant. Hua Zhi held few expectations of them — she only hoped they still remembered to send a spirit house.
Gu Yanxi raised an eyebrow. “The steward?”
“The Qin Family has no wish to associate closely with the Hua Family. Why should I go to the door and invite their disdain?”
Gu Yanxi, however, suspected things might not be that simple. Even if the Qin Family had genuinely intended to keep their distance, they would have changed their stance once the Bureau of Seven Lodgings was formalized. In the capital, the positions had already been filled one turnip to one hole — but the positions below the capital were still empty. In a place like this, even a family proud as the Huas could not afford to hang themselves too high above others, let alone the Qins. He could not believe that the Qin Family could watch such a large and lucrative piece of opportunity pass them by without wanting a bite.
But since the Qin Family had already made their position clear first, Hua Zhi truly had no need to fall over herself going to them.
Hua Zhi had not thought that far ahead. She felt only a small ache of regret. “What a pity Bailin won’t be back in time.”
“Still letting Baiyu officiate the rites?”
“Among the brothers still at home, he’s the eldest.”
Gu Yanxi knew the Hua household’s situation well, and thinking of the various unsavory complications within the other branches, he felt some concern. “During this period, Hua Baiyu has stood at the front for no small number of affairs. Even if Bailin harbors no resentment when he returns — leaving Bailin’s feelings aside — how could Baiyu’s state of mind come through it unaffected?”
“The Hua Family is a great household — it cannot be held up by a single pair of hands. The five fingers are each of different lengths; only when they close into a fist does one have the force to contend with the world. If they cannot understand this, then however capable they may be, their potential is limited. If Bailin cannot even manage this, the failing is his own — who else could he blame?” Hua Zhi spread her fingers open, then folded them down one by one until her hand closed into a tight fist.
She had always understood: in a world where the family unit was the fundamental measure of survival — where the glory of one was the glory of all, and the ruin of one was the ruin of all — nothing could be accomplished alone. And every member of the Hua Family who stepped out into the world carried the Hua name with them.
“It is natural for Baiyu to have his own thoughts. What matters is whether Bailin, as the eldest son and legitimate grandson of the Hua Family, has what it takes to make Baiyu respect him. I have a reasonable amount of faith in him.” Hua Zhi smiled. She was not without a measure of private reasoning in this — Hua Baiyu was not quite a full year younger than Hua Bailin, yet now Bailin had already gained great breadth of experience in the outside world, whereas Baiyu, even if he one day chose to go out and travel as well, was already one step behind. If even so Bailin proved to be no match for Baiyu, she would make the decision to put Baiyu in charge of the household.
Gu Yanxi clearly shared Hua Zhi’s confidence that Bailin, whom she had educated, would not be so lacking, and promptly put the whole matter behind him. “Has he written to you?”
“He has. He has run into no small number of difficulties — ideas and action are two different things, after all. But reading between the lines, there is no sign of discouragement. Did you go directly over the heads of the local government and secure him land through the Bureau of Seven Lodgings?”
“An exercise of the Bureau’s authority. Even if the Emperor knew of it, he would have no grounds to fault me for it.” There were aspects of the situation where Gu Yanxi’s knowledge actually ran deeper than Hua Zhi’s, and so he continued: “Bailin has been pressing forward, and though they have not yet produced salt, the people sent down there all hold high hopes for it. Over on that side, they discovered that some fishermen, to save money, had been filtering their own salt — crude things, full of sand, poor quality, and by my taste a little bitter — but it was unmistakably salt. Once properly refined, the price of salt could certainly be brought down, and that would be a blessing for the common people.”
After a pause, Gu Yanxi said in a quieter, more deliberate tone: “The court would also no longer be at the mercy of the salt merchants.”
Such political implications were beyond Hua Zhi’s depth, but the surface of things she could see clearly enough. “On the condition that they do not allow another generation of corrupt officials and private salt merchants in collusion with them to grow up in its place.”
“We have the precedent of those who came before us as a warning. The Bureau of Seven Lodgings has been tracking this matter.”
“It cannot be completely prevented.” Hua Zhi shook her head and said lightly: “Rather than let it benefit someone else, it is better to keep it in one’s own hands.”
Gu Yanxi was briefly at a loss for words. What she was describing was no mere matter of scooping up a convenient opportunity.
Hua Zhi smiled. “If the price of salt drops to ten copper coins, the profits in the middle will no longer be as staggering as before. But if the volume is large enough, the returns will still be substantial — and there will always be people falling over themselves to try to scoop those profits into their own bowl. Rather than have that fall into the hands of someone uncontrollable, it would be better to let one of our own people plug that gap first. Don’t you think?”
Gu Yanxi gave the feasibility of this serious thought. It was not impossible — only the matter of choosing the right person was difficult. “A suitable candidate is not easy to find.”
“The Sun Family should be sending people to Little Six soon.”
Gu Yanxi understood Hua Zhi’s meaning at once. If the one holding the private salt trade was Little Six, then should he one day ascend to the throne, he would have — setting everything else aside — a source to fill his personal treasury, with no grounds on which to bring charges against anyone for it, and no cause to feel estranged from him or Hua Zhi over the matter. And should he fail to ascend — that possibility did not exist!
“Let us proceed that way. The fewer who know of this, the better. Find a time to speak to him about it properly.”
Hua Zhi was not surprised by this conclusion. She still had moments of acting on feeling — but Yanxi was composed in a way she was not, and would always have a clearer sense of what needed to be done to keep themselves safe. With Little Six, they both harbored some degree of wariness, if she was honest.
It was a wariness born of circumstance and rank — unavoidable, unchangeable. What she could do was simply care for Little Six as much as possible, to make up for it.