Zhù Ying gave Ding Gui a disapproving look. Ding Gui lowered his head guiltily, though still privately unconvinced.

Master Tang and his apprentices had not been well-liked from the moment they arrived at Southern Prefecture. At first, they had the air of a maiden dragged away by force — unwilling and reluctant. Then followed a string of demands, and after that, endless spending. Every few days another payment was required, every few days another one — with occasional small tantrums thrown in as well, though Master Tang directed most of these at his apprentices. The apprentices, stung by his temper, often had a sharp edge in their speech, and anyone who dealt with them was liable to catch two words of bad attitude. Not a result in sight, but plenty of bad temper. From Xiao Wu downward, everyone who had dealings with these men had found them disagreeable.

To make matters worse, someone had to go record their progress, and when Master Tang was in a foul mood, whoever came to record was subjected to four sour expressions. They also tried to conceal their work, sometimes deliberately blocking the recorder’s view.

These same four people — and Zhù Ying had given orders that they were to be well fed and well cared for.

Ding Gui would have bet his life that back in the prefecture city these four had been fortunate to eat their fill, and yet now they had the nerve to complain about an occasional meal without meat? He, Ding Gui, could not have meat every day either!

Zhù Ying said: “Ask him in.”

She received Master Tang in the study. Master Tang passed through two sets of gates, realized this was a proper yamen and that he was about to meet a prefect, and felt his excitement settle back down.

He lightened his step and, upon seeing Zhù Ying, moved to kneel. Zhù Ying said: “Stand up and speak.”

Master Tang opened a small paper packet and said: “My lord, please have a look.”

There wasn’t much — but the sugar, the size of fine sand grains, pooled in the paper and gleamed white as frost and snow. Zhù Ying said: “This counts as a success? I’ve seen handsome sugar before.”

Master Tang said: “This is different. This kind is better.”

Zhù Ying said: “What materials does it require? How much cane yields how much sugar? How much labor?” She found it strange — she had assigned someone to follow along and keep records, so why had Master Tang arrived and yet the records had not reached her hands?

Master Tang said: “One hundred jin of sugarcane yields ten jin of sugar! The labor is comparable to before, but easier, and the sugar that comes out is better. And there is also a method for producing large block sugar!”

Zhù Ying said: “Come — let’s go see.” For her own consumption, even at the higher prices she could certainly afford it; what she actually needed to examine was whether the improved method could reduce production costs.

Master Tang’s true intention, at heart, was to not reveal this method to anyone. In the beginning he had complied under compelled service — that was unavoidable. Although Zhù Ying had made a promise, he had watched the recording grow increasingly careless over time, and gradually persuaded himself the matter had been forgotten. All the way to Zhù Ying’s door, his mind held only one thought: “I’ve made the sugar — she should let me go home now. I can open my own shop.”

The moment Zhù Ying moved to inspect not just the sugar but the entire process, he suddenly remembered the words Zhù Ying had spoken at the very beginning. The formula could never become “his secret recipe” to sustain his family for generations — and his step lost some of its earlier lightness. Ding Gui pulled Xiao Huang aside, ran off himself, and fetched Xiao Wu. In a few words he explained the situation.

Xiao Wu’s face turned green: “That old wretch!” Having kept sloppy records, he was terrified Zhù Ying would punish him and came running over at once. Zhù Ying had already set off with Master Tang toward his small workshop. Xiao Wu arrived dripping sweat and forced a smile: “Ha — seven hundred and eighty-one strings of cash well spent.”

Master Tang and his three apprentices dared not breathe. Seven hundred and eighty-one strings — strip them apart and sell the pieces, and they might not fetch so much. Master Tang had even considered substituting some earlier inferior methods for the real one so he could keep the secret formula. But now they were finally remembering — their lives were still in the yamen’s hands. How had they dared to dream so large?

Master Tang clutched the sugar, hands trembling slightly, casting an anxious look around his small courtyard. Zhù Ying too had noticed certain signs: the place was a jumble of all manner of contrivances, showing clearly that Master Tang had attempted many methods. She scanned the positions of the three apprentices and spotted at a glance the piece of equipment they guarded most closely.

She did not point it out directly, only said: “Begin.”

Master Tang initially did not move.

Zhù Ying said: “Is there some difficulty? Mm? What is that?”

The youngest apprentice quickly said: “It’s for making sugar.” Master Tang and the others came back to themselves as well. The equipment they were using now differed again from what they’d had before. Xiao Wu leaned forward: “Hey — isn’t this the new one you had made just a few days ago?”

Zhù Ying said: “Don’t pester him — let him work.”

All trace of Master Tang’s earlier excitement had vanished. Zhù Ying watched as he and the apprentices set to work, beginning to process the sugarcane syrup that had been prepared earlier but not yet used. The key to making fine, white sugar was decolorization. For this, Master Tang had tried many methods and ultimately settled on adding plant ash.

Zhù Ying thought: cheap enough — how on earth did he think of that?

In truth there was nothing remarkable about it — Master Tang had simply been driven to it. Xiao Wu had a strong dislike for this master and his apprentices, not just because of the expense, but because the spending was producing no results. Everyone else was running themselves ragged, and here were these four men who, added together over several months, had each put on more than two inches of flesh — if these were pigs being fattened, they’d have been ready for slaughter without waiting for the new year! Since arriving, every one of them had new clothes, new shoes, and new stockings! They now looked like four fat country squires! And the only reason they were still being fed was the Prefect.

People eating like this with nothing to show for it — Xiao Wu had lost his patience.

But how could Master Tang not want to produce results quickly? New technique is just like that — stubbornly refusing to enter his head, no matter how he coaxed it. He had tried many methods, and in the end had been trying things at random. Xiao Wu, for his part, might not know how to make sugar, but after watching the master and apprentices for some time he had a rough grasp of the standard process. Later, when Master Tang was almost chaotically flailing, Xiao Wu could see it as well. Without saying so directly, he had given Master Tang a thorough going-over with pointed sarcasm and barbed remarks.

Master Tang dared not lose his temper at him, but one day in a fury kicked over a basin of washing water along with the basin itself — and ruined the sugarcane syrup. He didn’t notice at the time, but discovered afterward that the syrup had cleared considerably. From this he improved his method: processing the syrup first before making sugar. In addition to filtering, he added not only plant ash but also a little powdered shell — a technique from the laundry basin.

He had also brought with him a large, flat ladle, previously used to skim foam from boiling syrup. This seemed simple but was actually one of the key tricks, making his sugar come out somewhat better than others’.

Beyond this, through repeated trials, he had eventually arrived at a complete procedure. The sugar that resulted was as fine as sand and as white as frost — only then did it truly deserve the name “sugar frost.” What he’d made before had always carried a faint yellowish tinge.

Zhù Ying pointed to what the eldest apprentice was carefully moving in a large jar and asked: “What is this?” The youngest apprentice said nothing; it was the second apprentice who said: “Molasses.” The eldest apprentice gave a cough.

Their process separated the cane juice into sugar frost above and dark sugar below.

Master Tang then demonstrated the technique for making large block sugar — simpler still: take the already-formed granulated sugar, dissolve it, and let it crystallize again.

Zhù Ying watched from start to finish, then looked at Xiao Wu. Xiao Wu hurriedly produced a notebook and scribbled hastily. Zhù Ying said: “You! Having your salary docked would mean nothing to you — you’re a little rich man yourself already. It seems there’s nothing for it but to beat you.”

Xiao Wu’s hand jerked — his brush fell to the ground.

Zhù Ying then asked Master Tang a number of questions: the ratio of plant ash to add, the degree of heat for boiling, and so forth. Master Tang answered one by one, glancing at Xiao Wu, who had retrieved his brush and was writing in confusion again. Zhù Ying said: “Not bad. Mm — Xiao Wu, go clear out some rooms. I want to run a trial.”

Master Tang had figured out the method, but without the ability to produce at scale it was still useless. It also could not rely on one single skilled artisan — it needed to be a process that any craftsman of ordinary skill could replicate. Only then could the technique be considered truly established.

Her plan was to set up a workshop first, with animal-powered rollers to press the cane juice, and since the local terrain was mountainous, where water mills were common, water-powered juice presses could also be used. Unlike the wide, flat rivers of the broad plains, setting up water mills in this mountain district had a relatively minor impact on farmland and river transport. She also needed to keep these four master and apprentices for a while longer, to establish a standard procedure that an ordinary person following the steps could also use to produce sugar.

First the carpenters and others would need to build the equipment, along with the ironsmith workers and so on.

Zhù Ying glanced at Master Tang and said: “Stop looking so gloomy. Once the method passes inspection and others can reproduce it, you’ll be able to collect your reward money and go back to the prefecture city.”

What she had promised she would certainly not forget — but neither could she allow herself to be deceived. The money had already been spent; making sugar was not her strong suit, and for all she knew Master Tang might just now have concealed some crucial technique during his demonstration, meaning the money was wasted. She had been watching Master Tang’s shifting expressions all along. The old master’s manner made it plain he was a man with his own little calculations. As it happened — so was she.

Someone else had to try it independently.

Xiao Wu thought: exactly right! Then he started grieving the money again — Master Tang had spent so much, and now he was going to walk away with a reward on top? What a comfortable deal he’d gotten! Xiao Wu didn’t even think of it as corruption: the sugar works, though nominally purchased, had in reality been a business opportunity handed to him by Zhù Ying for nothing.

Zhù Ying looked at him and Xiao Wu said: “I’ll go clear the rooms right away!”

Zhù Ying then said to the four of them: “You’ve worked hard these past days — rest for a few days. The sooner the others succeed in making it, the sooner you can go home. If things move quickly, I’m going to the inspector general’s office at the end of the sixth month — I might be able to take you along.”

The master and three apprentices barely managed to lift their spirits a little. They sent her off respectfully as she left.

Once Zhù Ying was gone, the three apprentices crowded around the master. The youngest said: “Master — does the Prefect truly intend to let us go, or is she just stringing us along?”

The reputation of certain government offices was simply too bad. Compelled labor service was the same — twenty days promised, stretched to forty, stretched again to two months, then dragged out until you’d become a permanent laborer. The farther from the capital, the more lawless things became.

Master Tang’s tone was bleak: “Wait and see. What other choice do you have?”

None. And even if there were, they wouldn’t dare. The people in this yamen — every single one had eight hundred tricks going in their heads. Compared to the minor officials and clerks, the Prefect herself was actually the most straightforwardly honest of the bunch.

The second apprentice murmured: “Well anyway, now that we’re finished we can at least rest a bit — shall we eat?”

“Eat eat eat — were you a starving ghost in your last life?” Master Tang scolded.

The second apprentice drooped his head and dared not reply. The eldest apprentice said: “Now that we’re done, they probably won’t send our meals anymore. I’ll cook — you come and work the fire.” The second apprentice meekly followed along.

The eldest cooked the meal, and the master and apprentices sat down to eat. No meal arrived from the yamen side.

Zhù Ying had previously given instructions that while they were working, Xiao Wu was to see that food was sent to them properly. Now that the work was done, Xiao Wu had no attention to spare for them. Ding Gui and the others also wanted to give them a small “lesson” — going hungry for a meal or two was nothing. They’d send food tomorrow, and if asked, they would say the yamen had guests and they’d simply forgotten.

Zhù Ying, unaware of this, was in the yamen taking Xiao Wu to task.

Xiao Wu’s notes showed a clear progression from diligence to negligence — the early entries recorded “unsuccessful,” while the last few pages had simply been crossed out with a large mark.

Zhù Ying asked with perfect composure: “This is how you carry out your duties?”

Xiao Wu broke into a sweat and knelt: “I know I was wrong.”

“How many times has it been said now — use your head. What have all of you been doing?”

Ding Gui, seeing how things stood, felt his knees buckle and came over to kneel alongside in solidarity. Zhù Ying said: “You all had a hand in it?”

Gu Tong thought of Master Tang’s initial reluctance and tried to put in a word for Xiao Wu: “They didn’t do it on purpose. They were also getting anxious when nothing was working for so long.”

“Too clever by half,” Zhù Ying said, and then turned to Gu Tong: “And you — is this how you sell people favors?”

Gu Tong did not dare say another word.

Zhù Ying said: “Mm, very good — here I am working away at the front, and behind me you start cutting corners!”

Xiao Wu felt a slight easing in his chest. Zhù Ying said: “No next time.”

Xiao Wu kowtowed repeatedly, and Ding Gui was scared pale. Zhù Ying said: “All right, get up.”

Xiao Wu was now a court official, so flogging him would no longer be appropriate. Both he and Ding Gui were men with households of their own — she could not leave them nursing resentment. For similar affairs in the future she would not be sending Xiao Wu; she would use Xiang Le instead.

She imposed no further punishment on them, but she no longer had Xiao Wu handle the workshop preparation. Once the space and site were ready, she intended to give that task to Xiang Le. As long as the location was prepared and the equipment complete, neither raw materials nor labor would be a problem.

Gu Tong kept signaling Xiang Le with his eyes. Xiang Le remained unmoved, and when Gu Tong was about to give up, Xiang Le said to Zhù Ying: “My lord, County Magistrate Su is still waiting in the back.”

Zhù Ying said: “Let their mother and daughter talk a while longer. Xiao Wu — aren’t you going to go clear those rooms?”

Xiao Wu scrambled up and ran off. Zhù Ying said to Xiang Le: “Go to Master Tang’s place yourself and take some wine and food to commend them.”

Xiang Le said: “Yes.”

Only then did Zhù Ying go to the inner residence and set a family dinner to welcome Su Mingluan’s three generations — grandmother, mother, and daughter. Zhù Lian, with good sense, saw that a student’s family member had come and dragged Zhù Shi off to hide in their room, persuading Jiang, the widowed hired woman from Zhang Xiangu’s quarters, to bring them their meal inside. Jiang, feeling sorry for them, said quietly: “All right. Eat, and when you’re done leave the bowls in the room — I’ll come collect them.”

At this family dinner Zhù Ying had put together, almost everyone was a woman. Zhù Da had little common language with the Dowager Lady Su and, wanting to pull rank and say a few proper words but finding she couldn’t understand him either way, drank two cups of wine with them and then said openly: “You all talk among yourselves — I’m just getting in the way here.”

He went back to his courtyard and happened to find the two boys eating their meal there. He grinned: “Let’s all three eat together.” Zhù Shi was delighted, jumped up and carried over a chair for Zhù Da, and Zhù Lian served him food. Zhù Da was thoroughly content: “Stop fussing, you two — come, eat.”

With him gone, wine was no longer poured at Zhù Ying’s table. Zhang Xiangu and the Dowager Lady Su had little common language either, but the gesture of picking up chopsticks and offering someone food needed no translation — and the two found themselves in remarkable accord.

It was a family dinner, relaxed and easy. Zhù Ying said to the Dowager Lady Su: “Come and stay a few days whenever you like. When I’m here I’ll see to your welcome personally; if I happen to be away on business, there are still people here to take care of you, A’Jie.”

The Dowager Lady Su said: “I must bring her uncle to meet A’Jie in person. A’Jie — is the promise of an official appointment truly genuine?”

Zhù Ying said: “Of course. If the territory is large, they’ll be county magistrate; if the village is small and the population few, the territory will be absorbed into someone else’s county and given a position in that county yamen. How to divide it up — I’ll assess after meeting the people and seeing the place, then make suitable arrangements.”

The Dowager Lady Su said: “I trust A’Jie.”

Su Mingluan said: “A’Niang, Godfather has already said this once. When has Godfather ever gone back on a promise?”

The Dowager Lady Su asked no more, and she and Zhang Xiangu laughed and offered each other food.

Su Mingluan said: “Godfather — in two days I’ll head back to contact my uncle. As for the Talang family…”

Zhù Ying said: “If he does anything out of bounds, just tell me.”

“Good.”

Zhù Ying also thought of the “county borders” between these two families. The boundary markers between them and Southern Prefecture had been set, but the markers between each other had not yet been fixed. There were no particularly definite boundary lines in the mountains, and after meeting the Hua Pa people, the rough borders among the several counties would need to be worked out as well.

She was not yet inclined to submit a memorial about the school either — the matter was still barely past the first stroke of a brush. If she submitted it now and the court’s arrangements differed from her own plan, a court order coming down would make things very difficult. She needed to prepare everything on her own end first — the conditions, the plan, the personnel — then present the entire package to the court for approval.

The preliminary preparations would cost money — the sugar works had to be hurried along!

She and Su Mingluan finished their meal. Su Mingluan and her family went to Su Zhe’s room to rest for the night. Zhù Ying returned to the study and sat down to lay out her plans again. Xiang Le had returned from Master Tang’s quarters as well. Without hesitation, as soon as Zhù Ying set down her brush, he said: “Master Tang and the others cooked for themselves today.”

Zhù Ying understood immediately: “Ah — they’ve been given the cold shoulder.”

Xiang Le said: “My lord, from now on I will keep watch on such matters. Please keep your mind free for the larger affairs.”

Zhù Ying smiled: “I can’t have you managing only these small things.”

Xiang Le said: “My lord gives me instructions and I carry them out. When I’m out on an errand, there is still Third Sister, still Elder Sister — my lord must not exhaust herself.”

Zhù Ying paused: “Good.” Then she bent her head again to look at her plans.

Su Mingluan hurried back in haste. Lang Kunwu’s mother, wife, and he himself had spent the night conferring, and all three also wanted to act quickly. It was rare to find an official who kept their word without resorting to tricks, and they wanted to settle matters while the chance was there. Once they had official standing, they could suffer fewer wrongs in the future. Lang Kunwu sought out the Wolf Brother and made an arrangement with him — the Wolf Brother would teach him the Nanping dialect. He also went to Chou Wen, and sensing the resentment Chou Wen harbored, Lang Kunwu made no attempt to pressure him with words, simply saying: “The Prefect says the officials in my yamen are for me to choose. Would you like to come and serve?”

Chou Wen hesitated and said: “I still want to stay in the yamen and study more.” He found that his resentment toward the village had eased a little, but he still wished to remain in the prefectural seat. Zhù Ying also had him studying some writing and letters, which he enjoyed.

Lang Kunwu sighed in resignation: “Very well then. I’ll keep a position open for you.”

Chou Wen said: “No need. I don’t know what I want to do next — leave the position for someone else.” He harbored a private wish that he could not yet speak aloud to anyone.

Lang Kunwu had no choice but to ask a final favor of him: “If there is anything that needs to be written…”

Chou Wen said: “I’ll write it for you.”

Lang Kunwu smiled: “Good brother.”

Having settled things with these two men, the next day he also took his leave of Zhù Ying and returned to his village to prepare for what lay ahead. He needed to draw up a list of officials and submit it to the court for approval — for which Chou Wen would be needed immediately!

Chou Wen had no choice but to interrupt his studies at the yamen for the time being and temporarily return up the mountain with Lang Kunwu to help him handle some basic document work.

Once both tribes had left, Zhù Ying immediately threw herself into work.

First: the sugar works.

No new building was needed — she had space on hand. But for now it had to be kept confidential. Then there were the carpenters and others — skilled craftsmen who had already made tools for Master Tang, with existing drawings to hand.

Zhù Ying summoned the carpenters and said: “Not the old style — make it larger, like this!” Her drawings were relatively simple, but starting from the juice-pressing equipment, everything was to be made on a bigger scale. She also ordered special pots and pans from the ironsmith, along with custom flat ladles, and more.

The sugar works also needed to be improved: warehouses for storing cane and sugar, along with dogs and guards. The site needed to be large — her main aim was “high volume, low price,” and Master Tang had done extremely well in that regard, with plant ash and similar materials being cheap and easily obtained.

She also broke down Master Tang’s process so that no single craftsman handled the entire sequence. The workshop would be divided into several stations: one dedicated to pressing the juice, one to filtering, one to decolorization, and one to handling the final product.

The final products too were to be divided into several categories, each assigned to a different set of craftsmen. Each worker managed only their one task.

Zhù Ying also went through Xiao Wu’s records, which, though increasingly cursory toward the end, were fairly diligent in the early sections. It was hard to blame Xiao Wu too much — with something that kept failing, everyone’s patience wore thinner over time. But reading through, she picked up another small detail: if you want sugar to hold its shape, the forming has to happen while it’s still soft or in thick syrup.

Her thinking still drew on those brown sugar blocks pressed into shaped patterns — as long as you had a mold, what shape couldn’t you make? Looking at Lang Kunwu’s son’s reaction, it was nothing more than a change of shape, and yet the novelty was instantly different. She needed to make more molds — and if she could produce large-format molds, she was sure there were many well-off landowners and wealthy households who would be willing to pay for them.

It all came down to whether she could sell them well.

Red sugar, white sugar, malt sugar — all sweet, but each with something slightly different beyond sweetness. Couldn’t sugar be made to carry other flavors as well?

She planned to try that herself after Master Tang and the others left. She had a rough sense of the old craftsman’s intentions and could guess at a few of them — a forced melon is never sweet. And she was not afraid that Master Tang, once gone, would compete with her. Who would be squeezing out whom remained to be seen.

The yamen affairs were all in order, and the ones that required her personal attention were not many, so she buried herself in the sugar works.

With the Prefect supervising in person, the craftsmen dared not slack. In ordinary times Zhù Ying was considerate of people’s labor and never demanded excessive corvée, and the craftsmen worked with high spirits. As they worked, conversation was permitted as usual: one man said, “What’s the Prefect making all this for? If she wants sugar, she could just buy it or requisition craftsmen to make it.”

Another said: “What does the Prefect want to do — are we supposed to figure that out? Let’s just get it finished and move on to the next job.”

None of them could guess that Zhù Ying intended to run this trade herself — though she would not personally operate it. Following the same approach as the orange business, she would earn only from rent and similar fees. The technique and the commerce would be left for the local people to handle themselves. For the very beginning, she still needed to pick people who were “reliable.”

The demand for sugar would certainly be greater than for oranges, which meant more people could make a livelihood from it.

The pressing of the cane — the most physically demanding part — would not require purely human labor, so women could do it too. The remaining tasks, though physically demanding, were within the reach of an ordinary healthy woman. This meant women like the widows in her own household, who had lost their husbands and had no land, could also have somewhere to go and support themselves.

Another issue was that sugarcane cultivation could not be allowed to occupy too much farmland. Fortunately, with two rice harvests a year now, some land could be freed up. With another product to sell, it would be ideal to also open a native-place guild hall for Southern Prefecture — that prior Inspector General Lu owed her a favor for the winter wheat matter, which could come in handy now.

The guild hall would still have to be established by local wealthy merchants and gentry. This time she had more experience, and from the very start she would draw on the lessons of Fulu: let those in charge take turns on duty, to prevent any one family from dominating.

Unlike oranges, sugar did not need to worry much about spoilage during transport — it could be sold much farther away!

Zhù Ying glanced over at Xiang Le and said: “Your elder brother handles the family’s business. Do you and Third Sister have any ventures of your own?”

Xiang Le said: “We both put our capital into Elder Brother’s management.”

Zhù Ying said: “Then I’ll give you another business. Buy it from me.”

Xiang Le listened carefully to what Zhù Ying had to say, then said quietly: “It’s a fine idea — but won’t people say you’re showing favoritism?”

Zhù Ying said: “What else is there to do? In the end, there is always a matter of closeness and distance. For the early stages, the most critical part — I can’t trust it to a stranger. You keep watch. Once you’ve made the first profit, pass the technique on to the local folk.”

Xiang Le said: “Since it is the Prefect’s arrangement, I will follow your instructions. The technique was worked out by the Prefect’s effort — when the time comes to share it, people should be grateful to the Prefect. If I were the one teaching it, some people might even suspect me of giving away nothing for free — they’d worry I was digging a pit for them.”

Zhù Ying said: “What a thing to make a fuss over. All right — I’ll be the one to do it.”

That remark reminded her of something: yes — if something was introduced by her, the number of people who would follow her lead was certainly far greater than if it came from a small merchant family like Xiang Le’s!

And another thought: since that was the case, why not draw on the names of a few better-known individuals to help establish a reputation for Southern Prefecture’s sugar and send it out into the world? As it happened, she knew several people of considerable renown — and the capital was the place that could set the fashion for all under heaven! Sugar could not only be sold in Southern Prefecture; it had to be sold everywhere!

Zhù Ying smiled: “Come — let’s go have a look at the workshop.”

With Zhù Ying supervising in person, the workshop was prepared quickly. She brought in Xiang Le, Xiang Dalang, and a few of their workers and long-term laborers to the workshop — not Master Tang and his apprentices.

Zhù Ying said: “Begin.”

Her intent was to make sugar without Master Tang, and if they succeeded, it would prove that ordinary craftsmen could do it too. Xiang Dalang felt a small surge of excitement in his chest. His family had previously done business in A’Su County, but as the A’Su people themselves grew shrewder over time, the market had grown larger while his own cut had not kept pace.

And now his younger brother and sister had brought him in on something big!

Xiang Dalang held two fistfuls of sweat in his palms, watching the workers drive the animals to turn the roller press, feeding in the peeled and cut sugarcane. The pressed cane residue was not discarded — it was thrown into a large bucket of water to soak and then pressed again. Repeated twice, this extracted a bit more cane juice.

Then came the addition of plant ash in the right proportion, clarification, filtering…

Xiang Dalang and Zhù Ying watched over every piece of equipment in the workshop together, all the way until the end, when the process yielded several large bags of sugar in various types!

Xiang Dalang said excitedly: “It worked!”

Zhù Ying said: “Good — later, have Qi Tai balance the accounts. The goods will first be sold through the Fulu Guild Hall on consignment — start with this prefecture and this region and test it, don’t price it high.”

Base products were for selling in volume at thin margins; novelty items commanded high prices. The money of both poor and rich could be earned.

She hadn’t forgotten the loose end either. Although the sugar works benefited Southern Prefecture, having used government power to establish a workshop for merchants would invite a certain kind of trouble down the road. She could not leave any handles for others to grab.

Xiang Dalang quickly agreed and ran through the cost calculations in his head. A workshop of this scale had its main advantage in size; the market demand was assured; they were in the cane-growing region, so raw materials were easily obtained. The formula had already been improved, the materials were cheap, and the output was good. The profit margin was substantial!

Xiang Dalang decided on the spot: while no one else had yet set up a workshop, he would earn as hard and as fast as he possibly could!

Zhù Ying did not demand that he settle accounts immediately — he could pay in installments, or substitute a portion of sugar in lieu of payment. Xiang Dalang agreed to everything.

Zhù Ying said: “From now, start production and run it for a few days to see if there are any problems.” If there were none, she would send Master Tang on his way.

Xiang Dalang moved into the workshop to keep watch. By the end of the sixth month everything was running smoothly. Xiang Dalang, on his own initiative, gave the sugar a name: “Prefect Sugar,” saying it was the Prefect’s benevolence. With pricing that was extremely fair, and a name that invoked a tiger’s prestige, sales in the prefectural seat were excellent. The poor and the rich could each find a variety suited to them.

He also had his own idea: he found his younger brother and sister and said: “I feel uneasy having received all this for nothing. What if we gave a portion to Madam Hua? Let’s each take two shares, give her three. That way no one will dare cause us trouble.”

Using a relative as a proxy holder — a silent-partner arrangement — had been a method of paying off officials since time immemorial. Xiang Dalang did not even think of this as bribery; though the sugar works had nominally been purchased, in reality Zhù Ying had simply handed him a business opportunity for nothing.

Xiang Le and Xiang An raised no objection. But Hua Jie opposed it with care and seriousness: “What kind of person do you take Xiao Zhù for? And what’s more — if I took three shares now and you earned less, how would you compete with others? The business would fall apart. Xiao Zhù chose you because she wants this to actually succeed and because she trusts you — not for your tribute.” She then went to Zhù Ying and relayed the whole matter, having Zhù Ying go and make things clear to Xiang Dalang.

Xiang Dalang still felt uneasy. He privately separated a portion of the profit, recorded it all in the accounts, and kept it set aside for Zhù Ying.

Zhù Ying was unaware that he had this move in reserve. When he calculated out the first batch of costs and found the price was more than half the prevailing market rate while the margin was still handsome, she said: “Good.”

She let Xiang Dalang keep making the product and earning for a while, then she would use the yamen’s name to set up an official sugar works alongside. One: to supplement the yamen’s income. Two: closely following his work, she could continue to experiment and improve. Three: to prevent a private sugar works from eventually monopolizing the trade, growing too powerful to manage easily, the yamen finding itself controlled by merchants and unable to benefit the common people.

But having only an official works would not do either — she was far too familiar with all the failings that came with too much official involvement: without regard for cost, serving only the powerful, wasteful; and in external commerce, prone to producing high-priced, poor-quality, money-losing rubbish. Both kinds had to exist.

She would fence off another plot of land as the official sugar works’ grounds, get it into production, and then Zhù Ying would set out with the magistrates of the four counties and Master Tang’s party for the inspector general’s office.

With Zhù Ying present, the party returning with Master Tang and his apprentices traveled just as comfortably as they had on the way — with a cart to ride, their belongings loaded along, including all the new clothes, new bedding, and other things they had acquired during their stay — everything piled onto the cart.

The county magistrates paid little attention to them, all orbiting around Zhù Ying instead. Southern Prefecture had produced “Prefect Sugar” — it was obvious enough how that had come about. What business did the Xiang family have making sugar? They’d never heard of the Xiangs doing that! Magistrate Guan and Magistrate Mo were especially clear: it was just like the orange business years ago — the same approach!

Magistrate Mo was less agitated, but Magistrate Guan wanted an explicit promise: “My lord — Sicheng County also has sugarcane.”

Zhù Ying said: “Mm.”

Magistrate Guan circled around her, extending his hand to offer to rub her back: “My lord — it can’t all go to Nanping County, can it?”

Magistrate Guo was inwardly delighted. The others had the Prefect practically next door, which was like having a rope around their necks. He was different — he was profiting for free! Opening workshops, selling goods — didn’t they have to pay him taxes? And sugar was valuable stuff. Xiang Dalang had set low prices — but “low” was only relative to the previously inflated ones. Even cheap, sugar still earned more than farming.

He said: “That’s the Prefect all over!”

Magistrate Wang finally caught on: “My lord — you first bought your sugarcane from us in Hedong County, you know!”

Zhù Ying said: “No need for any of you to rush. The Xiang family is just running a trial. If they lose money, none of you need bother. If they make money, we can all slowly get involved. No need to fight over it now — there’s enough for everyone. And no need to hurry — the cane isn’t in yet; you can’t make sugar without cane.”

Magistrate Guan relaxed and piled on praise: “When you were in Fulu, my lord, you always distributed the bounty equally. I have every confidence in you!”

Zhù Ying said: “I have rather less confidence in you all! Sugarcane must not encroach on farmland!”

All four said: “Yes, yes, of course, certainly.”

Magistrates Guan, Guo, and Wang all turned on Magistrate Mo together: “Haven’t you got enough from Fulu’s oranges? Get out of here — this is our business.”

The four of them erupted in squabbling and forgot all about Master Tang. Both Magistrate Guan and Magistrate Mo were thinking: oranges had been around before too, but only with the Prefect’s name behind them could they fetch a good price. Sugar would be the same — you could only earn real money by following the Prefect.

Zhù Ying said: “Court-appointed officials, not applying themselves to agriculture and the people’s welfare, but brawling over a mouthful of sugar and a few taxes on merchants. Disgraceful.”

They knew her temperament — these words were only a jest — and laughed back: “For the people’s enrichment, we have no choice.”

The world assumed that these officials kept a clean distance from merchants; in reality, no one was willing to quarrel with money. Zhù Ying always had a way of making the money-making side of things look effortless and unremarkable — then turning around to earn herself a good name on top of it.

Zhù Ying said: “Well, since we’re all agreed — return to your counties and shake loose every last scrap of concealed land and population! Whatever people and land you uncover, that’s how much cane land you’ll have.”

“Yes.”

“And another thing — commercial taxes…” Zhù Ying laid out her plans to the four of them along the road and solicited their views. First the Xiang family would do it; then each county would select a “trustworthy and upstanding household” to learn the technique. The government would support them in establishing sugar works, but with conditions: they could not rely solely on their own slaves, tenants, and dependents for labor — they had to hire workers, with widowers, widows, the orphaned, and the elderly given priority.

Magistrate Guo thought: here it is! Here it comes! Widowers, widows, the orphaned, and the elderly given priority! You couldn’t argue with it — it was unimpeachable!

The whole party made their way to the prefecture city in cheerful spirits.

Leng Yun was in a good mood. His winter wheat results were excellent — not his own initiative, but he had also submitted a memorial proposing double-season rice — also not his own idea — and the court had commended him for both.

So when Zhù Ying’s request to establish Talang County had come through without him being told in advance, he was not even upset. Instead he teased her: “One blink and you’ve outdone yourself again.”

Zhù Ying said: “My lord, that remark—”

“What?”

“Doesn’t quite sound like something you’d say.”

Indeed it did not — this was how the Leng Marquis wrote about Leng Yun in his letters. Leng Yun rolled his eyes and said: “Do you really think you’re a creature born for hard labor?”

Zhù Ying said: “I haven’t been busy with much. I just got on with it when it came up.”

Leng Yun said: “So be it — you’re never going to have a moment’s quiet anyway.”

She did not ask him whether he had hired a new advisor to handle criminal law, nor whether a new county magistrate had been assigned after Magistrate Miao was transferred. She just kept him company with some small talk, listening to Leng Yun say he wanted to go back to the capital, asking whether she wanted to transfer back as well. She raised the point lightly: “I’m afraid it’s rather chaotic in the capital.”

Leng Yun said: “And this is where you still don’t understand. If you’re not in the middle of it, the advantages are not guaranteed to be yours — but the dangers might still find their way to you.”

Zhù Ying said: “That applies to you, my lord. You don’t need to be afraid. My build is of no use in the capital.”

Leng Yun said: “What does Seventh Young Master say?”

Zhù Ying said: “He hasn’t said anything in particular.”

Leng Yun said: “If he hasn’t called you back, then… mm, wait for your term to end.”

“Yes.”

Zhù Ying steered well clear of the capital’s political situation at that point, speaking only of local customs and products, advising Leng Yun that if he was thinking of going back, buying local goods would no longer be as convenient afterward, and he should prepare in advance.

Leng Yun’s conduct of meetings had grown increasingly perfunctory. Everyone met, the main focus was heaping praise on Zhù Ying. A reminder to everyone to keep their minds on the autumn harvest and taxes. Grow the winter wheat properly. He had nothing more to raise, and said directly: “Dismissed!”

Zhù Ying did not linger. She left behind the local gifts she had brought, struck Master Tang and his three apprentices’ names from the rolls, paid out their reward money, and went to the Fulu Guild Hall.

Magistrate Guo shook his head repeatedly. These four had been fortunate indeed to cross paths with the Prefect! They were no longer required to serve the inspector general’s office — but because Leng Yun had previously transferred them to Zhù Ying, they were now registered on Southern Prefecture’s books. People registered in Southern Prefecture had to be assigned to a specific county; with one stroke, they were assigned to Nanping County.

Without Zhù Ying doing a thing — even if she had shown the faintest trace of displeasure — Magistrate Guo, for the sake of pleasing his superior, could have made their lives unbearable. Zhù Ying held no grievance, and after careful thought Magistrate Guo decided not to act, and let Master Tang go free. He trotted off cheerfully after Zhù Ying toward the Fulu Guild Hall.

Zhù Ying needed to use the Fulu Guild Hall for selling sugar, and Xiang Dalang had followed along with a cart.