◎Army Provisions◎

Wang Juqian, too, wanted to know what Zhou Tan was after. Half convinced and half doubtful, he gave a cold snort. “Fine. Let’s see what this bowl of rice porridge is really about, Young Master Zhou.”

Seeing Wang Juqian behave this way, the others settled down as well, and no one else attempted to force their way out.

The women whispered among themselves. The general’s wife, who had been sitting beside Qu You, immediately moved far away from her. Qu You wasn’t flustered at all, and calmly finished the pastry in her hand at her leisure.

Someone lowered her voice and asked, “Young lady, what does Young Master Zhou mean by this?”

Qu You clutched her chest, struggling to swallow the pastry in her mouth. Having swallowed too fast, she choked and tears sprang to her eyes, looking as though she really had been frightened. “Uh… Madam is asking me? I’m just a woman of the inner household—how could I possibly know my husband’s schemes?”

She had no idea whether they believed her or not.

Before long, the guards who had carried the sacks earlier returned with some maidservants, bringing everyone a bowl of freshly cooked white rice porridge.

The porridge had been cooked to a thick, glutinous consistency, giving off the fragrance of fully cooked rice, served in blue-and-white porcelain bowls—there was something indescribably refined and appetizing about it. The maidservants who brought the bowls up were all respectfully composed, not glancing around even once. While the women were uneasy and full of doubt, they couldn’t help but praise the sight, remarking that servants trained in a capital household truly did know their manners and discipline.

Zhou Tan lifted his long, fine eyes and swept a glance across the hall. Wang Juqian turned the bowl of porridge this way and that but couldn’t tell anything unusual about it. “Young Master Zhou, is there something different about this rice?”

“The General will know once he’s drunk it.”

Zhou Tan surveyed the hall, not even turning his head to look at him.

Provoked by his air of disregard, Wang Juqian raised the bowl and took a mouthful, but tasted nothing out of the ordinary.

He wanted to smash the bowl in his hand, but perhaps out of consideration for the grain in it, he ended up merely setting it down hard on the table. “Young Master Zhou, I’ve been calling you ‘Sir’ out of respect for the fact that you came here from the capital! Now you’ve trapped everyone here to play riddles with you—this is truly no fun at all! What about this rice, what about this porridge?”

Zhou Tan ignored him entirely, picking up his spoon with an air of indifference and taking a sip, his tone heavy—even more oppressive than before. “Gentlemen, why aren’t you drinking?”

Unable to bear it any longer, Wang Juqian drew his sword and stood, shouting, “How dare this insolent boy!”

The sword was already pressed close to Zhou Tan’s neck, but he calmly reached out and tapped it twice with his hand, the blade giving off a crisp, ringing sound.

“Heiyi.”

Heiyi answered from a distance, “Sir.”

“Go and see whether this porridge doesn’t suit the tastes of the gentlemen of Ruozhou.” Zhou Tan turned to look at Wang Juqian, a faint smile appearing on his face. “For anyone truly unwilling to drink it, feed it to them yourself.”

Heiyi acknowledged the order and immediately led men toward the tables of the stunned guests, apparently intending to force them to drink.

Wang Juqian stared at him in shock. “You… you’ve lost your mind! Do you intend to stage a rebellion here in Ruozhou?”

“Shouldn’t I be the one asking General Wang that?” Zhou Tan immediately seized on his words and turned them back on him, retorting swiftly. “Ruozhou may be far from the capital’s reach, but it’s the front line against Xishao. If you dare do such things within the walls of Ruozhou city, could it be that you’re the one planning rebellion?”

Though young, his tone was sharp and severe, and for a moment even Wang Juqian felt, after a long absence, a trace of pressure that came from someone above him in station.

Wang Juqian silently berated himself for his oversight. This man before him had held at least a fourth-rank position in the capital. His overly idle manner these past days had made everyone think of him as a lamb anyone could slaughter, and behind his back they had all spoken of him with contempt.

Only today did he belatedly realize that Zhou Tan truly was the “jade-faced Asura” of rumor, one who had crawled his way up out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood in the judicial system. Just the composure to remain unmoved with a sword pointed at his throat was something no one else present could probably match.

But regardless, Ruozhou city was his own territory. However skilled Zhou Tan might be at fabricating false charges, he wouldn’t be allowed to slander him so brazenly here.

With this thought, he felt a bit more confidence return to his voice. “Young Master Zhou, are you accusing me of treason? That’s a grave crime of slander…”

Zhou Tan seemed to find this rather amusing. “Slander?”

No sooner had he said this than the guards who had been carrying the grain sacks earlier walked up to the two of them and knelt respectfully, the trays in their hands holding the coarse hemp grain sacks, now emptied of rice.

Zhou Tan pressed Wang Juqian’s iron sword down without concern, bent down to pick up one of the sacks, and held up the side marked with ink in front of Wang Juqian’s face. “Take a look, General. Do you recognize this?”

Wang Juqian felt a flicker of familiarity and froze for a moment. Zhou Tan took the tray from him and viciously overturned it in front of the hall. “The rest of you gentlemen, take a look too. Does anyone recognize this?”

A military clerk sitting closer to the two of them was the first to recognize it. “This… isn’t this from that batch sent out last month…?”

He immediately fell silent, not continuing.

Wang Juqian lowered the sword in his hand, staring in disbelief at the sack Zhou Tan had just handed him, then walked around from the table to examine the sacks scattered on the ground, and only then did understanding dawn on him.

He turned around somewhat stiffly and asked, “Young Master Zhou… where did these things come from?”

Zhou Tan sat back down and poured another cup of wine into the goblet at his seat. Hearing the question, he replied, “Where did they come from? Street vendors, the back storerooms of grain shops—mostly from places where the poor of Ruozhou gather. They don’t recognize what this is; they only know this rice is cheap. I simply sent some people to make a quick inquiry, and that alone was enough to fill a bowl for everyone present today. General Wang, care to guess how much more of this remains in Ruozhou city that I haven’t yet uncovered?”

“You—you’re saying I’ve conspired with merchants to sell army provisions for profit?” Only now did Wang Juqian fully understand, and he felt a wave of absurdity wash over him. “Absurd! Though I, Wang, have spent half my life in the army and read few books, I still know what can be done and what cannot! Young Master Zhou, could it be that you’ve stolen these army grain sacks from somewhere else and are deliberately trying to frame me?”

“That’s an odd thing to say, General. I’ve only just arrived in Ruozhou—even if I wanted to deliberately slander you, I would need the connections and the means to get my hands on army provisions in the first place.” Zhou Tan replied indifferently.

He stood up from the table and walked a few steps into the courtyard. “Ever since I discovered this matter, I’ve been troubled day and night, and had no choice but to invite all of you to my courtyard and resort to this drastic measure of bringing it out into the open—truly, there was no other way. I don’t mind saying something plainly to you, General Wang: though we’ve known each other only a short time, my instinct tells me you’re a frank and forthright man, one who worries for the country and its people, whose heart is set on defeating the enemy and protecting the common folk. I don’t believe you’d do something this base and vile.”

Wang Juqian gave a cold “Hmph,” his face dark.

Zhou Tan shifted his tone. “But one may know a person’s face without knowing their heart. That may be true of you—but can you guarantee that everyone in this courtyard is the same?”

“Master Zhao, to my right—why have you been evasive and avoiding my gaze ever since this porridge arrived? And Master Zheng over there, who hasn’t taken a single sip—do the two of you have a share in this business of selling army provisions?”

Qu You, holding her now-cooled blue-and-white porcelain bowl, quietly approached Zhou Tan. He glanced at her, and she said with a smile, “A few days ago, when my husband bought this rice and grain, I was puzzled in my heart. Today, seeing him do this, I was even more at a loss. Only now am I beginning to understand a little. We are husband and wife, closest of kin, and yet even I didn’t know my husband’s plan. General Wang says this wasn’t your doing—but do you have any close kin who could and would dare do such a thing?”

Her words were light, as though she were genuinely puzzled. Wang Juqian froze for a moment, his expression finally changing. He stepped back, seeming to recall something, and sank down into his seat, deflated.

Zhou Tan waved his hand, and the guards surrounding the courtyard withdrew at his command. “My guards have now been withdrawn. Any of you gentlemen who wish to leave now, please feel free.”

Wang Juqian turned his head to look and saw that no one moved—not even the two men who had just been called out by name.

The two men trembled like sieves in fear, but in the end, neither of them budged an inch.

By now, everyone understood perfectly well what Zhou Tan meant.

Wu Fang’s tyranny within Ruozhou city was something everyone knew of, without exception. But since Wang Juqian happened to be his brother-in-law and held military authority over the city, with such a great tree shielding him, no one dared say much even if they harbored resentment.

It would have been one thing if he’d simply been greedy for wealth and women as usual, but no one had expected him to reach even into the army’s provisions. It was precisely Wang Juqian’s trust that had allowed Wu Fang to tamper with the military grain supply. The western frontier was already a place of hardship for soldiers, and stealing and selling army provisions touched on Wang Juqian’s greatest sore point.

This newly arrived Young Master Zhou truly was formidable—with just a few words, he’d already managed to persuade Wang Juqian to consider switching sides.

But Wu Fang was, after all, Wang Juqian’s brother-in-law. Could he really be swayed by such simple words?

Seeing the uncertainty and alarm on Wang Juqian’s face, Zhou Tan lowered his eyes slightly, and Qu You suddenly stepped back a few paces, lowering her voice. “General Wang, might I have a word with you privately?”

Wang Juqian started, glanced at Zhou Tan, who walked a few steps away with his hands behind his back, signaling the surrounding guards to withdraw. The others, standing at a distance, only saw Qu You murmuring something to Zhou Tan behind a fan, after which Wang Juqian’s eyes went wide, staring at her twice in disbelief, then asking again, before finally sheathing the iron sword in his hand.

He didn’t say another word to Zhou Tan, nor did he call out to anyone else. Sword in hand, he strode furiously out of the residence gate. Wang Juqian’s wife clutched her handkerchief helplessly, able only to watch as her husband casually took a horse and galloped swiftly away.

“Gentlemen, was today’s wine to your liking?”

Zhou Tan, holding a wine jug in one hand and a goblet in the other, drained his cup and said with some regret, “This is fine wine I brought from the capital. It’s not as fragrant as Ruozhou’s grape wine, but it goes down well enough.”

Everyone understood his meaning well enough. Several immediately said things like “Next time I’ll bring wine for you, sir,” and a few hurriedly drank the wine in their cups. A few cautious souls said nothing, only leaving Zhou Tan’s residence along with everyone else after finishing that final cup.

But everyone knew that after today, the sky over Ruozhou was about to change.

He Yuankai had originally been seated at the very end of the courtyard. Once the women had mostly left, he took out a handkerchief, wiped his mouth, and was preparing to leave at an unhurried pace. But before he’d taken more than a few steps, he heard a smiling woman’s voice behind him: “Master He, please stay a moment.”

He turned to find Zhou Tan’s flower-like wife, Qu You, calling out to him. She fanned herself idly with the fan in her hand and asked, “Did you enjoy yourself today, sir?”

He Yuankai clasped his hands and replied, “Young lady’s ingenuity is remarkable—this residence is most elegant. I have learned much.”

Qu You, however, didn’t seem inclined to speak in riddles with him. She glanced around, and once she was certain there was no one else nearby, said bluntly, “What my husband and I did today owed no small debt to your handiwork, sir. What I mean to ask is—having watched this elaborate drama I so carefully arranged, did you enjoy it? After all…”

She continued unhurriedly, “Weren’t both the army grain sacks and Madam Wu’s maidservant from years past found by you, sir? If I didn’t make full use of them, wouldn’t that be a waste of your good intentions?”

He Yuankai looked at the woman before him with some surprise. He had assumed everything today had been Zhou Tan’s arrangement, but it seemed this woman was every bit his match.

A flash of sharp light passed through his eyes. Seeing Zhou Tan approaching from behind Qu You, he said with a smile, “I wonder how Young Master Zhou and his lady intend to thank me for this?”