With the threat of the black-clad assassins gone, Fan Changyu no longer needed to hurriedly sell off her belongings and leave Lin’an town.
She finalized a long-term business arrangement with Yixiang Pavilion. After reopening the meat shop, with Yixiang Pavilion’s reputation backing it, the braised meat business was even better than before, seemingly outshining Wang’s shop.
On the day before New Year’s Eve, as she was returning home from the shop, she saw a rather grand carriage parked at the entrance of the alley. At first, she thought the Song mother and son had returned, but upon entering the alley, she saw many people gathered in front of her house.
Fan Changyu thought something had happened at home again and squeezed through the crowd, saying, “Excuse me, excuse me…”
A neighbor asked, “Changyu, do you have any wealthy relatives?”
Fan Changyu was puzzled and simply replied, “No.”
The person then asked, “Could it be relatives of your husband? The carriage parked at the alley entrance looks even grander than the one the Song family used when they moved!”
Fan Changyu finally realized that the owner of the carriage at the door had come to see her family.
Someone nearby chimed in, “The carriage the Song family used on a moving day wasn’t even theirs, it was rented from a carriage shop!”
There was already a hint of disdain for the Song family in their words.
Madam Kang stood at her doorway, showing her teeth as she said, “You lot are just fawning over the powerful and looking down on the weak. When Young Master Yan passes the imperial examination in the capital and becomes the top scholar, he’ll have any carriage he wants!”
Fan Changyu was confused but didn’t bother with the neighbors’ trivial questions. She entered the house and closed the courtyard gate, only then noticing a noble young man in brocade robes and a jade belt sitting at the square table in the main room.
Seeing her, he nodded with a smile in greeting. Not knowing his identity, Fan Changyu simply mimicked his gesture and nodded back.
“It’s getting late today, so I won’t disturb Master Yan and Madam any further,” he said as he stood up and bowed to Xie Zheng. Turning to Fan Changyu, the smile on his face deepened slightly.
Xie Zheng sat on the other side of the square table, his expression indifferent. Although he wore ordinary cotton clothes, his demeanor still subtly overshadowed that of the noble young man. “Take care, no need to see me out.”
Fan Changyu knew Yan Zheng had that sour temperament. Even though he remained seated, she still walked the guest to the main gate as a gesture of politeness.
After closing the door again, blocking out the prying eyes of the neighbors, Fan Changyu asked Xie Zheng, “Who was that?”
Xie Zheng replied, “The owner of the town’s bookstore.”
Fan Changyu picked up the teapot on the table and poured herself some water. “I remember the owner of the town’s bookstore was an old man with a beard, wasn’t he?”
Xie Zheng said, “That’s the shop manager. The real owner has always lived in the main city of Jizhou.”
The last time Zhao Xun came looking for him, the people in this alley were out working to make a living and didn’t see him. Today, being the end of the year, with every household at leisure at home, the news spread quickly, causing such a commotion.
As she poured the tea, Fan Changyu realized it was cold. She took a sip of the cold tea and noticed that the noble young man’s half-empty teacup was still where he had been sitting. She couldn’t help but say, “You served cold tea to a guest?”
Xie Zheng raised his eyes to look at her. Fan Changyu read a “What else?” meaning in his gaze, leaving her momentarily speechless.
Xie Zheng noticed she had bought another pack of dried tangerine peel candy. He pushed a red paper-wrapped package on the table towards her. “I earned some silver writing essays. You keep it.”
Fan Changyu unwrapped the outer layer of red paper and looked inside. Her almond eyes showed an expression of utmost surprise – inside were four silver ingots!
Before she started selling braised meat, the meat shop couldn’t even earn this much in a month!
Fan Changyu was dumbfounded. “Is writing essays really this profitable?”
Xie Zheng picked up his coarse porcelain cup and took a shallow sip. His finger joints, where the dark scabs had fallen off, were like slender bamboo, with distinct tendons and bones. “The essays I wrote earlier sold well. The bookstore gave me some dividends. Among these forty taels, there’s also a down payment for the next batch of essays.”
The few essays he had authored had indeed stirred up a storm throughout the capital. Although Zhao Xun was a merchant, he had some skills to maintain his family business amidst fierce competition. While mass-printing the essays to sell to scholars in various prefectures, he also concealed the origin of these essays.
During the days when the Fan family met with disaster, his uncle was still conducting a carpet search of all bookstores. Otherwise, the death squads that came to this small town would have been more than double in number.
These silver taels weren’t given by Zhao Xun just to curry favor with him. Judging by those few essays alone, if they were to be sold, they would be worth thousands in gold.
All the bookstores under the Zhao family had made a fortune in recent days by reprinting his essays.
Fearing she might become suspicious, he had deliberately asked for only forty taels, but he didn’t expect her to still think it was too much.
Fan Changyu looked at the shiny silver ingots in her hand, then looked at Xie Zheng. “The owner came to find you specifically because he was impressed by your essays?”
Xie Zheng nodded. “The war in Chongzhou hasn’t been won, and there’s constant factional strife in the court. Although my depiction of the Chongzhou war situation is rudimentary, it’s an experience other scholars haven’t had, so it sells better.”
Seeing that Fan Changyu didn’t look happy upon seeing the silver, but instead fell silent, he unconsciously furrowed his brow.
The next moment, he heard Fan Changyu say, “Actually, you don’t need to lie to me. I know everything.”
Xie Zheng’s fingertips pressed slightly harder on the cup wall as he asked, “What?”
Fan Changyu raised her eyes to look at him. “For you to gain the favor of the bookstore owner, you must be truly talented in writing. You must have studied a lot before. You’ve been lying to me all this time, saying your knowledge was mediocre because you were afraid I would resent you after my former fiancé passed the examination and broke off the engagement, right?”
Hearing that this was what she was talking about, Xie Zheng’s fingertips relaxed their grip on the cup wall.
Before he could respond, Fan Changyu continued with a frown, “I’m not as petty as you think. There are many scholars in the world. Just because my former fiancé was heartless doesn’t mean all scholars in the world are heartless. I understand this logic. You don’t need to worry about those unnecessary things.”
Xie Zheng lowered his eyes and said, “I’m sorry.”
Fan Changyu waved her hand to show it didn’t matter. She had also hidden from the neighbors that she knew martial arts before. This was his skill; whether he told her or not didn’t harm her interests, so she had nothing to mind about.
Fan Changyu only curiously asked him, “Since you’ve studied so much, why didn’t you take the imperial examinations and instead became an escort?”
Xie Zheng said, “What I want to do, studying literature can’t help me with.”
They had been living together for almost a month, and this was the first time Fan Changyu asked in detail about his affairs. Since the conversation had come this far, she continued to ask, “What do you want to do?”
A gust of wind blew through the hall, lifting a strand of Xie Zheng’s hair at his temples. He looked at the thick layer of snow on the courtyard wall and the misty horizon, his eyes becoming deep and unfathomable. “Just like you want to continue running the meat shop your father left behind, I also want to finish what my father didn’t complete.”
Fan Changyu thought silently for a while, then widened her eyes in surprise: “Don’t tell me your family runs an escort agency?”
Only those with difficult lives would risk their lives for that little money as escorts.
He had good knowledge, high martial arts skills, and was working as an escort. Fan Changyu thought about it and concluded that only the young master of an escort agency would fit his identity.
Xie Zheng hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
Fan Changyu suddenly understood: “No wonder you’ve always said you’d leave once your injuries healed.”
She pushed the forty taels of silver back to him: “Keep this money for yourself. Rebuilding an escort agency will cost a lot. When you’re about to leave, I’ll see if I have enough to spare. If I do, I’ll give you some more!”
This wasn’t the first time Xie Zheng had heard her talk about them parting ways. Except for the ghastly scars from his external injuries that still looked unhealed, his internal injuries had mostly recovered. Zhao Xun’s visit today was also to inform him that he had already purchased 200,000 stones of grain.
Before long, he would indeed have to leave.
Hearing her speak of these things again at this moment, some inexplicable emotions arose in his heart.
He raised his hand to press down on a silver ingot, stopping her from pushing it towards him. His tone carried a hint of firmness: “It’s for you. For the medicine.”
Fan Changyu still refused: “When you agreed to the fake marriage arrangement, we had already agreed. I would treat your injuries. How can I take your money now? That would be going back on my word. You’ve been writing essays in the cold room while injured these past days. Earning this silver wasn’t easy…”
He didn’t lessen the pressure on the silver ingot at all, his dark eyes locked on her: “For the candy then?”
Fan Changyu was stunned for a moment before realizing he was talking about the money for buying him candy. She said honestly, “But buying candy wouldn’t cost this much silver…”
“Then keep it for buying more in the future.”
“Even if I buy candy until your injuries heal and you leave, it wouldn’t cost this much silver…”
Fan Changyu stopped mid-sentence and suddenly fell silent.
Buying more in the future – did that mean they still had a future together?
The firewood burning in the fire pit made a crackling sound, sparks flying, finally breaking the silence in the room.
He repeated, “You keep it.”
Fan Changyu didn’t look at him but stared at his hand pressing on the silver ingot for a while before asking, “What kind of candy do you like?”
Hearing her ask this, Xie Zheng withdrew his hand: “You choose.”
That night, when Fan Changyu went to bed, she who usually slept well found herself staring at the canopy, unable to sleep.
Although she was easygoing, she wasn’t a blockhead.
Yan Zheng, despite his bad temper and sharp tongue, had a good heart. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have taken Changningg and run when the mountain bandits broke into the house earlier.
He was good-looking, literate, and had excellent martial arts skills.
She knew he was only staying here temporarily and would eventually leave, so she had always treated him as a passing guest.
But today he gave her such a large sum of money and told her to buy him candy in the future.
Fan Changyu suddenly felt her heart in a bit of a muddle.
She tossed and turned like a pancake being flipped, only falling into a hazy sleep as dawn was breaking.
The next day, unsurprisingly, she woke up late, with faint dark circles under her eyes.
Fortunately, the meat shop wasn’t open on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, so it didn’t matter that she had overslept.
Fan Changyu got up yawning to make tangyuan (sweet rice balls). Outside in the alley, she could hear children playing with firecrackers. The entire town was immersed in a peaceful New Year atmosphere.
Just one province away, Chongzhou had just experienced a devastating defeat.
In the capital city.
The neighborhoods were decorated with lanterns and festoons, full of New Year’s atmosphere.
An urgent war report traveled eight hundred li to pass through the Yongding Gate, but instead of being sent to the imperial palace, it was rerouted to the Wei Chancellor’s mansion.
Swift horses galloped through the narrow streets, with frost and snow weighing down the branches of the elms and poplars on both sides.
The front of the Wei mansion was austere. Two stone lions with fierce expressions guarded jewels, while armored guards with sharp weapons stood in formation like wild geese. Snow covered the tops of the walls, and even birds were unwilling to perch on the bare branches here.
The courier rolled off his horse, took out the war report from his bosom, and held it high above his head, shouting, “Urgent report from Chongzhou!”
The guards at the gate changed expression, took the war report, and hurried into the mansion. After handing it over to the soldiers inside, one of them finally hastily delivered the report to the study: “My Lord, urgent report from Chongzhou!”
In no time, the study attendant opened the door and came out to take the war report.
The entire process was tight and swift. All letters and reports sent to the Wei mansion study were delivered in this manner.
The study attendant closed the study door, walking almost soundlessly, and respectfully presented the war report to the long-bearded old man reviewing memorials behind the red sandalwood desk: “Chancellor, an urgent report from Chongzhou, delivered over eight hundred li.”
A strong hand with distinct tendons and bones took the war report. After reading it, he slammed it heavily on the desk: “I should have known that an unfilial son couldn’t stabilize the Chongzhou war situation! It hasn’t been long since the autumn harvest, why can’t the entire Northwest collect enough grain?”
The attendant dared not respond.
The old man stood up. Surprisingly, he wasn’t wearing brocade robes but ordinary cotton clothes. With his hands behind his back, he gazed at the deep snowy landscape outside the window. His phoenix eyes were narrow and long, his figure tall and straight. This was Wei Yan, the Chancellor of Great Yin who had controlled state affairs for over a decade.
After a brief contemplation, he said, “Tell that unfilial son to get back here. Send He Jingyuan to take over the Chongzhou war situation first.”
He once had two knives that he wielded most adeptly: one was his nephew whom he had raised himself, and the other was He Jingyuan. His son, Wei Xuan, was merely an empty shell with ambition but stubbornness.
The attendant acknowledged the order. As he was about to withdraw, he heard the man who had held the position of Chancellor and executed imperial edicts for over a decade ask, “Has the body of the Marquis of Wu’an been found?”
The attendant shook his head: “Not yet.”
Wei Yan heaved a deep sigh: “That child has Wei family blood in him, and his temperament and methods are most like mine. What a pity…”
The attendant had served Wei Yan’s side for many years and could somewhat guess his thoughts. Thinking of how he used to value the Marquis of Wu’an far more than the eldest son Wei Xuan, he added, “The Marquis might have just been deceived by those treacherous villains. You raised the Marquis for sixteen years, more like father and son than actual father and son. Saying that you killed Crown Prince Chengde and General Xie back then is nonsense. Where’s the evidence? The Marquis hadn’t even seen any evidence, so there should still be room for reconciliation in this matter. Why did you have to…”
The attendant suddenly stopped mid-sentence, looking up to meet Wei Yan’s cold and stern gaze. He quickly slapped himself hard: “This old servant has spoken out of turn!”
Wei Yan, however, said, “He would have found out eventually. He had already grown suspicious. If we didn’t deal with him while he was still unguarded, one day it would be the Wei family that would suffer.”
The attendant was first stunned, then said, “Chancellor, you are the pillar of the state. Even the Marquis couldn’t touch you, let alone now that the Marquis is gone.”
Wei Yan closed his eyes and remained silent.
When he turned back to sit behind his desk, the hint of melancholy had disappeared from his face. He asked, “Has the item I sent people to retrieve from Jizhou been brought back?”
The attendant’s voice lowered a few degrees: “The Xuan-ranked death squads have not sent back any news to date.”
Wei Yan’s expression suddenly sharpened. “What about He Jingyuan?”
The attendant replied, “The informant placed next to He Jingyuan previously sent word that he seems unaware of the existence of those items.”
Just then, a voice came from outside the study, announcing, “My Lord, the governor of Jizhou has sent a brocade box via express courier.”