Han Qian spread out the copies of Wang Yu’s memorials on the desk. Zhao Ting’er was yawning, so he told her to go rest first and not exhaust herself.
Zhao Ting’er glanced at Madam Xi with some concern. Although Han Qian casually kept Madam Xi at his side to serve him, Zhao Ting’er never dared relax her vigilance. She always stood behind Madam Xi, watching her every move.
What she feared now was that if she went to her room to sleep and the young master let down his guard slightly, allowing Madam Xi to grab a blade or sword from the room to suddenly attack and injure someone, she would have nowhere to cry. She wondered whether she should have the courtyard guards come inside to watch Madam Xi.
Han Qian had previously been wary of Madam Xi and didn’t know how to handle this hot potato. But after learning of her background, many things seemed simple to him.
When he went into the inner room to sleep at dawn, leaving her in the outer hall to help Zhao Ting’er draw diagrams, it was also meant to further shake her will.
Han Qian told Zhao Ting’er to return to her room with peace of mind to catch up on sleep, then sat at the desk turning through the memorial copies page by page.
Wang Yu, along with Marquis of Liyang Yang En and others, had pleaded for the relatives of King of Yue Dong Chang, angering Emperor Tianyou and being demoted to serve in Xu Prefecture. But when he first arrived in Xu Prefecture, his thoughts remained in Jinling. Memorial after memorial mainly discussed national affairs, with his words still hoping Emperor Tianyou would transfer him back to Jinling for appointment.
Afterward, although Wang Yu’s desire to return to Jinling didn’t change, his memorials mostly described Xu Prefecture’s conditions. He deeply worried about Xu Prefecture’s agricultural production lagging far behind Jianghuai, the harmful customs of local prominent clans being closed off to court governance of frontier prefectures and counties, and the intense conflicts between native and migrant populations despite the people’s impoverished lives.
The memorials also contained many descriptions of Tan Prefecture, undoubtedly reminding Emperor Tianyou to pay attention to Tan Prefecture’s dormant mentality and not slacken or trust them lightly.
Although Wang Yu was filled with unwillingness about being demoted to Xu Prefecture, after taking office he still actively accomplished many things.
Besides repeatedly attempting to build river embankments and reclaim silted land, Wang Yu had long promoted more advanced farming methods from Jianghuai in Xu Prefecture, teaching prefecture residents to compost fertilizer, plow in rows, and so on, actively improving agricultural production. He had even once wanted to abolish the slave-keeping customs that still existed in Xu Prefecture at that time.
In his memorials, Wang Yu mentioned that when Feng Changyu destroyed the Xi clan in the sixth year of Tianyou’s reign, he sold the vast majority of Xi clan descendants to other prominent clans, even selling them outside the prefecture to local strongmen as stockade slaves. At that time, Xu Prefecture had nominally submitted to Great Chu, so the court should not have tolerated such things happening. Even though time had passed, they should still severely condemn this and correct the situation.
From these copies of memorials and official correspondence, Han Qian also saw that Wang Yu had established a Bureau of Works under the Works Department. The two master craftsmen now helping him build the angle-measuring instrument had been recruited by Wang Yu to manufacture large quantities of water wheels, curved-shaft plows, and other agricultural implements for widespread distribution.
In these memorial and correspondence copies, Wang Yu also mentioned that Jianghuai residents obtained salt through government transport and sales, with prices still tolerable. However, the Salt and Iron Commissioner considered Xu Prefecture too remote and established merchant transport and sales precedents, causing Xu Prefecture’s salt prices to soar to nearly ten thousand cash per bushel, making salt smuggling difficult to eliminate despite repeated prohibitions. He memorialized suggesting that Xu Prefecture’s salt should also all be through government transport and sales to stabilize salt prices…
From these memorials and correspondence, Han Qian could easily imagine an official demoted despite his talents yet caring for the nation and determined to accomplish something locally to save the common people from suffering.
From the detailed enumeration of various suggestions, Han Qian could also see that Wang Yu was a capable and pragmatic diligent official. However, having lost power and been exiled, he was isolated and helpless both in the capital and locally, so that he appeared to have accomplished little in Xu Prefecture. In the end, it required the official courtesan Zhou Yourui to step forward and spend her wealth before his coffin could return to his hometown.
After reading through these memorial copies, darkness had fallen without him noticing. The lamplight illuminated Han Qian’s gloomy expression.
Han Qian felt uncomfortable.
He even thought that without intervention, his father’s fate in Xu Prefecture wouldn’t be any better than Wang Yu’s. After all, neither of them had learned how to prudently protect themselves—or rather, they disdained to learn such self-preservation.
“As the daughter of Gao Long and Gao Xi Shi, you should be able to understand Wang Yu’s memorials and official correspondence submitted to the Personnel Department and other offices,” Han Qian slammed the last memorial copy onto the desk with a “smack,” staring at Madam Xi as he spoke.
“Such an official with his heart set on local welfare who had hope of becoming a renowned minister of his generation—it’s one thing for traitors like Feng Changyu to be intolerant of him and poison him to death, but you siblings acted as his accomplices. Could you truly want Xi clan descendants to remain slaves of other surnames for a thousand generations?”
“Prefectural Governor Wang Yu died of miasma poisoning. Who poisoned him?” Xi Ren didn’t think she could hide her background from Han Qian, but seeing his expression so gloomy, she couldn’t help speaking in defense.
“Always harping on miasma poisoning—if you all didn’t stick to this story like a coordinated alibi, I might still have doubts. But you were instigated by Ji Kun to assassinate me, so you should know that the Third Prince’s ability to lead the Dragonfinch Army came from my father and me helping him assimilate tens of thousands of famine refugees severely afflicted with disease. There were also six prisoners in the prefecture prison afflicted with miasma whom my father cured. Do you truly think my father and I don’t know clearly in our hearts when miasma poisoning strikes and what symptoms appear when it does?” Han Qian said with a cold laugh.
“…” Xi Ren was at a loss for words. She wanted to argue a few more sentences that she didn’t know about this matter, but then thought—what was the point of this nonsense with her brother’s killer? So she fell silent again.
“Do you still harbor the desire to kill me?” Han Qian stared at Xi Ren and asked.
“…” Xi Ren turned her face away, thinking—what kind of foolish question was this?
“If I could help you avenge your father’s death and your mother’s humiliation, help Xi clan descendants escape their slave status, help the Xi clan reestablish themselves—would you still want to kill me?” Han Qian asked.
Xi Ren wanted to say that Han Qian’s words were nothing but lies to deceive a three-year-old child, but she found herself tongue-tied.
“When you were instigated by Ji Kun to assassinate me, was it truly merely to avenge your brother’s death? Or were you thinking that if I died at Jingyun Stockade, my father would certainly send troops to slaughter everyone at Jingyun Stockade until blood flowed like rivers?” Han Qian stared into Xi Ren’s eyes and asked. “Besides humiliating you and your mother, didn’t Feng Changyu secretly manipulate things when your father was killed by Ma Yuanheng?”
Xi Ren stood there stunned. She couldn’t understand at all how Han Qian had suddenly figured everything out, as if she stood naked before him, unable to hide the slightest secret anymore.
“Don’t look so confused. I’m not familiar with you, but I’ve dealt with Ji Kun for over two months. I know somewhat what kind of person he is. Your brother’s death alone wouldn’t be enough to make Ji Kun believe he could successfully convince you to assassinate me. He’s such a cautious person who doesn’t act lightly. Without eighty or ninety percent certainty in something, how would he run off to instigate someone to take such risks?” Han Qian exhaled lightly and said.
Xi Ren finally understood why Han Qian could see through everything about her, but she didn’t understand how deep a person’s scheming and calculations had to be to figure all this out in such a short time.
Han Qian continued: “…These past two days keeping you at my side, I’ve actually been puzzled by this very point. I originally thought I’d wait until you relaxed, then coax the truth from you. However, today someone told me about your background, and that bit of doubt in my heart scattered with the wind. When you tried to assassinate me in the stockade, you were just thinking that if I died, my father would attack Jingyun Stockade. You’re not someone unafraid of death either. In your heart you thought that after assassinating me, Ji Kun would preserve your life—otherwise why else would you have spent these years using your body to serve that decrepit old man Feng Changyu? On your wedding night, while he was in the throes of ecstasy, you should have had plenty of opportunities to stab him to death with a sword!”
“You…” Seeing Han Qian describe her so despicably, Xi Ren bit her teeth in fury, but discovered she had no way to defend herself.
“Of course, whether Feng Changyu manipulated things when your father was killed by Ma Yuanheng—I haven’t investigated clearly yet. But if you don’t tell me, investigating this point won’t be difficult for me,” Han Qian said, pressing on the desk and standing up. “However, this matter has nothing to do with me. Tomorrow I’ll have you confined in the women’s prison. When the situation in Xu Prefecture truly stabilizes someday, I’ll release you. If I handle you this way, you surely can’t resent me for not knowing how to cherish beauty, can you?”
“When my grandfather was alive, he only had one daughter—my mother—with no other siblings. Feng Changyu had long wanted to marry my mother to swallow up the Xi clan. When my mother married my father, Feng Changyu was Ma Yuanheng’s assistant clerk,” Xi Ren said, lowering her head.
When Gao Shao asked Feng Xuan about Xi Ren’s background, Feng Xuan hadn’t made it clear that Gao Xi Shi was the only daughter of the Xi clan’s previous chieftain. Of course, this wasn’t Feng Xuan deliberately concealing anything—he simply felt this point wasn’t important, or perhaps Gao Shao hadn’t paid attention to it either.
However, since Gao Xi Shi was the only daughter of the Xi clan’s previous chieftain, and after Xi Cheng’s death, Xi Ren was Gao Xi Shi’s only daughter, theoretically Xi Ren was the Xi clan’s sole heir—if the Xi clan still existed.
“If you put aside your desire to kill me and your vengeance for your brother’s death, I could secretly help you ransom Xi clan descendants…” Han Qian’s eyes fixed on Xi Ren as he spoke.
“Why would you help me?” Having witnessed Han Qian’s ruthless methods, Xi Ren would never believe he had any good intentions.
“For ten years, Xi clan descendants must be loyal to me, live for me, die for me,” Han Qian stated his conditions. “After ten years, I’ll return your freedom and allow the Xi clan to reestablish themselves in these mountains! By then you won’t need to worry about Feng Changyu and his son Feng Jin—they should have been destroyed long ago without even bone fragments remaining!”
“Is this truly your word?” Xi Ren asked.
“What do you have that’s worth deceiving you over?” Han Qian said with a mocking smile. “However, for this matter to succeed, I can’t unreasonably and without justification let you remain at my side without reservation. Tomorrow I’ll have someone replace the shackles on your feet with silver bells. From now on when you’re at my side, you must walk in front of me, not behind me. I need outsiders to see that while I’m coveting your beauty, I’m also guarding against the possibility you might kill me!”
Xi Ren’s heart was in complete chaos. From being captured to now, only four or five days had passed, yet all the things that had happened to Han Qian—or rather, the many things Han Qian had deliberately let her see—had created an impact on her heart whose magnitude she herself couldn’t quite grasp at this moment…