After the banquet, everyone dispersed except for Uncle Han Yigui and two cousins, Li Zhengming and Li Zhengping.
The Li family gathered to discuss Nanjing’s situation. The city’s changes over the past few months were dizzying.
“Nanjing hasn’t known peace lately. First the ink competition with the Japanese, and now Hai Rui has gone to Songjiang and caused quite a stir. He’s truly an iron-faced, impartial man. Minister Xu had shown him great favor before, yet upon reaching Songjiang, Hai Rui’s first target was Minister Xu himself. He’s submitted several memorials impeaching Minister Xu and his sons,” Han Yigui first sighed about Old Master Li’s passing, then told Li Jingfu and Zhen’er about these developments in Nanjing.
“What was Lord Hai’s reason for impeaching the Xu family?” Zhen’er asked curiously. Historically, Hai Rui wouldn’t become Yingtian Inspector until next year, when he originally investigated land annexation cases that led him to the Xu family.
So what had caused Lord Hai to target the Xu family in this timeline?
“It’s said to be a case of land donation from Huizhou involving the Xu family. Lord Hai focused on it, and upon deeper investigation, discovered that the Xu family’s landholdings spread throughout Songjiang, Nanjing, Huizhou, and other regions. In any case, the matter has escalated. Minister Xu has repeatedly begged for punishment at court, while Gao Gong’s faction of censors has been seizing every opportunity to submit memorials. The court is in chaos, and Nanjing’s officialdom is in panic,” Han Yigui explained.
Since ancient times, officials and merchants had been closely connected, with changes in officialdom often affecting the merchant class. Therefore, members of the Hui Merchants’ Guild were particularly sensitive to official matters. Han Yigui was friends with Hu Zonglin, so he was well-informed about such matters.
“Shouldn’t the Xu family matter only involve Huizhou and Songjiang? Why has Nanjing become chaotic?” Li Jingfu asked puzzledly.
“Apparently while impeaching the Xu family, Lord Hai also impeached the Nanjing Textile Commissioner. The Huizhou case—involving Mother Jiang’s daughter, Zhu’s wife, accusing her clan uncle Niu Shuan’er of land encroachment and illegal donation—naturally implicated the Textile Bureau,” Han Yigui explained.
“Oh.” Zhen’er suddenly understood. During this period, her family had been busy—first with her eldest brother’s oil press being falsely accused by the Du family, then the tribute competition and ink-making matters. She’d been so occupied in the ink shop daily that she hadn’t paid attention to Huizhou’s news.
However, now that her uncle mentioned it, she recalled Luo Wenqian briefly mentioning this before. Reportedly, the Tian family had orchestrated this, and Zhu’s wife—Mother Jiang’s daughter—was the one who had committed suicide with her children by taking rat poison during New Year’s two years ago. Thus, it wasn’t surprising that her case eventually implicated the Nanjing Textile Commissioner. Thinking of the account book she had submitted earlier, no wonder Nanjing’s officials were now anxious.
“Indeed, with Hai Rui impeaching the Textile Commissioner, Wang Sifang is in big trouble,” Zhao Yigui added from the side.
“What’s happened to Chairman Wang?” Zhen’er couldn’t help asking. After all, Wang Sifang was Luo Wenqian’s uncle, so she naturally wanted to know more.
“The Textile Commissioner’s silk purchasing funds this year were all advanced by Sifang Money House. If something happens to the Commissioner’s officials, Sifang Money House will be in trouble. But the situation isn’t clear yet—after all, it involves the Xu family, and Minister Xu’s position in court is unshakeable. Though Hai Rui is currently impeaching both the Xu family and the Textile Commissioner, there are also many at court impeaching Lord Hai. Everyone’s still waiting to see what happens,” Han Yigui explained.
“Yes, that’s true.” Zhen’er nodded. After all, the current situation differed from history. Historically, when Hai Rui investigated the Xu family, Xu Jie had already retired. Even with his former subordinates and students, Hai Rui succeeded then because Gao Gong supported him from behind. Now, with Xu Jie still standing firm in court, his control over court affairs was incomparable to historical events.
Thus, while Nanjing’s official and merchant circles were in chaos, there was still room for observation, and most people favored the Xu family’s chances.
Now, even Zhen’er herself wasn’t sure about matters concerning the Xu family. How things would unfold could only be known when they happened.
Of course, these matters didn’t directly affect Zhen’er. Her current focus remained on the ink competition, so she inevitably asked about the Japanese situation next. This was crucial—knowing both oneself and the enemy was essential, as Zhen’er never fought unprepared battles.
Speaking of the Japanese, Li Zhengping was full of anger and snorted coldly: “Ren Jiyingsung has become quite arrogant now. Since defeating several Nanjing ink masters, he and his followers have been visiting ink shops one by one, claiming to seek guidance but challenging them. After the Huizhou tribute ink selection ended, Ren Jiyingsung boldly declared he would come to Li Family Ink Shop for ‘guidance.’ Now that you’re back, I expect he’ll bring people to cause trouble in the next day or two. You should prepare.”
He continued: “These Japanese are crafty. They claim to seek guidance, but I think they’re trying to gauge our Li family’s capabilities since they’re determined to win the ink competition.”
Determined to win—well, that would depend on whether Ren Jiyingsung had the ability, Zhen’er thought to herself. She understood Ren Jiyingsung’s intentions and felt that Nanjing’s ink masters had handled the situation poorly. How could they let Ren Jiyingsung challenge them at will? He came prepared, and by allowing him to “seek guidance” whenever he wanted, they had put themselves in a passive position, ultimately being led by the nose.
This has created the current awkward situation in the ink-making industry.
Of course, Zhen’er understood the Nanjing ink makers’ feelings. Anyone would find it hard to swallow when someone parading the title of “World’s Best Ink” showed up at their doorstep. Thus, Ren Jiyingsung successfully provoked the Nanjing ink masters’ anger.
As a result, their series of actions had played right into Ren Jiyingsung’s hands.
Thinking this through, Zhen’er decided that if Ren Jiyingsung came seeking guidance, she would have to find a way to turn passive into active.
Of course, she still needed to carefully consider exactly how to execute this.
Night fell, and the wind picked up, finally dispersing some of the day’s stuffiness. Around midnight, thunder rolled, followed by heavy rain. By morning, after the thunder and rain had passed, the air felt especially fresh.
In the early morning, Ugly Po was tending to a row of green vegetables she had planted in the backyard garden, now glistening with last night’s rain. Zhen’er’s mood lifted at the sight of the verdant scene, while Ugly Po had been tending to these plants since early morning.
“Auntie Po, your vegetables are growing better and better,” Zhen’er greeted as she approached Ugly Po. Though they weren’t officially married yet, the engagement between the families was settled, so she used the familial title.
“Just playing around—do anything long enough and you’ll learn its ways,” Ugly Po responded while continuing to pull weeds. Then she stood up and said seriously to Zhen’er: “If Ren Jiyingsung comes to challenge us, do you have any preparations? All of Nanjing’s ink industry is watching the Li family—we cannot lose.”
“I’m thinking we can’t let them take the initiative, but I’m still working out the specific approach,” Zhen’er nodded, indicating she had things under control.
“Ugly Po, someone’s here to authenticate ink. Can you tell how old this ink is?” At this moment, Sun Jiewen tossed over a cloth pouch.
Since Ugly Po’s identity had been revealed, Zhen’er wasn’t about to let such an ink-making expert go to waste. She had hired Ugly Po as the ink shop’s quality supervisor, overseeing quality, improving ink products, and authenticating ink.
Particularly in Nanjing, where many scholars collected ink products, people would often bring uncertain pieces to the ink shop for expert authentication.
At first, people in the shop didn’t quite trust Ugly Po’s skills and authentication ability. After all, Ugly Po’s true identity was known only to some relatives and hadn’t been fully revealed publicly. In everyone’s eyes, she was just someone who had served the Li family for many years and knew a bit about ink-making.
How could Ugly Po tolerate such underestimation? After demonstrating her skills a few times, she immediately won over everyone in the shop.
Afterward, whenever someone came for ink authentication, they would usually seek out Ugly Po.
Now Ugly Po caught the pouch with one hand but didn’t open it. She merely weighed it in her hand and said: “Five-year-old ink from the Zhan family of Wuyuan. Not quite old enough to be considered aged ink.”
“Ugly Po? You haven’t even looked at the ink—how can you be so sure it’s five-year-old Zhan family ink from Wuyuan just by weighing the pouch? Are you certain?” Sun Jiewen asked with wide eyes. Though Ugly Po’s eye for ink authentication was remarkable, making such a determination without even seeing the ink seemed rather dubious.
“Ignorant boy, I’m not wrong. If you lack knowledge, keep quiet and learn,” Ugly Po snorted coldly.
Sun Jiewen rubbed his nose and mumbled: “Ugly Po’s looking down on people.”
“If you don’t even know about discerning ink through the pouch, Ugly Po’s words aren’t wrong. Wenjie should learn more from Ugly Po in the future,” Zhen’er said with a smile from the side.
Hearing Zhen’er say this, Sun Jiewen understood that Ugly Po’s authentication must be accurate and took the ink back to the customer.
Meanwhile, Zhen’er looked at Ugly Po, greatly moved inside.
The technique of “discerning ink through the pouch” was one of Ink Immortal Pan Gu’s extraordinary skills—being able to identify ink just by weighing its pouch from the outside, without looking at the ink itself.
The “History of Ink” had a specific record of this: Once, Huang Tingjian asked Pan Gu to authenticate his collected ink. Pan Gu didn’t look at the ink but immediately identified it through the pouch as soft-grade ink made by Li Chengyan (Li Tinggui’s nephew). He then identified another piece as ink he had made twenty years prior, sighing that he no longer had the energy to make such good ink anymore.
This demonstrated Immortal Pan’s ability to discern ink through the pouch.
Now seeing Ugly Po’s demonstration, Zhen’er could tell that while Ugly Po’s skill at discerning ink through the pouch might not match Immortal Pan’s completely, she possessed at least seventy or eighty percent of his ability.
Thinking of this, an idea suddenly formed in Zhen’er’s mind.
She bowed to Ugly Po with a grin: “Auntie Po, we’ll need your help when Ren Jiyingsung comes to challenge us.”
“Oh? How so?” Ugly Po looked at Zhen’er with an expression asking for an explanation.
Zhen’er whispered a few words in Ugly Po’s ear.
“You clever girl! Alright, we’ll do as you say. Let this old woman play the role of cleaning lady once more,” Ugly Po said with a rare smile.