…

“Now Guangdong and Guangxi can’t stay in anymore. Guangxi is liquidating the Taiping Army, and Guangdong is massacring secret societies. Anyone who stays will lose their head. Minguan also had no choice…”

Water waves rippled. Lin Yuchan covered herself with several of her garments, drowsily hearing someone speaking Guangdong-flavored Mandarin.

She scrambled up. No one remained on the boat except her. The moon’s shadow had moved to the deepest moment of night.

Someone was talking on shore, and that voice sounded somewhat familiar…

“Young lady, haven’t been in the society long, have you? Never seen you before.”

She recalled for a moment, surprised: “Uncle Cheng?”

He Weicheng, one of the key remaining members of the Guangdong secret societies, rescued by Su Minguan from the Guangzhou piglet house, and also once a candidate for succession. After successfully escaping the Haizhuang Temple battle, Su Minguan had written asking him to come to Shanghai for refuge.

Before Su Minguan left on his long journey, he had even entrusted Lin Yuchan that if any Guangdong fellow townsmen came seeking refuge, she should help receive them.

But for unknown reasons, these fellow townsmen had never managed to knock on Yixing’s door.

She had almost forgotten what he looked like.

Lin Yuchan moved quietly, lying against the porthole to look outside.

It was indeed He Weicheng. His right hand hung somewhat strangely at his side, presumably the consequence of last year’s injury. Beside him were several familiar faces – all survivors who had escaped from the piglet house back then.

The small boat was moored in a narrow creek, surrounded by tall wild maple trees, with villages in the distance showing scattered points of light.

A small lamp hung at the bow, illuminating the mixed red and yellow maple leaves on the ground. Over ten people stood on those maple leaves, forming a semicircle.

An old man sat in the center, wearing an old robe, biting a long pipe, so withered he seemed to merge with the surrounding tree trunks. Most others stood facing the village direction.

Su Minguan stood with his hands at his sides, alone, facing most of the others.

The men he brought – Shi Peng and others – stood farther away, behind him.

Even He Weicheng and the others stood opposite Su Minguan. They had chosen to side with the Jiangsu-Zhejiang branch.

Lin Yuchan immediately became angry. This was a damn tribunal!

Just because he wasn’t actively anti-Qing and pro-Ming restoration?

Chu Nanyun was also passive in his work! Why wasn’t he on trial?

Then she suddenly noticed another person kneeling beside the pile of maple leaves. He hung his head low, seemingly prostrated to the ground. His body was twisted, trembling continuously.

A small lamp hung on the maple trunk, blown askew by the wind, illuminating the three hideous eyebrow scars on his face.

“I…” Chu Nanyun’s face was ashen as he said with difficulty, “I still have over a hundred men, all… all can surrender… just ask that you let me…”

The central elder blew a smoke ring and spoke slowly.

“Originally thought that after your severe injuries healed, you had reformed, but didn’t expect your evil thoughts still wouldn’t die, borrowing this gathering opportunity to attack our brotherhood. If not for Minguan’s alertness, today we would have fallen into your trap – why didn’t you use this bit of cleverness elsewhere, sigh…” The elder smiled slightly, his long beard trembling. “I think there’s no need to readmit you. Minguan’s assassination order is still valid, right? How much money was it?”

Su Minguan feigned a worried expression: “Just raised the bounty to fifty silver dollars yesterday.”

“Good. I’m short of money to buy tobacco.”

As soon as the elder finished speaking, someone beside him struck with his blade, and Chu Nanyun’s body crashed to the ground.

The Hongmen’s vast network had roots throughout South China. Though it seemed decayed and dusty, buried under old weeds and shrubs, once someone pulled out a thread and dragged it into that newborn world, it could equally capture betrayal, friendship, and a ray of light from the new era.

“From now on, the Green Gang is expelled from the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Hongmen. Hongmen brothers are forbidden to join the Green Gang, or they’ll end up like this man.” The elder said, “Minguan, is this acceptable?”

Su Minguan smiled: “Guangdong and Guangxi comply with the order.”

Lin Yuchan shrank back in fright, then slowly straightened up, both shocked and pleased.

Seems her curse was quite effective!

Her second reaction was that the pipe-smoking old grandpa must be the Jiangsu-Zhejiang branch leader, and he seemed quite reasonable.

The elder filled his pipe with tobacco leaves, slowly saying: “Should this matter be considered settled then? Minguan – don’t blame me for calling you this, we’re generations apart, your grand-uncle also called me great-uncle – don’t blame me for sheltering Chu Nanyun either. We couldn’t enter the foreign settlement and had no chance to talk with you, so we dared not jump to conclusions.”

Lin Yuchan felt this had some meaning of shifting blame to Su Minguan, blaming him for not contacting the Jiangsu-Zhejiang branch promptly after taking over Yixing, leading to a loss of organizational trust, and instead letting Chu Nanyun exploit the gap.

Actually, Su Minguan had tried, but the Jiangsu-Zhejiang branch, like the Guangdong branch, was currently depleted of personnel – the Small Swords Society uprising had killed a large wave, and most of the remainder had been lured away by Taiping Heavenly Kingdom forces. The final few remaining elements were deeply hidden to avoid arrest, basically reverting to ordinary citizens.

Unless they actively revealed themselves, like today, where could one search?

But Su Minguan just smiled, saying, “No problem. Times are difficult – how can everything be thorough? Mr. Li, please continue.”

Mr. Li tapped his pipe stem and nodded.

“Second topic. Yixing… Dexing Prefecture wants to ask, when Jin Lanhe took over Shanghai Yixing, was it on whose orders, or… your independent action?”

The elder spoke slowly. A subordinate beside him couldn’t contain himself and continued questioning: “Seeing how prosperously you’ve run that shipping company, wondering what expert guidance you had?”

Lin Yuchan gripped the bamboo blind at the window, coldly smiling inwardly.

Brother, intelligence has limited your imagination.

Someone shared her heroic view. Though He Weicheng stood beside Mr. Li, he still said with pride: “No need to doubt this. Minguan’s father was a wealthy merchant of Guangzhou’s Thirteen Hongs – he grew up eating silver. Managing a shop is child’s play for him.”

However, Su Minguan remained neither humble nor arrogant: “Yixing had good foundations, the founding master’s protection, and favorable feng shui these two years – no reason to lose money. As for society affairs… though Chu Nanyun acted perversely for years, there were still many old records in the shipping company. I just copied the cat to draw the tiger, learning as I went.”

Mr. Li smiled faintly: “I’ve never seen a second young man who could ‘copy the cat to draw the tiger’ so excellently. If so, Shanghai Yixing is temporarily entrusted to Guangdong’s Jin Lanhe. Hope you’ll have opportunities to share experience with other Yixing branch bosses.”

Su Minguan still smiled faintly: “I wouldn’t dare.”

Lin Yuchan lightly stamped her feet in the boat, celebrating for him.

Mr. Li was advanced in years and probably planned to be a hands-off manager. She thought it would be best if the entire Jiangsu-Zhejiang region were handed to Su Minguan. In a couple of years, when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom fell, how chaotic would the situation be? An octogenarian old man probably couldn’t handle it.

But Mr. Li wasn’t that radical yet. He seemed to be competing with Su Minguan in composure, his facial whiskers moving slightly as he continued:

“Third topic. May I ask Jin Lanhe, when do you plan to sell Yixing?”

Lin Yuchan poked her ears, nearly choking on her breath.

This Jiangsu-Zhejiang branch leader’s logic was so erratic – could he be getting senile?

Su Minguan suddenly glanced sideways, shooting a sharp look in her direction. The small boat rocked without waves, lightly bobbing on the water’s surface.

Then he answered pleasantly: “No plans to sell for now.”

Several subordinates behind Mr. Li all showed displeased expressions.

“Yixing is not someone’s private property.” Mr. Li also said pleasantly, “It belongs to Hongmen assets, part of society affairs. I’m sure you know this.”

Su Minguan lowered his eyes, his mouth corners showing a slight cold smile. He wasn’t some newly inducted junior – no need to educate him on this.

He Weicheng suddenly said: “Heaven and Earth Society has always had such rules, wasn’t it the same in Guangdong before? Yixing must control its scale and when necessary, sell assets for cash to raise funds for anti-Qing restoration – Minguan, how much silver does Shanghai Yixing currently have on the books?”

“Not yet enough for the expense of capturing Shanghai,” Su Minguan looked at him honestly, answering word by word, “but even if there were enough silver, I still wouldn’t sell.”

The others’ faces grew darker. Even the Yixing men behind Su Minguan now showed some shameful embarrassment.

Mr. Li smiled: “You’re young, backing down at the crucial moment is understandable…”

Su Minguan sneered, lowering his head to unbutton his robe, then his inner garment, exposing half his chest.

On the young, firm skin, the gunshot wound from last year, when hit by the Green Battalion’s foreign gun unit, still left faint brown marks. A large patch of chaotic scars was heart-stopping.

“Mr. Li,” he pulled his clothes together, saying flatly, “dare I ask, when you were twenty, had you ever charged through a hundred-man government formation or been hit by foreign bullets from running dogs?”

Mr. Li was choked until his old face reddened. The stinking brat was being unreasonable – during the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns, everyone fought with big swords, where would you find foreign guns?

But the big hat of “backing down at the crucial moment” was wrongly placed. Mr. Li pretended those words were never said, smoothly changing the subject: “Then, what difficulties do you have?”

Lin Yuchan couldn’t help another cold laugh out loud.

Just now, they had given Su Minguan so many high hats, ceded so much power… turns out it was all sugar-coated bullets, with the real topic waiting here.

What multi-provincial representative meeting – they were just eyeing his money. Let him work hard, and once his money bag was full, everyone came to pick the peaches.

She suddenly had a chilling thought: tolerating Chu Nanyun’s failed sneak attack on her, leading to his self-destruction – could that also be part of the “sugar coating”?

The Heaven and Earth Society had struggled with the imperial court for hundreds of years. So-called meetings were not playing house in a small grove.

But… they weren’t for personal gain either. Any person standing or sitting in this maple grove rarely used the word “I” when speaking.

Lin Yuchan realized that Su Minguan had let her sleep in the boat and never called her out, obviously planning to save her as his “moral high ground” for the very end. If the meeting went smoothly, she wouldn’t need to appear, just to save face for the brothers.

From her perspective, Su Minguan was still quite honorable. Unfortunately, the others didn’t appreciate it.

Mr. Li said amiably, “Minguan, don’t break Hongmen’s old rules. Since everyone’s here today, let’s discuss it.”

Su Minguan’s mouth corners curved up slightly. The sincerity from before disappeared by seven parts, replaced by a business socializing smile.

“Dexing Dragon and Jin Lanhe are equal branches. According to the Hongmen old rules you mentioned, neither needs to listen to the other. If we’re talking about the Five Houses and Five Ancestors, Guangdong-Guangxi is the second brother, and Jiangsu-Zhejiang is the fifth brother. My words carry more weight – seniority doesn’t count.”

Mr. Li of Dexing Dragon, whose seniority had suddenly increased by three generations, coughed repeatedly, nearly having a heart attack on the spot from anger.

Su Minguan accepted the first two sugar coatings and spat out the final cannonball, smiling contentedly: “Nothing else? Welcome, brothers, to come drink tea at Yixing. This month we have free hairy crabs.”

Just as he was about to step forward, He Weicheng suddenly shouted sternly: “Minguan, you haven’t burned those three and a half incense sticks yet, have you?”

Su Minguan’s expression suddenly changed, his footsteps stopping on a golden maple leaf.