Ever since reconnecting with her older sister, Qiqian’er had reaped the benefits of having family in her old home. Her sister was the head of a delivery gang, and whatever good food or drink was available in the Yandu markets — aside from the truly expensive stuff — she could get her hands on almost immediately.

Huo Wu Rong was quite capable. In a single month out working, she could earn around twenty guan, which was already far better than what an ordinary sixth or seventh-rank official in the capital made.

Don’t look down on that twenty guan — a bowl of good meat soup in the market only cost twenty wen. With that kind of money, she could feed her son whatever he wanted, buy whatever she pleased, and basically never had to watch anyone’s face to get by.

Life was, in a word, comfortable.

What’s more, Ruyi secretly kept a portion of scout’s pay for himself on the side. He was small, so he didn’t get much — only about three guan a month — but he was only an eleven-year-old child, so you can imagine how well this mother and son were living.

Of course, Huo Wu Rong had no idea about Ruyi’s three guan.

Aside from that, Huo Wu Rong had never let Bai Ruyi take the surname Huo. The two people in this world who hated the Huo family most were Huo Qiqian and Huo Wu Rong — they would never let the Huo family have descendants.

“Bai Ruyi” sounded so nice — a hundredfold of good fortune, wishes coming true — nothing could be more auspicious than that.

And so, as soon as the new season’s fruit hit the market, Huo Wu Rong sent her son off, driving a donkey cart loaded with two large baskets, to Quanhou Street to visit his little aunt.

To make it easier for her son to get to school, Wu Rong had spent quite a bit of money — gritting her teeth, she’d bought a big black donkey and spent another six guan outfitting a cart to go with it.

A household with its own cart counted as a middle-class family among the plain folk of Yandu.

By the time the fresh fruit arrived at the house, Gennu’er and An’er were instantly delighted — not because these two children were rare for fruit; the household had everything, and they wouldn’t necessarily eat it even if you begged them to. What the two brothers had taken a liking to instead were the two large wicker baskets their older cousin had used to carry the fruit. They absolutely insisted on climbing inside, no matter what.

As luck would have it, Chen Dasheng and Chang Lianfang had just come back for some errand, and seeing how wildly the two boys were carrying on, disturbing Qiqian’er and Ruyi’s conversation, Chen Dasheng had no choice but to dump out the fruit and put the two sons into the baskets instead, carrying one in each hand off toward the chessboard courtyard.

Once the ear-splitting shrieking had faded into the distance, Bai Ruyi finally turned to Qiqian’er with a smile and said, “Little aunt, it’s only been about ten days since I last came, and An’er has grown again.”

Qiqian’er let out a long breath. The frail child worried her heart; the lively one gave her a headache.

“Don’t even get me started on those two. Other people give birth to a proper human being — what I got is a monkey. Sticks to fur, climbs trees; sticks to scales, dives in water. Let him loose and he’s gone. I’m all ready to teach him a lesson, but oh… now he’s even learned to call for help.”

Qiqian’er pointed a trembling finger at the wall outside. “Last month he learned to shout ‘help, murder!’ Now, I haven’t even laid a hand on him yet, and the older one just grabs him and runs, banging on every door down the alley shouting for help. Just you wait… any minute now that old lady’s going to come teach me a lesson.”

Bai Ruyi couldn’t hold back his laughter. For an eleven-year-old, he spoke with a rather mature air. “As long as he’s not sick or hurt, it’s fine — what child isn’t mischievous?”

Hearing this, Qiqian’er shot him a look. “Listen to you talking — you’re still a child yourself. How are you and your mother getting along?”

Bai Ruyi smiled. “Pretty well.”

Qiqian’er was curious and pressed further. “I’m asking you — well in what way?”

Just then the new little maid, Jinye, came in carrying tea, setting it down carefully, then carefully slipping back out.

Watching the girl’s thin frame, Qiqian’er sighed helplessly to her nephew, “That one’s from the batch the old lady bought. All my old maids with ‘month’ names are married off now, and rather than wait for good ones to be sent up from the capital, our old lady got in first this time — heh, so I get whatever’s cheap!

Look — on my side they’re all named starting with ‘Jin’ (Gold): Jinpei, Jinque, Jinye, all sound expensive! On the old lady’s side they’re all named starting with ‘Yin’ (Silver)…”

This was the kind of complaining you only did with someone who wasn’t an outsider, and it made Bai Ruyi feel especially at ease inside. He smiled and said, “That’s the old lady’s kindness too.”

Qiqian’er sighed, “Right, what can you do, that’s just how it is. Forget my side — tell me about yours. How well exactly?”

The tone of it — you’d think she was dying of curiosity over whether there were even a few grains of rice left in her sister’s rice jar.

Bai Ruyi answered with great patience, “My mother and I get along well. I know all the neighbors now too — they know I’m Huo Ninth Brother’s son, so everyone looks out for me. Aunt, you don’t know this, but my family’s life is… unusually good. Really…”

Bai Ruyi didn’t quite know how to describe his own life. He struggled for a moment before finally managing to say, “Well — if you want details — like, when my mother and I go to the street corner to have clothes made, a bolt of cloth worth two guan, when my mother buys it, it only costs six hundred wen.”

Qiqian’er was startled. “What? Six hundred wen?”

Bai Ruyi nodded earnestly. “Mm, six hundred wen. Before, when I spent money, one wen was one wen. When my mother goes out, one wen does the work of at least five. Shopkeepers who overcharge, they don’t even bother padding the price for us — they just give it to us at cost…”

This was truly enviable!

Qiqian’er smacked her lips. “Being head of a delivery gang really pays off — plump and solid… I wouldn’t trade it even for being made a lord.”

Bai Ruyi burst out laughing. “Mm, it really is good. Besides that, food and drink at home, people bring it over as a matter of course — firewood, vegetables, not much, just a bundle of firewood, a bunch of greens, but someone comes by every single day. My mother earns every wen fair and square, and she’s got nowhere to spend it anyway… you know how it is, she goes out and people invite her to eat, and she still comes home with money in her pocket.”

Listening to this, Qiqian’er felt utterly at peace, feeling that her own sister was living a life fit for an immortal.

Meanwhile, Chen Dasheng had eaten his midday meal over at the chessboard courtyard and came home still carrying the baskets, one of them holding a small sleeping child.

Qiqian’er took the basket and set it on the heated bed, laughing, “Looks like they’ve taken a real liking to their aunt’s basket.”

“Ah—!” Chen Dasheng sighed helplessly, sitting down to let the manservant pull off his boots, then standing again in soft shoes before saying, still exasperated, “I don’t know what gets into their heads. Carrying them out of there was like murdering them — they absolutely refused to come out, what a hassle… Eh? Where’s Ruyi?”

Qiqian’er lifted An’er out of the basket. Even asleep, the boy’s little hand was still gripping the basket’s handle, refusing to let go.

Well, this one was stubborn even in his sleep.

With no other option, Qiqian’er grabbed a thin blanket and tossed it into the basket in irritation. “He went home, that’s what. That child stays busy — his mother’s out and won’t be back until dark, and he has to handle things at home for her… And what were you doing over there fussing with Xiaohua for so long?”

This wife of his always changed the subject at random.

Chen Dasheng looked down at the child, breaking into a full smile. “Fussing about what? Real business — our Xiaohua’s getting married on the first day of the sixth month, had to go back and get things sorted.”

Hearing this, Qiqian’er lit up with joy. “I knew it! I kept wondering why there was no movement from him. It was about time too.”

Chen Dasheng leaned against the cabinet, reaching to pinch his son’s chubby cheeks. “His adoptive parents wanted nothing less than a heavenly beauty for him. In the past everyone thought Xiaohua deserved anyone at all, especially with His Majesty favoring him — I even thought he’d end up with someone truly extraordinary.”

Qiqian’er swatted away Chen Dasheng’s mischievous hand. “I heard bits of it too. Adoptive Mother teared up whenever it came up — nobody expected it would turn out this hard.”

Chen Dasheng shook his head helplessly. “You all just see the shiny surface and never stop to think it through. Even a great house like the Chang residence has since split up its property. He doesn’t even own a single respectable house of his own in Yandu. On top of that, there are two difficult old ladies in his family, a father whose sharp tongue has made enemies across the entire court, and two sisters-in-law with narrow, calculating eyes.

Even that residence over at Qingfeng Manor — that was arranged for him by a sworn brother of a different surname. You tell me, any family that actually treasures their daughter — how are they going to look at Xiaohua? In the end, when it came down to actually sitting and negotiating, over a dozen families were approached, and not a single one worked out.”

Qiqian’er couldn’t very well ask about Xiaohua’s marriage prospects — with two generations of elders and the legitimate elder brothers all still around, what business was it of hers, an in-law from outside the family?

She’d simply watched over the years as Xiaohua’s marriage prospects went from this family to that family, each one worse than the last, sliding steadily downhill, nothing but disappointment.

Of the three foster sons at His Majesty’s side, aside from Li Jinggui who’d fared decently, both Zheng Aman and Chang Lianfang were pitiable children weighed down by their own families.

Qiqian’er turned Chen Dasheng’s words over in her mind and said, distressed, “I— I never realized before. I thought Adoptive Mother was just putting on airs. Who knew it was genuinely this hard?”

Chen Dasheng burst out laughing. “You just spend your days squatting in the alley fattening yourself up and counting money, don’t you worry about anything? Toss out all that messy business from Quanhou Street cluttering your head and actually think it through for once. His family’s troubles aren’t the real issue — the real issue is, who with any sense wants to get tangled up in the imperial family’s affairs?

Not to mention, just look at us — all year long, does a single official from the civil service ever send us an invitation? Heh~ these days, everyone loves playing the pure, loyal minister in front of His Majesty…”

A married couple who’d been together long enough, and behind closed doors, they turned into a pair of gossips.

In the past, Qiqian’er had always thought herself quite clever — ah, having lived a second lifetime, having so much more insight and all that.

But Chen Dasheng was different. A man seasoned in dealing with people, oiled through and through from experience — the way he observed people, dealt with people, the things he’d been through were different, and that kind of growth was formidable.

He hadn’t seen it before, but now he understood — you didn’t even need to look at Consort Xiao in the palace; even the lesser consorts were walking bundles of scheming. That’s right — aside from scheming, that lot had nothing else going for them.

And his wife? Step outside Quanhou Street and she turned into a little fool. She could handle a straightforward matter or two, but once things got complicated, she couldn’t see through them at all.

Push her too hard, and she might even resort to using her fists to solve things — that was the worrying part.

Every time this “melon” of a wife went out wandering, Chen Dasheng worried she’d end up literally throwing some gossiping court lady clean over a wall. People practically spelled it out for her — I’d like to introduce you to a sister, I’d like to send your husband a concubine! — and she’d just sit there looking like she hadn’t understood a word.

Qiqian’er, for her part, was humble enough about it, laughing as she said, “Don’t go rambling on with stuff I can’t follow. I’m just a woman of the inner household… just tell me plainly, what’s this ‘pure minister’ business? What’s it got to do with our family?”

Chen Dasheng took a long breath. A woman with no more understanding of the world than a temple could fly — that was really something.

He explained patiently, “Right, well, it’s like this — the imperial princes are grown now, and any official with a bit of sense, when it comes to relatives connected to the imperial family, even relatives of relatives, they steer clear. Those sharp minds calculate three generations ahead when dealing with people.

Our father is the emperor’s maternal cousin, and behind our father stands a whole crowd of old Shao-merchant faction officials, and among the scholars of the realm he has a reputation for loyalty and integrity — that alone means something could be said in front of the Emperor. That’s exactly why people keep their distance from you — they’re all watching to see which prince our family leans toward, understand?”

Understand my foot — the old girl didn’t understand a thing!

Qiqian’er blinked, unwilling to admit defeat to this man, and changed the subject. “I see, got it! So then, tell me, whose daughter did Xiaohua end up finding?”

Chen Dasheng laughed out loud, raising a hand as if to flick his wife on the forehead, but his shoulder twitched and she caught his hand first.

Qiqian’er held onto Chen Dasheng’s hand, laughing, “Oh? Only a few days without a beating and already itching for one, hm?”

Chen Dasheng coughed. “Xiao—Xiaohua, well, he found himself a wife from out of town.”

Qiqian’er raised a hand to cover her mouth. “What, out of town? How far out of town?”

Chen Dasheng put his hands behind his back, sighing as he paced. “Wu Cheng — the second legitimate daughter of Prefect Xu Xuan of Helliang Prefecture down south, income of five hundred shi a year, rank of upper third grade.”

The moment Chen Dasheng said this, Qiqian’er had it all worked out in her head, and she pressed further, “A two-hundred-thousand-shi upper prefecture, or a lower one?”

Two hundred thousand shi made an upper prefecture, around one hundred fifty thousand a middle prefecture, one hundred thousand or under a lower prefecture — this distinction had to be made clear, since the annual income of an upper prefecture’s prefect versus a lower prefecture’s prefect differed by a world.

Chen Dasheng knew full well by now that once his wife started running these mental accounts, when it came to this kind of calculation, she could be shrewd to an extreme degree.

He shook his head, smiling. “Upper prefecture. His family has four sons and three daughters. Of all the marriages arranged before, our Xiaohua’s match is the highest-status one yet. This second young lady’s two older brothers are both already married; below her there are still two younger brothers and one younger sister — a family well known for four generations living under one roof, prosperous and thriving.”

At that, Qiqian’er immediately crossed her legs on the heated bed and began working through the numbers, her mouth clattering away like a thousand abacus beads rolling at once:

“This Prefect, to have caught Adoptive Father’s eye, must be in sound health, and to score top marks in his three-year evaluation, well, what does a top evaluation rest on? It rests on the revenue squeezed out of the local area. Aside from the fixed five hundred shi from the court each year, hmm — a prefect like this would have plenty of places to skim a little oil…

Household registers, military officers, postal relay stations, horse pastures, theft cases, granaries, canals and waterways, inspection posts, seasonal ceremonies, moral education of the common people… plus various forms of ‘respect money’ from the local merchant guilds — I’d say a yearly income around fourteen thousand guan is a conservative estimate. And if you count from the founding of our Great Liang dynasty up to now, if this lord belongs to the Shao-merchant faction, he’d have at the very least a hundred thousand guan in family wealth by now…”

Chen Dasheng took a breath. Yes, exactly like that — his wife’s calculating brain might lag a bit in some ways, but when it came to running numbers, she was sharper than a senior clerk in the Ministry of Finance.

What his wife was calculating was the range of income a sitting prefect was normally, officially allowed to collect during his term — like the fee for stamping the official seal on a contract when someone bought an ox at the yamen.

Of course, an upper prefecture’s prefect wouldn’t bother with contract-stamping fees — there were far too many other places to maneuver. He held the lives and deaths of an entire prefecture’s population in his hands. Take the government granary’s old grain, for example — how exactly was it determined when aged grain needed to be rotated out for new? How was old mixed with new? How was the retired grain discounted, and to whom was it sold off?

Going by the normal rules, giving it to one person was the same as giving it to another. Which meant, naturally, it went to whoever was “agreeable.”

Chen Dasheng opened his mouth. “He really is an old Shao-merchant faction official.”

Qiqian’er nodded. “There you go! For your adoptive father to have taken a liking to him, this man must be quite capable, with a good reputation. Let’s estimate his family wealth at a hundred fifty thousand guan. Now — his two sons’ marriages, did they marry up, marry down, or marry someone of equal standing?”

Chen Dasheng’s eyes glazed over, thinking that this scout position of his really ought to be handed over to his wife instead. He answered weakly, “Equal standing.”

Qiqian’er clapped her hands at this. “Mm! This lord has an upright heart — he’s a good, decent official.”

Weakly: “How do you figure that?”

Qiqian’er said, “Marry up and the heart grows wild with ambition; marry down and it grows greedy. Equal standing means this man is a loving father — at the very least he considered whether the children got along, whether the two households could live in harmony, both families of the same standing — that’s a good marriage. And since it was for his sons, that shows he genuinely cared about treating the girls’ families well, wanting a harmonious, happy household.

He’s not the type to invite trouble into his own home. If that’s the case, then for the sake of his reputation, this lord wouldn’t dare make a big show when marrying off his sons’ wives — so I’ll knock ten thousand guan off that hundred fifty thousand. Now tell me — who did his eldest daughter marry into?”

Chen Dasheng made a small sound. “That… I didn’t actually ask. Seems like she married one of his own protégés.”

Qiqian’er counted on her fingers, thinking it through. “That’s… that doesn’t add up. If his family was so righteous before, if he genuinely treasured his daughters, why would he agree to marry this one off so far away? And you said his family was one of four generations living together happily? Tch — Choutou, tomorrow you go find out — if that young lady’s dowry was around twenty thousand guan, then our Xiaohua’s still got some luck left. But if it’s over a hundred thousand — hmph! Then there’s a problem…”

In an instant, cold sweat prickled up along Chen Dasheng’s hairline. He was the head scout — he knew more than Xiaohua, maybe even more than Earl Chang himself.

And yet here was his own wife, who couldn’t tell the weight of a marriage connection to save her life, deducing the next three years of events purely from a dowry figure.

What in the hell — was this woman secretly a man?

Chen Dasheng sat bolt upright and looked at Qiqian’er seriously. “Alright, tell me — what exactly could be wrong?”

Qiqian’er said with certainty, “What could be wrong? That second young lady’s father used to be a loving parent — he found a well-matched wife for his son, found a son-in-law close enough to keep an eye on for his eldest daughter, and then suddenly turns around and marries his second daughter off ten thousand miles away to some petty official in the Ministry of War, a lowly clerk from a family so crowded together they’re practically tripping over each other’s thread spools. What could they possibly want from that?

Want those two ancestors of Xiaohua’s who can climb up on rooftops with a blade in hand? Or that sister-in-law with the upside-down triangle face and squinty eyes? Nobody in this life gets to call themselves a saint — everyone wants something roughly in line with what they’re giving. As long as we’re not scheming to hurt anyone, that counts as being decent people.

You already said Xiaohua’s whole family is nothing but trouble — so isn’t the rest easy enough to work out? Four generations under one roof! Four generations! Think about it — his grandfather or grandmother, one of them is bound to be on their way out any day now. I’m putting it out there right now, believe me or not!

Ugh, and here’s what I’m afraid of — a few tens of thousands of guan come along with her, and the moment the wedding night’s over, our Xiaohua will have to escort his new wife back to her hometown for a funeral. Then once the father-in-law’s mourning period of twenty-seven months is up… and this Prefect’s in-laws aren’t even court officials — this is clearly someone who’s set his sights on Xiaohua’s ability to speak up in front of the Emperor, because in three years’ time this man wants to be made a prefect again…

No, this won’t do, I need to ask around — could our Xiaohua even be a match for a princess…”

Chen Dasheng cut her off immediately. “Don’t you dare bring up princesses! That whole business already swallowed Zheng Aman whole. Our Xiaohua, mess of a family and all, isn’t fit for a princess either. Listen to me — this is already settled, don’t go stirring up trouble. Where are you going? Hey—!”

Inside, he was scared stiff, wondering just what corner of his wife’s brain this all came from — he genuinely couldn’t figure out how she’d picked up this particular skill.

Because as it happened, the old patriarch of the Helliang Prefect’s family really had suffered a stroke — the family had simply kept it hidden, and no outsider knew.

His wife hadn’t gotten a single detail wrong.

He was the head scout, he knew that much. But his wife… ugh, better not think about it. It was too unsettling.

Qiqian’er, annoyed with him, slipped on her shoes and headed for the door, with Chen Dasheng chasing after her, pleading, “My dear lady, wait a moment — where are you going? You can’t go around saying nonsense! Our Xiaohua’s already suffered these past two years over this whole ‘can’t find a wife’ reputation. Go ask around among his peers — they’ve all got children running around already, some with two! Even His Majesty gets an earful about it whenever it comes up. You’re just an in-law from outside the family, you can’t go stirring this up without cause. Tell me — you think Adoptive Mother won’t come skin you alive over this when she finds out?”

Qiqian’er didn’t look back, feet moving fast, mouth moving faster. “That’s a load of nonsense! Not finding a match just means two rough years — but finding a bad match ruins Xiaohua’s whole life, the whole thing rotten from the start…”

“…What’s rotten?”

Chang Lianfang came out through the main gate carrying a large cabinet on his back, just in time to hear his sister-in-law say he was rotten.

Chen Dasheng ran up and grabbed his wife’s sleeve; without turning around, she kicked backward at him.

Chen Dasheng hopped aside, dodging. Trying to kill me, are you — not gonna land that one…

Chang Lianfang watched the two of them carrying on at the gate as usual, feeling both envious and pleased, given his own upcoming happy occasion.

He set the cabinet down, wiping sweat from his forehead. “Not rotten, exactly — I just thought it looked old… And listen, this is Chessboard Courtyard, not your Qinwei Alley. Let’s not overdo it — the Tang family’s second branch lives right over there, gossiping busybodies. Carrying on like this is basically serving them wine and snacks to go with their gossip.”

Qiqian’er shot Chen Dasheng a glare, then turned to Xiaohua with a bright smile. “Little brother, your brother tells me you found yourself a wife from far away?”

Chang Lianfang, beaming, said, “Ah, yes, a bit far.”

Qiqian’er took a breath. “Well then — finding you a wife like that, there must be something behind it, right?”

Chang Lianfang glanced left and right, then stepped closer to his brother and sister-in-law, and with great seriousness said, “It really is you who’s thoughtful, sister-in-law — my brother never notices a thing, nothing gets past you. Truth is, little brother here really does have his reasons.”

Chen Dasheng and Qiqian’er exchanged a quick glance. Qiqian’er swallowed back the whole speech of well-meaning advice she’d been about to give — if Xiaohua really was after a fat dowry, well then, nothing more needed saying, better to just offer kind words.

Who would’ve guessed that Xiaohua would then grin like a scoundrel and say, “Years back, when I passed through Wu Cheng, I saw the second young lady — more than once, too! Once when we were conquering the realm with His Majesty, once when my father was putting down a rebellion. Sister-in-law, you know what nickname my future wife has?”

Qiqian’er stepped back, the corners of her mouth twitching. “What… what nickname?”

Chang Lianfang crossed his arms behind his back, smirking coldly. “The Helliang Tigress, devourer of sharp-tongued monkeys! I’m sick of you two sisters-in-law scheming against me all day — so there!”

No need to ask further — this was clearly the bride meant for the two sisters-in-law.

Damn it — all that worry for nothing!

Qiqian’er turned and walked off, missing what Xiaohua said next as he threw his arm around an equally stunned Chen Dasheng, boasting, “Brother, I wouldn’t brag like this to just anyone, but my little wife is a real beauty — the loveliest thing on Quanhou Street, I swear. Back when I went to Wu Cheng for the banquet, I thought right then, if I lived long enough to have my pick, I’d ask His Majesty for her hand. Heh, my mother wasn’t even happy about it at first — well, what’s mine is mine…”

Chen Dasheng just stared at him in silence, thinking, whichever bit of worrying we were doing, it sure as hell wasn’t for you. Get lost — from this day on, we’re not brothers anymore.