Of all the people who had been calling on Xu Lingyi these days, none came more frequently than the Prince of Yong.

Now that the great affair had been settled, he must have much to reflect on.

Eleventh Lady helped Xu Lingyi change his clothes, then sat down and resumed her stitching of Jin Ge’er’s bellyband.

Before long, Jin Ge’er came running in. “Mother, Mother, the Prince of Yong is here!”

“How do you know?” Eleventh Lady laughed, setting down her needlework. “The Prince of Yong and your father have things to discuss — do not go and bother them.”

The Prince of Yong came often enough that he was bound to encounter a few of the young cousins. Xu Sizhun was gentle and courteous; Xu Sijie was shy and quiet. But Jin Ge’er was the youngest — fearless, and quick to warm up to people. After a few encounters, the Prince of Yong had grown fonder and fonder of him, and often brought along small amusing trinkets to give him as gifts.

Jin Ge’er nodded, then flopped across Eleventh Lady’s knees and chattered with her. “I went to Father’s study to practice my calligraphy and saw the Prince of Yong’s guards, so I came straight back. Mother, why does the Prince of Yong suddenly keep coming to visit us?”

“What makes you say that?” Eleventh Lady stroked her son’s hair, smooth and dark as silk.

“We both live in Yanjing. Before, he would not come even once a year. But these past two months, he comes every few days.” The small face bore an expression of calm quite beyond his years. “Mother, do you think something has happened?”

She always thought of him as small, and headstrong besides — she had not expected him to show such keen perception. In any other matter, Eleventh Lady would have been happy to explain, but this was one thing she could not tell him.

“Now that you mention it, I had not noticed,” Eleventh Lady said with a smile. “And I really do not know. But he is a prince — he does as he pleases. Perhaps it is simply a passing whim.”

“If it were a passing whim, why would he keep coming back?” He did not accept Eleventh Lady’s explanation. “The two of them go straight to the study whenever they meet… they do not seem to have very much to say to each other either. Often they stop mid-sentence and sit in silence for a long while, then say something else I do not understand.” He looked troubled.

Eleventh Lady smiled and ruffled his satiny hair. “Never mind about them.” She changed the subject. “By the way, last time you were telling me about your trip to Xuantong — you had not finished. What happened in the end to that old woodcutter?”

Jin Ge’er’s spirits lifted, and he set the other matter aside for the moment. “…That gentleman helped him up and, seeing that his face had been cut, gave him five taels of silver. And then the old man, the moment he saw the silver, knelt right down before the gentleman and begged him to buy his firewood. So the gentleman just casually gave him another tael and left without taking the firewood. The old man thanked him a thousand times and ten thousand times, and the gentleman walked away looking rather pleased with himself. I thought the gentleman had acted handsomely and generously too. But then — the next day, when we were eating at another place, we ran into the same old woodcutter again. He had been knocked over again by a carriage, this time a plain black flat-topped one. But this time they only paid him a little something for medicine. They did not buy his firewood…”

Eleventh Lady watched her son with a warm smile, listening quietly as he told the story of all he had seen on his journey, and she marveled inwardly.

They say reading ten thousand books is no match for traveling ten thousand li. And it was true — after only two trips with Xu Lingyi, Jin Ge’er had already encountered swindlers and con men with his own eyes, and had gained a wisdom far beyond his years.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the house, Xu Lingyi saw the Prince of Yong out, then reflected for a moment and summoned Xu Sizhun.

“How much silver can the household mobilize?”

After the New Year, Xu Lingyi had turned the household accounts over to Xu Sizhun to manage. Since returning home, he had been occupied with the matter of the Qu Family and had not yet inquired about household affairs.

Xu Sizhun was taken aback.

Why was Father suddenly asking this?

Could there be a shortage of funds? But even so, there would be no need to draw on the cashroom…

Father should still have some savings of his own.

Then again, perhaps not.

He had looked over several years’ worth of the household accounts, and the revenues had nearly doubled year on year. In previous years it had been no more than tens of thousands of taels annually.

He suddenly thought of the Prince of Yong, who had been calling so frequently.

Word had it that the Prince of Yong had recently had a rather exquisite courtyard built at a cost of over eight hundred thousand taels.

Could Father be repaying a debt to the Prince of Yong?

With that thought, he said at once: “We can mobilize three hundred thousand taels of silver.”

Xu Lingyi was somewhat taken aback. “How can there be so much available? The household brings in about six hundred thousand taels a year, and the first half of the year is when the spending is heaviest…”

Xu Sizhun quickly said, “There are two hundred thousand taels in the household accounts, and I can put in another hundred thousand from my own savings.”

That figure made more sense.

“How much, exactly?” Xu Lingyi nodded slightly. “Do not mix your own silver with the household silver. Those small clerks in the cashroom — when they are on duty, they never carry a single copper cash on their person, precisely because they fear mixing their own money with the public funds and making the accounts unclear and impossible to account for.”

Xu Sizhun assented, slightly abashed. “The account books show two hundred thousand, six hundred and forty-five taels.”

“The account books?” Xu Lingyi’s expression tightened slightly.

Xu Sizhun could see a flicker of anxiety in himself: “I went over the accounts carefully. There is no error.”

His son was about to become a father himself — he deserved some measure of face. Otherwise, how would a son maintain his dignity as a father in front of his own child?

With that thought, Xu Lingyi softened his tone. “What I am asking is how much silver is actually in the vault?”

The Xu household did not simply leave its silver sitting in the vault once it was deposited. Part of it was lent to reputable silver merchants to turn over, earning interest; the rest was kept in reserve for unexpected needs.

Xu Sizhun quickly replied: “One hundred and seventy-six thousand, nine hundred and thirty-two taels.”

That was a reasonably precise answer.

Xu Lingyi nodded with satisfaction. “I need to draw some silver from you. How much do you think can be spared?”

Xu Sizhun thought it over. “If you are short of silver, you may take it all. I eat and dress at the household’s expense — that hundred thousand of my own just sits there doing nothing…”

Xu Lingyi laughed. “I will not touch your silver. Tell me — leaving your own aside — how much can you give me?”

Xu Sizhun deliberated for a long while, then said hesitantly: “Fourteen… fourteen thousand taels, perhaps?”

Half a year’s most important festivals were only the Emperor’s Birthday and the New Year. Leaving twenty thousand taels to make preparations for the Emperor’s Birthday, and the rest for day-to-day expenses — by the time the New Year came, the year-end revenues should be in, and funds would be more plentiful.

Xu Lingyi nodded.

About what he had expected.

His mind eased, and his thoughts turned to the Prince of Yong.

Borrowing fifty thousand taels… that was not an enormous sum… but if he suddenly produced all that silver himself, the Xu household would once again be conspicuous in front of everyone… The best approach was to borrow part of it… and for everyone to know he had borrowed…

The thought flashed through his mind. He asked Xu Sizhun: “When was the Dafeng Silver House loan repaid?”

A stab of dread.

Xu Sizhun’s mind went momentarily blank.

In the second month, the court had needed to transport military provisions to Fujian and Zhejiang. The condition was that the silver merchant houses undertaking the transport must first put up three hundred thousand taels of silver as a deposit — three-quarters of the total provisions. What if the court reneged? The major Yanjing silver houses were still deliberating when the Dafeng Silver House, which had recently come up from Anhui to open a branch in Yanjing, quietly took on the commission, then privately borrowed from several well-established families in the capital at a monthly interest rate of two percent. Steward Bai had lent out two hundred thousand taels, with an agreement to repay by mid-March. At the time, Father had specifically told him to keep a close watch on this matter. If the Dafeng Silver House had not repaid the silver by mid-May, he was to go immediately to the Prince of Shun. Around that time, he had been busy finding craftsmen for the lanterns… When he checked the accounts in mid-May, both principal and interest had been repaid. He had not given it further thought.

Word was that the Dafeng Silver House had in total borrowed one million taels.

He turned the matter over in his mind.

It certainly had not been repaid in the third month.

If they’d had the means, they would never have borrowed at such high interest.

But was it the fourth month, or the fifth?

He truly had no recollection.

Yet Father was watching him with penetrating eyes, and his heart began to quail. “It was the fifth month…” he said, unable to conceal the uncertainty in his voice.

Xu Lingyi’s brow knitted. He called Steward Bai in. “When was the Dafeng Silver House loan repaid?”

Steward Bai looked slightly puzzled but answered respectfully: “Both principal and interest were fully repaid at the end of the third month.”

Xu Lingyi cast a glance at Xu Sizhun.

Xu Sizhun’s forehead was covered in sweat.

“By the look of things, the Dafeng Silver House used this commission to establish itself in Yanjing?” Xu Lingyi’s expression remained as composed as ever, as he discussed the matter with Steward Bai.

“Indeed,” Steward Bai said with a smile. “The fact that they came straight in and took on the military provisions transport means they have connections at court. They borrowed a million taels in one go, all from households like ours, and repaid every bit of it — principal and interest — within a month. I hear that when the silver was returned, quite a few families said that if Dafeng needed to borrow again, they had only to say the word. Truth be told, the master of the Dafeng Silver House is no ordinary merchant.”

“Then go to Dafeng Silver House and borrow two hundred thousand taels for me,” Xu Lingyi instructed. “Try your best to negotiate on the interest — whatever you can save.”

Steward Bai, though puzzled, had every faith in Xu Lingyi’s judgment. He answered respectfully, turned, and strode out of the study.

Only then did Xu Lingyi turn around, his gaze cold as he regarded Xu Sizhun. “I did not want to shame you in front of Steward Bai. So I will ask you directly: what have you been doing with yourself these past months?”

“I — I…” Xu Sizhun was white as paper.

“Off making lanterns?” Xu Lingyi’s gaze was ice.

He had heard about it the moment he returned.

It was, in the end, a matter of three or four thousand taels.

He had taken Jin Ge’er to Datong, leaving Eleventh Lady’s heart hollow with the absence. Xu Sizhun’s little extravagance, at least, had cheered up the Grand Madam and Eleventh Lady.

Besides, Xu Sizhun had loved making lanterns since he was a small boy — given an occasion like this, he was bound to be happy.

He had not asked a word about it.

But looking at things now, he had been far too simple in his thinking.

If Xu Sizhun could cast his own words aside for the sake of making lanterns — whether it was truly to bring everyone a festive joy or simply to indulge his own love of the craft — that was still something to be reckoned with.

“Well, well, well.” Xu Lingyi laughed from fury. “I did not know our household had produced a great master lantern-maker. For the sake of his lanterns, nothing else matters.”

Xu Sizhun stood rigid, unable to say a word.

Xu Lingyi looked at that blank, wooden face, equally at a loss for words.

He turned on his heel and left.

—