When Zhenzhen waited until night without seeing her mother return, she rushed to the government office to inquire. County Magistrate Cui came out personally with a grave expression to tell her that Qiuniang was a palace woman who had escaped from the inner palace many years ago. Cheng Yuan had already taken her out of the city and would escort her back to the palace to be dealt with by the Empress Dowager.

Zhenzhen was thunderstruck and immediately wanted to pursue her mother, but rushing to the city gate, she found it tightly closed with soldiers guarding it, unable to get out. Zhenzhen prepared to wait until dawn and pursue as soon as the city gate opened, when suddenly Xiang Ye came running in panic. Seeing her, she immediately cried out repeatedly: “Something’s happened! Something’s happened at the restaurant!”

Ji Jinglan had sent people to seal Shizhen Lou’s accounting office overnight, confiscate all account books, inventory all wine brewed by Shizhen Lou, and take away Uncle Pu.

Ji Jinglan currently held the position of “Supervisor of Liangzhe East Circuit Ever-Normal Granary, Tea, and Salt Affairs,” overseeing taxation and revenue matters for prefectures and counties in Liangzhe.

In the current dynasty’s tax revenues, wine monopoly income ranked third, following only the summer and autumn taxes and salt monopoly income. Annual wine tax revenue accounted for twenty percent of total yearly income, with Liangzhe wine taxes being the highest, far exceeding other circuits. The court strictly managed wine tax collection and limited restaurants’ self-brewing. Restaurants in the capital were divided into large-scale “primary establishments” and other “secondary establishments.” Wine mash was sold by the government only to primary establishments, with the selling price including taxes. Secondary establishments couldn’t brew wine privately – the wine they sold could only be purchased from government wine warehouses or primary establishments. Official wine offices were established in all prefecture cities to brew wine for sale to various restaurants. In county towns and villages, to support small restaurants, they were allowed to brew wine with fixed wine tax amounts. However, if a restaurant’s self-brewing profits exceeded a certain amount, brewing rights would be revoked and changed to official monopoly sale by government wine offices.

When Ji Jinglan first arrived in Pujiang, Zhenzhen’s extravagant banquet left a deep impression on him. Now at the village drinking ceremony, seeing that Shizhen Lou used only self-brewed wine, judging by its scale, he determined that Shizhen Lou’s wine profits must exceed the allowed range for private brewing. He immediately sent people to seal Shizhen Lou and carefully examine its accounts. He discovered that based on wine profits, Shizhen Lou’s brewing rights should have been revoked three years ago and changed to official monopoly. Uncle Pu had reported part of the wine profits from these three years as income from other food goods for tax purposes, and the county office hadn’t discovered this, so they could continue self-brewing until now.

Shizhen Lou was thus sealed, and the detained Uncle Pu consistently insisted that Qiuniang and Zhenzhen were unaware – the mother devoted herself to culinary arts while the daughter indulged in pleasure, neither managing accounts. The account alteration was entirely his own decision, all because he feared losing brewing rights would cause Shizhen Lou to lose a major selling point and be defeated by competitors like Yibei Lou. Ji Jinglan actually believed the Wu mother and daughter were unaware, saying: “With Wu Qiuniang’s shrewdness, she couldn’t possibly knowingly include self-brewed wine in the village drinking ceremony when aware the restaurant’s wine profits exceeded limits. And if Wu Zhenzhen knew, she wouldn’t have so thoughtlessly invited me to drink her family’s brewed wine.”

Ji Jinglan reported the situation to the prefecture, issuing a huge fine for Shizhen Lou, while Uncle Pu’s punishment was set as “three years of penal servitude.” County Magistrate Cui Yanzhi was also impeached by Ji Jinglan for lax supervision and dereliction of duty, demoted and transferred elsewhere.

Zhenzhen sought an audience with Ji Jinglan to plead for Uncle Pu, saying that although Uncle Pu’s actions were confused, he had no selfish motives. Seeing her and her mother’s difficulties, he had devoted himself to helping them in everything for many years, taking only enough wages for basic living needs – absolutely not a greedy person. She hoped Master Ji would show mercy. If punishment was necessary, she could be punished instead, but begged him to spare Uncle Pu.

Ji Jinglan immediately refused: “I’ve already determined that you never interfered in Shizhen Lou’s affairs before the broken engagement banquet. This guilt isn’t yours to bear. What you need to do now is raise the fine money and pay it quickly.”

Despite Zhenzhen’s repeated pleas, Ji Jinglan remained unmoved. Zhenzhen was helpless, staring straight at him, remembering how he had tricked her into revealing information at the village drinking ceremony, her eyes jumping with undisguisable anger.

Seeing this, Ji Jinglan asked her: “Do you hate me very much?”

Zhenzhen was silent for a moment, then asked back: “There are two answers – one sounds better, one doesn’t sound so good. Which do you want to hear?”

Ji Jinglan smiled: “Tell me the good-sounding one first.”

Zhenzhen said: “You hold your position and enforce the law impartially – nothing to criticize.”

“Correct, Young Master Seven is not unreasonable,” Ji Jinglan said, then asked: “And the not-so-good-sounding one?”

Zhenzhen said through gritted teeth: “I really want to fry you into lamb head skewers.”

Ji Jinglan laughed loudly, stood up and paced to Zhenzhen with hands behind his back, asking again: “Do you think I’m a heartless and ungrateful person, not only unable to understand your Uncle Pu’s devoted heart toward you mother and daughter, but also impeaching County Magistrate Cui, my fellow examination graduate and good friend who traveled to the capital with me for the exams?”

Zhenzhen remained silent.

Ji Jinglan said slowly: “Every criminal can give a bunch of pitiable reasons, but verdicts look at case results, not personal feelings. All judges must remember four words: the law shows no mercy.”

However, Zhenzhen’s pleading seemed to have some effect. In the current dynasty, the heaviest penal servitude was three years. When Uncle Pu’s punishment was implemented, Ji Jinglan invoked the “Caning Substitution Law,” requesting the prefecture to replace three years of servitude with twenty strokes of the spine rod. So Uncle Pu received twenty strokes on his back – though suffering physical pain, he was spared the disaster of losing three years of freedom.

After receiving punishment, Uncle Pu was brought home and lay on the bed unable to move, requiring daily medicine changes on his back. At that time, Zhenzhen had rushed to Lin’an to inquire about her mother’s whereabouts. The other women at Shizhen Lou were constrained by propriety between men and women, looking at each other awkwardly, too embarrassed to change Uncle Pu’s medicine. Finally Xiang Ye stepped forward: “What’s so difficult? It’s just like curing dried meat!”

Xiang Ye came to Uncle Pu’s room, efficiently changed his medicine, and asked if it hurt. Uncle Pu said: “It naturally hurts, but this caning was lighter than I expected – at least it didn’t break these old bones on my back.”

“Of course it was light,” Xiang Ye said carelessly while cleaning away old medicine, “I only spent a year or two of my private savings buying drinks for the little fellow who administered the punishment.”

In Lin’an, Zhenzhen found absolutely no news of her mother. Lin’an Prefecture completely ignored her plea to search for her mother. The inner palace was even more unapproachable – she was scolded away by guards from a distance. Yang Shenglin heard the news and came, also asking Lin’an relatives and friends to help inquire about Wu Qiuniang’s whereabouts, all to no avail. Qiuniang seemed to have vanished into thin air. Zhenzhen was at her wit’s end and cried for many days. Seeing the fine payment deadline approaching, she had to return to Pujiang to handle matters.

Feng Xian helped Zhenzhen carefully examine Shizhen Lou’s finances. Only then did Zhenzhen discover that although the restaurant had done well in business over the years, there wasn’t much cash on hand. Most of the income, besides necessary expenses and purchases, had been squandered by herself. To raise enough for the fine, the only option was to sell the restaurant.

Thinking of causes and consequences, Zhenzhen suddenly felt that today’s predicament all arose from her own showing off and bragging. She couldn’t help crying again, losing all appetite, and in just a few days became haggard.

Feng Xian consoled her: “Crying won’t eliminate difficulties. The urgent matter is raising enough fine money. If the restaurant can’t be saved, temporarily selling it doesn’t matter – as long as people are safe. Master’s wife started from nothing back then. As long as we sisters work together, Shizhen Lou will have its day of recovery.”

Encouraged by her consolation, Zhenzhen pulled herself together and prepared to sell the restaurant. However, this establishment wasn’t small, and there weren’t many people who could pay the full amount at once as she requested. Even those who wanted to buy took advantage of her situation to drive down prices, offering low prices that could make one vomit blood from anger.

At this time, Yang Shenglin came to talk with her, willing to buy the restaurant at market price, saying: “The matter of taking courtesans on outings was my fault – I’ve always felt guilty toward you. Now I hope you’ll sell the restaurant to my family, not because I want to take advantage of your crisis to swallow Shizhen Lou. Just consider that I’m temporarily taking over. When you get through this crisis, whenever you want to take it back, I can return it to you anytime.”

Seeing his sincere manner and having no better option, Zhenzhen could only agree. She took the Yang family’s money to pay the fine, and Shizhen Lou was handed over to Yibei Lou to operate.

Some of the original Shizhen Lou people stayed to continue working under the Yang father and son’s management, while others were hired by wealthy households and went for their livelihood. The sisters also scattered like birds and beasts. Only Xiang Ye and Feng Xian remained – Xiang Ye mainly caring for Uncle Pu, while Feng Xian was determined to accompany Zhenzhen in pulling themselves together to operate a small shop themselves, waiting for Qiuniang’s return.

During this period, Zhao Huaiyu often came to visit them. Seeing their difficult life and Zhenzhen’s particular distress, he suggested: “Recently prefectures and counties have spread word that next year in late spring, women under twenty skilled in culinary arts will be selected for the Royal Kitchen. Since Young Master Seven wants to find her mother, why not take this opportunity to participate in the selection? If you enter the palace in the future, there should be ways to meet your mother.”

Zhenzhen thought this feasible, only worried that her culinary skills weren’t refined enough for selection. Feng Xian said: “I can teach you. You grew up in Shizhen Lou and are intelligent – you must have talent. With several months of hard practice, there’s a possibility of selection.”

So Zhenzhen followed Feng Xian, starting with knife work and beginning to practice skills intensively. However, such days didn’t last long. One day, several well-dressed servant women who looked like they were from official households came to Pujiang. After making inquiries, they found Feng Xian, surrounded her with smiles and frequent bows, saying: “We’ve finally found Second Miss! All these years, Madam has thought of you day and night. The General has searched for years and finally learned of your whereabouts, sending us to bring you home.”

According to them, Feng Xian’s father was the current Prefect of Jingnan, Ling Tao, who had been leading troops to guard the frontier for many years, which is why they called him General. Feng Xian was accidentally lost when Ling Tao was traveling with his family to take up his post when she was six years old. Now that she was found, they wanted to take Feng Xian to Jingnan Prefecture to reunite with her family.

Seeing that Feng Xian could reunite with her family, Zhenzhen was also happy for her and urged her to go back with these servant women. However, Feng Xian showed no joy and privately told Zhenzhen: “I don’t want to go back. They say I was accidentally lost, but I remember very clearly – I was sick then, and my father snatched me from my mother’s hands and abandoned me on the road outside Pujiang city. If I hadn’t met Master’s wife, I don’t know what would have happened to me.”

Zhenzhen found this incredible: “Any real father – how could he abandon his own daughter just because she was sick? There must be some misunderstanding?”

Feng Xian sighed: “He thought I was an inauspicious person and was always unkind to me.”

Despite being very unwilling, Feng Xian finally went to Jingnan with the servant women, because they told her news: “Madam is seriously ill and hopes for your return.”

With Feng Xian gone, Zhenzhen had no one to guide her in learning skills. Although Xiang Ye would occasionally come over, with Uncle Pu bedridden long-term, she couldn’t stay long. Zhenzhen remembered that Zhao Huaiyu had once guided Yibei Lou in cooking, so she asked if he could teach her. Zhao Huaiyu said: “Actually, my knowledge of cooking is limited. The dishes I taught Yibei Lou back then were learned from a friend. This friend is indeed broadly learned with unique insights into scholarly cuisine. If you could learn from him, you would surely benefit greatly. It’s just that he’s not in Pujiang – he now lives at Wuyi Mountain. I don’t know if it would be convenient for you to go there.”

Zhenzhen thought that this friend had taught him just a few tricks yet made Yibei Lou shine brilliantly, showing he truly had real talent and learning. Seeing Zhao Huaiyu’s high praise for this person, her curiosity grew, so she decided to go to Wuyi Mountain. Zhao Huaiyu wrote a letter and gave it to Zhenzhen as an introduction.

On the envelope were written several characters: Master Wen Qiao, respectfully opened.

Master Wen Qiao – what an old-fashioned name. Zhenzhen thought to herself, probably a white-haired old gentleman.