Xu Jie was Xu Dong Jin’s eldest son. His father had taught him everything he could, and the young man was now working as a minor steward in the front courtyard. To be called upon by the Hua Family’s new head of household was, of course, the best thing that could happen for him.

Having spent an entire lifetime in the capital and watched decades of official fortunes rise and fall alongside the Old Master, one knew that circumstances could always turn. The time to make a good showing was precisely at a moment like this — when the family was restored, those in charge would naturally remember.

Xu Dong Jin moved at a pace that barely kept his feet on the ground, yet he wore a smile on his face. Busy was good — busy meant the Hua Family had not yet reached its lowest point. The Young Miss was truly remarkable: methodical in everything she handled, decisive and with true presence, and with a calm unhurriedness about her that had somehow steadied the whole Hua Family without any apparent exertion. Looking at her, one was somehow reminded of what the Old Master had been like in his younger days.

Xu Dong Jin stopped abruptly in his tracks. Of course — she was indeed like the Old Master. Even when things had been pressing enough to singe his eyebrows, the Old Master would still be impeccably dressed, speaking without any sign of haste — and the people around him, who had been beside themselves with anxiety, would find themselves settling down along with him.

A surge of hope rose in Xu Dong Jin’s chest. He would have to do his very best in carrying out the Young Miss’s instructions. And those others would need a firm talking-to as well — they had better put their full effort into serving the Young Miss.

“Miss, please take a rest. You have been occupied all morning.” Ying Chun came in carrying a food basket. Bao Xia, seizing her moment, took the brush from her Young Miss’s hand without a word, then wiped her hands clean with a damp cloth, looking a little pained as she watched her Young Miss try to straighten fingers stiff from too long holding a brush.

After the meal, the four maids gathered around Hua Zhi and attended to her in full force — one rubbing her hands, one kneading her shoulders, one pressing her feet. Hua Zhi gave herself over to it with full-body contentment and napped briefly before returning to work.

Balancing effort and rest — that was important.

There was a great deal to do, but over all these years the four senior maids had been trained well enough to each take a share of her burdens.

Nian Qiu had a rough budget ready for Hua Zhi to look over. Hua Zhi nodded. “This will do. Start preparing the detailed accounts.”

“Yes.” Nian Qiu exhaled with quiet relief. Everything before had been learning and practice — this was the first real test. Fortunately, nothing had gone wrong.

“Miss, the Sixth Young Master is here.” In the Hua Family, brothers and sisters each had their own separate rankings in seniority. Though Hua Bailin was the eldest son of the first branch, among the brothers he was ranked sixth.

The young maid had barely finished speaking when Hua Bailin came striding in with hurried steps. “Elder Sister.”

Hua Zhi watched him in silence — and under that steady, unhurried gaze, Hua Bailin slowed his pace almost without meaning to, straightened his back, leveled his shoulders, and felt his heart, which had been unsettled for days, quietly return to its place. His breathing grew even.

The restlessness that had haunted Hua Bailin for days was soothed in that moment. The sister he had always known — the one who never pressed him on his studies, never spoke ill of others behind their backs, yet who would take him along to play and tell him all manner of stories — sat there before him, unmoved and steady. Without saying a single word, her very presence made him feel as though the Hua Family’s current situation was, in the end, not so insurmountable.

He came to stand before the writing desk, and looking at the still-damp ink on the papers spread across it, Hua Bailin felt a flush of shame rise to his face. How hard it must be for his elder sister to carry this household — he should have been helping to share her burden. How could he have come to trouble her with petty concerns?

“Bailin, are you frightened?”

Hua Bailin looked up. Frightened? Searching within himself, he found little that felt like fear. What he felt was unease — the unease of an environment so utterly changed, and of a future wholly unclear.

“I am not frightened, Elder Sister. I will help you. I do not know much about household management, but I will learn quickly.”

“I will not stop you from learning these things — but Bailin, your eyes should be set on something further.”

Hua Zhi glanced at Ying Chun, who understood at once, set down what she was doing, and led the others out, closing the door behind her. She and Nian Qiu stood guard one on each side of the door.

Seeing his sister beckon, Hua Bailin went to her and lowered his head slightly to look at this person who was not tall, yet whose presence always steadied him.

“Bailin, you are not yet ten years old, and yet within this family you are now the eldest male. This household I will shoulder — but you, too, have your own responsibilities.”

“I… I do not know what it is I should do.”

Hua Zhi raised her hand and straightened his collar. This child — who had coasted on his cleverness and never been particularly diligent in his studies — was already forcing himself to face all of this. “Bailin, do you know why Grandfather was exiled by the Emperor?”

Hua Bailin asked urgently, “What was the reason? Does Elder Sister know?”

“The Emperor has six sons in all. Three of the princes are now grown. The Empress passed away without leaving a son, and no new Empress has since been named — so all are on equal footing by rank, and all believe they have a right to that seat. Of the four princes, the First Prince and the Third Prince are the most powerful, and their rivalry is most intense. The Second Prince’s power is somewhat less, but it is not impossible that the way the First and Third Princes have come to clash so fiercely is not without his hand in it.”

Hua Zhi paused briefly, then continued: “Not long ago, conflict between the two princes broke out again, and drew a number of uninvolved parties into it. Grandfather, for some reason, stepped forward in that matter, and the Emperor was furious. The Hua Family fell into disfavor.”

Hua Bailin, true to his Hua Family breeding, immediately identified the heart of the matter. “The Emperor suspects Grandfather of taking sides in the succession struggle?”

“Among those uninvolved parties, there was the Fourth Prince.”

“How old is the Fourth Prince?”

“Fifteen.”

“So the two princes joined forces to eliminate a potential rival? The Fourth Prince poses a threat to them?”

Hua Zhi smiled. Quick. “The Fourth Prince’s mother is the Noble Consort.”

The court had only one Noble Consort. Her father was a retired general of great renown; her elder brother was the Mighty General guarding the frontier, holding real and substantive military power. Such a person, once grown, would be the greatest threat of all — enough reason for several princes to set aside their enmity and unite, however briefly.

Though Hua Bailin was only ten, having been born into the Hua Family, his sensitivity to political matters seemed almost innate. “What is the Fourth Prince’s condition?”

“He lies in a coma. In my view, the Fourth Prince may well have entered the game deliberately. Being proactive is better than being passive.”

“The Emperor is wise and discerning — how could he possibly…”

“It is precisely because he knows what is happening that he is angry. Because the one injured is his son, and the ones who injured him are also his sons.”

Hua Bailin’s face flushed deep red. “How unjust for Grandfather! How unjust for the Hua Family!”

Hua Zhi sighed inwardly. This was an age when imperial authority stood above all else — and when one was innocent, what did that matter? The path of a scholar was to make oneself useful to the throne. That was how people of this era realized their worth. The Hua Family was considered a great house precisely because it had produced high officials in every generation. This was a world different in every way from the one she had once known.

So she never spoke of freedom, never set herself apart, and had never once thought to bring knowledge from that other world into this one to show off. Had the Hua Family not fallen into misfortune, she would even have been willing to live out the kind of life fitting for a daughter of a great household — as long as she kept her desires modest and did not ask for too much, such a life could have been quite livable.

Bailin had clung to her since he was small, and she cherished this younger brother dearly. She would never fill his mind with ways of thinking that did not belong to this age. Such ideas, out of place and time, could only bring catastrophe upon him.

What she had done most was take the stories of many celebrated and great figures from that other world, alter and reshape them, and tell them to him as tales — broadening his mind and widening his view of the world, letting him understand that the world was vast and wide, and that he should not become a frog at the bottom of a well.