After breakfast, Hua Zhi stood beside the sand table and went through the current situation with Gu Yanxi in careful detail, laying out one by one everything she had thought of — especially regarding Lingzhou County.
“That Xu Yangjun probably guessed that I wanted to know the situation in Lingzhou. The books he sent over had a county gazetteer of Lingzhou tucked inside — I don’t know how he got hold of it. That place could genuinely be called vast and sparsely populated, with a complex terrain: a stretch of marshland, a third of it rocky mountains, and a section prone to mudslides where habitation is out of the question. The living conditions are harsh. Rather than using such a large tract of land to sustain a few hundred people, it would be far better to dig a grand canal through it and relieve the Wei River of its age-old peril.”
Hua Zhi opened the survey map and traced the pointer along the course of the Wei River. “Digging a grand canal demands no small investment of labor, materials, and funds — but the Wei River passes through five prefectures and the capital itself, and the losses from perennial flooding are immeasurable. If Lingzhou could be used to link the Wei River with the Jing River, it would increase the pressure on Jiao Prefecture — but Jiao Prefecture’s population is far smaller than the prosperous Jing and Yang prefectures, and the Jing River carries far less pressure than the Wei. With careful management, this problem might well be solved once and for all.”
Hua Zhi looked up, her expression grave. “I’ve thought about this at length. I had no real intention of putting forward ideas on this matter before — but I know your mind, and Sixth Prince is genuinely bright. He doesn’t understand all of this, but that doesn’t stop him from being willing to pour himself into his country. He truly hopes to see this land flourish. When he asked me if there was anything to be done, I found I couldn’t brush him off with a vague answer — so I thought about it as thoroughly as I could. Not constrained by this moment or even this year, but planting a seed in his heart. Even if it takes many years to accomplish, it can only benefit Da Qing and harm nothing. I’ve looked into the state of the dynasty in recent years: there have been no major wars for quite some time, and the imperial household has not been launching extravagant construction projects. The treasury should be in good shape. If there is the will to accomplish this, it can be done.”
In front of Gu Yanxi, Hua Zhi held nothing back. Using one place as a price to avert the danger threatening the great cities of Jing and Yang was, in essence, sacrificing a small settlement to protect larger ones — but so long as those four hundred or so people in Lingzhou County were properly resettled, that place was no great loss to abandon. And she suspected those four hundred people themselves would be willing. Who wouldn’t want to live somewhere with better conditions?
“This matter is of great consequence, though. Whether it can ultimately succeed still depends on whether His Majesty sees fit to approve it.” Hua Zhi glanced toward the capital on the map and gave a faint, wry smile. “Shao Yao is thinking too simply. Even if the Seven-Lodge Bureau has its unique position, even with your authority as great as it is — this is not a decision you can make. And above all, this must not be rushed.”
What happened with Emperor Yang of Sui and the grand canal could absolutely not be allowed to repeat itself. If it did, she would be the one guilty of it — and the Seven-Lodge Bureau, which had for so long held the Emperor’s trust above all others, would likely forfeit that precious trust as well.
“I understand. Don’t worry — I will steer things in the best possible direction.” Gu Yanxi’s voice was quiet and gentle. He looked at A’Zhi standing before him — her features composed and cool, as though she had only just said something of little consequence — and his thoughts drifted unexpectedly to Hao Yue, the leader of the Seven-Star Sect.
She had said that in August, Xiangyang would suffer a great disaster — tens of thousands dead or injured. Since she knew this, she must also know how to prevent it. But she had not acted. She had used it merely as a token of her loyalty, a demonstration of her abilities.
Faced with the very same situation, A’Zhi had devised a solution to address it once and for all — all because of the Sixth Prince. He could almost picture how many books she had pored over, how much thought she had poured in, to arrive at this plan. Yet she spoke of it so quietly, so matter-of-factly, and still remembered to caution him against getting entangled in the controversy surrounding it.
That was the vast, unbridgeable difference between the two of them.
“BOOM—” A crack of thunder split the air — the whole house seemed to shudder. The rain that had been building all morning finally came, carried in on a thread of cool breeze, pouring down in torrents with the fury of something intent on drowning the entire world.
Both of them instinctively moved toward the doorway and watched as the courtyard pooled with water in mere moments. Their hearts sank.
Gu Yanxi set aside the weight of it for now and drew A’Zhi back inside, then told her about Hao Yue.
Hua Zhi listened, brow furrowing deeper with each word. Perhaps because she’d seen this kind of behavior too many times, something about Hao Yue struck her as… a white-lotus act. Even the name of the sect struck her as carrying the flavor of a cult.
“Is A’Zhi thinking of something?”
“Is it possible she knows you? Or more specifically — she knows the Seven-Lodge Bureau’s leader?” Hua Zhi thought aloud as she spoke. “When I say ‘knows,’ I don’t mean simply knowing there is a leader of the Seven-Lodge Bureau — plenty of people know that much. What I mean is: she knows you, the person behind the mask.”
Gu Yanxi nodded, then shook his head. “I had that feeling at the time as well — she came with me as her target. But she shouldn’t know what I actually look like. I sent Chen Qing to impersonate me when meeting her, and she put a tracking powder on Chen Qing — which makes it clear she knows something about the Seven-Lodge Bureau’s leader. Yet I have absolutely no memory of her. Someone with her manner and flair — had I met her, I would have remembered. Before leaving, I had people look into her identity. A person like that can’t have simply appeared out of nowhere.”
Hua Zhi’s thoughts drifted to herself. She hadn’t appeared out of nowhere either — she was a wandering soul from another world, and yet anyone who tried to investigate her would find nothing. Her identity was airtight.
If that Hao Yue was like her… No, that couldn’t be right. If they shared the same origin, she could be as clever and scheming as she liked, but she shouldn’t be capable of prophecy. This wasn’t someone who had lived a second life — she couldn’t know things that had happened ten or twenty years in the future.
Wait—
Hua Zhi sat up straighter. If Hao Yue had truly lived her life over again, that would explain how she could know about the Xiangyang breach in August. A wandering soul like herself could travel from another world — it wasn’t so strange that someone else might be given a second life.
If that were really the case, Hao Yue fashioning herself the identity of a fortune-teller would actually make perfect sense.
But this was all speculation…
Gu Yanxi had been watching her the whole time. Reading her expression, he could tell she had thought of something significant. “A’Zhi, whatever it is, just say it.”
Hua Zhi hesitated, then ultimately held back the truth. Whether things were as she suspected, she needed to observe further — and even if they were, she couldn’t say it aloud. That would invite disaster onto herself. She only offered this: “Keep a close watch on Hao Yue. She may prove to be of great use.”
“That goes without saying.” Gu Yanxi lowered his eyes, concealing the cold calculation behind them. If she truly had the gift of prophecy, the Seven-Lodge Bureau would never allow her the opportunity to serve another nation. Since her target was the Seven-Lodge Bureau’s leader — she could have one.
Hua Zhi said no more on the subject and turned back to the matter at hand. “Digging a river channel isn’t something achievable in the near term. But if the dried-up channels could be cleared and opened — then have people lower the water gates in Lingzhou County to draw the floodwaters in — with such a vast stretch of land absorbing the overflow, Xiangyang might not breach at all.”
Gu Yanxi smiled. “Indeed. Since she claims the gift of prophecy, one wonders whether she’s foreseen your existence.”
If she truly had been reborn, she likely hadn’t seen Hua Zhi coming at all — in her previous life, Hua Zhi simply hadn’t been here. “Find an opportunity to probe her about Sixth Prince. See what her attitude is — whether she’d overlooked him as well.”
Author’s Note: Thank you to everyone still sticking with the updates.