“Zhi’er, you’re here?” The master of the Zhu Family’s voice arrived before he did.
The matriarch rose to welcome him, smiling at the sight of him coming in. “You’re back early today.”
Hua Zhi dipped into a curtsy. “Zhi’er pays her respects to Grandfather.”
“No need for formality.” Zhu Family’s patriarch settled into his seat at the head of the room. “How is your grandfather keeping?”
“He is well enough, only looking rather more aged than before.”
The patriarch let out a quiet sigh. After what he had been through, how could the man not have been shaken? Each of them here might appear powerful and untouchable, yet in truth every one of them walked on thin ice. The Emperor was growing increasingly unpredictable, and no one could say for certain whether they might be the next one to fall out of favor.
The matriarch inserted a smile into the pause. “Zhi’er has something she wishes to discuss with you. Why don’t the two of you go to the study?”
“That would be fine.”
It was not Hua Zhi’s first time in the Zhu Family’s study, and familiar surroundings had a way of putting people at ease — she was no exception.
“Some of my colleagues were speaking of you today,” the patriarch remarked.
“…I was under the impression that all the great officials were extremely busy.”
“Ha! No matter how busy, there is always time for a bit of conversation.” He laughed heartily. “It was also because you handled the Hua Yan matter so brilliantly. They didn’t know you had gone north, and after Feng Family’s sedan chair arrived at your door twice without any response from you, they assumed you were at a loss. Fortunately, you returned in time. Otherwise…”
The patriarch shook his head. Everyone knew that rumors could drive a person to ruin, but as long as it did not happen in one’s own household, who truly cared?
“In your view, was Feng Changyu acting with the Feng Family’s blessing, or did he simply take it upon himself out of personal desire?”
“Both, in truth. Feng Changyu’s improper intentions were genuine, and the Feng Family’s fanning of the flames behind the scenes was equally real. I tried to muddy the waters, but it was not of much use in the end. After all, Hua Yan was not an innocent victim — it was her own willingness that gave the Feng Family the opening they needed.”
This was the saying about flies not swarming around an uncracked egg. Hua Yan had handed the leverage to them herself, so who could fault them for using it? Hua Zhi almost regretted that she had dealt with Hua Yan too leniently. Though she understood that Hua Yan had chosen her own path of no return, the fact that the punishment had not come from her own hands left a kind of frustration that refused to settle cleanly.
“That said, you’ve sealed off that opening in good time. Even those who wish to cause more harm will have to find another approach. Just keep a close watch over the people in your household and don’t give anyone an opportunity.”
“Understood. Just now I also asked Grandmother to help find suitable matches for the sisters. The Hua Family has not sunk to the very bottom, after all — the girls’ reputations are intact, and apart from having no adult man to hold up the household, we can hardly be called a fallen family. Surely in a city as large as the capital, there must be some families with the discernment to see that.”
“There’s no hurry. Let your grandmother look carefully.” The patriarch regarded his granddaughter and ultimately held back the question on the tip of his tongue. All the other Hua girls could be given in marriage — but this one, it seemed, could not, at least not for now.
Hua Zhi steered the conversation to the matter at hand. “I should offer you my congratulations, by the way, Minister.”
The patriarch waved a hand in dismissal. “Under ordinary circumstances that would be fine, but at this particular moment, one wrong step and a lifetime of good work could come to ruin.”
“That is actually part of what I’ve come to speak to you about.” Hua Zhi chose her words carefully. “I have received word that the Emperor intends to personally dispatch someone to oversee the disaster relief, with the Seven Lodges Division monitoring the entire operation. As for the silver leaving the Ministry of Revenue — Grandfather, you must watch it like a hawk and not allow anyone to tamper with it in the chaos. Once the silver has left the Ministry, even if problems arise afterward, they cannot be laid at your feet.”
The patriarch looked at her with a serious expression. “The Seven Lodges Division monitoring the entire operation? Is this information reliable?”
“It is.”
Having spent a lifetime in officialdom, the patriarch knew better than to ask where this information came from. Knowing that it was accurate was enough. If the Seven Lodges Division was truly overseeing matters, every worry he had carried these past days would dissolve.
The tightly wound string in his chest finally eased a little. He let out a long breath and said, “The south floods every year, and every year they repair the embankments, yet the flooding never stops. I looked through the records — the cost of repairing the embankments each year would be enough to feed the entire population of the south for a full year. We might as well throw the money into a canal and at least hear a splash.”
“When I traveled south last time, I was held up in Xiangyang for several days because of rising floodwaters. The people there have grown numb to it — the water could rise to the fifth or sixth marker and they would not even stir. There are already several dried-up river channels in Xiangyang alone. If those were cleared and opened up, it would offer some relief. But what actually reaches the local level after all that successive skimming? And even then, whatever does arrive has likely been divided up already — none of it would actually go toward repairing the embankments.”
The patriarch waved it aside. “Enough of that. Tell me what else you know about the disaster relief.”
“You must have heard about Zeng Xian’s case.”
“Of course. The Emperor personally declared he would order a retrial, and since Zeng Xian was also an official of the Ministry of Revenue, I have naturally been paying closer attention.”
“Zeng Xian’s son, Zeng Han, has some connection to me.” Hua Zhi gave a brief account of what had happened at the Yinshan Pass, with particular emphasis on the tragic details of Zeng Xian’s case. “That is why when I heard you had been appointed as the Minister of Revenue, my first feeling was not relief but worry. That place has already become a rotten nest. I was afraid it might drag you down into it.”
The patriarch had already heard something of Zeng Xian’s case, but what his granddaughter told him now made everything he had previously known seem like a bare outline. In his three years at the Ministry of Revenue, he would not say he had been entirely blind to the nature of those people — but he and Hua Yi had been close, and this was common knowledge throughout the court. Fang Hongzhi, for his part, had only two daughters of his own, while a nephew he had raised as a son had entered the Hanlin Academy. And so, even though Fang Hongzhi outranked him, he had not dared push too far, and the patriarch had made a point of accepting a few favors and giving Fang Hongzhi face. The two sides had kept an uneasy peace.
But after the Hua Family fell, Fang Hongzhi had far fewer reservations, and over the past year he had spared no effort in trying to suppress him. The patriarch had been barely able to hold his ground — keeping himself connected enough to the Ministry not to lose his footing, while careful not to become entangled in its corruption, simply enduring until Fang Hongzhi’s own downfall.
“I understand your concern. I’ve been guarding against all of that. I’ll personally oversee this disaster relief operation and will not give them any chance to reach out their hands.”
Coming to convey this very warning was precisely Hua Zhi’s purpose. Those people had been willing to stand by in cold indifference when Zeng Xian fell, having received their share of Fang Hongzhi’s favor. Digging a pit for her grandfather to fall into was not beyond them at all.
The Ministry of Revenue controlled the grain and revenue of the entire realm. Everyone could see how coveted the post of Minister was. Her grandfather had become far too conspicuous.
Grain and revenue… A thought struck Hua Zhi all at once, and after a moment’s hesitation, she brought it up. “On my last trip south, I was traveling with another person. At one point I suggested, without much thought, the idea of relocating the people of Lingzhou County — to sacrifice Lingzhou when the floodwaters came in order to protect…”
“That idea came from you?” The patriarch cut her off, a strange light in his eyes. Who in court did not know that the reason a once-in-several-decades disaster had been averted so gracefully was because the Seven Lodges Division had made preparations in advance? The brilliant move of sacrificing the small city of Lingzhou to protect the larger ones had reduced the losses to the lowest point in recorded history, and he had offered lavish praise for it at the time — yet no matter how he turned it over in his mind, he had never imagined that the one who proposed the idea could be Zhi’er. And now, thinking back on what she had just come to tell him — did this mean Zhi’er had made connections with the Seven Lodges Division?
“That is not what I came to tell you.” Hua Zhi sidestepped the matter smoothly. “What I want to say is this: the Emperor has now set his heart on leaving a legacy, and he wishes to dig a great canal starting from where Lingzhou once was. For certain reasons, the plan has been pressed down for now — but there is no telling when it might resurface. You are the one holding the purse strings of all of Da Qing, and you would inevitably be the first one he turns to. Whatever you do, Grandfather, you must not give your approval.”