Hua Zhi had always been as good as her word. When she returned home, she brought Hua Ling to stay close by her side. Teaching her hand in hand was out of the question — there was too much on her hands and she could not spare the time — so she simply took out the detailed ledger from the preserved goods business and gave it to her to read through.

Hua Ling instead held the ledger not quite knowing whether she should look or not.

“I am not afraid of you learning the trade. If you can truly make sense of this business, passing it over to you to manage would be no trouble at all.” Hua Zhi teased her: “As long as you do not short me on silver.”

Hua Ling’s nose tingled with an urge to cry. She nodded hard in agreement. “I will study it well.”

Hua Zhi smiled, gestured for her to make herself comfortable, and turned to speak with Ying Chun about the seafood business.

By her reckoning the ship should have arrived by now, but no news had come through all day, and Hua Zhi was beginning to feel a faint unease. Could it be that the south had flooded with more rain? If it had been held up halfway, the losses this time would be considerable — and the seafood shop would need to delay its opening as well. The opening stock absolutely had to be first-rate; they could not start off by ruining their reputation.

“This servant sent someone to inquire at the docks. Ships have lately been arriving from the south — meaning the waterway is clear. Our ship will likely not be far behind.”

“Let us hope so. Have the seafood warehouse standing by to receive the goods at any time.”

“Rest assured, this servant has already made the arrangements.”

Hua Ling stole a glance over at Ying Chun. Though all four of the elder maids were still of servant status, the entire Hua household had long since stopped treating them as ordinary servants. No ordinary servant had the authority to go out and purchase shops and run businesses on their mistress’s behalf — and of course, no ordinary servant had the capability either.

The old texts said a scholar would die for one who truly understood his worth. These women were not scholars, yet they repaid their young miss’s trust in them with the utmost sincerity.

She felt a little envious. Hua Ling lowered her head and looked at the densely packed columns of figures in the ledger, then let the feeling go. She supposed there was no one who would not envy that.

Catching the last thread of daylight, Chen Liang led the guards and, at the greatest possible speed, delivered the day’s full earnings from Liyu Lane. After weighing and tallying and totaling everything up, the maids were all rather excited.

Nian Qiu passed the ledger to the young miss. “More than double what Lvtai Lane brought in on its opening day.”

Hua Zhi was also a little taken aback. She had known this would outperform Lvtai Lane — just not by this much. Earnings this large felt almost hot to hold, yet to distribute the shares…

She leafed through the ledger, running through the prominent families of the capital in her mind. Any number of people must be eyeing this golden hen that kept laying eggs. Finding someone to share the stakes and distribute the risk would not be difficult — but was it truly necessary?

This was the venture she feared least when it came to others stirring up trouble. The two lanes together held forty-eight shops. The goods sold by each shop added up to thousands of transactions in a single day, and the customers ranged from commoners to wealthy merchants to the ladies and young misses and gentlemen of the great households. As long as she held firm on quality and never let anything rot within her own operation, there was no one with the ability to gather all these people together and claim her goods were problematic.

On top of that, her maternal grandfather was at the height of his influence right now, and the banner she flew was the Zhu Family’s. Even those who had designs on this would be few who actually dared to stand against the Zhu Family. Thinking it through, it was reasonably secure — no need to distribute the shares.

“This month, double wages for everyone. For the people of Lvtai Lane and Liyu Lane, triple.”

The elder maids all broke into broad smiles. Though the silver that passed through their hands was considerable — and Ying Chun and Nian Qiu between them managed all of the young miss’s funds — they had always kept a clear distinction between the young miss’s silver and their own. Only what came from the young miss’s hand to theirs was truly theirs.

Closing the ledger, Hua Zhi looked at the pile of silver on the floor with a slight frown. Everything about this business was fine — except that all the money coming in and going out was in small denominations. Every time the earnings were gathered, it was all loose silver, and to avoid drawing attention, she had to ask her maternal grandmother every ten to fifteen days to help exchange the bulk of it, while the remainder she deposited at the money house. Though the sum was still considerable, outsiders all assumed the Zhu Family held the lion’s share of this venture, so the attention on her was less intense.

Still, having to do this all the time was genuinely a nuisance. It would be so convenient if she could smelt it herself. She would ask Yanxi about it when he returned.

That man had been out for several days now. She wondered whether he had found anything. He ought to be back soon.

In the blink of an eye, it was already the seventh. Ordinarily the most unremarkable of days, yet for some inexplicable reason there was a sense of undercurrents stirring beneath the surface of the capital.

The reason was plain enough to anyone who noted where all those scholars were heading, dressed in their finest — for today was the day the eldest young miss of the Hua Family had appointed to meet them.

Hua Zhi stood beneath the corridor, watching as maids and matrons carried baskets on strings from the inner gate through the covered walkways into the front courtyard, setting them down one beside the other, then turning back into the inner courtyard to repeat the trip again and again.

Bao Xia came quickly to her side. “Young miss, people are already waiting.”

Hua Zhi gave a small nod and turned toward the row of brothers standing neatly to one side. Zheng Zhi and Mu Qing each had their own expression upon seeing her approach — the former wore the air of someone watching spectacle with great relish, unbothered by how large it grew; the latter bore a look of quiet worry — their two contrasting characters captured with perfect clarity.

Today the children were all dressed in scholars’ robes. Small as they were, they stood with straight spines and taut faces — endearing, yet not at all out of place. Children born into the Hua Family were destined from birth to be scholars for the rest of their lives.

The Hua Family produced only scholars.

Yes — from the very beginning, Hua Zhi had never intended to make a singular spectacle of herself in this world that showed little kindness to women. The ones coming today were scholars, and so let scholars be the ones to meet them.

“Is everyone ready?”

The children were a little nervous, but still nodded firmly. “Yes, Elder Sister.”

Hua Zhi gave a reassuring smile and looked toward Hua Bailin, who stood at the front — with Bailin away, he was now the eldest.

“And you, Bailin? Are you ready?”

Hua Baili turned back. His younger brothers were all watching him. And there before him, his elder sister was watching him too. In that moment, Hua Baili seemed to suddenly grow a little older. The unsteadiness in his heart settled itself. “Yes, Elder Sister. I am ready.”

“Then go. Remember — from the moment that door opens, you no longer represent only yourselves. You represent Grandfather, your uncles and fathers and mothers, and your brothers and sisters.”

Looking at the children listening so earnestly to every word she said, Hua Zhi found she suddenly could not continue. The oldest was only ten; the youngest, Xiao Han, was just four. These were ages that should have been spent living sweetly cocooned, and yet here they stood, solemn as soldiers about to march to the front, readying themselves for their own battlefield — a battle that allowed no possibility of defeat.

She would have given anything to take their place, and yet she could not.

Because they were the Hua Family’s future. The Hua Family, first among scholarly houses, might be temporarily upheld by a woman — but its honor and disgrace were still bound to its men. Even if those men were still only children.

She understood this. And she could not change it.

She could not transform an era. She could only learn to move within it.

Pressing down the feeling that rose and lodged itself in her throat, Hua Zhi let her voice soften. “Just as you protected me that day before the Wei Family’s gate — protect the Hua Family’s dignity in the same way. Remember that, all of you?”

“Yes, Elder Sister.”

“Go on. Your elder sister is right behind you.” Hua Zhi turned to look at the younger sisters who had gathered behind her at some unknown moment, and the smaller children who had not yet begun their schooling. “We are all here.”