The sense of helplessness was nothing new, yet in this moment it pressed down on Gu Yanxi with particular force.

To see what was happening and be powerless to act. To watch the Emperor step by step toward an abyss and be unable to pull him back. To see Daqing’s danger of collapse and be unable to stop the Emperor from pursuing his ambitions.

For years he had done so much — yet looking back clearly, none of it truly mattered. The things that truly mattered were the ones he could not touch at all.

He spoke of protecting A’Zhi, yet without meaning to, he had pulled her deeper into the mire. And now she was here comforting him, telling him he was not so useless.

How could he allow himself to truly be that useless?

Gu Yanxi raised his head, his expression resolute. “A’Zhi, I will do better.”

Hua Zhi pressed her head against his chest and nodded firmly. She refused to believe that the two of them working together could not manage a single Emperor whose strength was steadily waning.

Before dark, Gu Yanxi returned to Shizi’s residence, then rode out of the city at full speed.

He had barely left when Laifu arrived. Chen Qing passed on the message as Shizi had instructed: “Shizi received word of Chaoli Tribe remnants and has gone to investigate through the night.”

Laifu turned this over in his mind at length, unable to determine whether Shizi’s departure at this particular moment was deliberate or coincidental — but the excuse was one that gave no opening for objection.

Sure enough, the Emperor, upon hearing this, was displeased but could only endure it. “He went alone?”

“Yes. Chen Qing said that a shadow’s speed cannot match a horse — Shizi took no one with him.”

“Did he say whether he’d return tonight?”

“It seems unlikely. Chen Qing said Shizi has gone to Yuzhou.”

Yuzhou again — had the place become the Chaoli Tribe’s permanent den? The Emperor seethed. Thinking of tomorrow’s grand court assembly made him resent the Chaoli Tribe all the more. If not for their restlessness, Yanxi wouldn’t have ridden out in the night, and if Yanxi were here, he wouldn’t have to worry about tomorrow’s court assembly himself.

“Go to Qisu Division and find out what the court officials have been up to today.”

“Yes.”

Hua Zhi did not go looking for details on how turbulent the court assembly had been — it was Zhu Haocheng who came to the Hua Family of his own accord to tell her everything.

“The censors did not dare openly fault the Emperor. They raised the floods in the south and the drought in the north, and dragged up the ongoing investigation into the depleted grain stores. For once, civil and military officials were in remarkable agreement — none of them supported the measure. The Emperor still pushed through with his mind made up, issuing several decrees on the spot. A censor struck his head against a pillar right there in the hall.”

Hua Zhi had known this would not end smoothly, and had anticipated there might be blood — she had only not expected it to come in this particular form. “Did my maternal grandfather take any position?”

“Father did not openly oppose it. He worked quietly behind the scenes. A’Zhi, none of us want you taking this on — there is not a single benefit for you, and one misstep and you’ll be covered in filth.”

“I know.” Hua Zhi was perfectly clear on what that meant. Once it became known among the court officials that she had become the Emperor’s personal money-gatherer, the gentler ones would only curse her to her face. The stories that spread would be unimaginable — and few would believe she had been left with no choice. Even those who knew the truth would likely assume she had brought it on herself through her own restlessness. As for her reasons, who would care to consider them?

“But the matter has already been settled, hasn’t it.”

Zhu Haocheng’s expression was thoroughly sour. He had not yet entered the court himself and had fewer restraints on what he could say. “You’ve always been clever — is there any way out of this?”

“No way. The Emperor is using the Hua Family and the Zhu Family against me. I can only press forward — there is no retreating.”

Thinking of the decree that had reached their household, Zhu Haocheng grew more agitated still. “What is the Emperor thinking? Someone told him you could turn stone into gold and he actually believed it? Why doesn’t he make you produce a gold nugget on the spot to test it? No matter how good you are at making money, can you earn enough to fund an entire river project? Does he really take you for some fortune deity who descended to earth to work off karmic debt?”

Hua Zhi laughed until her eyes curved. “Little uncle, have you been reading story pamphlets lately?”

Zhu Haocheng glared at her. “What time is this for laughing?”

“You needn’t worry. I may not be capable of much else, but coming up with a few plans I can manage. And the ones who execute them won’t be me — how far things actually go is not within my control either. The ones who should be worrying are not me. I’m not in a hurry.”

Having passed through the most anxious stretch, Hua Zhi had steadied herself over these past two days. And once a person was calm, everything fell into place. For all that it seemed a great mountain had been placed on her shoulders, what she actually needed to do was simply earn money — and the initiative in that matter was hers. How she did it, how far she took it, was entirely in her hands. The Emperor could only press her by threatening the Hua Family in words — as long as he still needed her, he would not truly do anything to her.

Knowing this gave Hua Zhi something to stand on. Earning money? That was the one thing she had never feared.

Yet her little uncle’s concern left her chest full of warmth. The Zhu Family had been burdened because of her — and even if they had distanced themselves from her to avoid further trouble, she would have understood and accepted it. But they had not. She made a mental note, deep and deliberate, and thought to herself that there would come a day she would repay the Zhu Family for all of this — and even if she could not do it herself, the Hua Family had so many others, didn’t it?

“By the way, Ziwen received the Wei Family’s invitation today — they’re holding a literary gathering in three days. Does the Wei Family actually dare? Aren’t they afraid no one will come?”

“I received one as well.” Meeting her little uncle’s look of astonishment, Hua Zhi smiled. “More precisely — the Hua Family received one.”

“What is the Wei Family trying to accomplish? Showing off? Isn’t the display going to look rather ugly?”

Perhaps they meant to humiliate the Hua Family. Perhaps they meant to announce to the world that the Wei Family would take the Hua Family’s place. Perhaps both. But whichever it was — she, Hua Zhi, would not accept it.

“Little uncle, I’ll trouble you to pass word to my cousin — ask him to help circulate the news of what the Wei Family has done. Let’s do them the favor of raising their name.”

“Consider it done. I’ll see to it for you.”

He pressed no further. Hua Zhi offered no mention of attending herself, and shifted instead to business matters. “I heard the soap has been selling extraordinarily well.”

“It has. The palace’s head of internal affairs came to place an order just today — he said all the imperial consorts are very fond of it, and the various households are scrambling for it too. The workshop can’t keep up with demand as it stands. I’m already preparing to expand.”

This was a consumable product, and an entirely unique one — running only a small workshop was truly a waste of its potential. If this formula had not been given to the Zhu Family, she might have used it to plug the Emperor’s gap herself. Scaled up properly, this could be an extraordinarily lucrative enterprise.

The thought moved through her, and Hua Zhi said: “Little uncle, think about how vast Daqing is — and right now you can’t even keep up with the capital alone. There’s a fortune sitting right in front of you that you can’t reach. Doesn’t that hurt?”

“You can’t eat a whole meal in one bite — we’ll take it slowly.” Even as he said slowly, Zhu Haocheng pressed a hand to his chest. “Now that you put it that way, it does hurt a little.”

A thought struck Hua Zhi. “Little uncle — what if you let me handle this business?”

“How would you do it?”

“Scale it up, naturally. But the profit share would need to be renegotiated.” The more she considered it, the more viable it seemed. The light in her eyes brightened. “Let me think it through more carefully — I’ll talk to you once I have it sorted out.”