On the way back, Xiao Liu glanced at Hua Zhi again and again, his face full of words he could not quite bring himself to say.

“You don’t need to feel burdened.” Hua Zhi suddenly opened her eyes and met Xiao Liu’s gaze. “In terms of our common cause, we are ants tied to one rope — you prosper and we prosper with you. In terms of personal feeling, you are someone I look after, so of course any advantage goes to you first. But Xiao Liu — how you turn these advantages into something of your own is something you must think through yourself. You cannot rely on others to make every decision for you. You were born to stand above others — when those below you are risking their lives on your behalf, you must also have the ability to shelter them. Others, in the end, are others. Having the support of others is never as good as having it yourself.”

“Hua Jiejie is not an other.”

“I am. Everyone except you is an other. Every person has their own self-interest. The first thing they will always consider is their own benefit — when that conflicts with yours, what they will protect is themselves. People naturally pursue advantage. They come together for the sake of interest, and they part ways for the same. Which is why it is said there are no permanent friends, only permanent interests.”

Seeing the change that came over the child’s expression, Hua Zhi smiled. “I actually think this is not a bad thing.”

Xiao Liu could not work out the reasoning in this. “I don’t understand.”

“Groups built on shared interest are the most tightly bound and the least likely to betray one another. And Xiao Liu — you are the core of that group. You are now, and you will be even more so in the future.”

“If people are left with nothing between them but interest…” Xiao Liu, merely thinking of him and the Hua Family ending up that way, felt something indescribable tighten inside him. There are some things that, if they were never had to begin with, one can live without. But if one day they are possessed and then lost again — he would truly rather give up everything else than lose this.

Hua Zhi sat up a little straighter and folded over the hem of Xiao Liu’s sleeve, which had grown a little long. “The human heart is the hardest thing of all to read, and affection the most difficult to hold on to. You may pour yourself out and receive nothing back. An unintended act can grow into a shaded willow tree. And who ever said there could be no affection mingled within a bond of shared interest? You and the Hua Family are now partners in interest — but is that all there is between us? What you must learn is how to balance affection and interest. I hope you grow into a great tree with full branches and boughs — one that can shade the clouds and shelter people from wind and rain — rather than one that is trimmed and pruned throughout its growing years until only a crown remains.”

Hua Zhi did not know how gentle her smile looked in that moment. Xiao Liu stared at her, listening, and let it enter not only his ears but also his heart.

No one had ever taught him these things.

Of course — no one needed to. Growing up in the environment of the imperial palace, one learned selfishness without being taught, learned the art of power without a teacher, learned to control people through interest. If not for what Hua Jiejie had said today, he might well have become exactly that sort of person.

He didn’t care about anyone else, but he did not want to end up with only interest tying him to Hua Jiejie and Bailin. “As long as I and the Hua Family always stand on the same side, we will never have a day of parting.”

Hua Zhi started, then smiled, and corrected: “It is the Hua Family who will always stand on your side.”

Xiao Liu nodded vigorously. Whether it was him with the Hua Family or the Hua Family with him — so long as the people were the right ones, that was all that mattered.

Hua Zhi had no idea how greatly this exchange would shape Xiao Liu for the rest of his life. When they arrived home, she took out a thick stack of papers and handed them to him, signaling him to read them through.

This was a detailed supplement to the salt administration and transport arrangements. The gaps she had deliberately left for later would be filled in and refined by Xiao Liu himself, solidifying through that effort his claim to the credit.

Xiao Liu understood how great a benefit had been given to him. He bowed solemnly and then bent his head to study the document in earnest.

Hua Zhi was not idle either. As the Emperor’s financial instrument, she had to find ways to expand her business ventures and bring in money.

The tea gardens were already being acquired. The next step was to rework the soap business that had been taken back and plan it afresh. Though the idea had originally been hers, simply taking it back like this was naturally not going to work. But dividing out the profits…

After thinking for a while, Hua Zhi picked up her brush and began to write. She could not simply take it back, yet she also had to avoid making the Emperor think his subjects were competing with him for profit. So the solution was to make their three households’ business one part of the larger enterprise — in plain terms, a headquarters with ten branches, one each for the capital and the nine provinces. Even the Emperor’s business could not have it all to itself.

And not only for the soap business — any business that was to be scaled up could be run the same way. Spread the web of interests wider, and with mutual checks on all sides, it would be considerably harder for anyone to play tricks from within.

As she thought and wrote, things became clearer and clearer in her mind. Hua Zhi’s brush flew across the page. Without noticing it, her neat small script had transformed into a wild, sweeping cursive. By the time she caught herself, she was already more than halfway through — she simply pressed on rather than correcting it. No outsiders would be reading it anyway.

As an insider, Gu Yanxi could naturally read it too. He rather liked these characters that sprawled about with jagged, untamed energy — just like Hua Zhi when she was not hiding herself.

“This plan is very novel. The only concern is that the branch managers would be difficult to find — one wrong choice and the whole business becomes theirs.”

“If I could, I’d want us to appoint the people ourselves. But a business that brings in money this well needs someone with real standing in that locality to hold it together, otherwise you’re dealing with all manner of trouble. Better to divide up some of the profits. Knowing that this is the Emperor’s business, they would think twice before reaching their hand in too far.”

The business principles Hua Zhi was most familiar with still came from her past life. Transplanting them wholesale would not do — they had to be adapted to fit the Great Qing. There were no laws to appeal to here. Whoever had the bigger fist called the shots.

Gu Yanxi nodded. “Personnel selection — the Seventh Night Bureau will handle that.”

“Fine.” Setting that matter aside, Hua Zhi gave a thorough account of the outcome of the three-way meeting. “There will likely be quite a bit of arm-wrestling in the court for some time to come. Keep an eye out for Xiao Liu’s side and make sure he doesn’t come off worse.”

“Xiao Liu should not make himself prominent just yet. The time is not right.”

“Those things are beyond me — you all handle it as you see fit.” Hua Zhi relinquished the matter with clean and decisive ease. She was not about to bring her weaknesses into contest with others’ strengths.

The corners of Gu Yanxi’s eyes lifted in a smile. He reached out and smoothed the stray hairs at her temples. “Once things are arranged on this side, we’ll make a trip to Yuzhou.”

“What a coincidence — that is exactly what I was thinking.” Hua Zhi propped her cheek in her hand, pleased by this small meeting of minds. She knew Yanxi harbored a persistent concern over the Chaoli tribe — and in truth, so did she. More than the troubles within, it was the threat from without that was most deadly. If the Chaoli tribe was not rooted out, she would always have a weight pressing on her heart — afraid that one day they would wake to find themselves subjects of a conquered land.

“Has anything been found on that front?”

Gu Yanxi shook his head. “No word has come back. Most likely they have not found the trail.”

“To stay hidden this cleanly, there must be someone providing cover. Whoever has the ability to offer that kind of protection is no ordinary figure — and someone who could go undetected by the Seventh Night Bureau would not be of low standing.”

Hua Zhi’s tone turned cold with contempt. “There are always those who make a specialty of doing things that harm others for no benefit to themselves, yet still think they have gotten the better end of the bargain.”

Both of them found such people utterly distasteful and did not want to waste another word on them. Taking advantage of the remaining daylight, they walked side by side through the front courtyard, talking of small and ordinary things, and for a little while it felt like a patch of leisure stolen from a full and busy life.