The Old Madam, as though she had read his thoughts, said at a measured pace: “Zhi’er has been taught by the Old Master himself since she was small. Her learning is perfectly respectable. If Master Mu finds her lacking once things are underway, she can always stand aside and let someone more capable take her place.”
Master Mu collected himself and said: “This is a matter for the Hua Family, and the children being taught are the Hua Family’s own. It is not my place to have an opinion. If the family is satisfied, then it is right.”
This was well beyond what Hua Zhi had anticipated. She had expected Master Mu to express at least some doubt, but instead his broad-mindedness surprised her entirely.
Hua Zhi gave a small bow. “If the Hua Family’s children can learn even a third of what Master Mu knows, they will have more than enough to last them a lifetime.”
“The First Young Miss flatters me. I am ashamed to receive such praise.”
The Old Madam offered a few more words of thanks and then led the other women back to the inner courtyard. Hua Zhi saw her grandmother off, then turned. “Bailin, go on ahead with everyone.”
“Yes, Elder Sister.”
Watching the children, big and small, disappear into the distance, Hua Zhi turned to face Master Mu — and realized that at some point he had stepped back two paces, putting a respectable distance between them.
“Master Mu, I would like to discuss the matter of dividing the students into classes.”
Master Mu gave a clear nod. “How does the First Young Miss wish to arrange it?”
“Keeping the previous arrangement would no longer suit the situation. I thought it might be better to hold an examination — regardless of age, those at similar levels of learning would be grouped together. Two classes in total. What do you think?”
“The First Young Miss has a fine idea.” There was no need to think long — Master Mu could see at once that this was the right approach. A child just starting school at six could not possibly keep pace with those who had been at it since nine or ten. Teaching them together would mean the younger ones fell hopelessly behind — but adjusting the pace to accommodate them would hold back the older students. Separate classes was clearly the better solution.
Hua Zhi smiled — the smile of someone whose experience of education had been shaped by an entirely different world. “The specific arrangements for instruction can be decided once we have the results.”
“As the First Young Miss wishes.”
That same day, the two of them drafted an examination together. The questions drew from the Four Books and the Thirteen Classics, covering whatever the students had already been taught. Master Mu had never encountered this kind of examination before — where questions from entirely different sources were mixed together all at once — and found it rather intriguing. His reservations about the First Young Miss taking on a teacher’s role began, quietly, to ease.
When the results came in, the upper class had fifteen students with Hua Bailin at the head, and the lower class had nine.
The students were dismissed, and the two of them sat down to divide the teaching responsibilities. Hua Family children began their foundational education at four — learning the Hundred Family Surnames, the Three Character Classic, the Thousand Character Text, and the like — and entered the clan school at six, where they began studying the Analects. The Hua Family valued letters and scholarship, so the groundwork across the board was solid.
Master Mu was a man of letters who had sat the imperial examinations, holding the rank of Elevated Scholar. He had originally come to the capital to sit for the higher examination. An unforeseen incident had intervened, and had it not been for the Old Master taking notice of his worth and sheltering him, he might well no longer be alive today. He had not continued upward in the examinations after that, but his knowledge and abilities were the genuine article. Hua Zhi assigned the more advanced subjects to him and kept for herself the Analects, the Extensive Learning for Youth, the Three Rites, and the Book of Documents — of which only the Book of Documents was for the upper class, while the other three were for the lower class, and were, at their core, teachings about how to live rightly and conduct oneself well. Between scholarly knowledge and moral formation, she cared more about the latter.
Master Mu raised no objection — in truth, he had expected to have to carry the full load himself.
When it was time to leave, Hua Zhi took a basket covered in red silk from Bao Xia’s hands and offered it to him. “We will be depending on Master Mu from now on.”
Master Mu accepted it readily, and gave Hua Zhi a slight bow. Hua Zhi returned the bow, and they said their farewells.
Swaying along in his carriage, Master Mu lifted the red silk and looked at the contents with an expression of genuine surprise. He opened the red envelope — and felt a pang of regret at having accepted so readily. This gift was even more substantial than anything offered to him during his previous years at the Hua household. He had come precisely because he owed a debt — the Hua Family truly need not have done this.
Turning over the hour’s worth of acquaintance in his mind, Master Mu fell into deep thought. He had not seen it before, but — could it be that the Old Madam intended to place the household’s affairs in the First Young Miss’s hands? A young lady raised within the sheltered walls of a great household — could she truly be equal to that kind of trust?
But then again, a woman with the boldness to step forward as a teacher — perhaps she was not quite like the others after all.
After her midday rest, Hua Zhi was woken by the itching of her wound. She was just reaching to scratch through her clothes when Ying Chun stepped over swiftly and caught her hand with practiced ease, then pressed gently around the wound until the sensation eased.
Sleep gone completely, Hua Zhi made no effort to linger in bed. “Send word to Chen Liang — I want to go and take a look at Green Moss Lane.”
“Yes.”
Ying Chun went to make arrangements while Nian Qiu brought a proper outer robe to help her mistress change. By the time everything was in order, Liu Xiang had rinsing water already prepared, and the whole process unfolded with unhurried efficiency.
Hua Zhi had only ever passed by Green Moss Lane before — this was her first actual visit. She rode in the carriage, circling the surrounding streets and alleys to get a sense of the area, and the contrast made it clear just how desolate and lifeless the lane she had purchased truly was.
A few of the storefronts had their doors half open; the interiors were visible from outside, cluttered and clearly in the middle of being cleared out.
She had no wish to disturb them. She let the carriage roll all the way to the end of the lane, then lifted the curtain and studied the largest of the twenty-five storefronts — the one at the very back.
“Chen Liang.”
“This servant is here.”
“Have this storefront demolished. Do whatever paperwork needs doing — don’t worry about the cost of doing things properly. We have already spent the larger sum, so there is no sense in pinching pennies over the details.”
Chen Liang understood the First Young Miss’s intention almost instantly. That storefront was blocking the far end of the lane, turning it into a dead end. Remove it, open the lane through to the inner river, and the lane would come alive.
Spending so much silver to buy a storefront, only to tear it down — Chen Liang had the deepest respect for the First Young Miss’s boldness. Not everyone had her eye or her nerve. And that was precisely why Green Moss Lane had gone on declining, year after year after year.
“This servant will see it done.”
Hua Zhi handed him another list. “These people are still learning under Fu Dong at the moment. Once they are trained, each will be responsible for one storefront. You will oversee all twenty-five. I believe you are literate?”
“Yes — thanks to the Old Master’s regard, I was taught a few characters.”
“Before the storefronts open, find time to come to the side courtyard and learn bookkeeping from Nian Qiu. The accounts for all twenty-five storefronts — expenditures and receipts, monthly profit, quarterly profit, annual profit — must all be clean and clear at a glance. I do not want a steward who moves only when pushed. I want someone who can take a burden from me and has the full capacity to handle smaller matters independently. Do you understand?”
Chen Liang understood the words well enough, but was less certain what the First Young Miss would actually allow him to decide on his own. The Hua Family treated its people well, but any servant who dared to make decisions on a master’s behalf without being asked would never be tolerated. And yet the First Young Miss was now saying she wanted him to handle small matters on his own initiative…
He drew a steadying breath and asked: “This servant is slow-witted and wishes to ask — how does the First Young Miss distinguish between large and small matters?”
“Whatever falls within the scope of your own abilities to resolve — that is a small matter. Whatever lies beyond them — that is a large matter.” Hua Zhi was quietly pleased that he had asked directly; the very act of asking meant he was already thinking, not simply waiting to be pushed. “Every person who serves before me will be given one chance to make a mistake. My hope is that none of you will ever need to use it.”
“Yes. This servant will not dare to disappoint the First Young Miss.”
Xu Jie, Zuo Fei, Liu Yueming, Chen Liang — Hua Zhi let out a quiet breath. The framework, for now, was beginning to take shape.