Shen Qi, watching her draw near, suddenly stepped forward. “Today the eldest young mistress will surely be pulled in every direction. Please do not trouble yourself with attending to us — we are quite fine on our own.”
Jiang Huanran glanced at him and stepped forward as well. “Quite so. There is no need for the eldest young mistress to play host to us.”
Hua Zhi’s gaze softened. She was about to speak when an unfamiliar voice cut in: “But if the eldest young mistress is so inclined, none of us would have reason to refuse, would we?”
Hua Zhi followed the sound. Someone from the Xia Family — Third Aunt’s brother, most likely.
She took in the room with a glance. Though nothing showed in her expression, eyes do not lie. Hua Zhi gave a light, covered cough, nodded in thanks toward Shen Qi and Jiang Huanran, then said: “All who come are guests. Of course they must be received. Everyone, please come inside.”
The Zhu Family brothers also walked over at that moment. Hua Zhi shook her head slightly at her younger uncle, Zhu Haodong understood and quietly held his elder brother back.
Inside the reception hall, the warmth was enveloping. The others shed their cloaks the moment they stepped in, but Hua Zhi only removed her hood. She had been standing outside in the cold for so long that she felt the chill had seeped into her very bones, and she was not about to make herself suffer further.
The others took little notice, but Shen Qi, reading the near-translucent pallor of her face, felt a sudden, quiet grief. Pulling the Hua Family back from the edge of ruin could not have come without cost. The young mistress who had once had rosy cheeks and spent her days in easy contentment with her maids — she was gone now.
“I thank you all for coming. If Grandmother could see this from beyond, she would certainly be glad.”
“We are all one family — there is no need for such formalities, eldest young mistress.” Someone immediately seized the opening to climb further up the offered foothold. Hua Zhi looked over — the Qi Family. “Old Madam was a woman of great virtue and had always deserved to be honored. We naturally had to come and show our respects.”
“Indeed so. We are all one family — glory shared and loss shared. Is that not so, eldest young mistress?”
Hua Zhi set down her tea and looked up with a smile that did not quite reach her eyes. “Glory shared and loss shared?”
“Absolutely.” The Qi representative, thinking this was their chance, answered quickly. Most of the others, however, sensed the undercurrent in Hua Zhi’s words and all quietly put up their guard.
And sure enough: “When the Hua Family was at rock bottom in its loss, I did not observe that it had any particular effect on any of you — unless something occurred that escaped my notice?”
The room went quiet, and then someone spoke up: “There were some effects, more or less.”
“Then the fault lies with the Hua Family, and I offer our apologies to everyone present.” Hua Zhi set down her tea, rose, and curtsied deeply.
Such swift and easy self-reproach — the room exchanged uncertain glances. This was unfolding precisely as they had hoped, yet somehow it felt deeply unsettling. Why?
It was then that they remembered — if anyone in the room could claim the greatest seniority and the closest connection to the Hua Family, it was the Qin Family. With the Qin Family saying nothing, who else should speak?
Pressed by a roomful of expectant gazes, Qin Gongyang cleared his throat and opened his mouth: “Eldest Young Mistress, capable as you are, and with such generosity of heart, I trust Honored Aunt is at peace in the afterlife.”
“You flatter me, Maternal Grand-Uncle. I could not possibly deserve that.”
“You could, and you do. Search all of the capital and you will not find another who holds a candle to you.”
Hua Zhi picked up the freshly changed cup that Ying Chun had placed before her and gave a light laugh. “When you put it that way, Maternal Grand-Uncle, it does not quite sound like a compliment.”
“Every single word comes from the bottom of my heart.” Qin Gongyang’s eyes were entirely sincere, and not a drop of guilt troubled him — he was not the least bit ashamed to say it. When he had first learned that the Seventh Bureau, whose ripples had spread through the entire capital, had been born from Hua Zhi’s hands, he had thought his ears were deceiving him. Surely he was not the only one left wondering how her father had raised such a daughter!
Thinking of his mother, now confined to bed following a reprimand from his father, Qin Gongyang felt a quiet sigh rise in his heart. The time they had sat together at that restaurant, Hua Zhi had already counted the Qin Family in for a share. Had his mother not driven a wedge through it, he would not now be here tangled up in all of this — he would long since have joined the Zhu Family brothers in standing at the side, watching calmly from the wings.
His mind still turning over these thoughts, Qin Gongyang suddenly felt done with the roundabout approach. “Zhi’er — might we speak privately?”
Hua Zhi raised a brow in surprise. He wanted to speak plainly?
Before she could even respond, others moved faster. “Who among us would not like a private word with the eldest young mistress? Master Qin, do not use your standing to cut ahead!”
“Precisely.”
“Master Qin is surely not trying to take everything for himself?”
“My brother-in-law and the eldest young mistress have always been close — if anyone speaks first, it ought to be me.”
Hua Zhi listened for a while as they snapped and scrambled at one another, then smiled. “Have any of you thought to ask whether I am willing to speak with any of you? Or have you decided among yourselves and assumed I have no choice but to comply?”
The reception hall plunged from clamor to silence so deep you could hear a pin drop. They were right — even if they settled the order among themselves, what did it matter? If Hua Zhi did not agree, none of it would go anywhere.
Awkwardness filled the room, and Hua Zhi had no intention of dispelling it. She went on sipping her tea at her own unhurried pace. After being outside in that bitter cold for so long, she truly had no desire to step back out and be cut by the wind again for a good while.
She was perfectly at ease — while everyone else was far more anxious than she was. Before long, someone broke the silence. “Eldest young mistress, we are all our own people. When there is something good to be had, one naturally ought to think of one’s own first, is that not right?”
Hua Zhi looked at the speaker — an unfamiliar face. Nanny Su had mentioned the Su Family. “The Hua and Su families are indeed old associates. In our grandfather’s time the two families had frequent dealings. But I recall that when Grandmother passed, the Su Family sent only a steward — and a minor one at that. I wonder whether the word ‘our own’ does not stick a little in your throat.”
Not waiting for anyone else to speak, she proceeded to strip away each person’s pretense, one by one. “The stewards sent to offer condolences by the Qiu, Hu, Tang, and Liu Families gave condolence gifts of exactly two hundred taels each — as though they had coordinated beforehand. The Qi, Xia, and Wu Families — proper relatives by marriage — likewise gave two hundred taels. Apart from the Wu Family, which at least sent Second Master Wu in person, the other two sent only stewards as well. And you now come to speak to me of ‘our own people’? Where were you when the Hua Family needed its own? Were you afraid of being stuck to us with no way free? Or afraid that being too close to the Hua Family might bring trouble down on yourselves?”
Hua Zhi’s tone was perfectly calm. The words should have sounded like outrage, yet not the slightest flicker of emotion crossed her face — she even wore a slight smile. “Hua Ling nearly had her name and honor destroyed. Third Aunt sent her attendant back to the Xia Family to plead on bended knee for help, and the Xia Family did not even open the door. That is ‘our own people.’ I ran a business to keep this family fed, and was told I was shamelessly putting myself on display and debasing myself. That, too, is ‘our own people.’ Knowing full well what Hua Jing’s character is, you still whispered in her ear to come to her maternal home and demand things. That as well is ‘our own people.’ Please do not speak to me of ‘our own people.’ It makes me feel the phrase has become a term of contempt.”
She took a sip of tea and continued: “I know why you are here. The Seventh Bureau has been filling posts in the capital — every radish in its hole — but there are still plenty of holes further down. You remembered me, your ‘own people,’ and thought to take a shortcut through me. I am afraid, however, that I must disappoint you: I no longer count you among my own. That so-called shortcut, through me — it is closed.”
To have one’s pretenses stripped so thoroughly and laid bare — those present were experiencing it for the very first time in their lives. Those who had been named outright were awash in shame and fury together, and for a long moment not one of them could produce a single word in reply.