Hua Zhi’s words landed with the weight of iron, and at last Lu Peiyu looked at this woman — who had been composedly steady throughout — with fresh eyes. Compared to those women with more hair than sense, squabbling over every petty slight, she was simply too different.
Courage, breadth of vision, strategy, and resolve — qualities that ought to belong to men — she possessed all of them, and appeared in no way inferior to anyone. That was why the Chief of the Seven Lodges Bureau had entrusted Jinyang’s affairs to her, and not merely for personal reasons as he had assumed.
“The silver you intercepted — what do you intend to do with it?”
“Whatever use it is put to, it would be better than letting His Majesty take it to fill the enormous hole that is the canal construction.” Hua Zhi stood facing the direction of the viewing stands, her gaze calm and level. “My maternal grandfather holds the position of Minister of Revenue and once candidly told me that the imperial treasury is presently wanting. And provisions must precede the troops. General Lu surely cannot believe that the Chaoli Tribe, having prepared for so many years, would simply abandon this fat prize of Daqing and retreat back to their frozen wasteland.”
Everyone knew they would not. Even Lu Peiyu, a general who had never experienced large-scale warfare, came from a lineage that had built itself on military merit — he understood the Chaoli Tribe better than most. His ancestors had written their ferocity and their aggression in blood.
Still — “This is a charge you cannot bear. He will not care whether your intentions were good.”
“If I cannot bear it, the Seven Lodges Bureau can. And General Lu must not forget what Yanxi went there to do. Even if the Chaoli Tribe has been gradually moving their silver, they could hardly have cleared it all out. Yanzhou is, after all, Daqing’s territory.”
Lu Peiyu followed her gaze toward the viewing stands for a moment, then said in a low, resolute voice: “On the strength of that one phrase alone — provisions must precede the troops — I will agree to this. When war breaks out, none of us can stand apart from it. We can only pick up our blades, mount our horses, and cut down the enemy if our bellies are full.”
Hua Zhi bowed toward him without another word. Nothing more needed to be said.
Neither of them was selfless, and yet how could this matter not affect them both directly? The nation endures, and so does the family. Only when the family is safe can the people we love remain unharmed.
And she intended to do far more than this. If handled properly, this matter could also provide Yanxi with the most fitting reason to step back from the court — severing his own path with his own hands was always better than having someone seize the opportunity to dig up old accounts later. Regardless of who ultimately came to occupy the highest seat, they would have no grounds to use this against him, and in such an extraordinary moment, anyone would have to concede that he had done what he did for the sake of the greater good — that he had sacrificed himself, rather than abused his authority for personal ends.
There was no time for melancholy. Hua Zhi prepared to return to the city. “Assign trusted people to stand guard over the silver. Do not let anyone go down again.”
“I know what to do.” Lu Peiyu lifted his chin in the direction of the viewing stands. “What about those people?”
“Let them return tomorrow morning. The weather isn’t cold enough at night to freeze anyone to death.” Hua Zhi’s expression was tranquil. “Jinyang has come to this. Who among them is truly without fault?”
Watching her walk away, Lu Peiyu suddenly laughed. How interesting — a woman who ought by rights to be protected had instead taken up the role of protector. He felt a restless agitation on behalf of men everywhere.
“Hua Ling!” Someone in the stands called out in a loud voice.
Hua Zhi looked up. It was Wang Rong.
With soldiers standing guard below, Wang Rong dared not come down. Instead she ran along the lowest row of empty space in the stands, moving from the right side — where the women stood — around to the left — where the men were — to the position nearest to Hua Zhi.
“Hua Ling, what on earth is happening? Why won’t they let us leave?”
At a moment like this, knowing full well that her identity was in question and yet not asking about it, going through her to fish for information instead — that was the cunning of a woman raised in a great household. Regrettably, she had no intention of obliging her.
Hua Zhi wrapped her cloak tighter and walked a few paces toward the stands, tilting her head slightly to meet Wang Rong’s gaze. “I am Hua Zhi. From the Hua family of the capital.”
Though one stood above and the other below, Hua Zhi’s bearing did not diminish by so much as a fraction. The candor of it left Wang Rong unable to call her out for using a false name when they had played together — she had no grounds to even bring it up now.
She did not ask. But Hua Zhi answered anyway.
“Jinyang was once called the little capital. On my first visit, I heard young Master Zeng speak with pride of how Jinyang had eastern and western markets by day, a southern night market after dark, a Lotus River lined with lotus flowers that people could stroll beside when they bloomed and gather from when the seeds ripened, and the largest racetrack in all of Daqing — just hearing about it was enough to know how vibrant it was.” As she spoke, Hua Zhi walked toward the stands, lifting her skirt slightly to climb the steps. “But once I came to truly understand it, I saw that this prosperity belongs to the past — not the present.”
Her gaze swept from left to right. She recognized quite a few faces, though the eyes that looked back at her were those of strangers — Hua Zhi paid it no mind. She could well imagine what her own expression must look like right now, and it was probably no warmer than theirs.
“Now: more than half the workshops in Jinyang have closed, nearly half the storefronts serve only as venues for gambling stakes — changing hands among various households, over and over, merchants suffering without end and forced to cut their losses, so that shuttered shops have grown more and more numerous, the markets and night markets have grown quieter and quieter, the Lotus River is nowhere near as clean as it once was, the lotus blooms a little poorer each year — while the racetrack used for betting on horses has grown livelier and livelier.”
“Since gambling took hold in Jinyang, what have any of you done beyond gamble? Ask yourselves honestly — in all these years, have any of you done even one thing of consequence?”
“What business is that of yours, an outsider, to come pointing fingers at us?” a voice shot back.
Hua Zhi looked toward the one who had spoken. She recognized her — a daughter of the Zhu family. Zhu Ling’s daughter.
“Someone come.”
“This subordinate is here.” Liu Zheng stepped forward at once.
“Please escort Miss Zhu somewhere else to give an account of certain matters.”
The color drained from the Zhu daughter’s face. If she were taken away by a man, what reputation would she have left? She shrieked at the top of her voice: “Outrageous! My father is Jinyang’s Chief Magistrate Zhu Ling — who dares lay a hand on me!”
“The one being touched is precisely you. The true identity of Jinyang’s Chief Magistrate is that of a Chaoli remnant. And you — do you truly know nothing of this?”
The Zhu daughter’s heart gave a lurch. “The Chaoli — the Chaoli Tribe? Impossible! You are fabricating charges against me!”
Hua Zhi gave her no further attention. Liu Zheng led four soldiers toward her.
The Zhu daughter’s position was right at the edge of the aisle. She stepped out and backed up several paces, then was reluctantly seized and escorted down from the stands.
The stone steps were not particularly wide. Two of the four soldiers went ahead and descended first. The Zhu daughter seized the moment and erupted into action — kicking those two down the steps, then bending low and ducking backward between the remaining two to wrench herself free. The moment her hands were loose, she tore the hairpin from her head and lunged at Hua Zhi.
Amid the startled cries, Hua Zhi shoved away Bao Xia, who had moved to intercept the blow, and took her dagger in hand instead, advancing rather than retreating. She had fought men before — why would she fear a woman’s hairpin?
In only a few exchanges, more than half of the Zhu daughter’s hairpin had been shaved off. The Zhu daughter glared at what remained of her weapon, then reached and drew out a short blade — hooked and sharply pointed at the tip, clearly keen-edged.
Unfortunately for her, she faced a dagger forged from black iron.