Lu Lingxiu went on to share some news about her own family.

Her elder brother Lu Shi, after returning from the northern territories, had apparently come to the attention of the Sixth Prince, who had heard of his prior connection with Su Luoyun and reassigned him to the Bureau of Trade. This had turned out to be a stroke of fortune in disguise — it had kept him clear of the Sixth Prince’s inner circle and out of the ensuing arrests. However, because of his ties to the Hengshan princely household, even that position at the Bureau had become untenable, and he had followed the same path as Lv Ying, joining their father in the family business.

Through Lu Lingxiu’s account, Su Luoyun heard a good deal of news that was new to her.

After all, the Lu family’s business operations were still running. The capital was just beginning to stir back to life from the ruins, and many shops had started trading even before their premises were fully repaired — the Lu family included.

When Lingxiu mentioned the difficulties of keeping the business’s cash flow moving, she happened, quite without intending to, to bring up the Maoxiang Money House.

Old Master Lu, in need of cash for his business operations, had gone to redeem some banknotes. He had tried several money houses across the nearby prefectures and counties, but each of them had told him the same thing: because of the recent upheaval, the silver reserves had been moved out of the vaults, and it was only when the river shipping ban was lifted that the silver could be transported back. They asked him to return in a few days.

Lingxiu raised this intending to ask Luoyun when the ban on northern river shipping might be lifted. Without being able to redeem the notes, many of the Lu family’s transactions had come to a standstill.

Luoyun listened, and something stirred in her mind. For a money house to close its doors during the upheaval was understandable enough.

But now that all kinds of businesses were gradually reopening, for these money houses to claim they could not pay out funds due to cash flow difficulties was frankly baffling.

One had to remember that even during that month of active fighting, the Maoxiang Money Houses had kept their operations going without interruption. At the very least, whenever Prince Dongping had run short of funds, he had been able to draw silver from a Maoxiang branch at any time. Prince Dongping had even stationed soldiers to guard the shops and prevent refugees from looting them.

The silver had flowed freely then, without interruption. So why, precisely now that the world had stabilized, could it not be paid out?

And when had there ever been a ban on northern river shipping? The money house clerks were talking complete nonsense.

As Luoyun listened, her eyes narrowed slightly.

A thought struck her like a flash of light: could it be that the wandering financial god had sensed that something was wrong, and was preparing to spirit away the silver and vanish at any moment?

After sending Lu Lingxiu off, Luoyun hurried to the study to find Han Linfeng and tell him what she had heard.

Han Linfeng listened and considered the matter for a moment. In truth, he had had men watching You Shanyue for some time.

Old Cui had sent him word back then, revealing the truth of You Shanyue’s double-dealing — and he had planted eyes near the local Maoxiang branches and around You Shanyue himself. The old man had gone on as usual, fishing in the mountains without any unusual movement. After all, they had never had an open falling-out, and regardless of how things stood, You Shanyue had been a benefactor who had financed the Iron-Faced Army.

Still, Luoyun’s analysis had merit. The sudden closure of the money houses under false pretexts did indeed suggest preparations for withdrawal.

That You Shanyue could be so perceptive as to move this quickly was genuinely unexpected.

Just the previous day, a letter from You Shanyue had arrived in the capital, congratulating the Crown Prince on his success and expressing his support for Prince Beizhen’s accession. In the letter, the old man had also expressed his heartfelt sentiments and pledged his continued support in helping the Crown Prince achieve the great enterprise of ascending to the throne.

Thinking of how the old man had once spoken condescendingly to Luoyun, and how he had been playing both sides against the middle, Han Linfeng’s expression hardened. He was prepared to send men to surround him overnight and catch this fat rat before he could escape.

But Luoyun said, “The Maoxiang Money Houses are everywhere. Many merchants have deposited the better part of their fortunes in them. Arresting the old man would not be difficult in itself. He is in his twilight years and does not fear death — if he decided to go down fighting and hid his assets, letting the money houses across the realm collapse and go bankrupt, it could set off enormous unrest among the people. Civil unrest always springs from people lacking food and clothing. His Imperial Majesty has only just ascended the throne and the great enterprise is barely established — we absolutely cannot allow such a great upheaval to arise now.”

Having grown up in a merchant family, she understood the importance of the money houses better than most. Since You Shanyue had first caught her attention, she had sent many of her senior shop clerks to investigate, and had gradually come to understand that You Shanyue’s hand reached far beyond the money houses alone — river transport, salt trade, and countless other things, all tangled together, all touching the livelihoods of ordinary people.

Luoyun knew nothing of governing a realm, but she remembered that once, when her eyes were still blind, Han Linfeng had read to her, and among the things he had read was the saying that governing a great state is like frying small fish — one must move with care and delicacy, lest the fish be broken to pieces.

In her youth she had lived among the market streets and had seen what happened when money houses collapsed and drove small merchants to their deaths.

Though You Shanyue had always kept himself in the background, he in fact held the financial lifeblood of half the Wei realm in his hands. To disturb that carelessly would cause the greatest harm to ordinary people, and the matter had to be handled with the utmost caution.

Fat as this rat was, he had ordinary livelihoods in his grip — one had to be careful of hitting the rat and breaking the crockery.

Han Linfeng listened to Luoyun’s soft and methodical analysis and fell into deep thought for a long while.

In matters of money and accounts, even the advisors around him were unlikely to be more knowledgeable than the Crown Princess. Luoyun’s concerns were far from groundless — if anything, as she said, the handling of You Shanyue called for the most careful approach imaginable.

“Then in your view, what is to be done with this cunning fat rat?”

Luoyun thought for a moment, then said, “He has always been skilled at cultivating connections, and he has surely placed informants throughout the major government offices. Prince Dongping’s downfall must have come far more swiftly than he expected. This old gambler has lost his nerve — he is afraid of losing everything on the table. If that is the case, we need to show him some of our cards. Tempt him. Keep him from leaving the table.”

Then Luoyun considered a moment longer and said with conviction, “We must not only refrain from reprimanding or punishing You Shanyue — we must reward him lavishly. And the reward must be warm and genuine, announced with beating drums, and proclaimed to the whole realm.”

The moment she said this, Han Linfeng understood completely.

An alert rat is hard to catch — but a rat that has gorged itself fat in a rice bin is liable to be too bloated to think of running, let alone escape.

With that thought, Han Linfeng gave a cold snort. “His correspondence with the rebel prince is already in my hands. Communicating with traitors, plotting rebellion, crimes worthy of death beyond any doubt. A common merchant harboring treacherous designs and seeking to overthrow the state — if a man like this were allowed to flee, he would still be a source of trouble. But would he not know that his deeds are exposed, and be on guard against walking into a trap?”

Luoyun turned You Shanyue’s character over in her mind and said softly, “He may be old and extremely shrewd, but at his core he is still a man of the rivers and lakes — he holds grudges, repays every slight, and above all loves to be flattered. He has spent the second half of his life trying to wash away the stain of his origins, and he craves recognition from those on the right side of the law. So long as we grasp that weakness, everything else becomes manageable. A rat this fat must be caught when completely off guard — not a drop of oil may be wasted.”

At this moment the imperial treasury was almost entirely depleted, and the noble families’ coffers were not yet ready to be tapped. Yet the Emperor needed funds urgently in order to act. You Shanyue was practically a god of wealth delivered to their door — he had to be carefully penned in before they could slaughter the pig at the proper time.

Han Linfeng listened to Luoyun’s words, and could not help but look her up and down once more with a sigh of admiration: “I knew long ago that I’d married a sharp-minded woman of business. Yet I never imagined you would scheme about plundering and robbing with such a ruthless heart and a steady hand.”

You Shanyue, that old schemer, had also looked down on her — let his guard down in a moment of self-satisfaction and spoken carelessly in front of her, which was how Su Luoyun had spotted the crack in his armor.

Luoyun saw him laughing at her again, and was just opening her eyes wide to retort — when the nausea struck and she started retching again.

Han Linfeng anxiously steadied her, pressing a spittoon into her hands, then a cup of sour plum broth. At this moment the thing that most troubled the Crown Prince was not the empty treasury, but the question of who on earth could put a stop to his wife’s endless morning sickness.

Even the old physician had said that the Crown Princess’s morning sickness was unusually severe — if it continued like this without letting up, how was her constitution to bear it?

Because of how badly she suffered, Luoyun had hardly appeared in public since accompanying the new Emperor at the military review.

In any case, the Empress Dowager had now taken up her position, and all those social obligations could be left to her to enjoy to her heart’s content.

Luoyun was far happier spending her free time directing the palace maids and servants to redecorate the Palace of Guanju where they now lived, bringing some warmth and life to the vast, echoing halls.

The remainder of her time she devoted to quietly deliberating over You Shanyue’s situation, while continuing to gather intelligence about the Maoxiang Money Houses.

Exactly as she had counseled, the Emperor’s decree rewarding those who had rendered distinguished service in defending the realm included generous and prominent praise for the private citizen You Shanyue — commending him for financing the Iron-Faced Army in the recovery of the northern homeland and naming him a Defender of the Realm.

Along with the decree came a gilded plaque stamped with the dragon seal, bearing four blazing golden characters written by the Emperor himself: “Grand Merchant of Great Wei.” It was hung at the main entrance of the Maoxiang Money House’s capital branch.

Furthermore, the Emperor ordered a senior scholar from the Hanlin Academy to compose a monument biography for You Shanyue, so that his act of righteousness might be celebrated for generations to come.

Though the newly enthroned Emperor was strapped for funds — so pressed that he could barely scrape together a meal — when it came to rewarding people, he had no gold or jewels to offer. Yet for a merchant of immense wealth, an honor and a name was worth far more to his heart than any quantity of jewels.

You Shanyue, far away in the north, had his own well-informed channels of intelligence.

Within days of the imperial decree being issued, Su Luoyun also sent people disguised as merchants to nearby money houses to redeem several banknotes.

This time, several notes of quite considerable amounts were redeemed without the slightest obstruction.

Luoyun knew then that the plan had worked. The old schemer had been stabilized, at least for now.

As for Han Linfeng writing to You Shanyue himself, consulting with him about continuing to lend military funds to advance the recovery campaign in the north — You Shanyue agreed without a moment’s hesitation.

At the same time, he also dispatched large quantities of jewels, silks, and tribute women as gifts to the new Emperor and the Crown Prince.

The magnificent coral trees and night-luminous pearls hardly bear mentioning — but among the women presented to the Emperor, there were actually several exotic beauties with blue eyes, from the kingdom of Bo.

That You Shanyue truly knew how to cater to his patron’s taste. He must have heard that the Emperor deeply cherished Han Linfeng’s birth mother, and had accordingly made a particular effort to select women from the kingdom of Bo.

Su Luoyun heard this and let out a quiet sigh. “He truly has learned to read the hearts of those in power. How many officials of the Wei court could withstand such methods? But — what are the women he sent to you actually like? Let me see them too.”

Han Linfeng lowered his eyes and said, “Big hands and big feet, the lot of them. One look and you can tell they were born to chop firewood. I’ve sent them to the outer courtyards to do rough work.”

Luoyun heard this and recalled that he had once dismissed Fang Jinshu’s proposal on the grounds of large feet, and could not help but laugh. “How is it that every elegant woman who comes before you turns out to have big hands and big feet? You Shanyue was trying to please you — how would he send you something mediocre and vulgar? I don’t believe it. Tomorrow I’m going to go and look for myself.”

Han Linfeng replied with quiet seriousness: “When one has already been given a genuine pearl, why would one mistake a fish-eye for a treasure?”

Luoyun felt something soften inside her at those words. She leaned quietly into his arms and said softly, “I am no pearl. I am just an ordinary drop of dew, sitting beside the bright moon, borrowing a borrowed light that is not rightly mine…”

Han Linfeng bent his head and pressed a firm kiss to her lips: “Even if you are only a small drop of dew, you are the drop I wish to drink.”

In that moment the two looked at each other, tender feeling between them thick as silk — but just as Han Linfeng was leaning in to claim something more, Luoyun’s complexion shifted again, and she shoved the bright-moon-clear-wind figure of a man firmly aside, bent over, and started retching again.

Han Linfeng could only busy himself once more with the spittoon and the tea, while somewhere in the back of his mind, a very serious thought was forming: when this wretched little creature came out and stopped tormenting its mother, he was absolutely going to give it a thorough smacking on the bottom.

With You Shanyue’s financial backing, the Wei treasury at last began to see some cash flowing through it, and father and son had the room to start taking action.

However, on this particular day, no small commotion arose at Empress née Zong’s banquet.

It emerged that née Zong had endured as long as she could and had ultimately failed to take her daughter-in-law’s counsel to heart. In the course of several subsequent audiences with the court ladies of rank, she had singled out the Duchess of Jun and subjected her to a thorough verbal humiliation.

Evidently, having suddenly become the new Empress, née Zong had not yet come to understand the power of striking at the heart rather than the flesh — her words were sharp enough to leave a person with no defense at all.

The ladies of the various noble households were all practiced weather-vanes. With the new Emperor barely settled on the throne, it was natural to fawn upon the newly powerful. Everyone knew that the Jun Ducal household had broken its engagement with what was now Her Imperial Highness the Princess Letao Han Yao, and had done so by shameful means.

Originally, seeing the Crown Princess’s magnanimous air of letting bygones be bygones, they had assumed the whole matter had been quietly laid to rest. They had never anticipated that it would not pass muster before the Empress.

So those who excelled at flattery immediately sharpened their tongues and joined in, helping the Empress mock the Duchess of Jun.

The Duchess had tried feigning illness to avoid coming to the palace, but every time the Empress had summoned her by name.

The Duchess had told herself it would pass if she simply endured it. But this occasion was far worse than any of the previous ones.

The Duchess of Jun had spent her whole life placing the highest premium on face and dignity, never willing to lower herself in any situation.

She had never imagined that even prostrating herself in sackcloth with a bundle of brambles on her back had not been enough to atone for the offense of crossing the imperial family.

When a person is backed into a corner, and when she then thought of how her children had been made to suffer for her mistakes — a surge of shame and fury overwhelmed her, and her mind locked up in stubbornness.

The result was that the Duchess of Jun, in a moment of losing her head, suddenly burst from her palanquin as she was leaving the palace, and threw herself headfirst into the moat.

The capital had seen heavy rains over the past several days, and the moat ran fast and strong. The few servants who had accompanied the Duchess could not swim, and could only cry out frantically for help.

Fortunately, the newly invested Prince Consort Zhao Guibei happened to be coming out of the palace at just that moment. Seeing the situation, he leaped into the river without hesitation, and that was how she was hauled out.

Even so it took quite a struggle before she slowly came back to herself.

And then — whether from water having gotten into her head and leaving her dazed — when she cleared her eyes enough to recognize that the one who had saved her was Zhao Guibei, she began coughing and laughing at the same time: “So you came as well — could it be that you are here to… cough, cough… to seek justice on your mother’s behalf?”

These words made no particular sense, and Zhao Guibei did not take them to heart.

Moreover, when the Duchess had thrown herself into the moat, a group of senior ministers happened to be leaving the palace at the very same moment, crossing the bridge over the moat and about to change into palanquins and carriages on the far side.

Every one of the great officials witnessed this alarming scene in full.

With so many eyes upon it, there was no way to contain the story. In no time at all, rumors were spreading wildly that Empress née Zong had driven a first-rank court lady to her death out of private family grievance.

Even eminent senior scholars submitted memorials, demanding that the Emperor provide an explanation: did declining a marriage connection with the imperial family now carry the penalty of death?

The Emperor had no ready answer for this, and could only offer warm words of consolation to the Jun Ducal household, while dispatching imperial physicians with restorative broths and medicines for the half-drowned Duchess.

But the moment he turned back into the inner palace, he unleashed his considerable anger on the new Empress, commanding her to enter the Buddhist hall for one full month — there to recite sutras, cultivate herself in body and virtue, and not emerge until she had thoroughly grasped what it meant to be an Empress.

Empress née Zong felt as though she had been hurled from the top of a mountain.

After all, she had never imagined that a few sharp words would send the Duchess of Jun straight into the moat upon leaving the palace. She had had no intention of driving anyone to their death — how had she become, as the ministers said, a venomous Empress?

In the past, if the Prince had dared to punish her like this, she would have made the whole house ring with her protests. But now, to see her husband who had become Emperor, she had to pass word through layers of intermediaries just to gain an audience.

The Emperor, after glancing in on her when she first arrived at the palace, had not once come to her chambers of his own accord.

Countless consorts had suddenly flooded the inner palace. Word was that the Emperor turned a different name tablet every night, and even so could not attend to them all equally.

Confined in the Buddhist hall, where the scent of sandalwood hung in the air, née Zong felt the euphoria of her new status as Empress drain away at last. Thinking of the Emperor spending each day and night in the company of those tender and charming palace consorts, she felt as though her heart had been dropped into a vat of vinegar — thoroughly miserable.

When her daughter came to visit, she could not help but give voice to her grievances: “Your father is riding high and mighty now — he climbed to the throne on your brother’s achievements, and now he indulges himself freely. Those consorts surrounding him from all sides… I could kneel myself to death in this Buddhist hall and he would never come to see me once.”

Princess Letao Han Yao let out a long sigh and said quietly, “Mother Empress, we can never go back to the way things were. If you still cannot improve yourself and learn to govern your own tongue, it will not just be your own days that become difficult — you will drag the whole family down with you. Do you know how great a trouble you have caused this time? Those old ministers have finally found their opening — they have been weeping in the court hall and citing classical precedent, imploring His Majesty on no account to follow the example of a tyrannical ruler and persecute court officials for reasons of private preference.”

How could Empress née Zong not know? And yet there was a grievance she could not swallow, and she said through choked sobs, “I am the Empress of the entire realm. A foolish woman loses her head and throws herself into a river, and I am the one dragged down and made to kneel in the Buddhist hall? The former Empress Wang certainly never lived with her tail between her legs like this. If being Empress means being this stifled and put-upon, I would rather go back to Liangzhou and have my freedom.”

Han Yao noticed that her mother’s habitual refrain had shifted from “return to the capital” to “return to Liangzhou,” and felt simultaneously exasperated and on the verge of laughter.

Yet seeing her mother’s distress, she could not bring herself to provoke her further, and could only continue to counsel her: “I’ve heard Sister-in-law say that Empress Wang was able to act as recklessly as she did because she had the backing of the Wang family of Changxi — not simply because she was Empress. The mistress of the six palaces is the model for all women of the realm; her every word and movement must be doubly guarded. There was never any freedom in it.”

At this, née Zong recalled her daughter-in-law’s counsel to treat the Jun Ducal household with generosity, and for a moment she felt a flicker of genuine regret — but she could not bring herself to admit it, and only said with stubborn bluster, “You’ve taken so well to listening to her — you might as well go ahead and call her mother. My own husband punishes me like this, and I don’t see those two making any effort to plead on my behalf. In the end, she’s not blood. You can always tell the difference.”

Han Yao, upon hearing this, had the strongest urge to pick up the small mallet beside the wooden fish and knock it against her mother’s head. She clapped her hand firmly over the Empress’s mouth and lowered her voice to a fierce whisper: “Mother Empress — have you left your brain behind in Liangzhou? My brother is the Crown Prince. And you dare to say such things… Father was right. You do need to stay in this Buddhist hall and properly cultivate yourself in virtue.”

Née Zong’s old habit when she was out of sorts had always been to snap at her daughter. But since Han Yao had married, she had become noticeably more forthright when speaking to her — perhaps because she had someone to back her up now.

Née Zong could not resist saying coldly, “Who do you think you are talking to? More impudent by the day. Seeing that your household is about to have no mother-in-law to keep you in check, you’re taking liberties, are you?”

The matter of General Zhao Dong seeking a marital dissolution had become known across the entire capital. Zhao Dong had already moved out of the Prince Consort’s estate with his son and daughter-in-law, leaving the house to Princess Yuyang, and had petitioned the Emperor for a separate residence to serve as his general’s estate.

Though the dissolution documents had not yet been formally finalized, the two were already living apart.

Most outsiders did not know the full reason behind their estrangement. The prevailing view was that Zhao Dong had been compelled into the marriage with Yuyang in the first place. Now that Empress Wang had fallen and the Grand Emperor had retired into comfortable seclusion, Zhao Dong was a meritorious official who had helped the new Emperor to power and aided the Crown Prince in recovering the northern territories. He had both authority and standing — why should he continue to accommodate a princess who had lost all her influence?

After all, the noble ladies of the capital had all begun to distance themselves from Princess Yuyang, as one would expect — it was a perfectly common story in the capital, that when a person’s power fades, all warmth fades with them.

Han Yao saw that she was getting nowhere with her mother, and had no patience left for arguing. After taking her leave from the Buddhist hall, she made her way to the Palace of Guanju.

When she came to pay her respects to her sister-in-law, she found her sister-in-law sitting with a collection of fragrance jars spread before her, apparently in the middle of blending a scent. “Crown Princess — you are with child. Why are you handling all of this? If you breathe in too much, you’ll be retching for half the day again.”

Though the news of the Crown Princess’s pregnancy had not been publicly announced, among family it was no secret, and Han Yao was well aware of it.

Luoyun smiled and said, “The Crown Prince has gone with Minister Li Guitian and several deputies from the Ministry of Works to survey the waterworks in the countryside these past few days. The mosquitoes in the countryside can be quite vicious, so I thought I would make them some mosquito-repelling sachets to hang on their persons — it would spare them at least some annoyance. You’ve come from Mother Empress’s Buddhist hall?”

Han Yao nodded, and settled in to help her sister-in-law, sitting down at the small table to use a little stone mortar to grind the fragrant herbs and medicinal leaves while they talked.

Han Yao’s household affairs had been the source of the most worry recently. Even with her own mother, she could not speak about it too frankly — only with her sister-in-law could she say a few honest words.

“Father-in-law has made up his mind this time and is firmly set on the dissolution. Guibei and I cannot change it no matter how we try. Mother-in-law, seeing that Father-in-law refuses to come back, appears to have begun a hunger strike the day before yesterday. The steward of the Prince Consort’s estate could not persuade her, so he came to me. I passed word to Father-in-law, thinking he might return to comfort her — but instead, he turned around and took Guibei with him to inspect the military garrison in a neighboring county. I want to go comfort Mother-in-law myself, but she refuses to see me… What is to be done?”