County Magistrate Wang was a striking man of thirty or forty years, not exactly the type you couldn’t take your eyes off, but presentable enough. Compared to Zhù Ying’s youthful appearance of “fuzzy-lipped and untested,” he was by any measure a handsome man. His build, perhaps a bit slight by northern standards, was quite commanding here. He kept a neat beard, had fair skin, and between his brows there always lingered a certain air of melancholy.

He was nothing like the “imposing” prefect she had just seen, whose belly had swelled into a ball. Even approaching forty, he remained lean and long-limbed.

Zhù Ying, though outranking him, was still courteous toward him, and he for his part showed not a trace of the “old hand” putting on airs, greeting her with great politeness.

He began by complimenting Zhù Ying as a “rare young talent” and then promptly invited her to complete the handover.

Zhù Ying said, “It is not that I am being presumptuous, but I have not yet called on my superiors, and I dare not act on my own.”

County Magistrate Wang said, “If that’s all it is — we needn’t go to the county in person. We can complete the handover right here. And if you’re willing, I could also transfer my residence here in the circuit prefecture city to you.”

Xiao Wu had traveled three thousand li with Zhù Ying and had grown up listening to his father talk about official affairs for years — yet he had never heard of a handover between two county magistrates being conducted outside their own jurisdiction. He stood there with his mouth hanging open. Even Hou Wu, the big-mouthed dullard, could sense something was wrong here.

Zhù Ying held herself steady as ever, and said softly, “Without seeing my superiors first, I dare not act on my own authority.”

No matter what County Magistrate Wang said, Zhù Ying refused to take up the next part of the conversation. By this point she had already felt a foreboding: the situation was perhaps even more troublesome than she had imagined.

Before arriving at Fulu County, she had mobilized every connection available to her and investigated this entire prefecture to the fullest extent possible. Nothing in all that material had described anything like what she was now seeing!

Poor, remote, lacking in learning and culture… and so on — she had mentally prepared for all of that. A former county magistrate not residing in the county was something that had not appeared at all!

She deliberately dragged things out with County Magistrate Wang, repeating only: “I am young and ignorant of many things — let us follow proper procedure.”

Driven to desperation, County Magistrate Wang said, “What does young or old matter? What does procedure have to do with anything? Complete the handover, I’ll transfer this residence here in the circuit prefecture city to you as well and give you a discount — you move right in and everything is already there. I’m not playing games with you; I genuinely am the Fulu County magistrate, and I’m not some swindler having you on.”

Setting aside Wang Yunhe’s hopes for her, Zheng Xi’s expectations, and even just Zhù Ying’s own temperament — she could not hear this kind of talk. She asked calmly, “Living in the circuit prefecture city? What does that mean? Senior colleague, I’ve only just arrived — I beg you not to withhold your guidance.”

Seeing that she absolutely would not take up the subject of inheriting his mess, County Magistrate Wang could only resign himself to his bad luck and say, “You don’t need to do anything. You only need to stay alive and well until your term ends. I’ve seen the gazette — you were originally an official of the Court of Judicial Review. They didn’t throw you here to suffer. When the time comes, you’ll be promoted and return to the capital just the same.”

Zhù Ying actually did want to come here, accomplish something, and then earn a promotion — returning to the capital or not was something she personally wasn’t concerned about. Her own mother didn’t even want her returning to the capital!

She picked up a teapot and refilled County Magistrate Wang’s cup, saying, “I am young and reckless — I hope you will be generous enough to guide me. The Council of State has issued its order, and I have arrived here in person. Can you bear to watch me repeat the same mistakes you’ve made? What is there left that you need to be cautious about?”

County Magistrate Wang thought it over and said, “Very well. There’s no harm in telling you.”

Zhù Ying dismissed everyone else and had a private conversation with him.

County Magistrate Wang asked, “How did you end up in a place like this?”

Zhù Ying said, “I requested it myself.”

County Magistrate Wang looked at her the way one looks at a complete fool — like a desperate ghost searching for someone to take its place in the underworld. One look at his expression and Zhù Ying understood: this County Magistrate Wang’s shrewdness was, in her estimation, not quite sufficient. She laid out her own appointment documents. Only then did County Magistrate Wang sigh and say, “Young person, you came here on the strength of passion alone — it will be hard! Of course I also thought, this place is already in such a state that even doing a little would yield some results. Who would have known…”

Zhù Ying rose from her seat and bowed deeply. “I humbly beg your senior guidance.”

County Magistrate Wang said, “It’s exactly as I’ve described. The language barrier. The climate.”

She pressed further. Still just those two phrases. Zhù Ying genuinely couldn’t fathom how these were supposed to be insurmountable difficulties. County Magistrate Wang, seeing that she didn’t grasp his meaning, assumed she was being deliberately obtuse. The two found themselves at an impasse. County Magistrate Wang saw there was nothing more to be said and rose to take his leave.

……——

The following day, Zhù Ying returned to the circuit prefecture to seek an audience with her superior. That superior was still steadfastly ill and absolutely unable to receive any visitors.

Zhù Ying could only retreat. Xiao Wu and Cao Chang were both irritated by this — that superior owed his position entirely to his rank. His actual official grade wasn’t even higher than Zhù Ying’s!

Xiao Wu said under his breath, “My lord, is this person doing it on purpose?”

Zhù Ying said, “Quiet!” Then she sent Xiao Wu to get friendly with the gatekeepers and such at the circuit office and find out what was going on. “Invite them to that tea house over there.”

She herself walked around the circuit prefecture city, experiencing its local conditions for herself. After one walk through, she discovered a new problem.

The circuit prefecture city was only a few hundred li from the prefectural seat — a fast horse could cover it in two days. She had already learned a bit of the local dialect from the merchants and thought it more or less sufficient. Within a single prefecture, any dialect differences shouldn’t be too large; with a bit of attention, she’d probably manage fine. It was with this expectation that she arrived in the circuit prefecture city — walked a single circuit through the streets, and found that things were not quite so simple. In the prefectural seat she had already become capable of living fairly freely, but here in the circuit prefecture city she found whole stretches of speech she didn’t understand.

Zhù Ying sat in a tea house and ordered a pot of tea, listening to people’s conversations. She could follow only about fifty or sixty percent. Before long, Xiao Wu returned with one of the gatekeepers to the tea house. The gatekeeper had come with his employer to serve here and spoke official speech reasonably well.

Having already accepted Zhù Ying’s gratuity, the gatekeeper spoke quite freely. “My lord is just like this — I’ll tell you plainly, the local people here all say our lord is actually quite good this way! Give it a few more days and you’ll see for yourself — the people here don’t have many troubles.”

Zhù Ying asked him for the location of the circuit prefecture city’s bookshops and went to buy a rhyme-table. She also gave the shopkeeper a bit of money and had him read from it in the local dialect, so she could continue learning the circuit prefecture dialect. Another day passed.

The next day Zhù Ying changed into plain clothes and spent time sitting in tea houses or standing near the city gates, where notices were posted. People who could read a few characters would come and read these notices aloud, and she listened, working out the patterns of pronunciation.

That evening back at the post station, County Magistrate Wang was still at it, again trying to invite her to complete the handover now. Judging by how County Magistrate Wang had looked when he left the previous day, she had assumed he wouldn’t bother her again. To her surprise, here he was.

Zhù Ying said, “I have never heard of anyone so desperate to leave their post. I beg you to tell me plainly.”

County Magistrate Wang said, “Shamefully, it’s that I cannot endure the climate of Fulu County.”

Between the prefectural seat and the circuit prefecture city, things hadn’t seemed so dreadful. How much worse could Fulu County be? Zhù Ying didn’t believe a word of it. She said, “The handover requires not only reviewing the documents and case files but also taking physical inventory of the storehouses. How can that be done in the circuit prefecture city? Please be patient a little longer.”

They reached no agreement, but then the superior’s illness had run its course and he recovered on schedule.

Zhù Ying went to see him, and to her surprise, he turned out to be unexpectedly easy to deal with — entirely unlike the prefect she had met before. He said, “Once you’ve completed the handover with County Magistrate Wang, go to your post. If there’s anything unclear, just ask him. If you wish to stay temporarily in the circuit prefecture city — all the better. If there’s anything to discuss, just send a dispatch.”

This superior was pale-faced and showed not the slightest inclination to make things difficult for Zhù Ying — his stance was entirely: do whatever you like with Fulu County, as long as it stays “peaceful.” There was no testing or probing of any kind.

Zhù Ying also delivered calling cards and met every official of the circuit prefecture city one by one. They all radiated a sense of peace and tranquility. They accepted her gifts and returned a good quantity of local specialty products, urging her to “settle in comfortably.”

The handover wasn’t even done — how could she settle in? She could only return to the post station first.

Zhù Da, Zhang Xiangu, and the others were all waiting for her, all sharing the same thought: once they reached Fulu County, it would be their own people running things!

Zhù Ying said, “We have to wait a little more.”

Zhù Da asked, “Why? Haven’t you already made your courtesy calls to your superiors? Can they actually stop you from being county magistrate?”

Zhù Ying said, “Give it a few more days. I still have things to do.” She scanned the people who had come along with her — her biological parents were non-negotiable, they had to come. Huajie and the others were all capable helpers. All these people here were both deaf and mute in this place. To plunge headlong into Fulu County without first getting a sense of things? That kind of foolishness she was not capable of.

What really nagged at her was that everyone was telling her “don’t stir up trouble,” suggesting she live in the circuit prefecture city, and mentioning the language barrier and the bad climate as obstacles. But when had any of those things ever been real difficulties? These were excuses that even their makers hadn’t put much heart into!

So she simply sat there and did not move.

She had patience; County Magistrate Wang grew anxious and came to find her again.

Zhù Ying knew she absolutely had to take up her post, and County Magistrate Wang absolutely had to complete a handover — and he was, at bottom, a careful man. So she laid her cards on the table with him: “Senior colleague. If I were to take a wife and she came to me already carrying a child, and told me about it upfront — I’d be willing to raise that child. But if she didn’t tell me and instead let me play the fool while she sat back pleased with herself — I’d raze her entire family.”

County Magistrate Wang’s face went through something painful. “That’s putting it a bit strongly, a bit strongly. I heard you requested this posting yourself? Of all places, why Fulu County? Even staying near the prefectural seat, serving as county magistrate there would mean dealing with the prefect’s whims, but it would still be better than this Fulu County!”

He had a bellyful of grievances!

“The climate is bad too. When I arrived I was full of grand ambitions — and then I got sick. A body full of rashes! You’re so young and healthy-looking, you’ll probably be fine.”

County Magistrate Wang’s suffering was immense. Most families needed a decent amount of property before they could send a son to study and eventually become an official. Without strong connections, you’d end up posted to a place like this. County Magistrate Wang also didn’t dare simply abandon his post and run — once you ran, getting an official position in the future would become very difficult! So he could only sit it out and endure. And since he still had some family property, he had been able to afford a residence in the circuit prefecture city.

“Don’t stir up trouble,” County Magistrate Wang urged earnestly. “Look at me — there’s nothing wrong with living in the circuit prefecture city.”

He thought for a moment and produced a prescription for her. “This is something I begged from a very effective old physician — it wards off miasmic illness.”

“What is it like? I have some medicinal pills too,” Zhù Ying said, taking it.

County Magistrate Wang said, “Pills are no use! It needs to be a powder formula, freshly mixed and taken daily — that’s the only thing that works!”

He then told Zhù Ying something of Fulu County’s affairs. The entire thing came down to one sentence: don’t bother with it.

This only left Zhù Ying baffled. She asked further, but he could give no better explanation — he just said, “Everyone’s gotten through it like this.”

Zhù Ying was under a deadline. She had to reach Fulu County and complete the handover by that date, and County Magistrate Wang was being so evasive that Zhù Ying said bluntly to him, “If you’d told me everything from the start, you could go to the capital and seek a new posting. I’d handle things here. But since you won’t tell me, I don’t dare take over. I’ve come here now, and I’m not going to turn and run halfway through. What is there left for you to be cagey about?”

County Magistrate Wang had been refusing to go to Fulu County all along, and also unable to explain himself clearly. How could Zhù Ying possibly sign off on the handover blindly without going together to physically inspect the treasury? That was out of the question.

Seeing that Zhù Ying absolutely would not relent, County Magistrate Wang finally said, “Fine. I’ll go with you one more time.”

……

The two of them set off together for Fulu County. County Magistrate Wang’s face grew even more pained on the road, pointing at the paddyfields by the road and telling Zhù Ying, “Don’t be fooled by these — beyond them, everywhere else has poor land.”

Reaching the boundary of Fulu County, local gentry came out to meet them. They wore silk robes cut in a style that differed somewhat from the capital’s fashion. They spoke official speech with varying degrees of competence. Zhù Ying could understand some of it, but she pretended not to, letting County Magistrate Wang’s interpreter act as intermediary.

She smiled and said in official speech, “I am young and newly arrived. Please allow me to first complete the handover with my senior colleague County Magistrate Wang, so that I may deal with you good people of this place in a proper and official capacity.” Some of the local gentry understood a bit of official speech, and the words were passed around among them. Everyone smiled and nodded in acknowledgment.

Zhù Ying watched County Magistrate Wang as he spoke with the gentry — it was all perfectly genial.

They looked at the cart convoy Zhù Ying had brought and counted several large wagons. They decided this new county magistrate was clearly a person of means, though the people traveling with the new county magistrate didn’t look like they came from a distinguished household.

The party was welcomed into the county office. Zhù Ying had Qi Tai stay with her for the handover with County Magistrate Wang. Now that they had actually arrived, County Magistrate Wang had no more room to dodge and had to say, “Household registers and the land cadastral charts are all here.”

The chart books were dusty. Of course — all archival records accumulated dust, that was perfectly normal. But flipping through them, the contents had problems.

Fulu County was situated in a remote area. It had once been a “superior county,” but due to co-habitation with various Liao tribal peoples, its population figures were extremely elastic. In the years when the court’s military authority was at its height, the local population was large and it qualified as a superior county. Now, many people had left, the household figures were insufficient for a superior county, and by actual numbers, the place should be a middle county.

But the court’s records had a lag. The Council of State in the capital still had this place classified as a barely-qualifying superior county. The official post of magistrate of a superior county was a rank from the upper sixth rank. Wang Yunhe had sent Zhù Ying there — that was not particularly unreasonable treatment.

But the records at the circuit, prefecture, and court level had not been updated.

Furthermore, because this location sat between formal direct governance and loose tributary governance, its tax collection wasn’t fully calculated on a superior county basis — it had some preferential treatment. Wang Yunhe chose this place because, remote as it was, its numbers on paper still looked reasonable.

The current treasury of Fulu County was also short of funds and grain — due to perennial “droughts and floods.” There were also accumulated land taxes going back ten or twenty years that had never been collected.

And the area of cultivated land fluctuated between abandonment and reclamation, just as the population did.

The problem was that, on paper, this was a “superior county” and taxes were levied accordingly. Successive county magistrates had refused to report the true situation to the court and re-survey the population and land.

The reason was clear to Zhù Ying: once an investigation was conducted and a superior county was reclassified as a middle or lower county, the county magistrate’s rank would decrease, and the quotas for county officials, government school students, and so on would all be reduced.

Qi Tai pointed at one item. “What is this about?”

County Magistrate Wang didn’t answer — he just kept scratching at his own arm. Zhù Ying looked at his arm and saw it had already broken out in rashes. His face had some too. County Magistrate Wang smiled ruefully. “Please excuse me.”

Then he explained the tax figures: “You can’t blame this on me — this goes back to three predecessors ago.”

Zhù Ying had already given up expecting much of this place. The county town of Fulu was not large — a single main crossroads of two streets. The county’s territory was vast, but she shouldn’t get too excited — the area actually under her jurisdiction wasn’t that large. Much of it was deep mountains and dense forests, and those areas were largely Liao tribal territory.

Zhù Ying said, “The Liao people — tamed or wild?”

County Magistrate Wang sighed. “You really are from the capital, aren’t you — ‘tamed or wild’? They can be either!”

“Tamed” referred to those who had been registered in the court’s household registers; “wild” referred to those who had not. After living as “tamed” for a long time, they gradually became ordinary subjects of the state. But if something went wrong, even ordinary subjects could flee into the deep mountains and become “wild” again. The three categories, naturally, were subject to different tax and corvée obligations.

Zhù Ying said, “Wang, I’m already here now. Whatever there is, just tell me directly.”

County Magistrate Wang, seeing that she showed no sign of wanting to run, and wanting to get away quickly himself, finally told more of the truth. “It’s genuinely poor, but not to the point where people are starving. It’s not exactly rich either — the prosperity is all in the prefectural seat. The circuit prefecture city doesn’t even come close to that kind of wealth. Around the prefecture and county towns, especially at the prefectural seat, trade is very active. Deep in the south there are precious goods with extremely high profit margins. The newest fashions from the capital — they can put a few examples on display. As long as you don’t go too far from the circuit prefecture city, life is quite comfortable.

Those Liao people — absolutely do not provoke them! A predecessor — not a county magistrate but the prefect at the time — wanted to establish a great achievement. He tricked several Liao Cavern Chiefs into coming for an alliance meeting, got them drunk, and killed them all. After that the Liao people no longer trusted the court. So I’m urging you — go live in the circuit prefecture city. Don’t meddle in anything else.”

Zhù Ying said, “I had never heard of this incident.”

“Of course not. It was covered up. If I hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t have known about it either. He killed the Cavern Chiefs and drove the wild Liao into the household registers — that counted as his achievement. And then?” County Magistrate Wang spread both hands wide. “Better to have left it alone.”

Qi Tai and the local accounts clerk were doing the inventory of the treasury, and as they counted they began to feel something was wrong — the figures matched too precisely. In any audit, figures that don’t add up are a problem, but figures that match too perfectly are an even bigger problem. Nevertheless, the local staff had balanced the treasury and accounts to perfection, and Qi Tai had no way to find fault.

County Magistrate Wang, seeing the accounts balanced, finally said, “Zhù, come on then!”

Zhù Ying also had her wits about her. She drew up her own list of what she was receiving, with the total figures, and had County Magistrate Wang also press his seal to it before they considered the handover complete.

The moment County Magistrate Wang saw Zhù Ying’s signature was done, he said with delight, “This year’s public field revenue — it’s all yours! No need to send it over! Farewell!” And he scurried off with great joy.

The court allocated a portion of public fields to each government office, whose rents served as operating funds for that office. In practice, the proceeds were at the senior official’s discretion. This was a not-insignificant source of income for local officials, along with various other supplementary gains — which was why some capital officials sought postings in the provinces. The fact that County Magistrate Wang forfeited even this year’s income showed that Fulu County was genuinely not a good posting.

……——

Zhù Ying had completed the handover with County Magistrate Wang and knew perfectly well that he hadn’t told her everything, but she had no choice for now but to take on this situation.

First she politely declined the local gentry’s invitations and had the family and luggage unloaded at the county office.

The county office was quite a bit larger than her house in the capital, occupying the best position in this not-at-all-prosperous county town. It sat to the north, centrally placed, with the front offices and the rear residential quarters behind. The front held the main hall, the duty rooms, and so on; the rear was where the county magistrate and family lived.

Unfortunately, since County Magistrate Wang also hadn’t brought his family and hadn’t been living there, both the front offices and the rear quarters had been left unused for several years. When word came that a new county magistrate was arriving, people had hurried to clean up. The front offices were tolerable — Zhù Ying surveyed them and found the duty rooms, gatehouse, and jail had been in use all along and were reasonably tidy.

She didn’t know that during County Magistrate Wang’s time living in the circuit prefecture city, minor officials and clerks had actually moved their families into the rear quarters of the county office, and had only just moved out two days ago.

When they moved out, they took the firewood, rice, oil, salt, charcoal, and water vats with them, leaving nothing but empty rooms. The house was just a house — not a stick of furniture remained.

Zhù Da said, “What is the meaning of this?”

Zhù Ying said calmly, “I’ve seen that the local bamboo goods are quite fine — I was thinking of trying bamboo furniture. Xiao Wu, go with Eldest Sister and choose some furniture. Get a few beds first so we can sleep tonight.”

The county town was very small — only two furniture shops. Huajie, following Zhù Ying’s suggestion, went to the ordinary shop first and bought several bamboo beds. The beds were very cheap. Huajie also ordered several bamboo cabinets and two bamboo tables. She came back and said, “We can add other things gradually.”

Zhù Ying smiled. “That works.”

Huajie said, “Are you not going to meet with the local gentry?”

Zhù Ying shook her head. “No need.”

“Oh?”

Zhù Ying gave her a knowing look. “I’m just a fledgling sent from the capital — I don’t know anything about being an official. I can only go by what the books say. Let’s see how they act first.”

Huajie and Zhang Xiangu joined Qi Tai’s daughter and Nanny Du to unload the carts and put the rooms in order. They divided things up: Zhù Ying took the main chamber, Zhù Da and his wife took the western courtyard, Huajie took the eastern courtyard, Qi Tai and his daughter shared a guest courtyard, and Xiao Wu, Cao Chang, Hou Wu, and the others were all in the side courtyards.

Only at this point did the whole party discover a problem — they had no cook. Asking Zhang Xiangu and Huajie to cook for people like Hou Wu was entirely inappropriate. Nanny Du was willing, but her cooking skills were a source of quiet despair. All the way here they had been staying at post stations and eating at post stations. When had they ever needed their own cook? The local flavors they weren’t used to either. Only when it came to mealtime did everyone notice something was wrong.

Xiao Wu stood to the side serving at the meal, watching Zhù Ying eat every bite without a single wrinkle of her brow, and he drew in a sharp breath — what kind of life is Lord Zhù living?

Qi Tai’s daughter couldn’t watch any longer and volunteered, “I’ll cook from now on.”

Huajie said, “I’ll do it with you.”

Qi Tai’s daughter couldn’t allow that. She said, “There’s no need — with Nanny Du to tend the fire, that’s enough. Besides, I can’t just live here without contributing. I look after my father’s meals too…”

Qi Tai said, “Oh? But wasn’t the arrangement…”

Qi Tai’s daughter stepped on his foot under the table and took over the cooking duties in exchange for the household’s meals.

After eating, Zhù Ying went to help Cao Chang and the others unload the carts. They were all startled and rushed forward to stop her, absolutely refusing to let Zhù Ying unload anything. Once the carts were unloaded, she kept the drivers for two more days and then would issue them travel passes to go home. The drivers helped carry the boxes down.

Zhù Ying said, “If you would — help open these.”

The drivers had at first assumed the contents were gold and silver valuables, then guessed they were northern goods for trade. Now they were thoroughly curious and helped open the boxes. Inside were all manner of wooden scale models.

Cao Chang picked one up and said, “It’s a plow!”

Zhù Ying said in a dejected tone, “Yes it is.”

Her final reason for agreeing to bring Cao Chang along — besides his honest and simple nature — was that he was properly from a farming background, a proper upright commoner. They said the south used slash-and-burn farming; bringing a real farmer along would at least be useful for teaching planting methods, wouldn’t it?

The several boxes that the merchants had carried for her contained none of the furniture or curios she might have been expected to bring — they were models of farming implements. Her thinking had been: since the south was remote and in a wild state, bringing northern farming tools and teaching the locals to use them would surely benefit cultivation?

But from the prefectural seat all the way to the county town, she had seen fields after fields of paddies. “Slash-and-burn”? What slash-and-burn? All she saw was extensive irrigated paddy fields!

Paddy fields were not the same as the vast sweeping croplands of the north. The tools needed for their cultivation also differed from those for dry land. She had learned something of irrigation alongside crop cultivation while working under Wang Yunhe in the capital prefecture — but what she’d learned was growing millet, wheat, and beans! The north’s crops entirely!

And the southern heat meant planting and harvesting seasons were entirely different from the north!

Of the several cartloads of things she had brought — how much of it would actually prove useful? That remained to be seen.

Zhù Ying took a slow, deep breath and said, “Everyone has been tired from the journey. Let’s rest for two days before we do anything else.”

Her new quarters were considerably larger than her place in the capital, but far less comfortable.

Her room was very bare. Besides a bamboo bed, a bamboo table and chair, and a bamboo cabinet — nothing else. The book chests she had carried from the capital were still inside their packing crates, no bookshelves yet on which to arrange them.

One couldn’t really blame the local constables for not having prepared anything — the previous County Magistrate Wang had simply not been living here. And Wang’s rashes were genuine: whenever he came to the county seat, his whole body broke out in red welts; once he was back in the circuit prefecture city, he was fine. So naturally there was no point preparing furniture for the county magistrate’s quarters.

Though on the county office’s accounts, all that furniture was listed as fully existing.

The climate here was hot and humid, with abundant mosquitoes. Zhù Ying lit mugwort to repel them, spread paper on the bare bamboo table in the lamplight, turned up the wick, and began writing a letter to Zheng Xi.

……

Zheng Xi received the letter Zhù Ying had written to him — a thick one. The thickness of it somewhat smoothed over his displeasure.

Zhù Ying’s letter appeared to have been written in several installments, each several pages long, accumulated into a thick stack before she dispatched it. Zheng Xi read Zhù Ying’s letter for the first time and found the experience quite novel.

Zhù Ying didn’t complain to him at all. She only told him amusing things. To set his mind at ease, she told him about the mistakes she had made: she had suspected County Magistrate Wang of concealing things, but it turned out he was telling the truth — the language barrier really was a serious matter.

She herself picked up dialects quickly, but the people who had come with her were suffering terribly. Huajie and Qi Tai’s daughter could learn a few everyday phrases, but the others still largely used their home dialect day to day.

The local people’s official speech was atrocious, but “they thought they were speaking it with perfect purity and tone…” The result was perpetual confusion, like chickens trying to talk to ducks. It was only after Nanny Du bought the wrong things several times at the market that Zhù Ying recognized the full extent of the problem. She had done her best to understand others, but sometimes that understanding was still not enough.

Zheng Xi laughed aloud! He stopped worrying about Zhù Ying. A language barrier, at any time, was the great enemy of governance — it meant being deaf and mute. That Zhù Ying navigated the language with no difficulty at all meant this most fundamental obstacle was already cleared.

And indeed it was so. Zhù Ying pretended not to understand when she in fact did. Each day she would randomly pick one of the county town’s shops, go in, look with great curiosity at the various local specialty products and handicrafts, and leave having bought a small something to take home. Sometimes she rode her horse out of the town and wandered slowly about, returning before the gates closed, occasionally picking a couple of wildflowers on the way.

She was gradually learning the situation of Fulu County.

Here, the poor couldn’t eat their fill — but it seemed that most people wouldn’t actually starve to death either. Resources were scarce, yet people somehow scraped through. Yet there were also many fresh and unusual things found nowhere else. Poor — but not poor enough to die. Rich — and some people were genuinely well-off. Around the town walls: a scene of pastoral farmland. No more than a hundred li outside the town: a scene of wild frontier.

Even the students at the county school couldn’t get the official speech tones right. Because the previous magistrate had lived in the circuit prefecture city, the public fields had been left to the management of local officials. Those officials were still managing the public fields — one couldn’t really fault them for that. The same was true of many other county affairs. If the county magistrate didn’t manage them, the court wasn’t managing them — did that mean people would stop living their lives? They still had to thank the people who maintained order!

In the county town, roadside vendors didn’t even use copper coins — they traded entirely by barter. The capital also had some barter trade, generally using rice or cloth. But Fulu County was different — rice and cloth here were only a standard of value. People would estimate a rough equivalent using these two things and then simply exchange goods directly. Meat for wine, fruit for silk flowers, and so on.

And the dialects — cross a river, cross a mountain range, and the speech would shift, half-recognizable and half-incomprehensible. Not completely changed, but not quite mutually intelligible either.

In Fulu County, because the previous county magistrate had done so little, the county’s various affairs had been taken over by local minor officials and gentry. Now that Zhù Ying, the actual county magistrate, had arrived, she found herself being kept out of things. On her first day of arrival, the gentry came to pay their respects and reported absolutely nothing requiring attention — all was peaceful and orderly. They were effectively letting her “govern by doing nothing.”

This aligned perfectly with Zhù Ying’s plans. She made no move and stayed quietly put. Her family, however, were beginning to lose their patience.

Zhù Da and Zhang Xiangu’s original intention had been to get far away from the capital and live a good life somewhere quiet. The journey here, though tiring, had carried a certain sense of dignity, and the old couple’s thoughts had grown a touch bolder. With their accumulated experience, recalling the power and prestige of a county magistrate’s life, they had imagined themselves arriving in Fulu County as a kind of local royalty.

Actually reaching Fulu County, both felt as though cold water had been poured over them.

Fulu County’s dialect was yet another variety, entirely different from those of the prefectural seat and the circuit prefecture city! Never mind them — even Zhù Ying had to learn it from scratch. The county office was bare and echoing, furniture to be acquired piece by piece. Within just two days of arriving, Zhù Ying had signed travel documents and sent Zheng Yi’s large carts and drivers on their way.

In this vast Fulu County, the “people on their side” counted only their own family, the Qi family father and daughter, Hou, Cao, Wu, and Nanny Du — ten people in all. No one could understand what others said to them, let alone expect anyone to follow their instructions.

Zhù Da and Zhang Xiangu could no longer put on any airs. For several days running they were in the rear quarters busy arranging the household. In the capital, Zhù Ying had handled the domestic arrangements; now the two of them had to manage — they couldn’t very well have Zhù Ying go out personally to buy water vats and iron pots, could they?

They spent the better part of half a month getting the rear quarters into some semblance of a home. Then they looked back at Zhù Ying, and found that throughout this entire period, she had done absolutely nothing! In her free time she would change into plain clothes and find somewhere to squat in the old streets, and when she was in a good mood she would sit in a tea house. Sometimes she even had entertainers sing her a song or two. When she came back from wandering the streets she would even bring Zhù Da a blue cloth vest as a gift.

The old couple looked at each other.

Zhù Da said, “I’ll go talk to her.”

Zhang Xiangu said, “What would you talk to her about?!”

“Then what would you say?”

Zhang Xiangu said, “I say — have Huajie talk to her. Those two are educated!”

“I’m educated too!”

“Huajie taught her.”

“I’m her father!”

“And I’m her mother!”

The two squabbled for a bit. Zhù Da ultimately gave in and went back to polishing the bone-ash urns. Zhang Xiangu entrusted the matter to Huajie.

Huajie was also internally worried. In the capital, Zhù Ying had been so masterful — navigating the Court of Judicial Review, dealing with all manner of major cases and powerful figures, handling everything smoothly. And in just a few years she had built a home in the capital. But now, in this remote Fulu County, Zhù Ying had been going days on end with no sign of action.

She brought a pot of cool tea to Zhù Ying’s room. Zhù Ying was reading at the bamboo table, and looked up. “You’re worried about me?”

Huajie smiled. “A little. I worry you have too much on your mind and won’t let it out.”

Zhù Ying said, “There is a fair amount.”

Huajie said, “Even a meal has to be eaten one bite at a time. Whatever ideas you have, don’t try to do everything at once. I think — whether it’s Lord Wang or anyone else — when they first started doing things, it wasn’t the case that everyone listened to them from day one.”

Zhù Ying said, “Is this what you thought yourself, or did Mother and Father send you to say it?”

“Both.”

Zhù Ying said, “Tell them I’m working things out in my head — there’s nothing wrong.”

“All right.”

“Give it a bit more time. I want to observe a bit more before making a move.”

Huajie asked, “Have you made up your mind?”

Zhù Ying smiled faintly. “A little.”

Huajie said, “How are you going to manage things?”

Zhù Ying said, “Obviously by going through the accounts first! Why else did I bring Qi Tai? These past days while I’ve been out wandering, I’ve had Qi Tai going through the accounts. I…”

She was about to continue when Xiao Wu burst in from outside, breathless with sweat, saying, “My lord. The Prefect has sent someone — he summons you to the prefect’s residence!”

Zhù Ying exchanged a glance with Huajie. Huajie quietly withdrew to the rear quarters. Zhù Ying said, “The messenger — show them in.”