Chapter 180: Sending Gifts

Leng Yun had finally encountered something that gave him pleasure, and the damp heat of the weather suddenly felt less unbearable.

He turned to Zhang Xiangu and Zhù’s father with a smile. “Let’s share a simple meal together. Someone go tell the back — prepare quarters for them. Don’t bother with the relay station — too much coming and going, uncomfortable to stay there.”

Zhang Xiangu and Zhù’s father both smiled and said, “How could we impose like that?” Their feet shifted a little with the barely-contained impulse to stand and accept. The prefectural governor’s residence — spending even one night here would be a novelty worth bragging about for quite some time.

Zhù Ying said, “There are also people in our traveling party still at the relay station. Your Excellency may recall the matter of the Fellow Townsmen’s Guild I mentioned — I’ve brought those people with me. If I’m not there, I’m afraid the relay station staff might chase them out. They haven’t been to the prefectural city in years and want to get out and see things, buy a few novelties — to move over here as well, with all the noise and fuss that would bring, isn’t worth the disruption. Better to stay at the relay station.”

Leng Yun said, “Is that so?”

Zhù Ying said, “I also need to settle them in. I may be in the prefectural city for a while, Your Excellency — if there is anything you need, just send someone to call on me, won’t that do?”

Leng Yun said, “Good! Well then — no more official business today. Come, let me host a welcome banquet.”

The cuisine of the prefectural governor’s residence was far superior to the county yamen’s, and Leng Yun’s banquet was a different matter altogether from Zhù Ying’s hosting of local gentry. The gentry were several to a table; here, each person had an individual setting. Where Zhù Ying’s table had chicken and duck and fish and pork to be considered presentable, here at Leng Yun’s courses from land and sea came in a flowing stream and were laid across the food trays one after another.

Zhù’s father wanted to help his daughter put on a good show, so he first raised his cup and toasted Leng Yun. “Thanks to Your Excellency’s kind favor — since we arrived here, we haven’t seen fine things like these in years!”

Zhang Xiangu had meant to think him too eager and pull him back down, but found herself unable to quite manage it in front of company. After Zhù’s father spoke, Zhang Xiangu said nothing further. Everyone in the room had come from the capital — even the guests of honor, Master Xue and Master Dong, were northerners — and something in all of them was stirred.

Leng Yun said, “Well, this is how it is — compared to the capital it falls far short, and there are things I want that I can’t get half of here.”

Zhù Ying said, “There is gain and there is loss — why sigh over it? We’re all here now, so let’s just keep doing what we’re doing! Even when I miss the capital, I have no desire to go slinking back in disgrace. That I will not do.”

She had seen everything at the capital’s tables and had spent time in the Court of Judicial Review managing its finances for years, though her own rank was not high. She had seen the splendor of marquis and prince residences alike.

After coming to Fulu County, her means had gradually grown, but these things were rarely to be seen.

So what of it?

Zhù Ying didn’t care in the slightest.

“We might just pack it in and go, but who wants to leave with their tail between their legs? If we’re going to leave, let it be with our heads held high.”

These words struck at the very core of Leng Yun’s feelings — they were exactly his own temperament. He slapped the table. “Well said! Today let’s drink our fill! Tomorrow you come, and we’ll plan everything out properly.”

Zhù Ying didn’t drink wine, but Zhù’s father shared drinks with the others. Zhù Ying exchanged a few words with Leng Yun here and there, and in three sentences had drawn from him the confirmation that this summons had indeed been Leng Yun’s own idea. The reason was exactly what Master Xue had said — Leng Yun was convinced Prefect Lu had left him a pit, and that pit was the accounts. Master Xue had not lied.

Master Dong quietly sighed, reached over and clinked his cup against Master Xue’s, then bowed his head and went back to picking at his food. What a catastrophe — who doesn’t have to fill in their predecessor’s holes? The holes Leng Yun had inherited were barely worth calling holes at all. The people behind the holes — now those were the real trouble. But Leng Yun was convinced that, aside from the ones who’d been caught, all the other officials in the prefecture were perfectly fine — decent, reliable people.

An employer like this had his advisors’ hearts lurching constantly between hope and despair — utterly exhausting.

Master Xue glanced at Zhù Ying and saw she wore a perfectly appropriate light smile on her face — neither distant nor fawning, simply warm and pleasant. Thinking of how she had refused earlier to write up a plan or anything that could be pinned down on paper, he realized she was no easy lamp either. No wonder she’d been able to handle Leng Yun so well in their time at the Court of Judicial Review.

Leng Yun was essentially what Zhù Ying had expected. She understood Leng Yun, and had adapted to his changes, setting herself at just the right distance and conversational register for talking with him.

Leng Yun said, “Seventh Brother in the Eastern Palace is uncomfortable too — he even says he wants to be posted to the provinces. I think they should just let him come here, and see what the two of you manage to stir up together.”

Zhang Xiangu thought: That would be truly wonderful.

Zhù Ying said, “I’m only a county magistrate, still far from the prefectural city, and still with work to do. I’ll come first thing tomorrow morning.”

Leng Yun said, “Good! Hmm — and what about this Fellow Townsmen’s Guild of yours? How is it coming along? Any difficulties, just tell me.”

Zhù Ying said, “We just need to find a suitable location.”

Leng Yun said, “All you’re going to use it for is selling oranges?”

Zhù Ying saw from his expression that he had something more to say, and asked, “What does Your Excellency have in mind?”

Leng Yun stroked his chin. “What about opening one in the capital?”

Zhù Ying was mildly surprised — she hadn’t expected Leng Yun to have a thought like this. She kept her face still and asked, “How did Your Excellency come to have that idea?”

“It would be convenient.”

Zhù Ying thought: He’s not entirely without ideas — he can think things through a little.

Leng Yun grew more and more convinced that this was a splendid plan as he talked about it: “Set one up in the capital! Going forward, for small matters, we wouldn’t need to use the official relay courier — which is such a bother anyway. And also — oh — procurement would be more convenient too.”

Master Dong quickly said, “The cost would likely be very high, the expenditure enormous.” Master Xue followed up, “That would get you impeached by the censors, I’m afraid.”

Leng Yun was the prefect, and two senior ministers had been unhappy about it from the start. There were also others in court who didn’t look fondly on him. Serving as an unremarkable idle-noble sort of prefect was just about tolerable — nobody could be bothered traveling this far to find fault with him. But setting up a guild specifically to provision himself with food and goods, making a spectacle of it in the capital? Better to simply send his own household servant — no need for the whole “guild” pretext.

Leng Yun’s brow furrowed.

Zhù Ying said, “The Fellow Townsmen’s Guilds I established were because Fulu County was so impoverished — if people didn’t find a way out into the wider world, they would suffocate in that remote corner. The idea was to open a road for them, so that even after I left they would have something to keep going with. But to sustain itself it has to earn its keep, otherwise it’s a losing enterprise and it can’t last. Yet if it’s left entirely to informal gatherings of private individuals, it won’t be under any management and will have no connection to the government. Fulu County is small — going to the capital is far too soon.”

Leng Yun said, “It always comes back to money?”

He chewed on his thumb, thinking as he spoke. “It really is a headache. Fulu County is too small — can’t do it. Then… let’s use the prefecture’s name!”

Master Xue and Master Dong thought: This is a disaster.

They had already intervened once. To openly override Leng Yun again in front of an “outsider” would make him lose face — and then things would truly become unmanageable.

The two men said nothing. Leng Yun was already telling Zhù Ying with great cheer, “Then let them go ahead and arrange it.”

Zhù Ying made no move to stop him either. Zhang Xiangu and Zhù’s father assumed that whatever their daughter was doing was right, and that Leng Yun following her example must be fine too, so they both joined in cheerfully: “Won’t that be so much more convenient going forward!”

“Right?” Leng Yun said.

The three of them exchanged a round of anticipation about how convenient things would be. Night fell, lamps were lit. The food spread was replaced for the third time, and Zhù Ying, seeing that Zhù’s father’s tongue was getting thick, said, “Your Excellency, we should take our leave. Please also rest early — there is still business to discuss tomorrow.”

“Go then!”

Master Dong and Master Xue, seeing him a little into his wine as well, didn’t think it was a good moment to remonstrate. The two of them conferred and settled on a plan: delay!

Delay until he discovered that not a single official in this prefecture was a harmless pushover — keep him too preoccupied for other fancies.

Master Dong said, “Will it work?”

Master Xue said, “Our Prefect does have a mind — it’s simply not engaged very often, so people have gotten the impression he doesn’t have one. Compared to someone who is truly resistant to all reason and counsel, he’s not so difficult to manage.”

Master Dong heard this and laughed.

……

After Master Xue and Master Dong worked out their plan, they kept the matter quiet and instructed those present not to spread it further. On that account, Master Xue rose early the next morning and went to the relay station to ask Zhù Ying also to keep it confidential.

Zhù Ying said, “I understand.”

Master Xue asked Zhù Ying a few more things about the prefectural city’s officials. Zhù Ying spread her hands and said, “I have not been inside these walls — what I know is limited, and dealing with people requires reading situations as they develop. I wouldn’t dare make loose pronouncements.”

Master Xue, finding her this difficult to nail down, suddenly felt that Leng Yun was quite endearing by comparison.

Zhù Ying went to the prefectural governor’s residence herself, leaving Hou Wu and Xiang An behind with the family’s three elders. She brought Xiao Wu, Xiang Le, and Cao Chang with her to see Leng Yun.

Meeting Leng Yun, she didn’t raise the matter of the Fellow Townsmen’s Guild, and before Leng Yun could open his mouth, she brought up the planting of winter wheat.

Leng Yun immediately sat up straight. “I was just going to bring this up with you! Now that the handover is complete, the household and land registers are all in my hands. You can review them now — you can’t say anymore that you don’t know the numbers and can’t speak to them.”

Zhù Ying said, “That’s exactly what I want to discuss.”

Leng Yun listened with full attention as Zhù Ying first laid out her own experience. “I started planting on the public agricultural fields. Food is the foundation of the people’s lives — precisely because it is so important, stability must come first, and one must not rush to change things. You have to draw people in with the prospect of gain. Once the farming families have seen the results with their own eyes, they will naturally be willing. Starting with the public fields also has another benefit — you see the whole process from beginning to end yourself, and no one can deceive you about it afterward.”

Leng Yun said, “Ah, running an affair is actually this much work! In the capital I never felt this way.”

“Of course not. How many hundreds of people were in the Court of Judicial Review then? Having worked there long enough, you knew everyone. Now a whole prefecture, a whole county — how many people is that? The more people, the more business, and the more tiring. But look — there’s no one watching your every move here either. That’s its own kind of freedom.”

Leng Yun curled his lip. “You’re saying pretty words again to appease me! There’s no freedom in the accounts being in the red!”

“You’ve seen far worse cases than this — cases a hundred times more serious!”

“A hundred times more serious? Those were cases I saw in the Court of Judicial Review — and the people in them were already in prison!” Leng Yun said.

He was not to be easily appeased now. Zhù Ying simply stopped trying and asked instead, “Has Your Excellency inventoried how much public agricultural land there is?”

At the mention of this, Leng Yun’s temper flared again — because Prefect Lu had been fairly capable, and beyond what he had inherited from his predecessor, he had also acquired additional public agricultural land over his term. During the period between Prefect Lu’s departure and Leng Yun’s arrival, some of it had been embezzled. Fortunately, Master Dong had spotted the discrepancy in the accounts — he had gone through the income figures year by year, found the rent receipts, and divided by the proportion actually collected. The figure didn’t match the acreage recorded in the ledgers.

But the person in charge insisted: “That’s all there is. The court set those acreage numbers.”

Leng Yun hadn’t caught it at first. Only after Master Dong walked him through the logic had he understood.

The court assigned public agricultural land of a fixed quota to each level of government office, but like any policy, execution in the field always diverged from the specification — some places had more, some less. Leng Yun had previously been someone who left everything to others and had never paid this any attention. It was Master Dong’s prompting that made him recall: that’s right — Zhù Ying had also expanded assets when she was at the Court of Judicial Review. And Su Kuang’s crime had been exactly that — embezzlement and illegal sale of public assets.

Things of this sort added up to quite a few instances in various forms.

Zhù Ying listened to all Leng Yun had to say, suspecting that among the “capable people” Prefect Lu had cultivated, some had already caught the scent of Leng Yun’s naivete.

She waited until Leng Yun finished and said, “Don’t be angry — wasn’t some of it recovered? How about this: let this year’s southern prefectural capital and the prefectural city both start planting on the public agricultural land? That way the numbers aren’t too large at the outset, and it’s still manageable.”

Leng Yun said, “All right.”

Before, Zhù Ying had worried most about Prefect Lu obstructing the promotion of winter wheat cultivation across the prefecture. Now she worried instead that Leng Yun would be reckless. By first having Leng Yun personally oversee the planting and experience the hardship himself — getting some sense of how it worked — she ensured he wouldn’t go ahead and decide to spread winter wheat across the whole prefecture in a single year.

How many mu of fields, how much seed grain was required, how to plant it, and how to distribute the harvested wheat as seed grain for the following season — these were all concrete, practical questions. They couldn’t be solved by simply issuing a decree to “distribute to all counties for cultivation.” Of course, if this made it into the historical records, it might be written up as exactly that one sentence — “distributed to all counties for cultivation.” But no one would ever know that behind that one sentence lay years of effort — and that was the optimistic version. If things didn’t go smoothly, it might take twenty years before the whole prefecture was used to growing wheat.

Letting Leng Yun get a taste of it — even if he later got overenthusiastic and forgot the lesson, she could remind him again, and this time there would be concrete evidence to point to.

Leng Yun blundered into the arrangement Zhù Ying had laid out without ever noticing, and even told her she was considerate. Since it wasn’t the planting season yet, and Leng Yun learned that it was after the autumn harvest — somewhere in the ninth or tenth month — that winter wheat was sown, he agreed with Zhù Ying: “After next year’s autumn harvest, when it’s time to deliver the grain taxes, come when you come and we’ll talk it through in more detail. And bring some seed grain.”

Zhù Ying said, “Good — shall we compare some figures then?”

Leng Yun said, “For that, just talk to Master Dong!”

Zhù Ying thought: Just you wait.

She turned and went to find Master Dong. Master Dong was delighted to have something real to do and only wished autumn would arrive sooner. He too was a little anxious, and said, “Just now, documents arrived from the various sub-prefectures and counties — it seems spring plowing was indeed somewhat delayed in certain places, and the harvest may be short. And since it wasn’t a natural disaster, the taxes cannot be reduced. The people will find it hard going the moment the new Prefect arrives, and who knows what they’ll say about him.”

Zhù Ying said, “Once winter wheat takes hold, the reputation will turn around. Being an official — how can you avoid being criticized? I came to discuss something else with Master Dong.”

“Oh?”

“It seems to me that His Excellency ought to understand something about agriculture — but he doesn’t want to manage it directly.”

“That is rather ideal,” Master Dong said in all sincerity.

Zhù Ying said with a straight face, “Steering by indirection and keeping him in the dark are not sustainable in the long run. Better to let him know a little.”

“He probably won’t be willing.”

Leng Yun would absolutely never consider going to the fields to see things for himself.

Zhù Ying said, “So we need a method — one that makes him unable to avoid getting involved. I thought the approach you used to uncover the embezzlement of the public agricultural land was very effective — he cared about it, something went wrong with it, and so he had no choice but to learn something. It worked.”

“Magistrate Zhù — His Excellency cannot afford to keep running into problems like this from the start.”

“Let’s make it up.”

Master Dong said, “I have it! Let us stage a quarrel — we’ll pretend to disagree about how much seed grain is needed per mu, make a great fuss about it, and bring the dispute before him. He’ll have to listen whether he wants to or not.”

Zhù Ying and Master Dong then staged a little performance between themselves. They bargained back and forth, one offering an outrageous high price and the other beating it down to nothing. Master Dong opened with five hundred bushels — not a drop less — and Zhù Ying countered down to twenty. The two of them argued it all the way to Leng Yun’s door, and Leng Yun was taken aback — he knew Zhù Ying’s ability, and these days he’d also seen enough to know Master Dong’s. Whose side was he to take?

He had no choice but to look it up himself, consulting some agricultural texts, reading through them with effort, picking out only the line about how much seed grain was required per mu. He then summoned some local farmers to ask. The local farmers spoke only the local dialect and couldn’t manage the official tongue, so a minor clerk of the prefectural residence served as interpreter. In the end, the answer that came out was a figure larger than Zhù Ying’s and smaller than Master Dong’s.

Leng Yun sat up in the seat of authority, summoned both parties, and said, “I have always trusted you, and this is how you give me a perfunctory answer?”

His fair, clear face, set in a stern expression, truly had the look of those imposing, beautiful figures praised in ancient ballads. Zhù Ying said, “Your Excellency, this is not perfunctory at all.”

“You still dare argue? Your figures were so far apart!”

Zhù Ying said, “When this subordinate was negotiating with Vice Minister Xi and the various bureau heads at the Ministry of Revenue, they bargained far more aggressively than this!”

Master Dong also said, “Your Excellency — for anything to get settled in a single go, you need the two parties to have an implicit understanding. Either both are gentlemen acting in good faith, in which case there’s naturally no dispute — or both are colluding in advance, in which case there would also be no dispute. This subordinate and Magistrate Zhù, well… this subordinate has been too much in the habit of haggling with others and forgot that here, with Your Excellency, we don’t need to do that.”

The two of them acted out a little performance, fed Leng Yun a bit of knowledge, and Leng Yun’s expression softened. “Stop wasting time — just agree on a number.”

The two settled on a figure somewhat on the higher side, drawing on the local farmers’ experience as reference. Leng Yun said, “That’s how it should be. And your guild — how is it coming along?”

Even while managing Leng Yun, Zhù Ying had not let the Fellow Townsmen’s Guild slip. Setting one up here didn’t require buying land or building — she had found a spot, neither too central nor too remote, and rented a courtyard of middling size. It was swept out and tidied without any particularly lavish decoration, simply clean and in order — and that was enough of a start. The prefectural city’s rents weren’t as high as the capital’s, but they were still considerable. Money couldn’t all be sunk into this one thing, so renting rather than buying was the approach for now, with the option to reconsider once means grew.

Zhù Ying said to Leng Yun, “We just need a plaque — and I must ask Your Excellency to write the characters.”

Leng Yun smiled. “Easy enough.”

Officials could openly receive calligraphy fees for inscriptions — Leng Yun knew this perfectly well, but he had no intention of charging Zhù Ying. She had done him real service, and he knew it — just chose not to say so. He wrote out “Fulu County Fellow Townsmen’s Guild” in full as a horizontal banner and handed it to Zhù Ying, waiting to see what she would do next.

Zhù Ying took the banner, had it made into a proper plaque, then sent Xiao Wu to lead Elder Zhang and the other two to the prefectural governor’s residence to deliver the calligraphy fee. This payment came from the guild’s accounts, to be deducted from future revenues. Everything was handled in the name of the Fellow Townsmen’s Guild — the Fulu County yamen itself then conveniently pretended it had nothing to do with any of this.

Leng Yun saw that money had been brought and refused to accept it, cheerfully cursing: “Playing this little game! Who is short of this pittance? Take it back.”

Elder Zhang and the others didn’t dare take it back. They took his refusal to be what one says in such situations — it takes insisting three times to firmly refuse, and in the end one must accept. They stood their ground, firmly “pressing” until they had no choice but to leave the money.

Xiao Wu put on a pitiful face and pleaded with Leng Yun: “Your Excellency, this is rightfully yours. If you don’t accept it, when I go back, our magistrate will say I’m useless and send me packing — what will become of me? Have mercy, Your Excellency, please.”

Leng Yun held firm: “Stop performing that helpless routine! Someone see them out. And send word to Sanlang — on the day the guild opens, I’m coming to have a look.”

On that day, Leng Yun dressed in plain clothes but still attracted considerable attention — quite a number of people gathered to watch. He was a little taller than Zhù Ying, and both his manner and his attendants were considerably more distinguished than hers, the bearing of a true nobleman and a fine figure of authority. He also attracted admiring sounds from some of the women who had come to look.

Their words he couldn’t understand either — he dismounted before the guild, quite dashingly, and from somewhere in the crowd came a few women’s compliments. Those who heard couldn’t help laughing. Leng Yun surveyed the location, about to remark that it was “too far from the center, and too small,” but seeing this first asked Zhù Ying, “What are they all laughing at? What did they say?”

Zhù Ying was deliberately laughing — the others couldn’t contain themselves, but she was someone who had never been given to dramatic expressions of feeling. She laughed and said, “They say you’re handsome.”

“You’re making it up?”

“Have you never looked in a mirror? Whether you’re handsome or not — don’t you know yourself?”

“Really?”

“You ask me for the truth and then you don’t believe me. With a face like yours, if the heavens ever told me they favored me, I’d hold up a mirror and then look over at you, and I’d have to write back to the heavens: ‘Fraud!'”

Leng Yun couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing too. “You’re being mischievous again!”

Zhù Ying said, “When I’m mischievous I don’t act like this. As for you, Your Excellency — not being able to understand the local dialect really is an inconvenience. Xiao Wu!”

Xiao Wu stepped up promptly. Zhù Ying said, “His father is Old Wu.”

“Oh! Xiao Tao is his brother-in-law, isn’t he? And the one in the women’s prison…”

Xiao Wu quickly said, “That is this servant’s elder sister.”

Leng Yun grinned. “One of our own people! Eh? Wait — I’ve seen you before. That year when you went to the capital for the New Year — wasn’t it you?”

Xiao Wu gave a wide grin, nearly went floating, then quickly planted himself back on the ground. “Yes. This servant visited your residence and was noticed by the Excellencies.”

Zhù Ying said, “May I borrow him for a while?”

“Sure!”

“He’ll need to be returned eventually — I’m counting on him to do work.”

“Stingy!”

“I have Cao Chang and Hou Wu too — the three of them all came together from that place. If you break them apart, can you honestly say that doesn’t bother you?”

Leng Yun drew a sharp breath and said, “You need to take on a few more people to do your bidding.” He knew those two men well enough.

He kept Xiao Wu, with the agreement that Xiao Wu would return to Fulu County after the autumn harvest.

Zhù Ying didn’t tell Leng Yun about putting Xiao Wu in line for official rank, and Xiao Wu himself was keeping it tightly sealed.

With Leng Yun managed, Zhù Ying also went about buying some things for herself. Looking around the market, she noticed pearl prices had come down a little, and gemstone prices had also dropped slightly. When it was time to leave, Leng Yun sent more things along, including — since Zhang Xiangu and Zhù’s father had mentioned that northern foods were hard to come by — a generous portion of food supplies to take back with them, and reminded Zhù Ying, “Remember the date when you come next.”

……——

Zhù Ying’s trip to the prefectural city yielded quite a full harvest. Her parents were fairly satisfied — they had received many things, and Leng Yun, though he had taken on more of a superior’s manner, was still a familiar superior who didn’t make life difficult for people.

Zhù Ying herself was satisfied — Leng Yun had something of a foundation to work from, was willing to get some real things done, and wasn’t the sort to cause constant trouble.

Back at the county yamen, Zhù Ying said to Deputy Magistrate Guan, “I’ve left Xiao Wu at the prefectural governor’s residence for a while. For his duties in the meantime, let Tong Li and Tong Bo take turns filling in.”

Deputy Magistrate Guan said, “Is Xiao Wu coming back? If so, and Tong Li and Tong Bo are filling in temporarily, I’m afraid when the time comes there will be a battle for the position.”

Zhù Ying said, “No matter — I have arrangements in place.”

“Yes, Magistrate.”

Deputy Magistrate Guan then reported on the official business of the past few days — none of it urgent — and handed a stack of documents to Cao Chang to carry, then withdrew. The moment he stepped out, he sought out Elder Lin. Elder Lin had previously slipped him a red packet of cash and asked him to pass the word the moment Zhù Ying returned. The county seat was only so large — when Zhù Ying came back, everyone knew immediately, without needing to ask separately. Deputy Magistrate Guan had no idea why Elder Lin would pay to be told something he could find out for himself, but since it had been freely offered, there was no reason not to take it.

Deputy Magistrate Guan duly passed the word to Elder Lin.

On hearing the news, Elder Lin went to tell his son-in-law Huang the Twelfth, “The magistrate has returned. Son-in-law, you…”

Huang the Twelfth said, “I must still ask my father-in-law to make the introduction. The magistrate has only just returned from a journey — she must be tired from the road, and there will be official business on her return. I’m thinking to wait two or three days before calling on her. What do you think?”

Such a considerate son-in-law — Elder Lin naturally approved, and also thought it must be a result of all his own days of counsel taking effect. “Good,” he said.

Three days later, Elder Lin came to the county yamen to submit his calling card and request an audience with Zhù Ying. He also raised the matter of his son-in-law, explained the son-in-law’s background, and asked whether Zhù Ying might be willing to meet him.

Zhù Ying mentally reviewed her schedule and said, “The day after tomorrow, then.”

“Yes, Magistrate.”

Elder Lin came out of the county yamen without stopping and hurried straight home to tell his son-in-law the good news. He arrived to find another long line of carts and horses in front of the gate — all part of Huang the Twelfth’s household and belongings. Huang the Twelfth was intending to register here, to cultivate relations with the county magistrate, and needed to stay for some time, so he had already been looking into buying a new residence.

When Elder Lin relayed the news, Huang the Twelfth was very pleased and poured wine to treat his father-in-law in thanks.

Two days passed. Elder Lin rose with the dawn, planning to remind his son-in-law one more time about being courteous and well-mannered.

But Huang the Twelfth was up even before him, his manager behind him holding a calling card and a gift list in hand, and ten-odd manservants following behind carrying gift loads.

Elder Lin said, “Son-in-law, what’s all this?”

Huang the Twelfth said, “I’m going to pay my respects to the county magistrate.”

Now that’s a son-in-law who knows what he’s doing!

Elder Lin accompanied Huang the Twelfth to the county yamen. They entered by the side gate and were received in the reception room. Zhù Ying made no deliberate effort to make things difficult for them. Elder Lin, on seeing Zhù Ying, bowed deeply in greeting. “Magistrate, this is my son-in-law — Huang the Twelfth.”

Zhù Ying swept a glance at Huang the Twelfth. Huang the Twelfth dropped to both knees with a thud. “This commoner, Huang the Twelfth, pays respects to the County Magistrate. Long life and peace to Your Excellency.”

Then he kowtowed, properly and fully.