Zheng the Seventh and his company were all listening closely now. Zheng the Seventh had tacitly acknowledged that, obscure origins notwithstanding, this small peddler had real ability — he was even more willing to hear more.

“What do you think it is? Say everything — right or wrong, I’ll have people verify it. You’re curious, aren’t you? Don’t you want to know the truth yourself?”

Zhù San said, “I think I’ve guessed more or less correctly. The hairpin and the bell were both found at the mouth of a dig tunnel. Someone was robbing the graves, but that person was not Chen the Second. Chen the Second is a great fool who has been exploited. You say he isn’t short of money, so it’s about cursing his elder brother. He had a grudge only against his brother — but the people doing his bidding had their eye on the valuables in his family’s grave. And they were afraid no one would know they were coming to perform a curse, so they went and recruited local monks and priests and spirit mediums on top of that…”

Without drawing attention to it, she quietly distanced the local spirit mediums from any real involvement, adding: “If I’ve guessed right, the one running the operation must be a charlatan from the capital. The locally recruited people would not have been allowed to wander freely in the burial grounds or help prepare the site in advance — they were just brought in for show.”

She was careful, throughout, never to mention Chen the First son by name. She wanted nothing to do with him. Anyone who could endure twenty-odd years of suppressed resentment was a formidable and dangerous person.

Zheng the Seventh nodded repeatedly. “I’ll go and verify. And you?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you plan to spend your whole life as a peddler? Or… pursue some other livelihood? Don’t you want a proper occupation?”

Zhù San looked at Zheng the Seventh, puzzled. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with being a peddler?”

Zheng the Seventh smiled. “Would you like to come with me?”

“What?”

Jin Liang said, “Seventh Young Master wants to take you on as an attendant — it’s a rare opportunity other people couldn’t beg for.”

The light in Zhù San’s eyes cooled. Zheng the Seventh suddenly had a very direct experience of what Jin Liang had meant by “someone with blood on their hands looks at people differently.” If this was what it looked like, he believed he had just seen it for himself. His expression remained unchanged. “You don’t want to?”

Zhù San said each word clearly: “I would sooner die than be anyone’s beast of burden in human form.”

A sharp metallic ring — Jin Liang’s hand went to his saber. Zheng the Seventh seemed to hesitate for a fraction of a second, then waved Jin Liang off, continuing in the same pleasant tone: “Such a temper, at such a young age. It would be a pity for you to remain a peddler — there are better prospects ahead, and I have no use for another servant. I have plenty of servants. I mean for you to work for me. When this is settled, come back to the capital with me, and I will give you a position.”

Zheng the Seventh pointed in the direction of the side rooms in the courtyard. “You’d still be a clerk, it’s true, but compared to the junior clerks scraping by in the prefecture, if you do well, you can be promoted to an official post. What do you say? Is your mother well? Earn a title of honor for her — what do you think?”

Zhù San’s face stayed cold. “Do you really think you’re the imperial envoy? I’ve never heard of an envoy pulling a random peddler off the road and telling him to serve. I’m telling you what I know because I’m not afraid of you — don’t try to work me over with this!”

An expression of someone thoroughly unmovable.

Jin Liang had completely run out of patience. “Such a tangle of schemes in that little head, at such an age!”

Zhù San said coldly, “If I had two fewer threads of scheming in me, I’d have been done in by now. Is it so surprising that I think things over?”

Jin Liang said, “Is there something wrong with earning an honest living?”

“What’s an honest living? I’d be happy to farm — do I have land?” She fell silent after that, closing her eyes.

Zheng the Seventh’s patience remained extraordinary. “Stop arguing, both of you. Rest for a while. Get him a room.”

Zhù San said, “Either kill me now, or let me go now…”

Zheng the Seventh shook his head without speaking, and turned to stroll outside. Zhù San moved to follow, but Jin Liang grabbed her. “Come with me!” He hustled Zhù San into a room, had someone bring water, locked the door behind her, and left her inside to “think things over.”

The sound of the lock clicking into place reached Jin Liang’s ears with some satisfaction. He trotted over to find Zheng the Seventh and lowered his voice. “Seventh Young Master, I don’t understand…”

Zheng the Seventh said, “You don’t understand why I’m being so attentive to a person of unknown origins?”

“Yes.” Jin Liang knew that Zheng the Seventh’s true temperament was anything but mild. To see him smile was not to see a man who could be taken advantage of — cross the line, and there would be consequences.

Zheng the Seventh said, “Young, presentable. Travels with his mother, which shows he’s at least a filial son and no rebel against his own parents. Sharp eyes, clear mind, knows something of unconventional knowledge, straightforward in temperament, and not particularly greedy. Speech and manner suggest some degree of education. Won’t submit to servitude — that suggests some backbone. A tendency toward excessive suspicion — not entirely a flaw either. Exactly the sort of person I need.”

Jin Liang counseled: “There are plenty of well-grown boys back home, all reliable and loyal. If Seventh Young Master wants one, go back and choose several — some are educated too, and the ones who aren’t could be taught to read in a few years. Besides, they’re our household’s own bondservants, their parents and siblings all within our household…”

Zheng the Seventh said, “The matter of substituting condemned prisoners — His Majesty was furious. Zhong Yi this time was only spared because of old ties from the days before the succession, and the emperor let him come down here to investigate and clear things up. When he returns, the Ministry of Justice will no longer be his. Cases from across the regions go up first to the Court of Judicial Review, then to the Ministry. Both heads of those offices will be replaced. The Ministry may still be in question, but the Court of Judicial Review — that’s mine now.”

Jin Liang was overjoyed. “Congratulations, Seventh Young Master! At not yet thirty years of age, you are already…”

Zheng the Seventh said, “You’re celebrating too early. The junior officials and clerks inside the Court of Judicial Review may not all be of one heart with me. There may well be those who seek to deceive their superiors, conceal things from above, manipulate things below — the same kind of misconduct as the substitution of condemned prisoners. I need several people with clear eyes and clear minds, people with no roots in the capital so they can’t be drawn into existing factions, and young age is no obstacle — young actually makes it easier to train from the start. The advantages of household children I know very well, but what I need right now is not them.”

Jin Liang said, “Seventh Young Master sees clearly. But this one’s temperament seems unstable. And you’d elevate a person of unknown origins to a clerical post — and eventually to an official post?”

Zheng the Seventh smiled. “You’ve read him wrong. Unstable? He is uncommonly fixed in purpose. If he truly has the ability, why not promote him? Even if his actual talents are limited, tame him over these next few days, bring him to the capital, and use him to stir things up a little inside the Court of Judicial Review — that has its uses too.”

Zheng the Seventh was entirely confident. He had a method for bringing out the best in people. Zhù San was clearly hiding many things from him, and he was in no hurry — all he wanted from Zhù San was this “curiosity” and the genuine ability to investigate. The rest, he truly didn’t mind, and was confident in his own ability to manage it.

Jin Liang still hesitated. “Stirring muddy water — you could find a dozen street rascals in the capital to do that.”

“Street rascals? What would I do with rascals? Wouldn’t that pollute my eyes? What sort of conduct would that be? Anyway, it’s only a few days. If I truly can’t bring him around, then so be it — I’ll still go back to the capital and contend with them there. For these few days, watch him closely. And have them prepare some grain, rice, cloth, and the like — he has a mother, doesn’t he?”

“Yes.”

The two of them ambled through the courtyard talking, the surroundings open and quiet all around. When the conversation was finished, Zheng the Seventh said, “You need to make another trip, to go and look at that dig tunnel.”

“Yes.”

Zheng the Seventh asked, “Where has Sheng Ying gotten to?”

Jin Liang said, “Deputy Envoy Shen can’t be more than two days behind us at this point — he can’t afford to go any slower. If he walks any more slowly, we’d be the ones charged with delay.”

Zheng the Seventh said, “Good enough.”

Jin Liang pressed fist to palm in salute and jogged off to verify the dig tunnel.

By evening he returned and reported to Zheng the Seventh: “What was said was correct — there is indeed one. Then I went back into the city, wanting to ask whether the local spirit mediums had ever gone to the burial grounds, but I heard that the prefectural governor and Imperial Envoy Zhong have come to a confrontation…”

“Oh?”

“The prisoners are in the governor’s custody, and he refuses to hand them over to Imperial Envoy Zhong. Then, just a few days ago, there was a fire at the prefecture, and the governor fell and injured himself while escaping. The household is in disarray. Imperial Envoy Zhong was supposed to set off in the coming days, but seeing the situation, he hasn’t left — he wants to take the prisoners, seize control of this matter, and the governor won’t give them up. He was carried to the prison gate on a stretcher to personally hold his ground…”

Zheng the Seventh said, “The moment Sheng Ying arrives, we enter the city!” His ceremonial procession was still with Deputy Envoy Shen Ying — he had split from his deputy, come ahead by several days to take the measure of things, while Shen Ying traveled slowly behind, bearing his official trappings. Now it was time to reunite.

Zheng the Seventh said, “Serve the meal. And that child — wait, what’s he called? How did I forget to ask even his name?”

Jin Liang said, “I’ll go fetch him! Ask, and we’ll know. Seventh Young Master, that little devil is extremely difficult!”

Zheng the Seventh smiled. “Precisely because he’s difficult — when he’s willing to commit to me, he’ll be all the more dedicated.”

Jin Liang said, “Seventh Young Master has never misjudged a person. Let’s hope he doesn’t make Seventh Young Master wait too long.”

He walked over to the lock and opened it — then let out a roar of fury: “Where is he?!”

The door he had locked with his own two hands — the room was now empty. Not a single hair left behind. The young one was gone.

Zheng the Seventh heard the shout and came strolling over. Jin Liang had locked the person in himself, and now they had escaped — he couldn’t quite save face, and said through gritted teeth, “What a wolf cub! Not easy to tame at all! And who knows what blood is on those hands!”

Zheng the Seventh smiled at his ease and stood there for a moment before saying, unhurried: “An interesting child. Quite something.”

Even by the end of dinner, Jin Liang was still seething. When the time came, once this little peddler came knocking at Seventh Young Master’s door, the two of them were going to have a long reckoning. He had better be loyal to Seventh Young Master in his work! He went to retrieve the carrying pole the young peddler had left behind, intending to take it back to the city and have people identify it so he could track the person down — and to his astonishment, even the carrying pole had vanished without a trace. Jin Liang was furious enough that he tossed and turned for half the night.

Zheng the Seventh, for his part, ate well and slept soundly. Early the next morning, the prefecture clerks in the neighboring courtyard were up before dawn and spinning in anxious circles, like ants on a hot griddle — their agitation kept many on Zheng the Seventh’s side from sleeping well either.

Zheng the Seventh had only just risen when a rider thundered in calling out: “The imperial envoy has arrived! Make preparations quickly! Ten li out!”

The prefecture’s civil clerks were overjoyed. They rushed back to their rooms, changed into proper attire, and filed respectfully to the entrance of the relay station to wait.

Before midday, the imperial envoy’s procession arrived. The prefecture clerks were outmaneuvered by the station-master and his staff, and could only watch as the station-master received a pale-complexioned young man inside. The young man, upon entering, did not ask for the main rooms — he asked: “Where is Jin Liang?”

The two had agreed: Zheng the Seventh had been waiting at the station outside the city under Jin Liang’s name.

Jin Liang stepped forward. “Jin Liang is here. This way, please.”

He first ushered Shen Ying to Zheng the Seventh’s courtyard, where Zheng the Seventh had changed back into his official garments. With Jin Liang and his retinue standing guard, they proceeded to the main rooms.

The prefecture clerks slapped their thighs in regret. “How could I have been so blind? It didn’t even occur to me to go pay my respects!” Unable to worry about disturbing the envoy’s rest, they ran over at once, shouting: “Your Excellency, please save us!”