In the late days of October, the city of Bianliang had turned bitterly cold, and the air of the city, amid all its bustle, now carried an added edge of tension. Most of this tension came from the weather — though winter in Bianliang was, relatively speaking, not as hard to endure as in other smaller places, most households still preferred to stay indoors during the winter months, and this was already the season for stocking up on winter provisions.

Establishments like Fan Tower and Xiaozhu Fang, part of the pleasure district, remained as lively as ever. Snowfall in winter meant, at most, that people went out less; the famous brothels of Bianliang still kept their charcoal fires burning warm and inviting every single day, making guests feel welcome even in the bitter cold. Once the snow began to fall, some wealthy patrons would even take up residence in the brothels and not leave again until the following spring — and naturally, their silver flowed out like water the whole time.

Li Shishi was making the rounds visiting friends before the snow arrived. For this woman regarded by many as the capital’s foremost courtesan, winter was a season in which she reduced the time she spent meeting and entertaining guests — and if she did agree to see someone, it was usually only those she already knew well.

For one thing, in the warm rooms of winter, the mood tended to grow overly intimate, and some men, unable to restrain themselves, would want to do or say things they shouldn’t. Though she had her ways of handling such situations, it was still more troublesome than usual, so even when she did meet with people, it was generally in groups rather than alone. For another, her temperament was naturally languid, and come winter she had little desire to go out at all — sometimes she couldn’t even be bothered to get out of bed. In winter, unless there was some gathering of the powerful she truly couldn’t refuse, it was best to simply rest more.

What truly troubled her these days was that people had begun telling her, quite plainly, that her prime years were passing. For a courtesan at the top of her profession, the true bloom of youth falls between sixteen and twenty; past that, in the eyes of some, a woman inevitably comes to be seen as a matron. She was now twenty-one years old, and from the moment she rose to become the reigning courtesan, all the way up to her current peak, her path had been smooth and steady — though not without its share of trials along the way. But from here on, her peak would begin to pass.

Though for many of those who already knew her, her allure only seemed to grow with time — anyone who had once met her found it hard not to be drawn to her. But once a woman reached twenty-one or twenty-two, the likelihood of new clients throwing down large sums of money purely for her allure would only continue to decline. In a certain sense, she now had to start thinking seriously about retiring and marrying.

For her, this was a difficult decision to make, but one she could not avoid contemplating. Of course, there was no shortage of men willing to marry her — she could choose to become a concubine in some great household, or marry a high official, a leading figure of literary circles, or the like. As the capital’s foremost courtesan, marrying her off was not something just anyone could manage — whoever it was, their standing could not be too low. As for close friends like Yu Hezhong or Chen Sifeng, even supposing she were fond of them and willing to marry, it simply wouldn’t work out — it would only bring them harm.

A man without sufficient standing could not hope to hold onto a woman like her, and such a match would often lead to a rough and difficult road ahead, one she would inevitably suffer through alongside him. Of course, besides marrying into one of these extremely high-standing households, she could also choose to become someone’s principal wife — among those willing to do so, there were some of decent standing as well, but it would certainly mean marrying quietly, without fanfare, and moving far away from the capital to some distant place.

These past months, she had quietly gone through the list of potential matches again and again in her mind — high standing, good temperament, easy to talk to, good-looking, and so on — but in the end, she still hadn’t been able to make up her mind.

Over the past several years, relying on her status as the reigning courtesan, she had enjoyed considerable favor from Fan Tower, and each year she was generally allowed one or two months to travel freely to other places and visit various notable figures — Madam Li understood well that this was how to cultivate her into someone truly one of a kind. Through this, she had witnessed a great many things, and having gained such experience, she had come to feel, deep down, that there was still much she could accomplish. Like the matter of Tong Shu’er — through her own efforts alongside a number of other women and scholars, that Ministry of Personnel official had ultimately been found guilty, stripped of his post, and exiled three thousand li — a result that had left everyone cheering. But once that matter passed, things had grown dull again.

Lately, the topic on everyone’s lips in the capital was the great battle unfolding in the north between Zhang Jue and Wanyan Shemu. This marked the first clash between the Wu Dynasty and the Jurchen, and everyone was holding their breath waiting for news. But once word of the battle finally arrived, it turned out that Zhang Jue’s first engagement after pledging himself to the Wu Dynasty had ended in defeat — though only a minor one. After the defeat, the two sides remained locked in a standoff, with a second battle still to come. Lately, hearing about all this, Shishi found she had little enthusiasm left for it either.

In a year or two, this would no longer be her world. She would marry some man and live a simple, leisurely life — no need to sweep floors or weave cloth, no need to wash her hands and cook meals, only needing to look after her husband’s comfort and, at the right moments, please him, keeping a firm hold on his heart. That would be enough. She would live this way for a few years, bear that man’s child, and once her looks eventually faded with age, she would rely on her children to see her through her remaining days.

Sometimes, thinking of this, she couldn’t help but smile with a touch of melancholy, sorrow welling up from within, and she even found herself, in a way rare for her, thinking: if only she weren’t a woman of the pleasure quarters, if only she weren’t this courtesan called Li Shishi, how wonderful that would be…

Beyond the high officials and nobles it entertained, Fan Tower’s guests were, more often than not, wealthy gentry and merchants visiting from out of town. For these men of money and standing back in their home regions, coming to the capital, seeing the grandeur of this foremost establishment, and spending lavishly to meet the reigning courtesan made for the finest bragging rights once they returned home. Shishi was rather selective when it came to the high officials and nobles of the capital whom she already knew well, but for out-of-town guests, aside from a few scholars of far-reaching literary fame, she generally judged their worth by how much they were willing to pay — after all, it was usually a one-time transaction, so whoever paid the most got to see her.

That day, having returned to Fan Tower after attending a poetry gathering, Madam Li told her there was a young master Sun from the south whom she might consider seeing. He reportedly came from a powerful clan in the Jinghu South Circuit region — young, wealthy, and eloquent — and upon arriving, had immediately put down five hundred taels of silver, specifically requesting to see her. Since it was, after all, a matter of earning money, Shishi smiled and agreed to go.

When she met him, he did indeed prove to be, just as Li Yun had described, eloquent and refined — clearly a young man from a great family who had received a fine education, somewhere around twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, and reasonably good-looking as well. Shishi played and sang a couple of songs, and they chatted for a while in between. When both host and guest seemed to be enjoying themselves well enough, the man casually brought up the matter of Zhu Ji.

“I’ve heard that Zhu Ji here in the capital was founded by the great talent Ning Liheng, and that Miss Shishi is well acquainted with him — that whenever a new branch opens, you always go to perform there,” the young Master Sun said, after finishing off a small piece of pastry, smiling casually. “I’ve always admired men of talent, and I wonder what sort of man this Master Ning truly is, that he could manage such a feat — not only excelling in poetry, but also making his business flourish so remarkably.”

“Well… not particularly close, actually…” Shishi replied, though her brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. She hadn’t wanted to discuss Ning Yi’s affairs lately. Over this period, with merchants coming and going through the capital, she had also come to learn of the grain shortage in the north and south, and she knew perfectly well that Zhu Ji was involved in managing the matter, hoping to profit handsomely from it. This awareness had left her disinclined to have anything further to do with him. Ning Yi had once said he had something to discuss with her, and had since come to Fan Tower to see her twice more, but each time Shishi had made excuses, having her maid turn him away. And with Zhu Ji currently preoccupied with buying and selling grain to earn what she considered ill-gotten gains, the several new branches originally planned had also been put on hold for now, which conveniently meant she no longer had to fulfill her past promise to perform at their openings.

“Oh? Not particularly close… but surely there’s still some ordinary dealings between you. In Miss Shishi’s judgment, is this man truly a man of talent, or simply a merchant?”

The man was clearly quite sharp, his choice of words precise and clear. As Shishi’s gaze passed over him without much thought, something stirred in her — this Master Sun spoke as though casually, but the depths of his eyes were remarkably clear and sharp. Earlier, he had seemed to be enjoying his leisurely time with a courtesan with practiced ease, but now, that no longer seemed quite the case. She then recalled a wealthy visitor from Huainan she had met a couple of days earlier, who had also asked about Zhu Ji and Ning Yi — at the time she had simply given some offhand response, but thinking back on it now, having two separate groups ask about him in such a targeted way felt like something quite different.

Both of these groups were powerful clans in their respective regions, yet separated from one another by well over a thousand li — it seemed hardly plausible that they would make a special trip to the capital just to seek out Ning Yi… Harboring this doubt in her heart, she answered his questions carefully, trying to probe at this Master Sun’s true intentions. Sure enough, before long, this Master Sun, having asked about Ning Yi’s character, went on to ask about his family, his social circle, even his residence, making it clear he intended to pay him a visit.

What she discovered that day left her feeling rather uneasy. She knew Ning Yi was skilled in business, and she knew that with the backing of the Right Chancellor’s residence, he could leverage that influence in his dealings as well — but would two great clans, separated by well over a thousand li from one another, really send people to the capital specifically to seek him out for cooperation? That still seemed rather unlikely. That night, she asked Madam Li about the backgrounds of these two families, and sure enough, both had connections within official circles — they had no particular need to seek out the backing of the Right Chancellor’s residence in this deliberate way. As for the state of the disaster in their respective regions…

“…I wouldn’t know, dear. You know how it is lately — every merchant in business is chasing after this disaster relief business, it’s all anyone in the capital talks about. This sort of thing has happened before, more than once — a while back the court argued endlessly over it, quite a few officials were dismissed, all over the relief effort. Lately there’s fighting up north, and I hear His Majesty’s mood has been poor, so things have eased off a little. Why do you ask, my dear?”

“No reason, just curious…”

And so, the next day, when she went to attend another poetry gathering, she encountered Zuo Houwen along with his nephew Zuo Jilan, as well as a fairly well-known talent from Hedong, Wang Zhizhen. As for Zuo Houwen, Shishi knew that he managed the entirety of the Zuo family’s commercial affairs in the capital, and that he himself possessed a fair degree of literary renown, second within the Zuo family only to that great scholar Zuo Duanyou. Because of this connection, the two of them had crossed paths many times before, though they weren’t particularly close. Shishi had privately heard rumors about him — reportedly, he favored women of strong, independent temperament; the two concubines he had taken into his household were said to have come from families in decline, women who had once supported their households on their own before he married them. It was also said that he had secretly coerced a few chaste married women, though this particular rumor hadn’t spread very far, which suggested he wasn’t entirely without restraint either.

Near the end of the poetry gathering, Zuo Houwen came over to see her, along with Zuo Jilan and Wang Zhizhen. Zuo Jilan, in his thirties, had the unmistakable air of a proud but genuinely capable young heir of fortune. Toward her, he simply looked her up and down briefly, adopting an air of indifference, but Shishi could read the emotion beneath his eyes — the mindset of a man who wanted to claim her purity for himself while believing himself entirely capable of it. After exchanging a few pleasantries, Zuo Houwen, to her surprise, also brought up the matter of Zhu Ji and Ning Yi.

“I hear Miss Li is acquainted with this Master Ning — you must know him quite well, then.”

“Er… not particularly well, actually, just some dealings in business…”

“Ha, no matter if you’re not close. My nephew here wishes to meet him, there’s some business to discuss. Having a go-between makes things easier to arrange, and since my nephew has a bit of a fiery temper, perhaps having Miss Li present might help keep him in check.” Zuo Houwen said with a smile. “How about this — tomorrow… no, in two days’ time, Jilan will come to Fan Tower to find Miss Li, and the two of you can go together to see this Master Ning. How does that sound?”

Though Zuo Houwen held no official post himself, his influence in official circles derived directly from Zuo Duanyou — he could, in a sense, be considered Zuo Duanyou’s representative in the capital, well accustomed to giving orders. Though he tacked on the question “how does that sound” at the end, Shishi found herself with little choice but to nod in agreement. And with that, counting from all directions, there were now already three families seeking to reach Ning Yi through her — and none of it, it seemed, out of goodwill.

However formidable Ning Yi might be, however rapidly Zhu Ji had grown, when had it reached a position capable of offending clans of this standing? Let alone offending three of them at once? And if three had already come seeking her specifically, there were likely even more elsewhere…

She found herself unable to make sense of it all for the moment. A day passed, and that evening, Fan Tower was as lively as ever. Amid the bustle, two groups of guests willing to spend generously caught Madam Li’s attention, and she came to ask Shishi’s preference. Of these two groups, one consisted of out-of-town young gentlemen, only a single guest; the other had invited a wealthy figure from the capital, apparently to discuss business. Not wishing to be alone with anyone, Shishi chose the latter. Not long after making her choice, a commotion broke out within Fan Tower, and as Shishi made her way over, she caught fragments of the argument from that direction.

“…you black-hearted scum, you’ll rot in the eighteenth level of hell for this…”

“Heh, you’re no different — twenty-five taels versus thirty, what’s the real difference… made enough money to come to Fan Tower for the top girl, and you still dare call yourself kind-hearted…”

“Better than you lot — this time we…”

“Looking to get hit, are you!”

“Who dares — you can’t beat me to death…”

“Come over here if you’ve got the nerve…”

She caught only fragments of the argument, and before long, staff from Fan Tower came out to mediate, calming the disturbance. Afterward, as Shishi went to attend the banquet in the warm private chamber, she realized that the voice from the argument earlier had belonged to none other than the party hosting the banquet.

The hosts turned out to be a group of merchants from out of town, led by a man in his forties surnamed Yu, who looked like someone who had traveled far and wide. With him were several nephews in their twenties. Perhaps because they came from rural areas, their speech was somewhat coarser, while the younger men seemed rather bashful, some putting on airs of indifference in front of her. Shishi recognized the guest they had invited — a man surnamed Wei, a grain merchant in the capital with a generally good reputation, said to dote on his wife and concubines at home, who rarely came to Fan Tower.

The two sides made no mention of business at the table — clearly, by the time they’d reached this point, some understanding had already been reached. Shishi did her best to keep the mood lively, and after several rounds of wine, that Boss Wei laughed and patted the surnamed-Yu man’s hand. “Alright, I understand. This matter stands as agreed. Master Yu, I appreciate your sincerity. I need to head back now, there are matters at home to attend to. You all… stay and enjoy yourselves a while longer, I imagine you’ve spent a fair sum already. Shishi, do see that they’re well looked after — I’ll say it plainly, coming here to visit costs quite a bit of money…”

Shishi smiled with a touch of feigned grievance. “Master Wei, what are you saying — those are simply the house rules, there’s nothing I can do about it. I only do my best to see that everyone is well attended to…”

Boss Wei waved a hand. “Alright, alright, I’m off, I’m off…”

Since he was leaving, that Master Yu naturally saw him out as well. The two of them, having settled their business and both in good spirits, walked out together, leaving Shishi behind with the remaining young men surnamed Yu. The maids continued pouring wine and bringing out dishes, and Shishi, smiling, kept them company in conversation, asking after their families’ circumstances. After playing and singing a few songs, she casually asked about the business they were engaged in, and learned that they were planning to buy grain from Boss Wei to sell in the disaster-stricken regions. Then one of the younger men spoke up: “I hear Miss Shishi is quite close with Boss Ning of Zhu Ji, is that right?”

“Not particularly close, just some business dealings.” These past few days, Shishi had grown tired of hearing this question, and she answered offhandedly. This young man, however, was different from the others — when Shishi said she wasn’t close to him, he seemed at a loss for what to say next. She caught, faintly, two of them murmuring to each other, seemingly suggesting that it was precisely because she was supposedly close with Ning Yi that they had chosen to host Boss Wei here at Fan Tower, spending such a large sum.

The young men, eager to impress Shishi, kept the conversation flowing steadily. After a while, she heard them mention that this trip north was meant to be “an act of charity.” Probing gently, she learned that while others sold grain at thirty taels a picul, they intended to sell theirs at twenty-five. Shishi smiled and nodded, though inwardly she felt a sudden wave of distaste toward them — going out there to distribute and sell grain, calling it an act of virtue and merit, when the going rate normally sat at just over two taels a picul, and here they were hauling it out there to sell at ten times that price. What virtue was there in that, what merit were they truly accumulating?

Having said this much, the young man seemed to sense something wasn’t quite right, and hastened to add a few words trying to correct himself. Shishi plucked at her strings, smiling and murmuring along in agreement. The young men then fell to talking among themselves, and after a while, one of them, speaking more clearly than the others, said something that made the strings beneath her fingers tremble ever so slightly.

“…Miss Shishi surely knows about this whole affair — after all, it’s Zhu Ji managing things behind the scenes, isn’t it? If it weren’t for their people this time, I really don’t know what we’d have done for this relief effort. Those people up north, they’ve really suffered…”

Another beside him said, “It’s not really Zhu Ji, is it — behind Zhu Ji is the current Right Chancellor himself. All of this at the very top was arranged by the Chancellor. If not for the Chancellor, could we even have gotten into Hedong?”

At this, the young man from before grew visibly agitated. “How could we not have gotten in — if I’d known there were so many starving people, I’d have hauled grain in even if it killed me! Let them try and beat me to death then, see if I care! @#¥%&* (starts cursing)”

Shishi frowned slightly. “How are things up north right now?”

“Hedong Circuit? I don’t even know if you’d call it good — both sides are pulling hard. We haul grain up there, and this damned… damned weather’s gotten so much colder again, prices had just started coming down a bit, then shot right back up. Those wretched hoarding families won’t let us push prices down, they go around picking fights everywhere — my third brother got beaten up by them last time. Good thing Zhu Ji had already prepared for that — that Manager Yao called for a doctor, then called the authorities, and had their men arrested. Hmph, this trip north, my third brother’s wounds still haven’t healed and he’s already clamoring to go again.”

One young man, his face flushed red, stood up abruptly. “That Manager Yao was right — this is war!”

Another chimed in, “They think we’re cowards, do they! Do we have too few men this time? On their own turf? Push me too far and I’ll finish them off!”

Shishi, however, found herself growing puzzled. What exactly were they talking about? She had always known that young men like these were the easiest to be swayed by certain things, prone to impulsive outbursts. But what she was seeing now felt different. In Bianliang, there was a group of scholars, led by Chen Dong, known for their impassioned concern for the fate of the nation — men bold enough to openly criticize even figures like Grand Preceptor Cai and Grand Commandant Gao. And now, looking at these young men with little formal education, their fervor carried an unmistakable trace of that same spirit Chen Dong and his circle possessed.

How could simply selling grain turn into something like this? It looked, quite frankly, as though they had been deliberately incited by someone.

She probed carefully. “Have you gentlemen also gone out to distribute porridge yourselves?”

“Of course, every single day!” several of them said, almost in unison. Then one added, “But that Boss Ning of Zhu Ji was right — there’s simply no way to turn everything into porridge and feed everyone that way. The only way is to bring the price down, so everyone else has a chance at survival. Miss Shishi, since you know this Boss Ning, tell us — what sort of man is he, really?”

Shishi looked at them for a moment, then said softly, “As for that reasoning — that bringing the price down gives everyone else a chance at survival — I confess I’ve never quite been able to grasp it myself.”

One of the young men surnamed Yu, eager to show off, spoke up loudly. “Ah, what’s so hard to understand about that? Even someone as slow as me gets it. Think about it, Miss Shishi — if grain there sells for thirty taels a picul, that’s a fortune to be made selling grain, isn’t it? With profits like that, wouldn’t those wretched hoarding families and corrupt officials fight tooth and nail over it? Even if the two Chancellors were willing to risk everything, they still couldn’t hold back that many people’s greed. But if the grain price comes down, there’s not as much profit in it anymore, and with a few honest officials in the mix, that keeps those hoarding families from meddling as much. Boss Ning himself said — if grain prices keep rising, out of every ten measures of relief grain the government sends out, barely one actually reaches the common people. But if the price gets pushed down, maybe half of it, or even more, could actually get through — and then we can go out and serve even more porridge, and that many more people could survive! So this time, with the money we made, we’re heading back up with a second shipment of rice — we even bought winter clothes this time… Hmph, after this trip, we’ll need to go up a third time too. Every man in the Yu family is going!”

The man went on and on. Someone beside him said, “I’m just worried once the snow falls, the roads will be hard to travel.”

“Don’t even talk to me about snow blocking the roads — even if I froze to death, I’d still haul that grain up there. I refuse to believe we can’t beat those conscienceless dogs—”

Shishi’s head was buzzing. She was a sharp woman — once someone gave her the slightest hint, she understood the rest herself. And as the group went on talking, one thing after another, she gradually, piece by piece, began to assemble the outline of an enormous “battlefield” that had been unfolding around her for nearly three months now — a battlefield whose scattered fragments she had, in fact, sensed all along, only she hadn’t paid them any mind at the time. Then, deep within her, a wave of fear began to rise. She understood now just how much of a massive stake that merchant — the one she had all but mentally filed away as someone she’d cut ties with, once a friend of hers — had touched in these past three months, and just how many people he had offended in the process…

She finally understood what those powerful clans coming to the capital were truly here to do.