More than two months earlier, in August — or perhaps even a little before that — was where it all began.

Everything at court, led by the two Chancellors, had mobilized enormous resources across both north and south, gathering together the strength of countless people to transport vast quantities of grain into the disaster-stricken regions where prices had spiraled out of control.

Within all of this, Zhu Ji had played an enormous role, joined by the participation of several other forces as well. They handled coordination between north and south, arranged everyone’s travel itineraries, ensured their safety, and with the cooperation of the government, kept the entire operation running smoothly. That period was exactly when Ning Yi had begun growing busy, while she herself had been preoccupied with the Tong Shu’er murder case, running back and forth — only afterward did she learn of the grain price matter, and only gradually did suspicion begin to take root.

In the time that followed, Zhu Ji had slowed its pace of expansion, and she herself, out of a growing sense of distaste, had wanted to sever ties with Ning Yi. During this period, wave after wave of people had been making their way toward Hedong, Hebei, Huainan, Jinghu, and other regions. At first, they too had simply gone with straightforward commercial intentions, but among them, a certain group of people had played an enormous role — men like that Manager Yao these Yu-surnamed young men had spoken of. Moving back and forth between north and south, he explained simple principles to them, guided them toward distributing porridge and releasing grain, and at the same time, through careful wording, set them in opposition against the grain-hoarding magnates — step by step, achieving something not unlike deliberate incitement.

At first, hearing all this, Shishi assumed such a man was simply Manager Yao alone — a socially seasoned guide who had maximized the effect of his own efforts. But as she listened further, she began to realize there might well be far more than just one or two such men.

Among the several circuits struck by disaster this time, the court had established a total of seven major trade routes for grain. Once these entered the disaster zones, each of the seven routes further branched out, and along every single branch, there now existed a certain number of passionate, hot-blooded individuals just like this Yu family. They had originally set out purely for business, bringing along their household nephews partly to give them some worldly experience — but gradually, having witnessed the misery of the disaster victims and the callousness of the wealthy, a sense of righteous indignation had risen within them, and they had begun preparing for a second, then a third round of relief efforts, calling on other family members to join in as well.

“…The further along this goes, the harder grain becomes to buy and transport, but we’d already planned from the start to make several more trips — in the end, our Yu family needs to bring in at least two to three thousand piculs, or we won’t be able to hold our heads up!”

“…Boasting about two or three thousand piculs like it’s something — do you know the Hou family we ran into last time? Their fleet brought in fifteen hundred piculs in a single trip.”

“Everyone eats according to their own appetite — as long as we do our best with sincere hearts, that’s enough to satisfy our own conscience. Besides, the Hou family’s practically in-laws with us now — didn’t you hear last time, Master Hou’s interested in marrying off his seventh daughter to Sixth Brother. It’s because Sixth Brother cried while serving porridge, and Master Hou said he had a kind heart… Tch, if I’d known, I’d have cried too.”

“Er… Fifth Brother, don’t go spreading that around, they were probably just saying it casually, this isn’t something to joke about…”

“How is this something casual — they think highly of you… but speaking of crying, I’ve seen disaster victims before, but that business with the upright Magistrate Geng, that’s the first time I truly cried…”

“That business… if I’d been there in person, I honestly don’t know what I might have done, with my temper…”

Time passed, and within the warm private chamber, the discussion continued without pause. This was Shishi’s profession, after all — what she excelled at, day in and day out, was drawing out threads of insight, one strand at a time, from the words of others, piecing together that vast outline. And the more she pieced together, the more her heart churned, unable to settle.

In the Wu Dynasty of this era, famine came around periodically — even when confined to some small region, it could hardly be called an unprecedented tragedy. Shishi herself had witnessed famine before, had witnessed relief efforts before. Among these landowners and grain merchants traveling back and forth between north and south, many had likely provided relief grain in past years of famine as well — yet everything about this particular situation felt different from years past.

The deliberate guidance of Zhu Ji’s people had stirred the goodness already latent in their hearts, and at the same time, the mutual exchange of news between different grain transporters had given them the sense that they weren’t isolated or unsupported — they recognized and encouraged one another, and this only fanned the fervor in their hearts further. From the fragments these young men occasionally let slip — “I heard how things are in the south,” “I heard what grain prices are like in Hebei Circuit” — Shishi could sharply sense that there was, at the very least, a hub connecting all these regions together, continuously feeding this kind of information to them in a deliberately dramatized way. And that matter with Magistrate Geng — it was said to have spread across the entire disaster region within just a few days. Without some hidden force behind it, organized and deliberate, that simply wouldn’t have been possible.

An incorruptible magistrate who, in a year of famine, would rather have his own family eat chaff and drink thin gruel than fail to do everything in his power to keep the starving alive — and when he pressed the great households to release their grain, he was assassinated by men sent by one such household. It showed just how utterly ruthless and vicious these people truly were.

Once these outsiders had entered the disaster regions and drawn attention, conflicts had broken out in several places, though all had eventually been suppressed. That Manager Yao’s persuasive words had clearly proven highly effective. Afterward, when word spread among them of others being beaten by men sent by the great households elsewhere, some among them had grown fearful and pulled back — but others had, if anything, grown even more stubbornly resolved. From the way these Yu-surnamed young men spoke of it, it seemed they had come to feel, however vaguely, that being beaten by the great households had become something almost like a badge of honor in this whole affair.

Across both north and south, wave after wave of people had been stirred up in this way, their passions ignited by what they had witnessed in the disaster zones — and it was hard for Shishi not to think of how Ning Yi had once recruited those storytellers at Zhu Ji. That night, once the Yu family men had all left and the deep quiet of night had settled in, her mind kept circling back — one moment to the fervor of these young men, to the thought of them scattered across the length and breadth of the realm doing battle with these great households; the next to Zuo Jilan, to that young Master Sun from Jinghu, to the powerful clan from Huainan — she tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.

In the end, it was the sense of fear that ultimately won out, growing larger than anything else.

Over these years living in the capital, being a woman, there were certain things she perhaps understood less well than others — but she understood, better than most, just how terrifying power truly was. The conduct of these young men was, of course, admirable, praiseworthy even — there might well be quite a number of them across north and south, able to echo and support one another. But when set against the court, against the true arena of power, such a loosely connected group of people could never serve as real backing.

They might well be families of decent standing in their own localities, with land and property, some even counting as prominent great households in their own right. But listening to them for even a short while, Shishi understood clearly that these people could never truly enter the real circles of power. They had no one in the capital, no relatives serving as high officials elsewhere — and even those families that did have one or two officials among them, those officials were, for the most part, minor ones. Whereas the Zuo family, the Sun family, the wealthy merchant clans of Huainan — the people connected to families like these were, more often than not, high officials of real regional authority, capable, if necessary, of having a word passed along even to men like Cai Jing, Wang Fu, Li Bangyan, or Tong Guan. Some of them even maintained close ties with the imperial family itself.

This time, however passionate and hot-blooded these young men were, however much their words carried a heroic spirit, a belief that evil could never truly triumph over righteousness in this world — in truth, had it not been for the Chancellor’s residence’s power firmly holding the security forces along several of these routes in check throughout this relief effort, these young men, entering the field this way and pushing down grain prices, could very well have been beaten to death. In the process of selling grain, competing directly against entrenched local power for profit, this was the single greatest protection they had. And Shishi understood well just how much effort it must have taken the Chancellor’s residence, Ning Yi, and the others involved to achieve this kind of protection.

And now, as these young men sold grain across the length and breadth of the realm, the powerful clans in each locality had already identified the true source of the problem and were converging on the capital. If three people had already come seeking her out specifically, then beyond that, there might well be thirty, or even three hundred others attempting to move against this from other directions.

Carrying this worry in her heart, her mood remained anxious the following day. In the past, whenever she heard tales of heroes and great men, she had always most admired those bold enough to stand against ten thousand others for the sake of what was right. But now that such a thing had landed upon someone she personally cared about, she understood the real stakes involved all too well — and found herself, instead, growing afraid.

These past two years, with the two Chancellors in power, their authority had held steady for quite some time now. Chancellor Li was resolute and unyielding by nature; Chancellor Qin was sharp and decisive in his methods; between the two of them, one leading and one supporting, they had driven forward the various matters of the northern campaign. But when it came to the very highest tier of power, Shishi had always held onto one particular impression: that in this capital, the truly dominant forces remained figures like Grand Preceptor Cai and Junior Tutor Wang — veteran officials whose networks of followers stretched across the entire realm. For now, they held back for the sake of the greater situation, but should real conflict ever break out in earnest, it was far from certain that the two Chancellors could withstand their sheer ruthlessness. Because in order to get things done, men like Grand Preceptor Cai only needed to offend the common people, never the corrupt officials — whereas the two Chancellors had, in the process, offended a great many powerful and privileged men. And this time, by any reckoning, that number was likely to be even greater still.

However formidable their methods, whether they could truly withstand this — even as an outsider to it all, she found herself genuinely worried.

That morning, as she mulled over the matter, she decided she would go find Ning Yi that afternoon. Perhaps her worry was excessive, but at the very least, she owed him some word of warning — families like the Zuo and the Sun were, after all, not to be trifled with. But by the time noon had passed and she still hadn’t left, word came that Master Zuo Jilan had already arrived and was asking for her to come out. Shishi tried to stall for time, hurriedly having her maid invite Master Zuo in to sit for a while, explaining that she had some matter to attend to and needed a little more time — but before long, the maid returned, saying that Master Zuo was waiting right outside the front gate of Fan Tower, and had no intention of coming in to sit.

This gesture was meant to display a man’s dominance and authority, but Shishi found herself too weary to pay it much mind. She hurried to find Madam Li, told her about the Zuo Jilan situation, and asked her to help get word to Ning Yi first, to give him some warning while she herself stalled a little longer before leaving. Li Yun gave her an odd look, but in the end went out personally to deliver the warning.

Shishi made her way to a room on the second floor at the front of Fan Tower and quietly opened the window to look down below. On the street outside, Zuo Jilan and Wang Zhizhen were discussing something. After a moment, an official passing by stopped to speak with them — a certain Vice Director Li from the Ministry of Works, who, as it turned out, also knew Zuo Jilan. The two of them exchanged smiles and chatted for a while, and during their conversation, Zuo Jilan occasionally glanced back, frowning up toward Fan Tower.

Shishi knew that her stalling was bound to offend him, but that offense seemed a small matter to her. Standing at the window, she considered what he had likely come to say to Ning Yi, and how she might help smooth things over, to keep both sides from an outright, irreparable falling-out. She tried, too, to think through the matter from Ning Yi’s position: leaving the disaster relief unmanaged simply wasn’t an option — but if it had to be managed, with so many powerful people involved, how could he possibly afford to offend them all?

Just as her thoughts churned in confusion, she suddenly heard a commotion break out below. She heard Zuo Jilan’s voice shout, “What do you think you’re doing—” followed immediately by a scream of pain, and then chaos erupting all at once…

…

As for this trip to the capital, Zuo Jilan hadn’t given it a great deal of thought. To him, everything could proceed in orderly fashion: pay a visit to his uncle Zuo Houwen, call on officials on good terms with the family, and deliver letters on Qi Fanghou’s behalf to certain high officials in the capital. Once these things were done, pressure on the Chancellor’s residence would begin to build, and the pressure on that Ning Liheng would grow greater still — he intended to pay him a personal visit to make things clear. He had already decided: as heir to the Zuo family, he would appeal to the man with both reason and sentiment, but at the very end of it all, he would state plainly: “If I lose face over this, I will destroy you.”

There was no harm in speaking plainly.

Proud as he was, he wasn’t a man devoid of sense — quite the opposite, he understood especially well that this trip to the capital called for swift, decisive action. And so he wasted no time, moving quickly to visit everyone he needed to see once he arrived, delivering his intentions clearly. As for attending the poetry gathering where he met Li Shishi, he had actually gone there to see several other uncles and elders; his uncle Zuo Houwen, aware of his interest in Li Shishi, had arranged this “go-between” idea, and after Li Shishi had left, had even joked to him with a knowing smile, “I did arrange that opportunity for you, you know.”

Zuo Jilan merely smiled with pride. He held no real intention of pursuing romantic dalliances during this trip, but Li Shishi was quite beautiful, with fine bearing besides — if this trip to the capital happened to win her heart along the way, that wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

In the capital, no doubt many people fawned over this reigning courtesan like stars circling the moon — he had no intention of doing the same. Arriving at Fan Tower, when the maid asked him to come in and wait, he simply waited by the roadside instead. This, too, was meant to send a message: hurry up and come out for me. Some women might grow angry at such treatment, but he felt he had the standing to act this way — plenty of women, even after growing angry at first, ended up docile and tamed in the end regardless. Women, after all, were fundamentally contrary creatures.

This time, however, it seemed the other party genuinely had some matter to attend to, keeping him waiting for quite a while — perhaps deliberately playing hard to get, testing him a little. Before long, he ran into that Vice Director Li whom he’d visited the day before, and after chatting for a while, he found himself growing rather impatient: didn’t this woman realize he was here on real business? Who did she think she was, playing these little games with him…

And so, his temper flaring somewhat, when a pedestrian on the road suddenly collided into him, he shoved the man away without thinking. “What do you think you’re doing—”

…

Compared to Zuo Jilan’s calm sense of entitlement, Wang Zhizhen understood far better the intricate, tangled feeling of the world of power — and he relished it.

This trip to the capital represented one strand of pressure the Zuo family was bringing to bear on the Chancellor’s residence, on Ning Yi — and threads of pressure were converging on this point from every corner of the realm. In the end, all of them would be forced to yield. That, to him, was the true essence of it all.

This was the grand, proper way of things — the very essence and might of concentrated power. True strength was never something a single chancellorship, or even the title of emperor, could represent on its own. True strength lay in moving with the tide of the times — even the most powerful must eventually yield to it. And he, a man of profound learning and ability who had nonetheless failed the imperial examinations time after time, was, in the end, helping to drive forward a piece of this greater tide, one that would ultimately submerge those lofty figures looking down from above.

Chancellor Li, Chancellor Qin, Li Pin, Ning Yi, and others like them might well be men of real backbone, but eventually they would come to understand what the greater tide of the times truly meant. He, too, regretted the deaths that came with famine years — but how could human desire ever truly be suppressed? If he himself were ever to rise to a position of real power one day, he would wield far more formidable and reasonable methods to change all this, rather than behaving as foolishly as these men did. Until that day came, he was quite content to watch fools like these collapse and be forced into submission.

And so he genuinely looked forward to today’s meeting. What attitude would the other man show? Contempt, or courtesy? Humility, or hostility? But any truly intelligent man would surely understand what it meant for the tide of the times to be unstoppable, beyond any one man’s power to turn back — and he had already prepared a few words to help teach the other man this very lesson.

Hedong Circuit was closing in. The Zuo family was closing in. The Qi family was closing in. And countless others, from every corner of the realm, were closing in as well…

What he hadn’t expected was what happened next.

“What do you think you’re doing—”

Zuo Jilan shoved the beggar who had collided into him, and the man crashed to the ground beside the road with a thud — and then bright red blood began flowing from his head.

Zuo Jilan and Wang Zhizhen both froze for a moment, then understood at once. “Damn it, are you trying to scam me? Don’t you even know where you are… beat him to death. No — seize him, send him to the Kaifeng magistrate for severe punishment!”

As Zuo Jilan bellowed this, the guards beside him immediately moved to seize the bloodied beggar lying on the ground who had staged the collision. At the same moment, a squad of Kaifeng constables was already approaching in formation. “What’s going on here…”

“Hey, Constable, come over here — this man’s blatantly staged this collision in broad daylight, he must be arrested and severely punished—”

“Under the bright light of day, who do you think you are, daring to commit violence like this—”

“Constable, sir, I am Vice Director Li Jing of the Ministry of Works—”

“Arrest him!”

“That’s right…”

“What are you people doing…”

“Quick, fetch a physician, someone’s about to die here—”

“Deliberate assault…”

“Hey, hey, hey, what is this, do you not wish to live…”

Amid the chaos, the constables began fastening shackles onto Zuo Jilan. Up above, Shishi’s eyes went wide — even she could tell at a glance that it was clearly a staged collision, yet Zuo Jilan was being seized regardless, and that Vice Director Li couldn’t manage to stop it at all. Someone in the crowd had begun stirring up talk of “an outsider committing violence,” and Zuo Jilan, clearly stunned, struggled and shouted, “Do you know who I am! Do you have any idea who I am…”

“My father is Zuo Duanyou! My father is Zuo Duanyou! You’re all finished, do you understand! My father is Zuo Duanyou—”

Amid his furious shouting, a young man in the crowd cupped his hands toward Vice Director Li, who walked over to speak with him. After a brief exchange, the Vice Director glanced back toward the scene, clearly at a loss for what to say. Shishi, however, recognized the young man — it was Wenren Bu’er, Qin Siyuan’s disciple. After finishing his conversation with Li Jing, he walked over toward the still-stunned Wang Zhizhen.

Seeing Li Jing speaking with the man, Wang Zhizhen understood at once that something was going on behind the scenes. This sudden turn of events felt like a blow to the head. He tried to stop the constables from seizing Zuo Jilan, but they simply pushed him aside, while Zuo Jilan shouted at him to go find help, to destroy these people. The young man who had finished speaking with Li Jing walked over toward him.

“Brother Wang Zhizhen, I presume? I’ve long heard of your reputation.” The man cupped his hands in greeting.

“Who… who are you people, do you have any idea…”

“I’ve come to deliver something.” Wenren Bu’er drew a sealed letter from his sleeve, its wax seal marked on the front: “Respectfully to Brother Zuo Duanyou,” signed: “Your younger brother, Qin.”

“For now, this is merely a show. Young Master Zuo will be well fed and well housed here, treated with no mistreatment at all — you needn’t worry, Brother Wang. This letter was written by my master, Lord Qin, to Lord Zuo. Please carry it back to Hedong and deliver it to him yourself — once you do, you’ll naturally understand how to go about bringing Young Master Zuo back… Time is short, the capital’s waters run deep, Brother Wang. Don’t linger about — best head back soon.”

Wang Zhizhen was truly stunned now. He had only been in the capital a few days — even returning empty-handed wouldn’t have been so bad, he had considered that possibility. But this turn of events was far too sudden. Worse still, he was the very aide at Zuo Jilan’s side who had personally orchestrated the grain-hoarding scheme. They had come to the capital to apply pressure, and now Qin Siyuan had simply seized Zuo Jilan outright, and even written a letter to Zuo Duanyou — a man with whom, it was said, he had already severed all ties. When he personally delivered this letter into Zuo Duanyou’s hands, what on earth would he say… How would Zuo Duanyou look at him after this? It wasn’t hard to imagine…

The constables dragged Zuo Jilan away amid a great commotion of shouting. Wang Zhizhen stood frozen on the roadside, letter in hand, utterly at a loss for what to do.

Suddenly, a figure dashed past him…

…

Watching from above, Shishi, upon seeing Wenren Bu’er, understood immediately what this all meant.

Madam Li had only just gone out to deliver the warning moments before — this could not possibly be the other side’s response to that message. Which meant that, as far as Zuo Jilan was concerned, they had already been prepared for this well in advance. Such swift and decisive action left Shishi letting out a breath — yet she found herself unable to feel truly relieved. The clash between the two sides had clearly already begun. Even with Zuo Jilan captured, there remained the powerful clans from several other disaster-stricken regions still out there. How many people could such forceful measures possibly handle?

She hurried down from the building and caught up with Wenren Bu’er, who was walking at the rear of the group.

“Master Wenren, Master Wenren.”

Shishi’s voice carried its usual soft, pleasing tone. Wenren Bu’er turned back, then smiled and cupped his hands in greeting. “Ah, Miss Shishi. What is it?” Then he added, “Could it be you’ve come to plead on behalf of that young master who just assaulted someone in broad daylight?”

Shishi smiled and shook her head. “He wanted to go see Liheng. I was stalling him upstairs, and had Madam Li go deliver word — I never expected you all would already be moving on this. Master Wenren, your side… it’s been quite a handful, hasn’t it?”

Wenren Bu’er smiled, considering this for a moment. “It hasn’t been easy, no. So Miss Li already knows about all this?”

“Liheng’s side must be dealing with a great deal of trouble too, I imagine?”

“It really is troublesome. Lately, various well-connected people have been showing up at his home too — cotton merchants, silk merchants, and some of Zhu Ji’s business partners have come demanding he back off, threatening to cut ties and stop supplying him otherwise. His wife, out of old affection for some of them, has been urging patience, waiting for his response — he hasn’t taken harsh measures against them yet. As it happens, today, with us out here capturing Zuo Jilan, he went back home to deal with that matter instead…”

The two of them continued walking as they talked.

“No wonder he’s been so busy lately. Actually, there’s something I need to discuss — would it be alright if I went to the Chancellor’s residence to see him tomorrow?”

“He’s really not all that busy, actually — if Miss Shishi comes by, he’ll certainly have the time for you…”

…

Turning back the clock a little — not long before this, Ning Yi had been leaving the Chancellor’s residence, intending to make time to return home and deal with the many matters concerning his various visitors. In the latter part of October, all manner of small troubles had indeed been arriving one wave after another…