Raindrops pitter-pattered against the carriage roof, and in this short time, the downpour seemed to have intensified.
Nian Qiu secured the window curtain tightly and gently tugged the blanket higher over her mistress’s lap, whispering, “You said it yourself—that’s a matter between husband and wife. Why trouble yourself over them?”
Hua Zhi shook her head. “I just think how difficult it is to be a woman. Lady Cai is considered kind-hearted, yet she still wants to push women into her son’s chambers. When you think about those less amiable households, who knows how much bitterness they swallow with their tears?”
Yet, bound by parental orders and matchmakers’ words, women raised deep within inner chambers had neither the right to object nor the means to resist. The concept of "reputation" strangled them like a noose around their necks.
“If only Miss Qin could see her way out of this stubborn mindset,” Nian Qiu murmured. “This servant can see that the young master truly cares for her.”
He does care—but to what extent is hard to say. Their emotional foundation is too fragile.
Hua Zhi decided not to dwell further, lest she frighten this already timid maid even more. Nian Qiu was already reluctant to marry; any more fear would be disastrous.
Lulled by the rhythm of the rain throughout the journey, Hua Zhi grew drowsy. A gust of wind slipped through the lifted curtain, jolting her awake.
Bending forward to step out of the carriage, she looked up and froze. He… was back.
Gu Yanxi’s eyes brimmed with laughter, holding an umbrella in one hand and extending the other toward her.
Hua Zhi pressed her lips together, suppressing a smile, and let him help her down from the carriage. He then wrapped his cloak around her, shielding her as they shared the umbrella into the courtyard.
Nian Qiu stifled a grin and took an umbrella from a young maid, heading toward the small kitchen. She needed to ask Lan Qiao to prepare extra dishes—and some ginger soup too.
Once inside, Hua Zhi’s hair remained perfectly dry, though the hem of her skirt was slightly damp from splashed rainwater. Gu Yanxi, however, was half-soaked, though most of the rain had been blocked by his cloak.
Hanging the cloak aside, Gu Yanxi studied A Zhi, who seemed different from usual. “Are you happy I’m back or not?”
Hua Zhi also found her inexplicable shyness strange. How could a few days apart make her feel so bashful? Clearing her throat lightly, she tried to appear as composed as ever. “Did you come from the palace?”
“Yes.” Gu Yanxi watched A Zhi intently, sensing he had missed something—something he dearly wished he hadn’t.
Hua Zhi steered the conversation toward practical matters with feigned nonchalance. “Any discoveries over there? Did you capture any remnants of the Chao Li Tribe?”
“No.”
Having shaken off her earlier mood, Hua Zhi frowned. “No findings at all?”
“They abandoned that stronghold some time ago, but this trip wasn’t entirely fruitless.” Gu Yanxi took a silver ingot from his robe and placed it upside down on the table. Hua Zhi spotted the anomaly at once.
Several thoughts flashed through her mind. She looked up. “Silver smelted by the Chao Li Tribe themselves?”
“Look closer.”
Hua Zhi picked up the ingot. She had seen official silver from the Chao Li Kingdom era at home—its only distinction from other central plains dynasties was a cross pattern at the base. This ingot’s pattern was shallower than those from the Chao Li period, subtle enough to go unnoticed unless one looked carefully."It has to be newly minted silver. Using old silver would make it even harder to detect... New silver?"
"Light the lamp." Bao Xia, who had been waiting outside, immediately entered and lit the lamp. Hua Zhi examined the silver under the lamplight but still found it too dim. She simply took it outside and, under the natural light, confirmed it was indeed newly minted silver!
She turned to the man standing outside the door. "Do you suspect they've taken control of a silver mine you're unaware of, or do you think they've secured some lucrative financial channel?"
"Both." Gu Yanxi stepped out. "I hope it's the former, but the latter is just as likely."
"Could it be that they brought it from beyond the frontier?"
"Unlikely. I found this new silver in a corner of the hidden chamber—five ingots in total, neatly lined up against the wall. Judging by the marks on the floor, there had been a large pile of silver there before. These five ingots were probably left behind."
Hua Zhi understood. "If the new silver had been brought from beyond the frontier, it would inevitably have been dented or scratched, and there'd be no need for that. So, the place where the silver was smelted must be in Yuzhou!"
"I've left people there to continue investigating, but I'm not hopeful. They wouldn't be foolish enough to wait for me to uncover their family fortune."
The two re-entered the room. "What did he say?"
"Investigate."
"..." Hua Zhi felt she must have had a dead-fish expression at that moment, which was why the man opposite her was amused. She didn't even want to acknowledge him.
Gu Yanxi suppressed his laughter with great effort. This side of A Zhi was rare and utterly adorable. But just like soothing a bristling cat, he needed to coax her. He immediately shared his plan. "I want to expand the mushroom trade to Yuzhou first."
Hua Zhi snorted. "No need to consult me about that."
"If it were just an ordinary business, having a manager oversee it would suffice. But I want to borrow A Zhi's intellect to flush out their fox tail."
"You have more faith in me than I do in myself." Since they were discussing serious matters, Hua Zhi couldn't afford to be temperamental. After considering the possibilities, she said, "It's not impossible, but relying solely on this one trade might not be enough. The best way to force them out is to cut off their financial channels. Before that, you need to narrow down the general direction. With so many industries, I can't possibly dabble in all of them. I don't have enough manpower."
Gu Yanxi smiled. It wasn't that she lacked the capability, but that she lacked the manpower—and she still claimed not to believe in herself? But A Zhi had every right to say so. The combined profits from her various businesses could only be described as earning buckets of gold daily, and that was an understatement.
"I'll narrow down the general direction and provide you with the manpower. Speaking of which, there are indeed quite a few idle people in the residence."
Hua Zhi, who had always been short-handed and was now stretched thin, gritted her teeth. "Saying that makes me think you're showing off."
This time, Gu Yanxi couldn't hold back his laughter. Chuckling, he explained, "Those are all people my mother left behind. At the time, the Lu family's dowry included twenty-four families of hereditary servants—and that was just the official count. There were even more people on the several estates that came with the dowry. Later, my mother, perhaps intending to provide a more generous dowry for Shaoyao as well, brought in even more. In recent years, I've been too overwhelmed to manage everything, so I closed down the less profitable shops. I don't need many people to attend to me, so quite a few ended up idle."
What does it mean to have vast family wealth and influence? This is it!The Lu family truly spared no expense in marrying off their daughter. Each household's servants numbered at least two or three, some as many as seven or eight, adding up to over a hundred people. Coupled with the estate workers whom even Yan Xi described as "not few," the total headcount would conservatively exceed three hundred. For the first time, Hua Zhi realized that this man, so deeply entangled with her, truly belonged to a wealthy, influential family.
PS: I might revise this chapter again tomorrow, but I'm posting it now. The backend has been extremely difficult to access these past two days, and I don't want to miss another update.
OpenNovel