The snow outside the window had accumulated half an inch thick, pressing down on the pine needles, occasionally emitting a fine, crisp sound.
Xu Qinghuan leaned against the soft couch, idly flicking the beads of an abacus with her fingertips.
"Clack."
The abacus stopped.
Li Sheng stood with his hands at his sides in the lower position, looking somewhat uneasy, like he had done something wrong and was waiting for his master's punishment.
"Eldest Miss, these are the accounts for the past few days."
Li Sheng pushed the thick ledger forward a bit, his tone carrying a sense of walking on thin ice.
Xu Qinghuan lifted her eyelids and lightly glanced at the number at the very bottom.
Twenty-four million.
She only felt a sharp pang in her chest, not from a flutter of the heart, but from anger.
She had clearly thrown hundreds of thousands of silver taels into Yulou Chun for those few poems without even batting an eye.
She originally thought she could squander some of the family fortune and make the system's "heartless rich" metric go up.
Who would have thought that the lingering influence of that "Spring River in the Flower Moon Night" was so strong that it drove the cultured and wealthy gentry of Jiangning City crazy.
In just three days, the Liang Zhu folding fans were sold out, and the orders for butterfly jade pendants were lined up until next year.
Furthermore, there were even people willing to throw ten thousand gold outside the Hundred Flowers Pavilion just to beg for a scroll of "Hard to Meet" written by her own hand.
This money was actually increasing the more she spent it.
"Li Sheng."
Xu Qinghuan's voice drifted a bit, a sign of extreme exhaustion.
"Here, Miss."
"System... no, that one, how long until New Year's Eve?"
Li Sheng calculated the days and bowed, answering, "To reply to Eldest Miss, there are only three days left."
Three days.
The countdown on the system panel had turned a glaring dark red.
If she couldn't fill the deficit of one million silver taels before New Year's Eve, her one billion retirement fund would go up in smoke.
Xu Qinghuan sat up straight, a trace of ruthlessness flashing in her eyes.
Since the right path didn't work, don't blame her for going to extremes.
"Go, invite that Mo Shou over."
Mo Shou was that eccentric old man who claimed to be a descendant of Mozi.
He usually hid in the slums of Jiangning City doing blacksmithing, his temper as hard as a stubborn stone.
A quarter of an hour later.
Mo Shou, wearing greasy cloth clothes and with messy hair, was brought to the Liu Garden.
He was still carrying an unfinished iron hammer in his hand, his gaze sweeping over the luxurious furnishings in the room, his eyes filled with disgust.
"What do you want from this old man?"
Mo Shou's voice was hoarse, carrying the dry heat of constantly dealing with the furnace.
"Smack."
Xu Qinghuan directly slapped a thick stack of silver notes on the desk.
One hundred thousand taels.
Mo Shou's eyes shrank, and the iron hammer in his hand involuntarily tightened.
"I need you to do something for me."
Xu Qinghuan stood up and walked a circle around Mo Shou, the bright red fox fur coat making her face look even fairer.
"Within three days, buy out all the gunpowder, firecrackers, and fireworks in Jiangning City, including the three surrounding counties."
"Regardless of quality, damp or broken, as long as it can be lit, buy it all at three times the market price."
Li Sheng listened with a racing heart from the side and couldn't help but interrupt, "Eldest Miss, that's gunpowder, the government controls it strictly..."
"That's why I'm having you do it."
Xu Qinghuan gave him a cold glare.
"If you can't even handle this small matter, you might as well stop being a manager."
Mo Shou looked at the stack of silver notes and sneered, "The County Princess has quite a big hand, are you trying to blow up Jiangning City?"
"No."
Xu Qinghuan revealed a vicious smile at the corner of her mouth, at least she thought she smiled very viciously.
"I want noise. Noise loud enough to shatter the window paper of the Xie family's study."
"I want smoke. Smoke thick enough to cover the water of the Qinhuai River."
She leaned closer to Mo Shou and whispered her instructions, "Figure out a way to add something to the gunpowder for me. I don't want those colorful little trinkets, I want the kind that burns up into a thick fog, smells pungent, and makes a 'big commotion' that keeps all the commoners in the city awake."
She wanted to disturb the peace.
She wanted the commoners of Jiangning City to curse Xu Qinghuan to the heavens on New Year's Eve.
She wanted the reputation of a "talented woman" that she had painstakingly built up to turn to ashes in a cloud of smoke.
Mo Shou stared at her for a long time.
But all he saw was the almost self-destructive madness in Xu Qinghuan's eyes.
"Lunatic."
Mo Shou spat out two words, but still reached out and collected the stack of silver notes.
"This old man will go do it right now. I guarantee I'll make the New Year's Eve in Jiangning City loud enough to shatter the sky."
For the next two days.
Jiangning City was in chaos.
The commoners who had originally planned to buy a couple strings of firecrackers for good luck during the New Year suddenly found that all the firecracker shops had closed their doors.
Even the small stalls making firecrackers by the roadside had been bought out entirely by a group of fierce-looking guards from the Hundred Flowers Pavilion.
"What's this? Nowadays we even have to look at the County Princess Xu's intentions just to hear a bang?"
In the teahouse, a burly man with a face full of flesh slammed his hand heavily on the table and spat.
"Isn't that right? I heard that County Princess Xu felt the noise in the whole city wasn't enough, and forcefully bought away all the gunpowder."
"That's only allowing the magistrate to light fires, while forbidding the commoners to light lamps!"
Another old scholar pointed a trembling finger in the direction of the Qinhuai River.
"She's committing a sin! Spending money on these flashy, useless things, isn't she afraid of shortening her lifespan!"
Complaints filled the streets; this was exactly the effect Xu Qinghuan wanted.
Inside the Liu Garden, the "negative emotion value" in the system's background was jumping crazily.
Although it hadn't yet transformed into true hatred, those curses sounded like heavenly music to Xu Qinghuan's ears.
New Year's Eve.
The sky was gloomy, and even the moon had hidden behind the clouds.
But the lights along the Qinhuai River were brighter than in previous years.
Every household was eating their reunion dinner, but their minds weren't on the table.
Because from the Hundred Flowers Pavilion all the way to the stone arch bridge on the opposite bank, the entire three-mile stretch of road was covered with giant firecracker tubes wrapped in red paper.
Mo Shou was indeed worthy of being a descendant of the Mo family.
Those thick wooden tubes were connected together, with fuses densely intertwined.
A slumbering giant dragon, lying dormant in the cold river wind.
Inside the Hundred Flowers Pavilion.
The stove fire burned fiercely, and the copper hot pot steamed.
Tripe and lamb rolls tumbled in the boiling red oil.
Those girls who were originally unaccepted by society were now sitting together, noisily clinking their cups.
Xu Zijin sat to the side, holding a white jade cup in his hand, his gaze always inadvertently glancing outside the door.
He had specifically worn a brand-new green shirt tonight, but he could never blend into this liveliness.
"Where's the boss?"
Xu Zijin asked, his voice drowned out by the noisy finger-guessing games.
"Up there."
A girl pointed to the roof of the building and let out a spicy breath.
"The boss said she wanted to catch some wind and wouldn't let us follow. Young Master Xu, you shouldn't go either. The boss has a very eccentric temper."
On the highest eaves of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion.
Xu Qinghuan pulled her white fox cloak tighter around herself, sitting alone on the roof tiles.
The wind was strong, blowing the loose hairs at her temples into a wild dance.
Looking down from this position, she could see the lights of ten thousand homes and hear the distant yet real sounds of laughter and joy.
This clamor made her feel unfamiliar, yet also lonely.
It was an alienation carved into her bones, not belonging to this era.
"Qinghuan."
A deep, broad voice sounded from behind.
Xu Youde struggled up the ladder and handed over a steaming bowl of dumplings.
"Father, why did you come up here?"
The coldness on Xu Qinghuan's face froze for a moment, and she quickly reached out to help him.
"It's a reunion dinner. How could we do it without you?"
Xu Youde didn't preach any grand principles. He just sat beside her, looking at the gunpowder array in the distance.
"Girl, if you're unhappy in your heart, just act out as much as you want. Although your father doesn't have much ability, this family fortune is still enough for you to squander for a while."
Xu Qinghuan looked at this man with a face full of wrinkles, yet whose eyes were full of doting love.
The hardest part deep in the bottom of her heart felt as if it had been pricked by a needle, aching intensely.
"Father... am I really annoying?"
Xu Qinghuan lowered her head, her voice very light.
Xu Youde smiled, revealing two missing teeth.
"In this world, being able to annoy people is also a kind of ability. How many people want others to even look at them, but don't even have the chance."
Midnight was approaching.
The bell of Jiangning City rang leisurely.
Xu Qinghuan stood up, brushed the snow off her body, and took a lit torch from her old father's hand.
"Father, watch closely."
"Tonight, your daughter is going to give Jiangning City a 'great gift'."
She leaped into the air, her clothes drawing a stunning red streak across the sky.
The moment the torch touched the main fuse.
Boom!!!
It wasn't that crisp sound of firecrackers; it was a true earth-shattering roar.
The first loud bang sent ripples across the entire surface of the Qinhuai River.
Immediately after, there was a continuous series of explosions.
That was the masterpiece improved by Mo Shou.
A massive white smoke accompanied by golden sparks soared from the ground into the sky.
Thick.
Too thick.
It was so thick that one could not see their own fingers, so thick that the pungent smell of sulfur quickly filled everyone's nasal passages.
Standing on the terrace, Xu Qinghuan covered her ears and watched as the sky-filling smoke completely enveloped her.
She closed her eyes with an almost cruel sense of satisfaction.
Curse me.
Hurry up and curse me.
Take all the anger you've held in for a year and vent it all out on me.
However.
One second.
Two seconds.
The expected screams and angry curses did not appear.
The originally quiet night sky was suddenly cleared of clouds by a southeast wind blowing from an unknown direction.
That wind carried the moisture from the river and rolled into the heavy white smoke.
Chemical reactions existed even in ancient times.
Mo Shou had added a large amount of saltpeter and a certain purple mineral powder to that gunpowder.
Under the blowing of the river wind, the originally blindingly white thick smoke actually turned into a bizarre, noble purple-gold color in the reflection of the myriad lights on the ground.
It swirled and rose, like clouds and rosy mist.
From a distance, the entire Jiangning City seemed to be enveloped by a layer of mysterious Buddha's light.
Although the thick smoke was choking, in the eyes of that fortune-teller, it was a completely different scene.
Clatter!
The old Daoist priest who had previously cried at the grave for The Butterfly Lovers was now standing on the opposite bank of the river, staring blankly.
He looked at the purple-gold smoke clouds that blotted out the sky, and his body began to tremble violently.
"Purple energy..."
A murmur of disbelief escaped his throat, and then he fell to his knees in the snow with a thud.
"Purple energy comes from the east!!"
This shout, full of vigor, instantly spread across the riverbank.
"That is the purple energy coming from the east! It is an auspicious sign from heaven!"
The old Daoist priest pointed in the direction of the Baihua Pavilion, his face full of fanaticism.
"County Princess Xu isn't fooling around; she is using a hundred thousand taels of silver to ward off disasters for our Jiangning City!"
"Smell this scent! That's sulfur! That's the holy medicine for warding off evil and exorcising demons!"
"All the bad luck of the past year has been blown away by this blast!"
The commoners around who had originally been coughing put down the bricks in their hands upon hearing this.
They took a deep breath.
"Hey? Now that you mention it, although this smoke tickles the throat a bit, I feel much more energetic."
An old farmer suffering from a cold, whether due to psychological effects or because there really were some herbs in the smoke, actually stopped coughing on the spot.
"A living Bodhisattva!"
"So the County Princess bought all the gunpowder so that we wouldn't be disturbed. She bore the thunderous noise all by herself!"
"Thank you, County Princess, for cleansing Jiangning of evil!"
A massive crowd followed suit.
The commoners who had originally gathered to demand an explanation now knelt down in droves.
They piously bowed and kowtowed in the direction of the Baihua Pavilion.
In their eyes, the sky full of purple smoke was no longer pollution, but overwhelming wealth and fortune.
On the terrace of the Baihua Pavilion.
Xu Qinghuan was already dumbfounded.
She looked at the dense crowd of heads below and listened to the overwhelming shouts of "Thank you, Bodhisattva."
"No... are your brains filled with paste?"
Xu Qinghuan was so angry she almost vomited blood, pointing at Li Sheng at her feet. "Listen to them, what are they shouting?"
Li Sheng was also in tears at this moment, looking at his master with a face full of admiration.
"Eldest Miss, you kept it a secret so well. So you wanted to use this 'Fire God Sacrifice' method to exorcise evil for the folks."
"Exorcise what evil!"
Xu Qinghuan wanted to roar, but as soon as she opened her mouth, she choked on a mouthful of thick purple-gold smoke.
"Cough, cough... cough, cough, cough!"
The system notification sound roared crazily over there.
Xu Qinghuan's body swayed.
Not only did she not lose money.
She actually made a damn profit.
She looked at the clamor filling the city and the gradually dissipating purple smoke.
Her heart, which had been hurting intensely, actually felt somewhat numb at this moment.
The noise gradually subsided.
Li Sheng took the girls to distribute red envelopes to the commoners outside.
Xu Youde pulled Xu Zijin to drink a cross-cupped wine downstairs.
Only Xu Qinghuan still stood on the flying eaves.
The wind swept past, taking away the last trace of the fireworks' scent.
If this were the real world.
It might be a moment of extreme bliss in the present age, bustling and lively.
Purity and clumsiness blurred their boundaries on this New Year's Eve.
Joy was the main theme now.
However, Xu Qinghuan knew very well in her heart that she was, after all, someone who would have to say goodbye to this world.
Whatever liveliness, whatever festivity, seemed to have nothing to do with her.
But all of this, as Xu Qinghuan swept her gaze over the people who loved and respected her, felt incredibly real.
The more she thought about it, the more uncomfortable she felt.
"I said I wanted to be the villain. If I were a villain, how could my mind be hurt by this..."
The voices of Xu Youde and the others reached her ears, seemingly urging her to cut some pastry that only she could cut.
Saying that she was the protagonist tonight.
Hmph, the original protagonist was surnamed Xu.
Fine, since you all invited me, I'm coming.
She took out a small firework from her chest that she hadn't had time to throw in.
It was a little gadget similar to a modern sparkler.
She didn't light it.
She just held it and, in the night of Jiangning City, in the empty void, slowly drew a circle that wasn't quite perfectly round.
That was the symbol of the world she had once lived in.
A circle. The earth is round, and perfection is a circle.
This circle wasn't round enough, proving that she wasn't perfect enough yet.
Looking up at the moon, Xu Qinghuan couldn't help but sigh with emotion.
"The most imperfect, yet the most perfect."
"Oh God, oh God..."
The firework ignited in her hand and gradually extinguished in her hand.
As if it were foreshadowing something.
Her father's urging voice came once again. She was his daughter now; it wasn't like she was going to run away.
Rush, rush, rush, she was really coming this time!
Xu Qinghuan turned around, becoming the protagonist of this very moment.
As if the heavens themselves had sensed it, the boundless purple aura that was on the verge of fading suddenly swept over and enveloped everything the moment Xu Qinghuan turned.
Under a sky without a single dark cloud, the sound of a solitary drop of water echoed over the Qinhuai River.
Was it rain?
Probably not.
It was what fell from Xu Qinghuan's face.
If anyone had paused to linger there at that moment.
Perhaps they would have wondered about the mist that faded away alongside the turning girl within that purple aura, carrying with it a faint, barely audible whisper.
"Xu Qinghuan......."
"Happy, New Year........"
