Deep inside the Dongzhi Gate of the Inner City, at the end of a secluded blind alley, hung a black-lacquered wooden plaque that read: Qigua Studio.
Outside the door, thick green moss covered the base of the walls, but inside was a completely different world. The room's furnishings were minimalist; there were no paintings or calligraphy on the walls, and even the usual bronze and stone antiques meant for appreciation were entirely absent.
In the center of the room sat a yellow rosewood tea table. In the corner of the table, a small red clay stove flickered with a faint firelight. Inside the purple clay kettle on the stove, the water was boiling, its bubbling sound clear in the quiet room.
Three people sat around the tea table.
The man sitting on the left was about fifty years old, wearing a plain navy-blue casual robe, without any accessories around his waist to indicate his status. This was Cui Heng, the head of the Cui family of Chen Commandery.
The man on the right was slightly older, with a meticulously groomed long beard on his chin. He wore a dark blue straight-cut robe with subtle patterns, its cuffs embroidered with gold thread.
This was Xie Miheng, the Second Grand Secretary of the Cabinet and Minister of Personnel.
Of course, he had another identity: the elder brother of Xie An of Jiangnan.
Sitting in the central seat of honor was an old man wearing a gray cotton robe with a center opening, cloth shoes, and white socks. His hair was casually pinned up with a wooden hairpin. His knuckles were thick, and the backs of his hands were covered in age spots.
This man was Xu Zhong, the steward of Xu Jie, the Chief Grand Secretary of the Cabinet.
Two high-ranking court officials were willing to sit on either side of an old servant. In this room, Xu Zhong represented Chief Grand Secretary Xu.
Cui Heng reached out and picked up the white porcelain teacup in front of him, rubbing his thumb against the rim twice. With his eyelids half-lowered, he looked at a curled leaf in the tea and was the first to break the sound of boiling water in the room.
"That man from Jiangning moves quite swiftly. An hour ago, leading the imperial guards, he already smashed open the doors of the Qi family's bank in the southern city."
Xie Miheng lifted the purple clay kettle from the stove. Tilting his wrist slightly, the hot water fell accurately into Cui Heng's teacup. The tea swirled, and mist spread through the air.
Xie Miheng picked up a white cloth napkin and slowly wiped the moisture from his fingertips.
"The soldiers of the Nine Frontiers cannot even get their winter clothes, and war is imminent, yet the national treasury is empty."
"And His Majesty is currently at his most unreasonable state of imperial wrath. At a critical juncture like this, whoever dares to stop him from getting money is a sinner."
Xie Miheng tossed the cloth aside, his gaze sweeping across Cui Heng's face.
"If we clutch our purses and refuse to let go at this time, if we don't take the initiative to slice off these few pieces of meat from our ankles to feed them, the blade handed out by the Emperor himself will likely follow the line of the Jiangnan merchants and chop directly onto the necks of the main families sitting here."
"Cutting the flesh of six peripheral merchants to preserve the foundation of the royal court is called spending money to buy lives; in the Emperor's eyes, this is called the harmonious relationship between a ruler and his ministers."
Cui Heng snorted coldly and set his teacup heavily back onto the wooden tray, making a crisp clinking sound.
"I understand the logic of buying lives, but this man's greed is truly a disgrace to decency."
"The Zhao family is, after all, a respectable merchant lineage. It would be one thing if this man surnamed Xu just led his men into their compound to confiscate their silver, but he actually ordered his men to dig up the floor tiles in their courtyard to weigh them, and even the fish in their pond are being sold by the pound." Cui Heng's brows knitted together. "He has no sense of propriety and does things completely without a bottom line."
A cracking sound came from the center seat.
Between Xu Zhong's two fingers, the hard shell of a walnut cracked open. With his head bowed, his fingers meticulously picked at the broken shells, the cuffs of his gray cotton robe swaying with his movements.
"Lord Cui Heng, you are incorrect about this," Xu Zhong peeled off a small piece of the bitter walnut skin without even looking up. "If a man is not ruthless, how can he handle affairs for his master? The Emperor went to great lengths to drag him from Jiangning to the foot of the Son of Heaven, and what he wants is exactly this ugly thoroughness of scraping even the ground clean."
Xu Zhong swept the broken shells into a copper plate beside him. "When the imperial court lacks money, it must rob it from the hands of the noble families."
"This bandit's errand cannot be done by the upright civil officials of the court, nor can those face-saving noble families bring themselves to do it. There must be a wicked official with the most vulgar mouth and no bottom line to take all this dirty water upon himself."
Xie Miheng picked up his teacup and followed up on Xu Zhong's words.
"Steward Xu speaks profoundly. That golden token for mobilizing troops in the Golden Throne Room, plus that blank imperial edict with no words written on it—outsiders see it as monstrous imperial favor, as the Emperor's deep trust in Xu Youde. But in reality? It is a wire mesh roasting over a raging fire."
Xie Miheng looked coldly at the tea in his cup. "Now that the powerful nobles all over the capital are having their homes confiscated, who dares to go deep into the palace and point a finger at the Emperor's nose to curse him? They dare not. So, all this burning hatred is entirely directed at the head of this man surnamed Xu."
Xu Zhong's hands did not stop moving; a second walnut had already cracked in his palm.
"The First Prince holds great power and acts with fiery haste. The Second Prince excels in strategy, has many followers, and executes his plans flawlessly." Xu Zhong's speaking pace was steady. "Only this Third Highness—we thought he had no interest in the Crown Prince's position, but unexpectedly, his ambitions are higher than the sky, yet his foundation is extremely thin."
Xu Zhong placed the peeled nut meats into a blue-and-white porcelain dish. "Handing this poisoned blade to him, he finds it too hot to hold, and he lacks the courage to wield it himself to slaughter the noble families. Therefore, he must seek out a scapegoat who is eager for merit and lacks any foundation. Xu Youde is the perfect fit."
"With this move on the chessboard, we not only use these three million taels to appease the anger of the one in the palace, but we also justifiably sever the Third Prince's ambitions in the Ministry of Revenue, and conveniently pick up a scapegoat condemned by thousands."
"A seamless transaction that reaps a three-fold profit. Lord Cui, would you say this calculation is acceptable?"
"The scheme is brilliant, but..." Cui Heng's brows did not completely relax. "That blank imperial edict is held in Xu Youde's hands. What if he goes red-eyed from the confiscations, loses all sense of proportion, and directly lunges at the lifelines of our three families—Cui, Xie, and Xu? By then, if the situation becomes unmanageable, wouldn't we be lifting a rock only to drop it on our own feet?"
Hearing this, Xu Zhong finally stopped his hand movements. He picked out the last small piece of clean walnut meat, placed it neatly in the exact center of the blue-and-white dish, and wiped his fingers clean with a dry cloth.
"Lord Cui, you imagine people of merchant origins to be far too unyielding." Xu Zhong raised his head, his wrinkled old face devoid of any emotional fluctuation. "Xu Youde has, after all, done business in officialdom for a lifetime. The blood flowing in his bones is geared toward pursuing profit and avoiding harm. All he seeks is nothing more than filling that three-million-tael hole in the military provisions, just to save the heads of his own Xu family."
Xu Zhong pushed the blue-and-white dish forward a bit. "This kind of person has a mind filled entirely with shrewdness. Even if you lent him ten times the courage, he wouldn't dare to truly shake the foundation of the state. Furthermore, the Emperor's bottom line is firmly drawn at the threshold of those six peripheral merchant families."
"If Xu Youde merely barks outside that line, the Emperor is happy to see it happen; but if he dares to step half a pace inside and touch the foundation of our families, the blade on the Emperor's desk will chop his family into mincemeat before we even have to act."
Xie Miheng nodded. He reached into his wide sleeve and took out an unopened letter. The paper at the edges of the envelope was slightly yellowed, and it bore the urgent wax seal of the Xie family.
Xie Miheng did not even cast a single glance at it. With a casual flick of his wrist, he tossed the letter accurately into the red clay brazier at his feet.
The charcoal fire flared up instantly, blackening the four corners of the envelope before the flames quickly swallowed it whole.
"Speaking of which, things seem a bit restless over in Jiangning lately," Xie Miheng murmured to himself in a careless tone, rubbing the paper ash from his fingertips. "With Xie An's temperament, he used to send a few letters home to the capital every first and fifteenth of the month to pay his respects and ask after our health. Lately, there has been absolutely no news. Could it be that he has run into some trouble locally that even his temper cannot handle?"
Xie Miheng waved his hand, not intending to waste any more energy on the topic. "Forget it. It is nothing more than trivial matters in the water towns of Jiangnan. A few splashes in a ditch cannot stir up any big waves. The clan managers will naturally take care of those petty affairs."
"What we should be calculating now is the capital evaluation next month. There are a few lucrative positions in the Ministry of Personnel; it is time to make a move."
Xu Zhong pressed his hands against his knees and slowly stood up. He looked down at his inconspicuous gray cotton robe and reached out to brush away non-existent dust from his knees.
"Since you two lords already have a plan in mind, this tea today has served its purpose." Xu Zhong's gaze swept over the remnants on the table. "In the coming days, let Vice Minister Xu continue his work. The more ruthlessly he acts and the cleaner he scrapes, the tighter the noose around his neck will become."
"Lord Xie, inform the Censorate to keep their mouths shut tight for the time being. Withhold all memorials impeaching Xu Youde and lock them in the archives."
The three men stood up one after another and walked out of the secret room.
Xie Miheng walked at the very end. As he passed by the window, he reached out and pushed open the tightly shut half of the lattice window.
He picked up the last half cup of leftover tea from the tea table, the cold dregs that Cui Heng had left unfinished earlier. With a turn of his wrist, the dark brown tea splashed down through the gap in the windowsill, landing on the dry dirt at the base of the wall and leaving a few murky mud spots.
Xie Miheng looked at the scene outside the window.
"Good tea. What a pity it has gone cold."
