"A letter from Father?"
"We haven't even replied to the last one, and another one arrived today?"
"It is absolutely true. I have checked the wax seal; it is the small seal Father always uses. No one has tampered with it."
Xu Zhan placed the secret letter on the desk, pulled up a chair to sit down, and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Even at night, Zhenbei City in late May was windless, and the heat inside the hall was stifling.
Xu Qinghuan did not rush to open the letter. Instead, she picked up the teapot and poured a bowl of herbal tea for Xu Zhan.
Xu Zhan took the tea bowl, gulped down half of it, and urged, "Open it, little sister. Father hasn't sent many letters since we left the capital, and my heart is all in knots."
Xu Qinghuan picked up the secret letter and gently pried the edge of the wax seal with her fingernail. The wax shattered, revealing the letter paper folded twice inside.
Xu Qinghuan unfolded the letter and brought it close to the candlestick. Xu Zhan also leaned in, and the brother and sister read it line by line by the candlelight.
Xu Youde's handwriting was not pretty. The horizontal strokes were uneven, the vertical strokes were crooked, and the ink was inconsistent in depth, full of a rough, worldly vibe.
The letter did not start with pleasantries; it began bluntly.
"Back in the day, your old man spent three thousand taels of silver and went through seven or eight layers of connections just to get a minor ninth-grade official hat."
"My old man said this money was enough to buy half a street of shops. I told him that shops can be passed down for three generations, but if this official hat is worn right, it can protect the Xu family for ten generations."
"Your grandmother didn't believe it either. She chased me around the courtyard three times with a rolling pin."
Seeing this, Xu Zhan couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"The old man is still bringing this up. When Grandmother was chasing him to beat him, I was hiding behind the door threshold watching the fun."
Xu Qinghuan also smiled, her eyes continuing to scan downwards.
Xu Youde continued writing.
"Looking back now, your old man's three thousand taels were well spent! The ways of the court cannot be grasped just by reading books. You have to pave the way with silver, block swords with a thick skin, and hold liquor with a big belly."
"Your father, in this life, has no other skills, but I have perfected these three."
At this point, the strokes of the handwriting became sharp.
"Enough gossip, down to business. Recently, there has been a major movement in the court. His Majesty wants to change the regulations of the autumn imperial examination, reducing poetry and adding practical policy essays."
"The whole court of righteous officials has been arguing endlessly over this, and the impeachment memorials are stacked higher than the imperial desk. As for your father, somehow I caught His Majesty's eye, and he personally appointed me to coordinate the funds and grain for this year's autumn examination!"
Xu Zhan's eyes lit up when he read this.
The letter continued.
"Nowadays, if the civil and military officials of the entire court want to get anything done, they must first submit a request to the Ministry of Revenue. Which of the officials from the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers wouldn't politely call me 'Lord Xu' when they see me? Even Chief Grand Secretary Xu praised me for keeping clear accounts."
"Your father hasn't seriously studied for many days in his life, but now he has become a high official managing the money bags of scholars. Who would believe it if told?"
"You two just focus on handling your duties well at the border. There's no need to worry about affairs in the capital. With your father here, the sky won't fall."
At the end of the letter paper, there was a crooked ink circle serving as a signature.
After reading the last line, Xu Zhan exhaled heavily, leaned back against the wooden chair, and reached out to slap the desk.
"The old man is doing great!" Xu Zhan laughed loudly. "He didn't write so clearly in the last letter, and I was worried he would suffer losses alone in the capital. I didn't expect this old guy to be doing so well! That is the most lucrative of lucrative positions. How many people in the court are eyeing this spot?"
Xu Zhan grew even more excited, standing up and pacing back and forth in the hall.
"Father might not be good at other things, but he really has a knack for maneuvering. Back in Xu Village, he was the only one who could make a ten-copper-coin business look like a one-tael-silver spectacle. Now in the court, he is just as successful."
"Little sister, don't you think so?"
Xu Qinghuan did not answer.
Xu Qinghuan's fingertips felt a crease in the lower right corner of the letter paper. These messy folds were clearly the marks left after being tightly crumpled and then smoothed out again.
A small patch of dried dark water stain remained on the crease, located right next to Xu Youde's crooked signature circle.
Xu Qinghuan turned the letter paper over to inspect it against the candlelight. The stain seeped through the back of the paper, appearing dark brown.
Ink is black, so this stain had a strange color.
It was a mark left by tea, or the residue of liquor.
The person writing the family letter had crumpled the paper into a ball halfway through, and then smoothed it out again to seal it in the envelope and send it out.
Xu Youde had intended to destroy this letter halfway and start over, but ultimately suppressed the thought.
Xu Qinghuan shifted her gaze back to the main text of the letter and began to ponder the rhythm of the writing.
The opening paragraph recalling the past had relaxed strokes, even ink color, and smooth pen pressure, which was exactly Xu Youde's usual habit.
From the line "Enough gossip, down to business," the handwriting became constrained, the spacing between strokes narrowed, and the ink became heavier.
When writing to report good news about a proud and successful event, the pen pressure would absolutely not be so stiff.
And then there was the sentence, "if the civil and military officials of the entire court want to get anything done, they must first submit a request to the Ministry of Revenue."
Xu Youde was someone who bought his way into officialdom. His foundation was unstable, and he had always acted cautiously in the capital's political circles. He would never be arrogant to this extent.
He was deliberately putting on an act.
Reporting good news while hiding the bad had always been Xu Youde's style.
Xu Qinghuan placed the letter paper on the desk and looked up at Xu Zhan.
"Second Brother is right. Father is as capable as ever. We just need to focus on handling our duties here at the border."
Xu Zhan laughed heartily and reached out to rub the top of Xu Qinghuan's head. Even though his little sister was now an imperial envoy, in his eyes, she was still just the younger generation he had looked after since childhood.
"Alright, it's getting late, you should rest early too." Xu Zhan yawned and stood up to walk outside. "Tomorrow I still have to do a patrol on the city defenses. A new batch of sentries was swapped in the day before yesterday, and they are very inexperienced, so I need to keep an eye on them."
Xu Qinghuan nodded, "Go ahead, Second Brother."
Xu Zhan strode away, and the courtyard door closed with the sound of turning wooden hinges.
Peace returned to the hall.
Xu Qinghuan's expression turned solemn.
She sighed, walked over to the desk, opened a drawer, took out a sheet of Xuan paper, and smoothed it out. She picked up her usual wolf-hair brush, letting the tip soak up thick ink from the inkstone.
The brush tip paused above the paper, not yet falling.
Half a quarter of an hour later, Xu Qinghuan finally put pen to paper.
"Your unfilial daughter is far away at the border and cannot serve by your side."
"Everything is well in Zhenbei City. The imperial court's rations and fodder have arrived, and the military's morale is stable."
"Second Brother is strong and healthy, drilling every day without stopping. Father does not need to worry."
She did not mention a single word in the letter about the strange plague that had broken out in the wounded soldiers' camp. The chaos of scrap iron piling up in the armory was also completely hidden. The whereabouts of the Helian people and the spies in the city who had not yet been brought to justice were all skipped over by her.
After writing these few paragraphs, Xu Qinghuan set down her brush and spread the letter paper out on the table to wait for the ink to dry.
The father and daughter, separated by thousands of miles, both reported that they were safe, and both hid their respective crises.
Xu Qinghuan turned back to the tea table, picked up the family letter, and read it again by the candlelight.
She then turned to recalling the original plot of the book, which she knew by heart.
According to the trajectory of the original book, at this time Xu Youde was promoted to Vice Minister of Works. This high-ranking official position was actually a powerless sinecure. He had no military or financial power in his hands, and he didn't even have the confidence to discuss politics in the court.
The character Xu Youde had always been a marginal figure. Relying on enduring seniority and continuously throwing silver around, it wasn't until the middle and late stages of the story that he barely managed to get a position as Vice Minister of Works, responsible for odd jobs like repairing bridges and paving roads.
He had never set foot in the Ministry of Rites, much less could he have anything to do with the autumn imperial examination.
As for him later becoming a great treacherous official and being killed by the new emperor, that was a matter for another time.
The present situation was vastly different.
Rather than being demoted, Xu Youde had actually secured the assignment of managing the funds and provisions for the autumn imperial examinations.
The accounts for the autumn examinations?
Why would they change?
Xu Qinghuan's gaze suddenly sharpened.
This was bad!
