The Xu family arrived quickly.
The wind sweeping across the field ridges carried the raw scent of wet mud.
The royal guards, who had initially appeared so imposing, lined up on both sides, keeping the gathering crowd of commoners at a distance of ten paces.
An old eunuch, with a pale, beardless face and dressed in a purple python robe, walked over with a swaying gait, stepping on a red felt carpet rolled out by two young eunuchs. He held a scroll of bright yellow imperial edict in his hands, wearing an unfathomable smile that could only be cultivated from years of living in the imperial palace.
Eunuch Li. The Brush-Holding Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, and the favorite of Emperor Tiansheng.
His slanted eyes swept over Xiao Jingyan, who was covered in mud. He did not bow, merely offering a slight nod as a greeting. His gaze then moved past the crowd and landed on the father and daughter of the Xu family.
"Heaven cherishes all life, to think there is such a sacred object. This imperial edict is truly well-received!"
"Xu Youde, Xu Qinghuan, receive the edict."
His voice was high and shrill, scraping painfully against their eardrums.
A wave of rustling swept through.
From the field ridges to the roadside, everyone fell to their knees, whether they were court officials like Pei Ji or barefoot peasants.
Of course, this also included the Third Prince.
Xu Youde knelt the fastest, his knees smashing into the mud without a moment's hesitation. His round face was filled with a thirst for power and a greed for the impending reward.
Xu Qinghuan had no choice but to kneel as well, her eyelids twitching violently.
Eunuch Li unrolled the imperial edict and began to read it in a slow, deliberate tone.
"By the grace of Heaven, the Emperor decrees..."
The preamble was long and tedious, nothing more than pretty words like raising a daughter well, meritorious service in offering grain, and the lucky star of the Great Qian.
Wang Sheng, who was kneeling at the back with his head lowered, could not help but turn down the corners of his mouth upon hearing this.
It was indeed a reward.
In this day and age, money could move the gods. Even a merchant reeking of copper coins could win the Emperor's favor by making a little noise.
As sourness welled up in his heart and he pondered how to explain to the old fogeys at the Censorate why he had knelt to a merchant, a few key words suddenly reached his ears.
"...hereby specially appoints Xu Youde as the Magistrate of Jiangning County in Yingtian Prefecture, to take up the post immediately."
Jiangning County?
Xu Youde suspected he had misheard, his gaze locked unblinkingly on Eunuch Li's opening and closing mouth.
"...his daughter, Qinghuan, is intelligent and agile, and is hereby granted the title of County Princess Anguo, with a fief of one thousand households, to accompany her father to his post."
He had not misheard.
It really was Jiangning.
Was Jiangning a place for the living?
It was the wealthiest region in the Great Qian, but also the most infamous mass grave in officialdom.
The previous magistrate had hanged himself, the one before him had drowned, and counting back three more, not a single one had managed to leave Jiangning in one piece. The four great noble families of Jiangnan were entrenched there; even the Viceroy of Liangjiang had to act according to the whims of the family patriarchs when he went there.
The Emperor was apparently too stingy to give a monetary reward, so he was directly throwing the fat sheep that was the Xu family into a wolf's den.
It was a promotion in name, but a death sentence in reality.
Xu Youde was indeed trembling.
He was shaking like a leaf.
But he did not collapse. Instead, his back suddenly straightened, and his naturally small, beady eyes widened into perfect circles. The light shooting out from them was even more blinding than the golden rice fields all around.
It was the greed one only showed when seeing mountains of gold and silver.
Xu Youde raised his hands high above his head, his voice terrifyingly loud as he accepted the edict: "This subject! Xu Youde! Thanks the Emperor for his grace!"
He turned his head, not even caring that Eunuch Li was still present, and frantically wiggled his two thick eyebrows at Xu Qinghuan beside him.
Daughter! Did you hear that? Jiangning!
That is Jiangning!
A place where silk is everywhere, rivers flow with rouge, and even the cracks in the paving stones are stuffed with banknotes!
The Emperor has given our family a free pass, ordering us to go to that filthy rich place and rake in the money!
Who cares about being a magistrate? With this official's hat, who would dare audit the Xu family's accounts in the future?
Kneeling in the muddy water, Xu Qinghuan watched her own father's face, looking as if he wished he could sprout wings right now and fly to Jiangning to scrape the ground clean, and felt her vision go dark.
She knew this father of hers all too well.
In this old man's eyes, the map of the world only had two colors: places with money, and places without money. Jiangning, in his view, was an unguarded mega vault.
But she was not Xu Youde.
She had read the background information of the Great Qian in the system.
The waters of Jiangning were deep enough to drown a dragon.
The imperial court was short on money but did not dare to directly touch the noble families of Jiangnan. So, they sent upstarts like them, with no foundation, no background, and nothing but money, to go over and stir the pot.
If they did well, they would offend the noble families and die without an intact corpse.
If they did poorly and failed to meet the court's quota, they would be beheaded by the Emperor.
This was a certain-death situation.
Xu Qinghuan felt a heavy tightness in her chest, a breath caught in her throat. She was already scheming to feign fainting or simply collapse into the mud and twitch a few times to evade this death warrant.
A cold palm, carrying an irresistible force, supported her elbow.
Eunuch Li had, at some unknown point, walked up to her, the smile on his face still impeccable.
"County Princess Anguo, you must keep your health robust."
Eunuch Li exerted a little force, a force that brooked no refusal, and forcefully hauled Xu Qinghuan, who was about to have an episode, up from the mud.
Under the guise of straightening her sleeves, he stepped half a pace closer.
The distance was extremely close, so close that Xu Qinghuan could smell the stale scent of sandalwood on him, mixed with a faint, almost imperceptible smell of decay.
"His Majesty has a verbal decree that is inconvenient to write on the imperial edict, so he specifically asked me to deliver it to the County Princess."
Eunuch Li's voice was kept very low, so that only the two of them could hear.
"No matter how sweet the lychees of Lingnan are, it is useless if they cannot be delivered to the northern borders. The soldiers over there are still gnawing on hard steamed buns in the snow, their hands and feet rotting from frostbite."
The fine hairs on the back of Xu Qinghuan's neck suddenly stood on end. She raised her eyes to look at this pale, beardless old man.
Eunuch Li smiled amiably as he patted the mud spots on the back of her hand. "His Majesty said that your hands can turn stone into gold, and it would be a pity to leave them in this remote backwater. The annual tax silver in Jiangning is a mess of confused accounts; the Ministry of Revenue cannot figure it out, nor do they dare to investigate."
"Since the County Princess holds the title Anguo, you must share His Majesty's burdens."
"If this tax silver cannot be collected, or if the amount is incorrect..."
Eunuch Li paused, his gaze wandering over her neck, making her feel as though a cold snake was slithering across her skin. "Then the word Anguo might just have to become Anxi, resting in peace."
Xu Qinghuan only felt a rush of cold air shoot straight up her spine to the crown of her head.
There was not a shred of negotiation in these words; it was naked extortion, an ultimatum.
She turned her head to look at the crowd not far away.
Wang Sheng was staring at her with the gloating look of someone watching a dead person.
Pei Ji maintained his upright and unyielding demeanor, gazing respectfully in the direction of imperial authority.
And the young master in black robes standing at the end of the rice field.
Xiao Jingyan stood with his hands behind his back, the hem of his clothes flapping loudly in the wind. He did not look at the imperial edict, nor did he look at the arrogant royal guards.
He merely gazed at Xu Qinghuan from afar, toying with the heavy ear of rice he had just snapped off.
Their eyes met.
Xiao Jingyan raised the ear of rice and gave it a gentle wave in her direction.
The movement was slight, yet profoundly meaningful.
She understood that look.
He could not sway this situation; the emperor's overt scheme had already been set in motion.
But he was also telling her: if she wanted to survive, to protect the Xu family, and to establish a foothold in this man-eating world, she had to take up this blade and carve out a bloody path in Jiangnan.
That was the tacit understanding between co-conspirators, and also a superior's expectation of a chess piece.
Xu Qinghuan closed her eyes.
Her system mission was not yet complete, so she could not return to the modern world.
Defying the decree now would mean her entire family's heads would roll immediately.
Going to Jiangning was a near-certain death sentence, but at least there was a glimmer of hope.
Besides...
She glanced down at her biological father, who was still grinning foolishly and already calculating how many abacuses to bring to Jiangning.
Counting on this old man to read the political situation was impossible.
Xu Qinghuan opened her eyes, suppressing every ounce of panic in her heart. Her gaze was left with nothing but the reckless ferocity of someone with nothing to lose.
Since they wanted to use her as a blade.
Then she would make this blade so sharp that no one could hold it.
Jiangnan aristocratic families, huh?
Powerful landlords, right?
She wanted to see whose methods were tougher: these natives, or her, a modern person armed with cheats.
Xu Qinghuan shook off Eunuch Li's hand, smoothed her lapels, and a smile bloomed on her face—a smile so radiant it was unnerving.
"This subject's daughter accepts the decree."
Her voice was crisp, even carrying a hint of eager excitement.
"Please inform His Majesty, Eunuch Li, that the Xu family will definitely gnaw through this tough bone that is Jiangning. I only hope that when the time comes, there won't be so much silver that it bursts the Ministry of Revenue's treasury."
Eunuch Li froze for a moment.
He had seen people cry in fear when receiving this assignment, and he had seen people resign from their posts on the spot, but he had never seen anyone dare to challenge the Emperor like this.
"What great ambition."
Eunuch Li gave her a deep look. For the first time, there was a little less contempt and a little more scrutiny in his eyes. "I shall wait in the capital for the County Princess's good news."
...
Half an hour later.
Eunuch Li departed with the imperial guards, taking the several carts of auspicious rice samples back to the capital to report on his mission.
The crowd on the field ridges also gradually dispersed.
Xu Youde was still grinning foolishly, refusing to let go of the imperial decree he was hugging, his mouth stretched from ear to ear.
"Daughter! Pack your things! We're moving!"
Xu Youde waved his large hand with sweeping grandeur. "We don't need this junk here anymore! Once we get to Jiangning, Dad will buy you the best mansion! I'm going to build a tower by the Qinhuai River taller than the Liuli Pavilion!"
Looking at her father's carefree and clueless demeanor, Xu Qinghuan sighed helplessly.
"Dad, do you know how the previous magistrate of Jiangning died?"
"Who cares how he died!" Xu Youde said nonchalantly. "That was because he was incompetent! He didn't have the money to bribe anyone! Is our Xu family short on bribe money?"
"I'm just afraid you'll have the money but lose your life before you can spend it."
Xu Qinghuan muttered softly, turning around to walk back toward the city.
...
Jiangnan Circuit, Jinling City.
Deep within an extravagant garden hidden in the misty rain.
Several distinguished-looking elderly men in brocade robes sat around a water pavilion. Exquisite tea and pastries were laid out before them, but no one picked up their chopsticks.
The leading elder, with hair and beard as white as snow, was toying with a pair of top-grade jade walnuts. The walnuts rotated in his palm, emitting a faint clicking sound.
A carrier pigeon message from the capital lay open on the table.
"Xu Youde? Xu Qinghuan?"
The elder glanced at those two names and let out a soft, disdainful snort from his throat, his cloudy eyes full of contempt.
"A nouveau riche from Yuzhou, bringing along an ignorant little brat who doesn't know the immensity of heaven and earth, thinks they are worthy of coming to Jiangnan for a slice of the pie?"
The middle-aged man beside him refilled the elder's tea, his tone cold and sinister. "Elder Xu, should we intercept them halfway..."
He made a throat-slitting gesture.
"Vulgar."
Elder Xu shook his head, picked up his teacup, and took a sip. "It would look too ugly if the people sent by the imperial court died on the road. Since they're coming, let them enter the city."
He set down the teacup, watching the endless curtain of rain outside the water pavilion.
"The waters of Jiangnan are very deep."
"It's easy to come, but if they want to leave... they'll have to leave their lives behind."
"Just as well, the fish in the Qinhuai River have been a bit hungry lately."
