The wind swept across the white marble square outside the Hall of Heavenly Veneration.
The bells signaling the end of the banquet still echoed in midair, while the assembled officials had already begun filing out through the palace doors.
Outside the hall, the officials gathered in groups of two and three, deliberately slowing their steps.
They kept rubbing their hands together, yet their eyes repeatedly drifted toward the crimson figure ahead.
“His Majesty’s move was truly brilliant!”
Zhao Zhuo, Vice Minister of Works, exclaimed admiringly.
An elderly official beside him stroked his beard and sighed.
“Indeed.”
“A Princess of the Second Rank, and even a residence.”
“Though she may not actually receive any land, that still amounts to an enormous sum of money!”
“It is essentially the same as placing the Xu family’s youngest daughter directly into the imperial genealogy.”
“If we seek a marriage alliance now, it would mean marrying into the imperial family. Who would be willing to sacrifice a promising member of the family’s official career to make him an idle prince consort?”
“Forget it. The path of marriage alliances has been completely blocked.”
The men conversed in low voices, convinced that they had seen through the emperor’s strategy of balancing power.
Their expressions held both the regret of having lost a valuable opportunity and the relief of no longer having to rack their brains to win over the Xu family.
Ahead, Xu Qinghuan and Xu Zhan walked side by side up the white marble steps.
The snippets of discussion behind them drifted through the cold wind and into Xu Qinghuan’s ears.
Listening to those self-important speculations, she could not help rolling her eyes.
These old fools had nothing in their heads but marriage alliances and factional maneuvering.
Marriage? Political matchmaking?
Why had she gone to such lengths to draw up an enormous blueprint for maritime trade in court, dazzling the old emperor until he could no longer tell up from down?
Ahem. Classified information!
Who had the time to discuss marriage with those sour, feeble scions of aristocratic families?
“Little Sister, what are you laughing at?” Xu Zhan turned his head toward Xu Qinghuan’s faintly curved lips, his face full of confusion.
At the moment, he was feeling rather irritated.
The old emperor’s reward in the hall had plainly been an attempt to place the Xu family over a fire.
“Second Brother, I’m laughing at the people behind us. They’re putting on quite a show.”
Xu Qinghuan gathered her cloak more tightly around herself, her tone relaxed.
“They think the old emperor has cut off the path of marriage alliances to suppress our family.”
“In truth, I never planned to marry any of those useless men from their families—men who can neither carry a load nor wield a weapon.”
Xu Zhan snorted coldly, his hand instinctively coming to rest on the saber at his waist.
“If they dare come proposing, I’ll beat them right back out! My Xu Zhan’s sister is far beyond the reach of those civil officials who know nothing but scheming!”
As they spoke, a figure suddenly darted out from the side.
The newcomer wore a green robe bearing the embroidered egret insignia of a sixth-rank official. He was a Supervising Secretary from the Ministry of Personnel, surnamed Wang.
Wang Yuan rubbed his hands together and hurried over to Xu Qinghuan, the wrinkles on his face bunching up like a chrysanthemum.
He smiled with obsequious enthusiasm.
“Your subordinate, Wang Yuan of the Ministry of Personnel, pays his respects to Princess Wanping! Your performance in the hall today was truly heroic. This subordinate admires you from the bottom of his heart!”
Xu Zhan’s brows drew together, and he immediately stepped forward, blocking Xu Qinghuan from view.
“What business do you have, Lord Wang? Say what you came to say and spare us the empty pleasantries.”
The killing intent radiating from Xu Zhan startled Wang Yuan into taking half a step back.
He swallowed, then steeled himself and edged around Xu Zhan to bow toward Xu Qinghuan.
“Princess, this subordinate takes the liberty of speaking. I have a legitimate second son at home, twenty-eight years of age.”
“Though his scholarship cannot compare with that of the great scholars, he is clever and handsome. He has yet to marry…”
He paused, lowering his voice as a calculating gleam entered it.
“This subordinate knows that after marrying into the imperial family, one cannot hold an important official post.”
“But my son was never suited for studying in the first place.”
“If he could marry into the Princess’s residence and help manage some of your outside enterprises—perhaps run errands for the maritime trade—that would be a blessing earned over several lifetimes!”
Even Xu Zhan understood that calculation perfectly.
The old rascal wanted to exchange an incompetent son for the exclusive maritime-trade licenses in Xu Qinghuan’s hands!
Once he hitched his family’s wagon to the Xu family’s ship, what did it matter if his son could not become an official?
He could simply scoop up a few handfuls of silver from the overseas mountains of wealth, and his family would become rich beyond measure!
Xu Qinghuan looked Wang Yuan up and down.
She was not angry, but her voice was cold enough to freeze.
“Lord Wang, does your son know celestial navigation?”
Wang Yuan froze. “That… he does not.”
“Can he read nautical charts or calculate magnetic declination?”
“He… cannot.”
Xu Qinghuan gave a cold laugh, showing not the slightest intention of sparing his feelings.
“He cannot do a single thing, and you want him to run maritime-trade errands for me?”
“To go feed the fish?”
“My Xu family does not support idlers, nor do we accept broken scrap metal.”
“Lord Wang, you have brought the wrong abacus for this calculation.”
Wang Yuan’s face flushed crimson. Choked by her words, he stood there awkwardly, unable to advance or retreat, while his hand trembled inside his sleeve.
“Hahahaha! Wang Yuan, your son cannot even recite the Mathematical Classic in full.”
“He spends every day drinking and carousing along the Qinhuai River, yet you still dare parade him before the Princess? You truly have no sense of your own mortality!”
A mocking laugh came from nearby.
The portly Li Caipin, a Vice Director in the Ministry of Revenue, waddled over with his belly thrust forward and his feet turned outward.
Pointing at Wang Yuan’s nose, he launched into a barrage of barbed ridicule.
“What status does the Princess possess? She holds a fortune capable of reaching the heavens. And you want to trade her a useless son? Do you take the Princess for a charitable institution?”
Wang Yuan trembled with rage.
“Li Caipin! Stop slandering me! And what kind of paragon are you?”
Xu Qinghuan watched the two officials quarrel openly outside the Hall of Heavenly Veneration, one eyebrow arching slightly.
She stepped forward, her gaze settling on Li Caipin’s round face. Her tone carried a hint of caution.
“Lord Li, since you put it that way, does your family also have a nephew or young relative skilled in shipbuilding and knowledgeable about astronomy, whom you wish to recommend to this Princess?”
Li Caipin had still been cursing Wang Yuan a moment earlier.
But at Xu Qinghuan’s words, his corpulent waist instantly bent, folding into an exaggerated arc.
His face blossomed into an exceedingly sycophantic smile, and he waved his hands repeatedly.
“Princess, you misunderstand! This subordinate would never harbor such an outrageous ambition!”
“This subordinate is merely following Minister Xu’s instructions!”
“I simply came to pay my respects and offer my congratulations on the Princess’s incomparable performance in the hall!”
Li Caipin edged a little closer.
“This subordinate understands that Your Highness has just received her title, and that your residence still requires repairs.”
“I have already had a modest gift prepared.”
“Ten South Sea red coral ornaments, along with two chests of the finest pearls from the East Sea. They are being delivered to the rear entrance of the Chengyi Earl’s residence as we speak.”
He rubbed his fat hands together and finally revealed his true purpose.
“All this subordinate asks is that, when the Maritime Trade Office issues licenses for voyages overseas in the future…”
“Your Highness leave a small opening for my family’s merchant ships. In return, this subordinate is willing to present you with an additional ten percent of our overseas profits!”
The moment those words left his mouth, the officials nearby who had been maintaining their dignity and pretending not to care stopped pretending altogether!
With the enormous profits of maritime trade right before their eyes, who still cared about decorum?
Who still had the time to worry about the old emperor’s imperial strategy?
Xu Qinghuan held star charts and calculation manuals in her hands, along with the authority over the Maritime Trade Office granted by the old emperor.
She was now the largest thigh in all of Great Qian—a Living Goddess of Wealth!
“Li Caipin, you old scoundrel! How dare you beat us to the gift!”
“Princess! I’ve prepared a modest gift as well! Five hundred bolts of the finest silk from Jiangnan have already been sent to your residence!”
“Same here! My family has a supply of premium shipbuilding timber. I’m willing to donate it to the princess free of charge!”
All at once, a great crowd of high-ranking officials in crimson and green robes surged forward, utterly abandoning all decorum.
They surrounded the Xu siblings, shouting out all manner of gifts as they scrambled to bow their heads to the new maritime trade policy.
Xu Zhan was startled by the spectacle.
He had spent half his life on battlefields and witnessed armies of thousands charge into combat.
But never had he seen these ministers, who usually prided themselves on their lofty integrity, now pushing and shoving with red-rimmed eyes like people fighting over vegetables at a market.
His hand rested on the hilt of his saber. He could neither draw it nor leave it sheathed.
All he could do was use his broad frame to shield Xu Qinghuan and roar:
“Back! All of you, back off! The next man who pushes forward, I’ll chop off his feet!”
Just as the situation was about to spiral out of control and Xu Zhan was preparing to use force to clear a path, an unhurried voice suddenly came from the edge of the crowd.
“Gentlemen, please make way.”
The nearly frenzied civil officials stiffened when they heard that voice.
They all turned around. The moment they saw who had arrived, the fervor on their faces vanished, replaced by profound awe.
The crowd automatically parted, opening up a broad passageway.
A middle-aged attendant in blue robes, with an unremarkable face, walked through the passage and stopped before Xu Qinghuan.
He did not kneel. Instead, he clasped his hands and bowed deeply in a formal salute.
“Princess Xu Qinghuan.” The blue-robed attendant spoke in a mild tone. “Chief Grand Secretary Xu requests your presence. He asks that you accompany me to the Wenyuan Pavilion for a conversation.”
At the words “Chief Grand Secretary Xu,” Xu Qinghuan’s gaze sharpened.
Holy crap! Xu Jie!
Her mind instantly flashed through every detail about this old fox from the original novel.
If the old emperor was a greedy, suspicious old wolf,
then Xu Jie was a serpent coiled around the very foundations of Great Qian.
Of everyone who appeared in the original story, Xu Jie was the last person she wanted to have dealings with.
He wanted neither money nor power.
What he wanted was Great Qian’s eternal prosperity!
Why does he want to see me?
