Xiao Jingyan withdrew the respectful bow he had just made and sat back in his seat.
Hearing of such a fiendish chain of schemes had indeed shaken him to the core.
But he had ultimately chosen to wade through mountains of corpses and seas of blood on the road to the throne. Deep in his eyes churned calculations and weighing far more direct in nature.
No matter how advantageous the larger situation might be, what mattered most to him was how large a slice he could carve off and put on his own plate!
He lifted his teacup and pretended to moisten his throat, then gave two soft coughs.
The abrupt coughs completely dispelled the atmosphere of astonishment in the warm chamber.
Hearing the sound, Xu Qinghuan immediately glanced at Xu Wuyou, who was seated nearby, then swept her gaze over Xu Zhan.
Their eyes met.
Without a word, Xu Zhan rose abruptly.
Xu Wuyou also set down the bamboo tongs in his hand.
The two brothers strode out of the room.
Xu Wuyou waved toward the few servants standing guard in the courtyard.
He lowered his voice and gave them a few instructions.
The servants immediately lowered their heads and withdrew.
Xu Zhan personally walked once around the corridor, sending every attendant within ten paces away.
After the time it took to burn half a stick of incense, the two men returned.
Only after confirming that the surroundings were completely clear did Xiao Jingyan resume the conversation.
His expression unreadable, he lightly tapped his fingers against the tabletop.
“I hear that as soon as the Grand Assembly ended, Chief Grand Secretary Xu kept the Princess behind alone in the Wenyuan Pavilion?”
Xu Wuyou’s heart jolted.
The Third Prince’s network of spies could actually reach into the inner cabinet’s most restricted grounds!?
Seeing that Xu Qinghuan had no intention of answering, Xiao Jingyan continued.
“Those great families of Jiangnan have always been greedy and overbearing. The only things they recognize are gold and silver.”
His tone carried deep concern.
“Has the Princess ever considered this?”
“If those merchant ships sailing overseas truly return to port laden with silver…”
“Those few civil officials in the Maritime Trade Office, armed with nothing but their pens, will never be able to keep such desperate men in check.”
“Faced with mountains of ready cash, the men below will easily develop the filthy habit of lining their own pockets.”
“If this silver cannot enter the treasury cleanly and intact, would that not destroy the Great Qian’s national policy?”
His demand for a share of the profits was wrapped in a lofty façade of concern for the nation and its people.
Following that grandiose rhetoric, Xiao Jingyan finally revealed his true intentions.
“Jingyan may be unworthy…”
“But from the Chief Steward’s Office responsible for the affairs of my fief, as well as from the secret guards I maintain privately…”
“I am willing to select a group of absolutely loyal and capable men.”
“They can change into plain clothes and travel to the major ports along the Eastern Sea to serve as inspectors.”
He fixed his eyes on Xu Qinghuan and slowly explained his proposal.
“Officially, they would be overseeing the court’s thirty-percent share of the maritime silver. In reality, they would be Jingyan’s people, controlling the purse strings and making certain that those rat-like officials could not embezzle a single coin. What does the Princess think?”
At these words, Xu Wuyou and Xu Zhan both changed color, their faces filled with shock.
Both men had clawed their way through the martial world and the battlefield. How could they fail to understand the unspoken meaning behind his words?
The Maritime Trade Office had only just been established.
And already, the Third Prince was impatient to plant his own people there!
If the Chief Steward’s Office and the secret guards were allowed to take up positions at the ports, it might be called overseeing the maritime silver, but in truth, he clearly intended to conceal his actions and funnel the money into his own coffers!
The perils of the succession struggle—and the royal family’s greed for profit—had bared their fangs completely at that moment.
Faced with such an absurd and overstepping proposal, Xu Qinghuan’s face was hidden behind curling wisps of tea steam.
She opened her eyes slightly and regarded him with an almost-smile, yet said nothing. Instead, she picked up the long wooden ladle on the table.
She reached into the nearby kettle of boiling water, scooped up a ladleful of scalding water, and held it suspended in the air.
Then she tilted the ladle.
The water stretched into a glittering, slender stream as it fell into the small empty purple-clay cup before her.
Xu Qinghuan slowly rinsed the inside of the cup, turning it gently so that the boiling water carried away every trace of possible tea residue.
The sound of water washing over the purple clay became the only noise in the room.
Her unhurried movements suppressed the impatience flickering between Xiao Jingyan’s brows.
Seeing that Xu Qinghuan still did not answer, Xiao Jingyan quietly watched her begin brewing the tea.
After a long while, the tea ware had been washed.
Xu Qinghuan casually set the wooden ladle down beside the table.
She still wore a smile, and instead followed Xiao Jingyan’s line of reasoning to its conclusion, questioning him in turn.
“People under Your Highness’s command are naturally reliable.”
She fixed her eyes on Xiao Jingyan and suddenly asked, “Princess Qinghuan has only one question. Of the official silver that first enters the ports, how many tens of thousands of taels does Your Highness intend to withhold…and send into the treasury beneath your manor?”
The veil of propriety had been torn away right to his face. Even Xiao Jingyan found himself unable to maintain his composure, and a trace of embarrassment appeared on his features.
He lifted his cup and took a sip, attempting to conceal his discomfort. Then, with a hint of probing, he laid some groundwork.
“To be frank, the strategists beneath my command have been urging me to do the same. They say that when conducting affairs away from home, one must at least have enough to cover daily expenses.”
He set down the cup and held up three fingers.
“It is not much. If the first shipment of maritime silver brings a hundred million taels into the treasury…”
“Jingyan only wants three million taels from it. That sum will certainly not damage the nation’s foundations, and it will be enough to support half the retainers in the princely household, along with the secret guards and sworn fighters who risk their lives for Great Qian.”
Xu Qinghuan gave him a deep look, then suddenly let out a cold scoff, her disdain entirely undisguised.
“Heh.”
Xiao Jingyan froze. His face instantly turned pale.
“Three million taels? Your Highness has certainly calculated this well. But surely Your Highness does not mistake the future Maritime Trade Office for the rotten accounts of the Ministry of Revenue’s central granary?”
She sighed.
“All the officials under Heaven are corrupt. That is a fact everyone understands without saying. The extra levies beneath the Ministry of Revenue, the customary surcharges added at every level when the prefectures and provinces send their tribute—those are the rotten accounts that can never be wiped clean. Do you truly think His Majesty is genuinely blind with age?”
Xu Qinghuan shook her head, her tone growing increasingly stern.
“His Majesty knows everything perfectly well! When he turns a blind eye to the petty embezzlement of his ministers, it is because he uses those illicit profits to feed the people below and bind their hearts to him. Clear water has no fish. An emperor employs corrupt officials so they can handle the dirty work. That is exactly how an emperor ought to rule!”
Her tone shifted abruptly.
Xu Qinghuan’s voice turned utterly cold, carrying a hint of murderous severity.
“But what is this maritime silver? It is the money that will keep the soldiers on the nine frontiers paid, the money that will prevent them from mutinying! It is the foundation His Majesty needs to construct his Jiangnan retreat and pacify the defenses in the north and south!”
Her speech quickened as she pressed him step by step.
“Once the ports open, the Imperial City Surveillance Office’s spies and the Eastern Depot’s agents will turn over every inch of those ports until not a blade of grass remains undisturbed! This is a fat prize the Son of Heaven is watching with both eyes! It is absolutely not the sort of lubricating money Your Highness may casually reach for in ordinary times! Whoever dares tamper with it is seeking His Majesty’s life!”
When she finished, Xu Qinghuan directly lifted the red-clay pot from atop the brazier.
She aimed its spout at the porcelain cup before Xiao Jingyan and poured without hesitation.
The stream flowed on and on.
“It’s full! Little Sister, the water’s overflowing!” Xu Wuyou cried urgently from the side.
Xu Qinghuan paid him no heed and continued pouring.
The scalding tea quickly spilled over the rim, streaming freely across the rosewood tabletop in clouds of astonishing steam, advancing all the way toward Xiao Jingyan’s sleeve resting at the edge of the table.
Xiao Jingyan instinctively tried to pull his hand back, but he clenched his teeth and held it firmly in place.
The searing heat nearly burned his wrist through the fabric.
Xu Qinghuan gazed at Xiao Jingyan in silence, a hint of imperceptible disappointment flickering in her eyes.
Then she delivered the decisive words.
“Your Highness! When the aristocratic clans grow greedy, His Majesty destroys the clans. When the eunuchs grow greedy, His Majesty destroys the eunuchs!”
Xu Qinghuan set the earthenware pot back on the brazier with a thud.
“What we want has never been those few hundred thousand taels of silver! That money is a scorching-hot potato. Whoever touches it dies!”
Her gaze sharpened.
“What we want is to use this situation to establish Your Highness’s reputation once and for all! We want the person inside the Forbidden City to see with his own eyes that, in the face of a fortune large enough to buy half of Great Qian, the entire court is going mad with greed—while you alone, Third Prince, remain—”
“Abiding by the rules and taking not a single coin! Refusing to fight over this deadly windfall!”
“As long as His Majesty is convinced that you have no selfish desire to seize power or amass wealth, and that your sole purpose is to help the imperial court make up its deficit… then, Your Highness, you will have won this game.”
At the first clear utterance of the word “we” from Xu Qinghuan’s lips, Xiao Jingyan’s figure suddenly jolted.
He shifted his gaze away, then looked straight at Xu Qinghuan.
The fervent ambition to win the succession and seize the wealth that had flared up moments earlier was utterly strangled by the imperial blade concealed within that single word.
If he had truly sent his secret guards to embezzle the sea silver, his father’s blade would have fallen on his neck first. That would be nothing less than courting death.
Still shaken by the thought, he also keenly sensed the silent mark that their alliance had now been sealed.
Xu Qinghuan was teaching him how to win this game beneath his father’s watchful eye.
To refrain from contending was itself a form of contention.
Xiao Jingyan looked at the woman before him, who was several years younger than he was, and an indescribable tremor rose within his heart.
Without a word, he turned and seized the black cloak draped over the back of the chair.
Xu Wuyou and Xu Zhan hurriedly stepped aside to clear a path.
Xiao Jingyan walked to the entrance of the warm chamber.
Just as his hand touched the wooden door latch, he suddenly stopped.
Without turning around, he left the room with a quiet remark.
“The First Prince hosted a private banquet at his residence last night. Three deputy generals and two assistant generals from the Nine Frontier Garrisons were invited.”
The expressions of the three members of the Xu family inside the room turned solemn at once.
With that, he reached out and pulled open half the door.
A biting wind swept in, carrying the powdery snow that had yet to melt from the courtyard, and struck them full in the face.
