Xie Yunwan seized the last few volumes of gilt-ink manuscripts beside her and hurled them into the sea of flames.
Then she took half a step back and brushed the black ash from her palms.
Turning around, Xie Yunwan faced Shang Jia’s bloodshot eyes.
“My brush, Xie Yunwan’s brush, will henceforth be used only to write policies that can put food in the bellies of the people of Great Qian, and to study mechanisms capable of weaving ten thousand bolts of cloth!”
“You keep talking to me about propriety, about family status. Then today, I’ll tell you exactly what this ‘propriety’ you’re so proud of truly is!”
Xie Yunwan’s voice was icy.
“For the past three years, we have sat here in this warm room, heated with silver-thread charcoal, wasting away. Of all the empty, self-indulgent verses we’ve written, which one has saved a refugee starving to death in a famine?”
“We sit here discussing tonal patterns and rhyme schemes. Can any of that change the fate of the women of this realm—women condemned to spend their entire lives trapped behind four walls, reduced to men’s accessories and playthings?”
Xie Yunwan fired off one question after another.
“You can do nothing!”
She raised a hand and pointed toward the heavy snow outside.
“Your families feed and clothe you well, buy you the finest paper, and let you play at being celebrated daughters of noble houses. And what does it all amount to in the end? You’re nothing more than bargaining chips in the hands of your fathers and brothers, objects to be married off to other powerful families!”
Her words struck a nerve. Su Wan’er retorted loudly, “Nonsense! My father treats me wonderfully. He indulges me in everything. He would never use me as a marriage bargaining chip!”
“Then go home and ask him.”
Xie Yunwan mercilessly shattered her illusion.
“Go home and ask your father, the Vice Chancellor of the Imperial College, whether he would let you show your face in public and inspect the fields under your name. Ask him whether he would let you choose a husband for yourself—a man without any academic honors!”
Su Wan’er fell silent at once. Her throat went dry and tight, and she could not force out a single word.
Xie Yunwan shook her head, her voice weary.
“I no longer want to be some precious porcelain ornament displayed on a curio shelf!”
Then an unprecedented brilliance ignited in her eyes.
“But I’ve seen hope for Great Qian!”
“It lies in those unremarkable ledgers from Jiangning, and in the callused hands of those more than fourteen hundred women workers!”
Shang Jia and Su Wan’er were completely stunned by her words.
Xie Yunwan paid them no further attention.
She turned and walked to a tall rosewood stand nearby, then unlocked the concealed drawer at the very bottom.
From it, she took out a heavy money pouch embroidered with intertwined lotuses.
Carrying the pouch to the center of the writing desk, Xie Yunwan untied it without hesitation and poured everything inside onto the tabletop.
Clatter!
A large handful of high-quality silver ingots and several full-weight silver bars rolled across the desk.
Mixed among them were several high-denomination banknotes stamped with the seal of the Datong Bank.
“This is every bit of private money I’ve saved over the years.”
Xie Yunwan did not even glance at the scattered silver.
She immediately picked up her brush and loaded its tip with thick ink from the inkstone.
Then she took two blank memorial booklets.
“I’ve already ordered Qiuyue to use this money to purchase a secluded, spacious old residence in the southern part of the city. Tomorrow, I’ll take these booklets and ledgers with me, move out of the rear residence of the Xie household, and establish our new society there.”
Shang Jia was once again left aghast. She stared at Xie Yunwan in disbelief.
“You’re moving out to establish your own household? You’ve gone mad! How could everyone in the Xie family possibly allow you to behave so recklessly?”
“Whether they allow it is the Xie family’s concern.”
Xie Yunwan gave a cold laugh, completely unfazed.
“But whether I move or not, whether I do this or not—that is a path I, Xie Yunwan, will choose for myself!”
She pushed the two recruitment notices she had just written to the edge of the desk, placing them directly in front of Shang Jia and Su Wan’er.
“This new residence will be my newly established literary society. But there will be no romantic frivolities here, and no composing poetry for amusement.”
Xie Yunwan’s voice rang out with force in the warm room.
“Our new society has only one rule for recruitment.”
“Anyone willing to devote herself to arithmetic and accounting, and anyone willing to explore new learning and the principles of nature—”
Xie Yunwan raised her voice.
“Regardless of humble birth or noble lineage, so long as she is a woman willing to stand on her own through her own abilities, she may enter and join us in pursuing practical affairs!”
Xie Yunwan clasped her hands behind her back. Her gaze swept over the two close friends before her, and a trace of tenderness returned to her eyes.
“Wan’er, Jia’er, I’ve written a notice for each of you.”
Her gaze unwavering, Xie Yunwan said solemnly, “If you want to stay, bring the notice to the residence in the southern part of the city tomorrow and find me there. If you’re willing, then we’ll wade into this path together!”
But then Xie Yunwan suddenly paused. The sharpness in her eyes gradually faded, replaced by clarity, and a faint smile touched her lips.
“If you’re unwilling, that’s perfectly all right as well.”
At that moment, she could not help thinking of all the girls of Great Qian, and her voice softened.
“Times are difficult, and rules devour people. If you only wish to live in peace and security, to remain proper young ladies of respectable families and guard your quiet lives, there is nothing wrong with that either. Everyone has her own aspirations. In an age like this, how can seeking a way to survive be considered wrong?”
Xie Yunwan looked toward the light outside, and her tone gradually grew heavy again.
“But if, in the future, some vile-minded person insists on lumping my defiance of convention together with your law-abiding ways—if someone uses what I’ve done today as an excuse to harass or condemn those of you who simply wish to live quietly…”
She let out a cold laugh, a fierce glint flashing in her eyes.
“Then the person twisting the matter to suit his own purposes and smearing you with filth will be the true culprit!”
She turned back and looked steadily at the two of them, her voice cold as she made her vow.
“If anyone truly dares to do such a thing, I, Xie Yunwan, will never stand for it! Remember this: my brush, and all these money-grubbing ventures I pursue, have never been aimed at our own kind. They will strike only at the hands seeking to destroy us women.”
Xie Yunwan’s lips curved faintly, her smile calm and assured.
“If you’re willing to live peacefully within the inner residence, then guard that peace well. But if one day someone uses this as an excuse to overturn your quiet lives… don’t be afraid. I’ll be out there, and I’ll break his hand for you myself!”
Every word Xie Yunwan spoke shook their hearts.
She had carried her words to the point of no return, leaving no room for compromise.
Shang Jia stood frozen where she was.
Su Wan’er desperately wanted to say that women ought to stay behind closed doors and never venture beyond their households.
But when the words reached her lips, Su Wan’er was horrified to discover that she no longer understood why she should think that way…
Xie Yunwan’s resolute bearing made them question, for the first time, whether they had truly been right all along.
Perhaps not everything in this world should be defined by “must.”
Perhaps there ought to be room for “may,” too.
Shang Jia tightened her grip on her sleeve.
She knew perfectly well that the person before her had undergone a complete transformation.
And yet—to create, to improve, to change the fate of every woman under heaven…
The unprecedented shock and trembling excitement of it all left Su Wan’er weak throughout her body.
Her face turned deathly pale, and she instinctively took a step backward.
“I… I can’t do it… My father will beat me to death…” Su Wan’er’s voice was choked with despair, tears streaming down her face as she desperately sought a way to escape.
But after taking one step, she looked out at the vast expanse of wind and snow beyond the door and remembered what Xie Yunwan had just said: “a bargaining chip for a marriage alliance”…
She suddenly stopped.
That was right. What good would it do to flee back home?
Would she simply wait for her father to send her off like a gift, locking her away in another grand compound to waste away the rest of her life?
And if Yunwan and Jia’er were no longer in the inner chambers, how was she supposed to live on her own, bound by those cold, suffocating rules?
Su Wan’er turned around and looked at the pile of poetry collections beside the brazier—books she had once treasured, now reduced to black ash.
She gritted her teeth.
Staggering back to the writing desk, she snatched up one of the invitations lying on it and clenched it tightly in her palm.
“Sister Yunwan, you truly are insane. There isn’t a woman in the whole world crazier than you…” Su Wan’er’s face was streaked with tears, her voice trembling, yet a resolute light flashed in her eyes. “But… I don’t want to remain a porcelain figurine displayed in some treasure cabinet either! If we’re going to die, then let us die together!”
Seeing Su Wan’er trembling from head to toe yet refusing to let go, a trace of tenderness finally softened Xie Yunwan’s eyes, and a single tear slowly slipped down her cheek.
At that moment, only Shang Jia remained standing blankly in the heated chamber.
Shang Jia stared at the invitation in Su Wan’er’s hand, all color draining from her face.
Xie Yunwan did not urge her. She merely watched her in silence.
Slowly, Shang Jia extended her pale hand. Her trembling fingertips brushed against the paper.
Then she stopped.
“What you’re doing will lead to utter ruin.”
Upon hearing this, Xie Yunwan merely laughed.
She laughed with utter abandon.
“Hahahaha! Sometimes, destruction is the only path to a new beginning! A new beginning!”
With sweeping confidence, Xie Yunwan brushed all the loose silver on the table into her money pouch.
Shang Jia bit down hard, breaking the skin of her lip.
She said nothing more.
Grabbing the invitation from the table, Shang Jia shoved it into her sleeve without the slightest hesitation.
Then she stepped forward, seized Su Wan’er, who was still sobbing uncontrollably, and pulled her tightly to her side.
Shang Jia’s face was stern, but the same blazing fire as Xie Yunwan’s burned in her eyes.
She gave Xie Yunwan one deep look before pulling Su Wan’er with her and charging, without the slightest hesitation, into the swirling snowstorm outside.
