Gu Zhao had once hoped that Zhu Qingyu wouldn't know, but now he wished even more that she did. It would be better than him being the only one trapped in this dark, baseless delusion.
She didn't have to be.
Liu Wenhuan's recent words suddenly popped into his mind, and once they did, they tossed and turned in his head until nothing else remained.
Ultimately, the barrier between him and her was nothing more than those few words.
She didn't have to be.
Tucking the plain handkerchief into his robe, Gu Zhao said,
"Understood. You may leave."
Once again, in the dead of night, Gu Zhao lay on his bed with his eyes closed, his fingers caressing the plain handkerchief that was as soft as a woman's skin. The scene of her appearing in his room that afternoon floated back into his mind.
Her clothes had been half-wet, and she had been so close to him. When he trapped her in the chair, her fragrance had rubbed off all over him.
Gu Zhao covered his face with the handkerchief. That cool, aloof scent entwined around him once more, even closer than when she was actually there—so close it felt as if he had already pulled her into his arms.
The personal attendant was keeping watch in the outer room. Half-asleep in the dead silence, he once again heard an intimate call drift out from the inner chamber:
"Doctor Zhu."
It sounded like a call, a murmur, or even more like a pant.
The very first time he heard it, the attendant had been terrified, unable to sleep for days in fear that he might leak a single word and be silenced by His Lordship.
But by now, perhaps because it had happened so many times, the attendant was used to it. With a calm heart, he didn't even bat an eyelid and drifted right back to sleep.
...
After returning to the Zhang family mansion and settling Zhang Ruohua, Zhu Qingyu stayed up through the night to write a letter to Zhang Shen.
After some hesitation, she ultimately decided not to mention her entanglement with Gu Zhao. She only wrote about Lord Liu's malicious intentions toward the Zhang family and the fact that Zhang Ruohua had been captured. She then arranged for a fast horse to deliver the letter to Zhang Shen at the Huaibei Salt Fields, urging him to be on guard, stay safe, and return to Yangzhou as soon as possible.
Gu Zhao had told Zhu Qingyu to take more people with her when she went out, but for the next few days, she simply didn't go out at all.
For one, Zhang Ruohua was young and had been badly frightened; worried about her, Zhu Qingyu stayed home to keep her company for several days.
Furthermore, it was time for the shop managers' monthly ledger submission. Since Zhang Shen was not at home, the ledgers were routinely sent to Zhu Qingyu.
On this day, the head manager was reporting to Zhu Qingyu:
"The Master withdrew a lot of silver last month. If we are to pay the salt tax with the silver currently on the books, our cash flow will be quite tight. Lord Dai from the Salt Commission has already sent people to hurry us several times, asking how many salt licenses we plan to draw in advance this year and when we will pay the prepaid salt tax. I made the excuse that the Master is not at home and I dared not make unauthorized decisions, asking for a few more days of grace. But I'm afraid we can't drag it out much longer."
The head manager spoke at a leisurely pace, but the second manager accompanying him was a hot-tempered man. Unable to hold back any longer, he cut in and rattled off,
"Oh, Head Manager, the fire is already singeing our eyebrows! Can't you just get straight to the point? You're really worrying me to death. I've gone and asked around. The salt tax prepaid by the Zhou and Wang families this year is fully twice what it was last year. The total quota for salt licenses is only so much; those other families are dead set on grabbing all of our share and squeezing us out! Madam, the Master is not at home, so you must make a prompt decision. This salt tax cannot be delayed. We have to pay it as soon as possible. If we're late, there really won't be a single hair left for us!"
Flipping through the ledger, Zhu Qingyu said,
"This matter really shouldn't be rushed. Given the current market for official salt, the Zhou and Wang families taking up a large share might not necessarily be a good thing. The Master went to the Huaibei Salt Fields precisely for this matter. I have already sent him a letter, and I reckon he will return in the next few days. Of course, we shouldn't offend Lord Dai either. Head Manager, prepare another generous gift for Lord Dai to stall for a bit more time. Let's wait until the Master comes back to discuss further. Over the next few days, you managers should calculate again. We will pay as much salt tax as we can afford. We'll do as much business as our capabilities allow; let's not be greedy."
The head manager had already done the math before coming and knew it by heart:
"For a whole year's tax quota, no family can pull out that much silver at once. If we only do business with silver on hand, I'm afraid we'll only manage about thirty percent of what we did in previous years."
The second manager exploded instantly:
"I just don't understand! Why must it be hard silver? If we just arrange a loan through the Salt Commissioner's office, we can secure the salt licenses without paying a single penny upfront. That's what the Zhou and Wang families are doing, so why can't we? If we only do thirty percent of the business, how are we supposed to survive!"
Although the second manager was impatient and stubborn, he usually didn't blow up this easily. What was wrong with him today to make him so irritable?
Finding it quite strange, Zhu Qingyu asked,
"Second Manager, what others do isn't necessarily right. Why must we copy them? The salt business right now is clearly a pit of fire; why eagerly jump into it? It's not as if salt is the only business in this world. We can just do less salt business and focus more on other trades. How does that mean we can't do business at all? Can't you see why the Master withdrew the silver?"
Rebuked, the second manager stood up in agitation:
"Madam, I really don't see it! The salt business is a highly lucrative trade. In the decades I've been with the Zhang family, I've watched generations of masters build up such a massive estate relying on the salt trade. Now the Master is leaving such a perfectly good business alone and even pushing it away. I simply do not understand!"
Zhu Qingyu set down the ledger and asked him seriously,
"Times change. Where in the world is there a business that remains good for a thousand generations? One license covers three hundred catties of salt, with a salt tax of three taels of silver. If we borrow silver from the government for cash flow, there's an eight percent interest rate, adding another two taels and four mace in interest costs per license. In the two years Lord Yan has been in charge, after deducting various bribes and damages, we barely earn three mace of silver per license. We'd make more money buying land and shops to collect rent. Second Manager, since you've been here for decades and done business for decades, you naturally can calculate better than I can. So why don't you calculate this carefully for our family: losing two taels and one mace per license, where the bigger the business, the more we lose—how exactly is that a good business?"
The second manager's face and neck turned red from the retort, but still unconvinced, he muttered,
"Madam also said times change. For the extra two taels and four mace, we just need to raise the price by eight cash per catty to make it back. Besides, Lord Dai isn't Lord Yan."
This was just being purely stubborn without reason. Zhu Qingyu fired back,
"Official salt is already sixty cash a catty. If we raise it by another eight cash, do you think the commoners are fools? Why would they ignore private salt at twenty cash a catty to buy official salt at sixty-eight cash? Naturally, Lord Dai isn't Lord Yan. Lord Yan merely wanted some bribes, but do you know what Lord Dai wants, Second Manager? And is government silver so easy to borrow? If we can't pay it back by the end of the year and the authorities come to confiscate our property and arrest people, do you think Jingyan will be the only one thrown in prison? Out of everyone in this room, counting every single one of us, could I escape? Or could you escape, Second Manager?"
