Chapter 2

“And the sixty-four loads of dowry sent with the Lu family's second daughter when she married—silver and jewelry worth two thousand taels. That came from my dowry too.”

A soft gasp ran through the crowd.

I looked at Old Madam Lu.

“For seven years, I've covered the Lu family's shortfalls. The house and jewelry Lu Wenjing bought his mistress, the payments he made for the Xie family's goods—all of it came out of my accounts. I reported this to protect my own property. If you call that harming people, what do you call all those years your family ate my food and lived on my money?”

Her lips trembled. She could not utter a word.

She had always thought me weak. After the Ruan family's decline, I had no family to support me. I had married into hers and gone about my work with a smile. She mistook my forbearance for a lack of spirit.

But I had been forbearing because I once considered Lu Wenjing family.

Now he was no longer family.

Naturally, I would leave the Lus no dignity to hide behind.

In the midst of the commotion, Lu Wenjing's younger sister, Lu Mingzhu, rushed in. Always arrogant, she had become even more haughty since marrying into the Earl of Yongchang's household. She raised her hand to slap me.

“Ruan Qingwu, how dare you hurt my brother!”

A Ling had been watching for it. She caught Mingzhu's wrist and twisted it behind her, making her scream.

“Miss Lu, my lady is not yet divorced from your brother. Think whether the earl's household can answer for you before you strike an official's titled wife in the street.”

Lu Mingzhu's face contorted with pain, but her tone remained vicious.

“You wretch, taking up a place you refuse to leave! My brother never had you in his heart!”

I raised a hand.

A Ling released her.

Lu Mingzhu thought I would endure it. She was about to curse again when I slapped her across the face.

Her head snapped aside. An earring fell onto the paving.

“That was for my mother's pendant,” I said.

She clutched her cheek and stared in disbelief.

I slapped her twice more.

“One for using my dowry to bring honor to the earl's household when you married. The other to remind you to mind your tongue when you see me again.”

She shrieked and wept. Old Madam Lu tried to throw herself at me, but my guards blocked her.

Before, I had feared making a scene would embarrass Lu Wenjing.

Now I understood: wicked people excelled at exploiting other people's concern for the greater good to clear their own path.

I was done considering the greater good.

Pei Zhaoye came out of the Court of Judicial Review with a newly opened letter.

His expression chilled at the sight of the Lu family.

“Madam Lu, Xie Roujia has agreed to testify. Lu Wenjing not only appropriated your dowry, but used Ministry of Revenue documents to guarantee the Xie family's stone business. If that sandy, substandard stone is used in the Yong'an River embankments, the flood season will bring disaster.”

At last, Old Madam Lu stopped crying.

Her face was ashen. Only now did she seem to grasp that her son's wrongdoing was no mere household scandal.

It could cost him his head.

4.

It was midafternoon when I returned to the Lu residence.

The servants shrank away, afraid to look at me. Lu Cheng, the steward, came to meet me with sweat covering his forehead.

“Madam, the old madam said you are not to enter the main courtyard.”

I stopped beneath the veranda.

“Who holds the deed to this house?”

He dared not answer.

A Ling did it for him.

“My lady.”

“Then tell the old madam to move the Lu family into the west courtyard before dark. The main courtyard is mine. The accounts room is mine. No one is to touch a single chest in the storeroom bearing the Ruan name.”

Lu Cheng swallowed.

“But—”

“And another thing.” I looked at him. “Your wages bear the Lu name, but it's my rice you eat. From today, anyone who wishes to stay will sign a new agreement and work by the rules. Anyone who doesn't may collect their wages and leave at once. If anyone takes advantage of the confusion to steal, hand them straight over to the authorities.”

He was a shrewd man. After years in Lu Wenjing's service, no one knew better where the household's money came from. He bowed immediately.

“I will do as you instruct, madam.”

I entered the accounts room.

Once, this had been where I spent most of my time. Lu Wenjing always said I needn't trouble myself with such trifles. Yet whenever he ran short of silver, he pushed the account books in front of me.

I opened a concealed compartment in the cabinet and took out a lacquered box. Inside lay seven years of promissory notes, deeds, and receipts, along with several letters in Lu Wenjing's own hand.

One had been written to Xie Cheng'an three years earlier.

“Lady Ruan's dowry is substantial. There is no harm in drawing on it temporarily. Once the flood-control funds arrive, we can replenish it.”

Black ink on white paper. More honest than any declaration of love.

A Ling ground her teeth.

“He treated you like a bank.”

“He thought he could hide anything he pleased.”

I put the letter into the box.

Half of Lu Wenjing's support came from my money. The other half came from the powerful men he clung to.

Two years earlier, Qin Chongshan, vice minister of personnel, had taken a liking to him and entrusted him with the paperwork for the Yong'an River flood-control works. Qin belonged to the Crown Prince's faction. Lu Wenjing thought that if he held tight to this patron, any discrepancy in the accounts could be made to disappear.

But flood-control works were not a blank ledger. When floodwaters came down from upstream, the embankments would speak. The dead would speak louder still.

I had Lu Cheng summon everyone responsible for the accounts and take inventory of the storerooms in full view.

Old Madam Lu rushed in at the news, followed by a crowd of weeping women. She pointed at me the moment she entered.

“Are you confiscating our property?”

I sat behind the accounting desk without even raising my head.

“No. I'm collecting a debt.”

She shook with anger.

“Touch the Lu family's belongings, and I'll bring a case against you at Shuntian Prefecture!”

“Go ahead.” I pushed a deed toward her. “Take this with you. Let the prefect see who bought the Lu family's house. Then show him the accounts of your son's use of his wife's property. You might save the Court of Judicial Review some work.”

She snatched the deed, her hands shaking so badly she could barely hold it.

I looked at her, perfectly calm.

She had always loved saying that once a woman married, her husband's family became her heaven.

Today, I would show her that when heaven fell, it often crushed first the person sheltering under the eaves and shouting loudest.

At dusk, Pei Zhaoye sent word: Xie Cheng'an had fled.

I was not surprised.

Outside the capital, he had a warehouse where he concealed goods and mixed sound stone with sandy, inferior stone. On paper, the accounts were watertight.

If he ran, he would go there to burn them.

I changed into practical men's clothes.

A Ling stopped me.

“My lady, you cannot go.”

“I know where he hides things.”

“Deputy Chief Justice Pei's men will go.”

“By the time they find their way, the books will be ash.”

I tightened my grip on the dagger in my sleeve.

Lu Wenjing thought I could do nothing but keep accounts. He did not know that Father had been a river transport commissioner, or that I had accompanied him along countless stretches of embankment since childhood. I knew the tricks of those warehouses better than Xie Cheng'an did.

5.

The warehouse stood twenty li outside the capital. After dark, there was only the wind.

A Ling and I went around the main entrance and followed a drainage ditch into the rear courtyard. As expected, light shone inside. Xie Cheng'an was ordering his men to stuff account books into a brazier.

He had the smooth, ingratiating face of a merchant who smiled at everyone. Now his features were taut, like those of a cornered rat.

“Burn them!” he snarled. “Once the Court of Judicial Review gets here, none of you will live!”

A servant asked in a shaking voice, “Didn't Lord Lu say he could protect us, master?”

Xie Cheng'an kicked him viciously.

“Protect us, my arse! He's already landed himself in there!”

A dry branch snapped beneath my foot.

He whipped around.

I stepped out of the darkness and removed my veiled hat.

“Master Xie, we haven't finished settling the accounts. Why the hurry to burn them?”

For a moment, he stared. Then he gave a savage smile.

“Very bold of you to come alone, Madam Lu.”

“I brought people.”

A Ling loosed an arrow that extinguished the oil lamp beside him. Confusion erupted. Constables Pei Zhaoye had stationed on either side of the warehouse burst in and brought down the servants guarding the doors.

Xie Cheng'an's expression changed. He turned and bolted toward the back exit.

He was quick, but after only a few steps, a trip rope sent him sprawling. Pei Zhaoye dropped from the wall and planted a foot on his wrist.

“Xie Cheng'an, why are you running?”

He screamed, still clutching his chest with his other hand.

I went over, crouched, and drew a blue-bound ledger from inside his robe.

His eyes were bloodshot.

“Ruan Qingwu! You've ruined my family!”

“You ruined it yourself.” I opened the ledger. “You sold inferior stone for the flood-control works, trading people's lives for silver. Then you used your sister to entice Lu Wenjing, hoping to secure a protector. You both calculated very carefully. Unfortunately, you overlooked one thing.”

“What?”

“What Lu Wenjing does has nothing to do with me.”

The source, price, and person responsible for every shipment of stone were clearly recorded. The final pages also listed gifts Xie Cheng'an had sent to Qin Chongshan's steward.

This time, even Qin could not disentangle himself.

Pei Zhaoye's expression grew grave as he read.

“Miss Ruan, this must go to the palace at once.”

“Before that, save lives.” I pointed at the stone piled outside. “Repairs have already begun on the Yong'an embankments. If this material reaches them, removing and replacing it will take time. Could you ask the Ministry of Works to seal off the project and send new inspectors to examine the materials?”

He looked at me, then nodded.

“I'll go immediately.”

After a few steps, he turned.

“And you?”

“Back to the Lu residence.”

“It isn't safe there now.”

I smiled faintly.

“The most dangerous place is often where it's easiest to find what people have hidden.”

Before his arrest, there had been little fear in Lu Wenjing's eyes. Plainly, he still expected Qin Chongshan to save him.

But I knew Qin's greatest talent was discarding his pawns.

When a rope was about to snap, everyone hanging from it would seize one another for dear life. All I had to do was make them cling a little tighter.

6.

It was midnight when I returned. The main courtyard was still lit.

Old Madam Lu sat before a cup of cold tea. Beside her was an unfamiliar older woman in a dark-blue short overjacket of the kind often seen in the palace.

I recognized her as Madam Qin's senior household attendant.

She rose with a thin smile as I entered.

“Madam Lu, Madam Qin has sent a message. Husbands and wives quarrel at one end of the bed and make up at the other. Lord Lu is young and talented. Why take a little family trouble all the way to the Court of Judicial Review?”

I removed my cloak and handed it to A Ling.

“What does Madam Qin propose?”

The woman took a brocade box from her sleeve.

Inside was a phoenix hairpin of reddish gold, no light piece.

“You're a sensible woman, madam. Hand over the account books, and tomorrow the Court of Judicial Review will naturally find insufficient evidence. The Xies will be sent away too. As for Lord Lu, with Vice Minister Qin looking after him, his career will only rise.”

Old Madam Lu gazed at me eagerly, as though she had found a lifeline.

“Qingwu, Wenjing knows he was wrong. Give them the books, and we're still a family. Haven't you always wanted the best for him?”

I picked up the hairpin and weighed it.

“Very nice.”

The attendant relaxed.

An instant later, I drove the pin into the tabletop.

Its tail quivered with a hum.

“Now I only want him to pay for what he's done.”

The woman's expression changed.

I rose slowly.

“Tell Madam Qin the flood-control accounts have already gone to the palace. If she has so much leisure that she can send me hairpins, she might instead ask Vice Minister Qin how he intends to explain to His Majesty why his steward received gifts from the Xie stone business year after year.”

She went white.

“You—”

“Show our guest out.”

A Ling stepped forward and ushered her straight through the door.

Old Madam Lu slumped in her chair, muttering that it was over.

I ignored her and went to Lu Wenjing's study.

An imperial inkstone, awarded when he placed third in the palace examinations, stood atop a display shelf. I pressed its base. Sure enough, a faint click came from behind the wall.

A hidden compartment opened.

There was no gold or silver inside, only a bundle of secret letters and an ebony token.

The token was inscribed: OFFICE OF THE CROWN PRINCE'S HOUSEHOLD.

Lu Wenjing was greedier than I had thought.

He passed flood-control information for Qin Chongshan while secretly gathering compromising material on ministers for the Crown Prince's household. He imagined he could maneuver between the two. In truth, he had long been regarded as a pawn to discard at will.

A Ling frowned.

“My lady, if you hand that over, the Crown Prince will bear a grudge against you too.”

“That's why I can't hand it over directly.”

I put the letters back in order and took only one.

In it, Lu Wenjing had written in his own hand: If exposed, all blame for the flood-control works could be placed on Xie Cheng'an. Lady Ruan was weak; a little coaxing would be enough to keep her quiet.

I folded the letter.

“This one will do.”

A Ling's eyes shone.

“What are you going to do, my lady?”

“Make him admit it himself.”

Early the next morning, word came from the Court of Judicial Review. Lu Wenjing wanted to see me.

I dressed simply in pale blue, wore no jewelry, and took only that letter and a divorce agreement.

He thought I would come to plead with him.

I needed him to keep thinking so.

7.

The prison of the Court of Judicial Review was dark and damp.

Lu Wenjing sat on a wooden bed. His official robes had been replaced by prison clothes, but his hair was still neatly combed. At the sight of me, relief flickered in his eyes. Then he assumed his familiar tenderness.

“Qingwu, I knew you wouldn't abandon me.”

I sat opposite him.

“What would you have me do?”

He moved closer to the bars and lowered his voice.

“Lord Qin has sent word. As long as the accounts don't implicate him, the flood-control matter can be suppressed. Xie Cheng'an will take all the blame. Give the blue-bound ledger to Madam Qin, then speak gently to Pei Zhaoye. It will all blow over.”

I looked at him and almost laughed.

Even now, he thought me a woman who would wipe the mud from the soles of his shoes.

“And afterward?”

He frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“What about Xie Roujia? What about her child?”

Disgust crossed his face.

“She was only a mistake. Once this is over, I'll send her out of the capital. If there really is a child, it can be raised on an estate. Don't worry. Your place as Madam Lu will always be yours.”

“I don't want it.”

He stared.

I spread the divorce agreement on the table.

“Sign.”

His expression chilled as he stared at the words.

“You want a divorce?”

“Yes.”

“Ruan Qingwu, stop this nonsense.”

“I've never been more clearheaded.” I pushed the brush toward him. “You appropriated my dowry, kept a mistress, and guaranteed the Xies' business knowing their stone was substandard. This agreement is the last scrap of dignity I'm leaving you.”

He slammed his hand on the table. His chains clattered.

“Where do you think you can go without me? The Ruan family is gone! Everyone in Shangjing knows you owe your position today to me!”

I had waited a long time for that.

I took out the letter and held it through the bars.

“Then see whom I owe it to.”

As he read, the blood drained from his face.

I read the words aloud, one by one.

“Lady Ruan is weak. A little coaxing will be enough to keep her quiet.”

He reached to snatch it. I drew it back.

“You want Xie Cheng'an to take all the blame, Qin Chongshan to make the arrangements, and me to go on paying and keeping silent for you. What gives you the right, Lu Wenjing?”

He stared at me. At last, panic appeared in his eyes.

“Qingwu, Xie Cheng'an deceived me. I truly didn't know there was anything wrong with the stone.”

“You didn't?” I laid out another receipt. “Xie Cheng'an's two thousand taels of thanks bear your private seal. You didn't know about the stone, but you knew to accept his silver?”

His mouth opened.

“I… It was a loan.”