Chapter 3

Xie Linyuan's ears reddened slightly, but he did follow my sister into the study.

Qi Zhaoye crouched to collect the scattered seal samples. He separated the square seals from the cranes, putting them in different bags. As he tied the cords, he asked, “Why keep me here?”

“The chair you brought is very comfortable.”

He looked up. The smile in his eyes slowly brightened.

“I'll bring you a chair next time too.”

9.

Before the case was over, a new worry arrived.

Princess Consort Duan summoned my sister.

The capital said the princess had exacting standards. She had considered more than ten young women and liked none. While Mother helped my sister dress her hair, I chose her ornaments. In the end, I selected the simplest crabapple hairpin.

She sat straight, but her hand clutched my sleeve.

“Come with me.”

“She summoned only you.”

“Pretend to be my maid.”

Mother tapped her.

“Nonsense. Yanning is your sister. Why should she pretend to be a maid?”

I smoothed the hair at my sister's temples.

“What is there to fear? If she only wants a well-behaved ornament, you needn't marry into that household.”

My sister looked at me in the mirror.

“What if she asks what I can do?”

“Recognize spoiled grain. Pick sweet cherries for me. Say clearly what you don't want.”

She laughed. At last, her grip loosened.

The princess did not keep her long.

Two hours later, she returned wearing an old silver hairpin. The princess had shown her the household accounts, she said, then asked whether she would be willing to accompany Xie Linyuan and endure hardships if he received an assignment elsewhere.

“That depends what he's going to do,” my sister answered. “If he's investigating grain to save lives, I'll bring medicine. If he's arguing about pointless matters, I'll stay home and eat.”

The princess laughed for a long time and gave her a silver hairpin she had worn in her youth.

That night, my sister brought her pillow into my room.

Adored since childhood, she became more cautious than anyone when a betrothal truly approached.

“Prince Duan's household is good. So is the princess. But if I marry there, will people speak of me only as Xie Linyuan's wife?”

I sat up beneath the quilt.

“What did you tell her today?”

“About the grain investigation. And wanting to learn estate management from Mother.”

“What did she say when she gave you the hairpin?”

My sister thought.

“That it had traveled many places with her, rather than being locked in her storeroom.”

“She heard what you want to do. So did Xie Linyuan. If they suddenly pretend to be deaf after the wedding, come home. We have plenty of rooms.”

She slapped my arm.

“Who arranges a sister's home after divorce before she's even betrothed?”

“Best to be prepared.”

After laughing, she lay down with her head on my arm.

“Yanning, I always thought being liked by so many people was a nuisance. They sent gifts, wrote poems, stopped my carriage. All they asked was whether I'd like them. No one asked what life I wanted.”

“Did Xie Linyuan?”

“He asked what I'd most like to do if I didn't marry him. I said I'd travel to the estates with Mother and see what each place could grow. He said his family has land in three prefectures and needs someone willing to find faults.”

I laughed.

“He really does want you as hired help.”

She laughed too. Then her voice softened.

“But I want to.”

She took out the silver hairpin, then set it neatly in her hair again. Her eyes shone in the mirror. Bit by bit, she smoothed the sleeve she had crumpled in her fist.

I tucked the quilt around her.

“Then marry him. If you really travel through all three prefectures, bring me grain samples, not jewels.”

“And cherries.”

“Sweet ones.”

She answered softly and soon fell asleep.

Listening to her even breathing, I felt only peace. That little feeling of mine, which never had time to grow, was now an old ink mark, almost too faint to see, kept in my private notebook. It stopped no one from turning a new page.

Three days later, Prince Duan's household formally sent a matchmaker.

Father did not agree at once. He called Xie Linyuan into his study and questioned him for four hours. When he emerged, he looked more solemn than when entering the palace for an imperial audience.

Meeting me beneath the veranda, he stopped and bowed.

“Thank you.”

I knew he did not mean the grain investigation.

“Don't thank me. My sister decides whether to marry you. If you make her suffer, I'll be the first at your door.”

“Agreed.”

“We have too many gifts already. No more pearls or jade.”

“What does she like?”

I pretended to think.

“Willingness to get dusty. Willingness to listen.”

He laughed.

My sister appeared through the moon gate, her ears too red to hide.

“Wen Yanning! Another word from you—”

I turned and ran, straight into Qi Zhaoye at the other end of the corridor.

He steadied me. He carried a wooden chest.

“For you.”

I grew wary at once.

“A fox-fur coat?”

“A ledger box.”

Hardwood, with brass-bound corners, a hidden compartment, and waterproof oilcloth inside. The lock was plain but sturdy.

I tested it. Exactly the right size for my usual books.

“How did you know I needed one?”

“That day you snatched the ledger from the brazier and ran with it in your arms. I thought a box might at least save your hands from burns.”

He placed it on the table, the key in the middle of the lid.

“If you don't like it, I'll take it back and alter it.”

I remembered the presents in my sister's storeroom. Too vulgar, too cold, too rank.

I took the key and tried the lock at once.

“No alterations. I like it.”

10.

On the day the riverside granary opened for inspection, a crowd had gathered by dawn.

The court sent an overseeing official. Prince Duan's household, the Duke of Anguo's, and every implicated grain company were present. Flood victims waited outside with empty carts. No one dared speak first.

Pei Zhiyan changed his account one final time. The surviving pages were too badly burned, he said. The crane proved only that his treasury paid, not that spoiled grain reached the riverside granary.

I set my new box on the table.

Besides the surviving accounts, it held twelve grain-sample bags. Each recorded the cart number, storage location, and person who sealed it. My sister identified the grain. Qi Zhaoye escorted the carts. An agricultural official invited by Xie Linyuan checked the findings.

Futai thought itself clever, scattering the spoiled grain through twelve carts. But the old rice contained northern red-husked sorghum. No similar variety was grown around the capital that year. That shipment had entered our old warehouse two years earlier. Its outgoing quantity matched Futai's recorded “losses.”

I produced the carriage firm's rental ledger.

Twelve old carts that once carried lacquered wooden goods. The rental dates, entry and departure at Futai's rear warehouse, and receipt at the riverside granary all matched. The tung-oil-stained husks from the wheel ruts were sealed in an evidence bag too.

Pei Zhiyan stared at the crowded table. Sweat gathered at his temples.

His attendant suddenly broke free of the escort and lunged toward the brazier.

Prepared, Qi Zhaoye hooked it aside with his foot and pinned him down. Xie Linyuan ordered a search. Inside his robe, they found half a piece of green wax and a family letter he had not yet destroyed.

Pei Zhiyan had written to an estate manager elsewhere, telling him to prepare money and arrange matters for the grain-company manager's family once the case broke.

This time, there was nothing left to deny.

As he was led away, the Duchess of Anguo arrived in person. She bowed to those waiting for grain outside and handed over every deed and contract for Futai belonging to her household. She would use her private property to make good the shortage of sound grain first.

Passing my sister, she paused.

“That South Sea pearl. I failed to discipline my household.”

My sister returned its box.

“Today's grain matters more than a pearl.”

The granary opened again.

Sack after sack of good grain was loaded onto carts. Its scent overcame the old warehouse's mustiness. At last, the waiting crowd moved: checking lists, pushing carts, tightening sacks.

Behind the table, I checked the final figures. My wrist ached until I could barely lift it.

Qi Zhaoye set warm water beside me without touching my accounts.

Xie Linyuan went to my sister and offered his old bamboo token. His mother had given it to him when he took the assignment. He could return home only after the grain investigation was finished.

“The task is done,” he said. “May I formally ask whether you are willing to walk the same road with me?”

There were many people outside. He spoke quietly, but clearly enough for her.

She looked at the newly filled carts and took the token.

“If the next road is like this one, I am.”

She did not look at me.

She did not need to.

I lowered my head and wrote at the foot of the ledger: Receipts verified.

My heart was clear and at ease.

Qi Zhaoye suddenly asked, “Second Miss Wen, what about me?”

My brush nearly pierced the paper.

“What about you?”

“Would you be willing to take a look at my road?”

The clerks around us all lowered their heads. Their ears remained alert.

I closed the ledger.

“Get all this grain delivered first.”

“Of course.”

I looked up and added, “Then come and ask again.”

He smiled as though he had won a battle.

11.

In the end, Pei Zhiyan was stripped of his right to seek investiture as heir. Futai closed. Its manager and the attendant were punished for their offenses. The Duke of Anguo's household replaced all the relief grain, delaying not half a day to preserve one family's dignity.

Once our name was cleared, Father gave me the old southern warehouses.

“Haven't you always complained that household accounts weren't enough? Run them yourself. Rent them out, open a grain company, whatever you like. The profits and losses are yours.”

Mother gave me two experienced accountants and introduced me to Chen Sushang. Widowed young, Mistress Chen ran a rice business in the east of the city, supporting three small shops alone. No one knew small grain merchants' difficulties better.

After consulting her, I divided the warehouses into small units rented monthly to merchants unable to build their own. One room was reserved for grain samples. Every incoming shipment would be sampled, sealed, and entered in the books.

Qi Zhaoye visited more often than anyone.

First, he helped repair leaking roof tiles. Next, he brought old military grain-management records for reference. The third time, he brought nothing. He simply stood outside.

“The grain's delivered. May I ask again?”

Chen Sushang kept working her abacus without looking up.

“General Qi, you're blocking customers.”

He immediately moved against the wall.

I held back a smile.

“Ask.”

“I care for you. Not because you're the elder Miss Wen's sister. Not because of that coat. From seeing you turn it into knee warmers, recognize the green wax, and rush into the fire for the ledger, I came to like you, little by little.”

He paused, as though he thought he had spoken too long.

“I'm often with the army. I can't always choose when I leave the city. You'll run the warehouses, and won't follow me everywhere. If we marry, we each do our work. Whoever gets home first waits for the other to eat. If you don't want that, I won't block your door again.”

Chen Sushang's abacus stopped.

I ran a finger around my cup. He had even thought about who waited for dinner.

“What else?”

He rubbed his nose.

“My mother has a temper, but knows right from wrong. If she's unreasonable, I'll take you to live elsewhere. My pay isn't much. I have two small estates. You can manage the accounts. I won't interfere.”

“Who wants to manage your accounts?”

“Then I'll learn.”

I could not stop myself laughing.

He offered no jewels, no promises of eternal devotion. Even his proposal sounded like a handover of army provisions. Yet every sentence rested on something solid.

“Qi Zhaoye, I like you too. But the warehouses are mine, and I'll manage them after marriage. You may move grain. You may not alter my books without permission.”

He straightened.

“Understood.”

Chen Sushang resumed her abacus.

“Now you're not blocking the door, come and move those ten sacks of beans by the west wall.”

He immediately rolled up his sleeves.

After her betrothal, my sister often visited the warehouses. Seeing him really carrying grain, she whispered, “You agreed just like that?”

“What else? Ask him to send another storeroom full of gifts?”

She considered it.

“No need. We have nowhere to put them.”

Xie Linyuan stood behind her, holding an umbrella over her. Hearing us, he looked at my newly hung warehouse sign.

“If Miss Wen needs more ledger boxes, I can send them.”

My sister turned at once.

“How do you know she likes ledger boxes?”

Qi Zhaoye and I exchanged a glance and fell silent together.

Perhaps it was the first time Xie Linyuan realized that pleasing two sisters was harder than investigating a granary full of spoiled grain.

12.

The following spring, my sister married first.

Prince Duan's household sent the customary betrothal gifts. Xie Linyuan personally added farming books, a wooden box of crabapple seeds, and durable soft shoes for long journeys.

She found fault with none.

Before leaving, she hugged me and asked three times whether her wedding dress sat crooked. Then she insisted on pressing her favorite gold hairpin into my hand.

“This time, it isn't because I think it vulgar.”

“Then why give it to me?”

“I'm happy.”

I lowered her bridal veil.

“Then keep it. I have enough jewelry to wear until I'm eighty.”

A hand emerged from beneath the veil and pinched my cheek with perfect accuracy.

After marriage, Xie Linyuan continued taking grain-inspection assignments. My sister sometimes went with him. She could distinguish grain varieties, spot damp warehouse walls, and slam a food box onto his desk when he forgot to eat. Princess Consort Duan initially worried about her bluntness. Discovering how much her son liked it, she handed her the household warehouses outright.

My wedding to Qi Zhaoye was set for after autumn.

Before leaving the city to train troops, he brought his estate accounts. I asked an old accountant to teach him income and expenditure from the beginning. Two months later, he returned with a crookedly written ledger containing seven errors, every one clearly circled in red by his own hand.

“Can they be fixed?”

“Yes.”

“Then there's hope for me yet.”

Mother laughed so hard she nearly spilled her tea.

Our families did not compete over dowries. Father gave me the warehouse deeds. Mother packed the abacus she had used when young. The Qi family sent a cartload of sturdy timber, saying it could repair whatever broke at the warehouses.

On my wedding day, my sister came from Prince Duan's residence to dress my hair.

We sat side by side in the mirror. She still had the face everyone adored. I was still the little sister who had trailed after her, picking up what she left behind.

And what of it?

The pearls, bangles, and fox fur she did not want had indeed filled my storeroom. But the person she wanted had never been a possession to fight over. My brief flutter of feeling had become no debt that anyone owed anyone else.

Once our lives settled, we cleared the old gift storeroom together.

The South Sea pearl had been returned. The jade bangles went to Mother to weigh down her winter sleeves. Only a hand muff remained of the dismantled coat. For the other unused gifts, we sought the givers' permission, sold them, bought grain, and sent it to the charitable home outside the city.

The emptied room had two south-facing windows.

I had a long table brought in. My sister planted crabapple outside. Xie Linyuan brought his inspection books when he visited. Qi Zhaoye spent his leave in a corner learning estate accounts. Father complained about the noise but came around every day. Mother filled the cabinet with pastries, still afraid we might argue on empty stomachs.

One late-spring day, my sister brought two new ledgers.

One cover read Rongzheng. It recorded the granaries she and Xie Linyuan had visited. The other read Yanning, for the old warehouses' new tenants.

She pushed all the sweet cherries toward me.

I chose the largest and put it in her palm.

“Half each.”

Outside, new leaves unfurled on the crabapple. Old gift boxes stood neatly on a high cabinet. No one needed to wait for someone else to choose first and leave the remainder.

Across from me, my sister took up her brush and wrote the first page of her book. I dipped mine in ink and entered a new tenant's name.

Both brushes touched down together. Their strokes dried steady on the paper.

Footsteps sounded outside. Xie Linyuan entered carrying fresh grain samples, followed by Qi Zhaoye with his corrected estate ledger. There was a place on each side of the long table. They sat and waited for us to finish our line. I capped my brush and put the samples in their marked compartment. My sister opened Xie Linyuan's warehouse book. Qi Zhaoye pushed his circled errors toward me.

Four sets of work lay on the table, each in its proper place.

We went on living another ordinary day.