Chapter 1

Everyone in the capital knew the Gu chancellor's household was refined and indifferent to wealth, as pure as chrysanthemums.

Yet somehow they'd raised me—a creature reeking of money from head to toe, a greedy little pixiu hoarding treasure.

Father's official robes had been patched so often I'd lost count. After years on the court payroll, he hadn't managed to acquire a second decent outfit.

Mother was even better. Her dowry had become tuition for poor students. She'd even given away the bronze mirror at the bottom of her chest.

My two brothers had inherited their parents' disposition perfectly. One paid poor scholars' school fees. The other spent his military pay on medicine for wounded soldiers.

Then there was me.

My style had gone in an entirely different direction.

I'd opened twelve banking houses in the capital. If I didn't count the day's takings before bed, even closing my eyes felt like giving someone permission to steal my money.

The other day, a plainly dressed girl arrived with half a broken jade pendant. She said she was the Gu family's true legitimate daughter, lost outside the household for years.

I looked at her as though she were a living bodhisattva come to save me. I wanted to shove the family register, rooms, watery porridge, and pickles into her hands all at once.

I knew it!

How could someone like me, who'd split a coin to inspect its quality, share blood with this family of spendthrifts?

Acknowledge her. Immediately!

The moment the blood mingled, I would take my ledgers and flee that very night. Whoever wanted this poverty-stricken, draft-ridden chancellor's residence could have it!

1

Two drops of blood fell into the white porcelain bowl, touched, and truly merged.

I stared at the red streak for two breaths.

Then I grabbed Xingyu and hauled her outside.

"Quick! Pack!"

She stumbled after me.

"Pack what, my lady?"

"My things!"

I reached the door and stopped abruptly.

"No. You hire a carriage. I'll pack."

"The fastest one you can find. If the driver dawdles, pay him extra. I'm getting out before the city gates close tonight!"

I knew it, I knew it! Someone who had to hear the ring of every coin before accepting it could never share blood with these people who spent money without blinking.

My adoptive mother, Su Yunniang, caught up and seized my arm.

"Gu Yingqiu, come back here!"

"The blood mingling in that bowl is hers. It doesn't dissolve the sixteen years you spent growing up in my arms!"

"Why are you running?"

"Mother, I've occupied this position for sixteen years. Wouldn't staying be terribly improper?"

My adoptive father, Gu Yanxing, stepped across the main hall's doorway.

"Don't try to fool me with propriety."

"The Gus may be poor, but we can feed one more mouth."

"Father, that's exactly the frightening part."

"You said we could feed three more refugees last time. We all drank thin porridge for half a month."

I tugged at the sleeve Mother held.

"Don't worry. I'm only taking the money I earned myself."

"Not one of the chipped copper basins."

Suyin approached with lowered eyes.

"Sister wants to leave the moment she sees me. It seems she can't accept me."

"Don't trouble yourselves, Father, Mother. I'll go back to the country."

"Don't pin that on me."

I poked my head around Father and called to her.

"I'm willing to leave the whole Gu family to you! That's an incredible blessing!"

"Stay with an easy mind. Thin porridge, pickles, a leaking roof—from now on, it's all yours!"

Her words were considerate. Her gaze, however, passed over me and stopped at the solid-gold abacus pendant at my waist.

My eldest brother, Gu Mingchuan, had just returned from the Hanlin Academy. Hearing this, he blocked the doorway even more firmly.

"Suyin, you've only just come home. Listen to the whole story first."

"Ah Qiu's in a hurry to leave because she thinks we're poor. It has nothing to do with you."

"Eldest Brother!"

I glared.

"You don't need to air the family disgrace quite so plainly!"

Second Brother, Gu Jingchuan, came in too, dust from the training ground still on his shoulders.

"If we really run out of rice, I'll sell the new wrist guards I just received."

My eyelid twitched. Frontier veterans had pooled their money to buy those for him. If he sold them, I'd have to pay twice the price to redeem them.

Suyin took a deep breath and bowed to both brothers.

"If you all insist I stay, refusing would be ungrateful."

"It's only that I've lived frugally since childhood. I'm afraid I won't fit Sister's way of life."

Again, she glanced at my gold pendant.

Mother followed her gaze, looking faintly apologetic.

"Ah Qiu likes saving up these little things. Don't mind her."

"Whatever we have in future, you sisters can share."

I immediately took off the gold abacus and put it in Suyin's hand.

"A first-meeting gift. You can have the whole household too."

"I'm only staying because our parents won't release me. I'm not trying to steal your good fortune."

With that, I picked up my bundle again.

Father slammed a hand on the table.

"Gu Yingqiu, take one step outside today and I'll have the gatekeeper nail the gates shut!"

Mother clung to my arm, crying so hard she could hardly speak.

"You just think we're poor."

"I know you've never said it, but you've suffered all these years. Still, you can't throw your mother away too!"

I looked at her collar, washed pale with age.

The bundle on my shoulder suddenly grew heavy.

This family truly knew how to ruin a fortune.

Their love for me was real too.

Oh, well. The silver I'd saved for a house wasn't going to grow legs and run away. And I could still recover thirty percent of the carriage hire.

"I'm not going."

"Don't cry, Mother. Too much crying means buying medicine."

She laughed through her tears. Father turned away and secretly rubbed his eyes.

Suyin tightened her grip on the gold abacus until its edges pressed her knuckles white.

Eldest Brother took my bundle and weighed it. Apart from two everyday changes of clothes, it contained nothing but ledgers.

"You really meant to leave. Why didn't you take any valuable jewelry?"

"It's safer in a bank vault than around my neck."

"Besides, we haven't paid the rice shop yet. If Father sees me walking out tomorrow wearing a whole box of jewels, a censor will impeach him immediately."

Second Brother laughed and tried to ruffle my hair. I dodged.

"Don't you laugh either."

"Your military pay came home last month with only two taels left. I've entered what I advanced for those three wounded soldiers' families as your debt. Repay me by year's end."

His smile froze.

Father frowned and asked how much I'd advanced him this time.

I deliberately kept the amount vague so he wouldn't immediately write an IOU. The Gus had a bad habit: receive a little kindness, and they wanted to repay it tenfold. If I listed every sum, tonight they'd all be competing under the lamp to copy books for money.

Suyin stared at my ledgers, then suddenly asked,

"Aren't you afraid outsiders will say the family favors the adopted daughter, when you brothers keep stopping her like this?"

Eldest Brother put my bundle behind him.

"She's my sister."

"If outsiders have too much free time, tell them to pay our debts. Then I'll gladly listen."

The old steward came in to ask about a welcoming feast.

Father thought for a long time, then gritted his teeth.

"Spend eight taels. Buy a braised duck and a pot of warm wine."

Suyin immediately spoke.

"Being reunited with my family is blessing enough. There's no need for extravagance on my account."

"Plain tea and simple food best reflect our family values."

Approval lit Father's eyes.

"Good child. Truly a Gu by blood."

"Old Zhou, save the eight taels too. Make greens-and-tofu soup for supper."

Suyin opened her mouth, then ventured,

"Father, what about the wine?"

He was already cheerfully telling the steward to return the silver to the accounts office.

I patted her hand.

"Eat plenty of tofu, little sister."

"We don't have much else. But there's always enough tofu."

At supper, Father really did push an entire basin of greens-and-tofu soup toward her.

Eldest Brother said her journey must have been tiring and tried to give her the only two pieces of tofu in his own bowl.

She hastily covered hers, while saying,

"You work so hard at the Hanlin Academy, Brother. You should eat more."

Second Brother drained his soup to the last drop and earnestly praised the cook for getting the salt just right.

After listening for a long time, she finally confirmed that no meat dish would follow.

She swallowed bite after bite. At last, she put down her chopsticks and smiled.

"Don't worry, Father, Mother. This little hardship is nothing."

"As long as we're together, I'd gladly eat this every day."

"Wonderful."

I turned to the steward.

"Old Zhou, remember what my sister said. No extra dishes tomorrow."

Suyin had just lifted her handkerchief. On hearing that, she wiped her mouth once more.

After supper, she caught Mother's arm.

"Mother, how much is Father's annual salary?"

"Are the household's estates far away?"

"Now I'm home, I ought to learn household management soon."

Mother clasped her hand in return.

"Don't worry. We may have no surplus, but we won't let you miss a meal."

"When your father receives next month's salary, I'll buy you a new pair of shoes."

Suyin looked at the muddy cloth shoes on her feet.

After a long while, she said,

"You're very kind to me, Mother."

It sounded like thanks.

Also rather like gritted teeth.

That night, she was settled into the eastern rooms.

The next morning, she stared at the millet porridge and pickled radish on the table for a long time without lifting her chopsticks.

Father drank half a bowl and sighed in contentment.

"Thicker porridge today. The kitchen's improving."

By "thicker," he meant perhaps a dozen more grains than yesterday.

Mother put a piece of pickled radish into Suyin's bowl.

"Your eldest brother brought these radish leaves back from a colleague's house. I've pickled them for half a month."

"You couldn't buy this outside."

Suyin pressed her lips together and swallowed the blackened morsel. Her eyes watered with the effort.

She looked at me.

I sipped my porridge leisurely.

In fact, before dawn I'd sent Xingyu to Fuchun Restaurant for two steamers of lamb buns. I'd been full for hours.

After breakfast, Mother took her to see fabric for new clothes.

"You came home so suddenly. I didn't have time to prepare."

"I still have two lengths in storage I couldn't bear to use. We'll make you clothes today."

Suyin's eyes brightened, though she quickly declined.

"My old clothes will do, Mother."

An hour later, Mother reverently brought out one length of hemp and one of washed cotton. At the hemp's edge, a crooked character meaning "Thanks" had been embroidered by the donor.

"A student's family sent this after I helped him."

"The cloth isn't expensive. The affection is worth a thousand gold pieces."

Suyin stared for a long while before forcing out,

"How thoughtful of you, Mother."

When she turned toward me, I wore a lake-blue skirt with an exquisite woven pattern. A weaving workshop in my name had used the cloth to settle a debt. Its design was restrained, but one touch told you it wasn't cheap.

"The fabric of Sister's dress can hardly be ordinary silk, can it?"

"Someone used it to settle a debt. I didn't spend cash."

"The Gus live in honorable poverty, yet Sister wears tribute fabric."

"If outsiders think Father has accepted money he shouldn't, who will explain for our family?"

She pulled the wooden pin from her hair, bent down, and slashed my skirt.

The sound of tearing fabric silenced the hall.

Mother crouched and lifted the damaged cloth. Her face was paler than it.

"Ah Qiu saved for so long before she'd let herself make one outfit without patches."

Father hurried from his study. Once he saw the tear, his voice shook.

"Suyin, you say it was for our family's reputation. But did you ask where this dress came from first?"