Chapter 2

"She spends money she earns herself. When has she ever touched so much as half a copper of the household's funds?"

Suyin immediately knelt.

"You didn't tell me where the dress came from, Father. That's why I misunderstood."

"I've only just returned. I don't know everything. How could I know Sister already had her own businesses?"

With one sentence, she'd shifted part of the blame for the ruined dress onto Father and suggested I'd deliberately hidden my banking houses from her.

I gathered the torn skirt.

"Little Sister did nothing wrong. I simply like dressing up too much."

"I'll wear hemp from now on. It'll save money."

Mother immediately pressed me back into my chair.

"Not that money!"

"I'll copy books for people and buy you another outfit."

Suyin looked at Mother's protective hand. Her face went from green to white.

The next day, she volunteered to take over household management.

"You've worked hard for years, Mother. I want to share your burden."

"I've kept accounts for several families outside. Give me the household keys."

Mother pushed them back.

"You've only just returned. Get to know everyone first."

"Why rush into managing the household?"

Suyin immediately knelt beside a pillar.

"If you doubt me, Mother, I'll dash my head against this pillar and die, rather than be a useless daughter."

I came in carrying tea. My eyes lit up.

"Mother, how can you bear to stop such filial devotion?"

I pulled the expenditure ledger from my sleeve and put the treasury keys into her palm.

"This blessing is yours."

"From now on, you can greet the creditors at the door too."

She heard only the bright clink of keys. Her steps were light as she carried the ledger back to her room.

On the first page, she found four taels owed to the butcher. Then seven to the rice shop, three in wages to the roofer, nine to the pharmacy.

By the final page, she discovered that the Gu household not only had no savings, but owed more than two thousand eight hundred taels all over town.

She rushed into the treasury with the keys.

Damp, moldy wood greeted her.

Second Brother's old armor sat on a shelf. Beside the ancestral tablets stood a chipped bronze incense burner.

Nothing else was worth anything.

Once Suyin was out of sight, Xingyu ran to me.

"My lady, Second Miss knocked on three walls in the treasury and asked whether there was a hidden door."

"What did you say?"

"That even if there had been, Master would have dismantled and sold it for lumber money long ago."

That afternoon, the butcher, rice merchant, and roofer arrived almost as though they'd arranged it.

Suyin sat in the front hall clutching the ledger. First, she promised to pay everything in three days.

They refused to leave.

The butcher slapped an IOU onto the table.

"Miss Gu, His Excellency said three days last time too. Three days later, he'd sent his entire salary to the relief shelters outside the city."

"We respect him as an honest official. But small shops have to survive too."

Suyin threw the keys down.

"Steward, with a treasury that large, can you really not produce a dozen taels?"

The old steward spread his hands.

"Second Miss, the most valuable thing in there is the bronze burner before the ancestral tablets."

"Say the word, and I'll ask Master whether he's willing to sell the ancestors too."

The rice merchant pushed his IOU forward.

"When Eldest Miss managed things, if the household couldn't find the money for a while, she'd exchange it for drafts from her own banking house."

"Now you've taken over, at least give us an answer."

Suyin shut the ledger.

"If she owns a banking house, why leave our parents owing money for meat and rice?"

"Does she control all the Gu family's silver herself?"

She took out the gold abacus pendant Mother had given her and used it to settle all three debts. Melted down, it would fetch twenty taels. After paying, she still had several taels left. Not one copper went back to the accounts office.

I returned just in time to see her hiding the loose silver in her sleeve pouch.

She attacked first.

"If Sister owns a banking house, why watch the family drown in debt?"

"When I pay their debts, it's because I choose to."

"If you wanted to run the household, you should have learned its circumstances before fighting for the keys."

I took the settled IOUs from the butcher without exposing the hidden silver.

More than those few taels, I wanted to see how far she would go once she controlled the accounts.

That afternoon, while I audited the banking house, she pried open my dressing box and found a Fengtai receipt.

It plainly recorded one hundred and twenty thousand taels, payable to Gu Yingqiu.

She folded it into her sleeve.

At last, she smiled.

On the day before the Grand Princess's spring banquet, Mother gave Suyin an altered old outfit.

"There'll be many important guests tomorrow. Wear this. The stitching is old, but the color is still tasteful."

She accepted obediently.

"Thank you, Mother."

"Sister should dress simply tomorrow too, to avoid gossip."

"Don't worry. I won't steal your thunder."

She missed my meaning and carried the clothes back to the eastern rooms.

The banquet was held beside Mirror Lake. Peonies bloomed throughout a garden full of titled ladies and noble daughters.

Suyin wore the faded outfit and her wooden hairpin. I changed into silver-gray cloud gauze: unobtrusive from afar, with an exquisite pattern visible only up close.

Whispers soon rose nearby.

"Is the girl in old clothes the true daughter?"

"How can Madam Gu bear to dress her own child like that?"

Another voice joined in.

"Chief Grand Secretary Gu may be honest, but surely he needn't mistreat his own daughter."

"Look at the adopted girl's fabric. Only a few lengths come out of the palace each year."

"The adopted daughter must control the family wealth and refuse to share with the girl who's just returned."

Suyin stood in the breeze with red-rimmed eyes and offered no explanation.

Grand Princess Anping watched from the seat of honor for a while, then spoke.

"Madam Gu, one of your daughters dresses so plainly, while the other is splendid. How interesting."

Mother was about to answer when Suyin knelt in the middle of the banquet.

"Your Highness, please give justice to me and the Gu family."

She produced the receipt and accused me of stealing her identity and transferring the chancellor's assets into my own name.

The Gus couldn't even afford meat, yet I possessed one hundred and twenty thousand taels of unknown origin.

The whole banquet erupted.

Censor Liang, who had long been at odds with Father, immediately stepped forward.

"How could an adopted daughter living in seclusion obtain such a fortune?"

"In my view, Chief Grand Secretary Gu's honesty is a mere facade. The stolen silver is hidden under his adopted daughter's name."

Mother rushed to stand before me.

"Ah Qiu's money has nothing to do with the Gus. She's never taken a single copper from the household!"

Suyin jerked her head up.

"You're still protecting her, Mother?"

"The Gu family couldn't possibly produce that sum. This receipt is proof!"

The Grand Princess took it and had her female attendant check the seal.

The attendant nodded. Fengtai's red seal was genuine.

Censor Liang immediately pressed the imperial guards to arrest us.

Father was discussing state affairs in the palace that day and wasn't at the banquet.

Liang insisted the money had been embezzled from river-control works and moved under my name. Before everyone, he cited last year's shortfall in embankment repairs.

The Grand Princess asked,

"Where did you get this receipt?"

Suyin answered quickly.

"Sister left her accounts in the front hall. I saw it by chance. Afraid she'd destroy the evidence, I brought it here."

Mother immediately questioned her.

"When you took over household management, I saw Ah Qiu hand you the domestic expenditure ledger."

"Her banking ledgers have never been brought to the front hall. Where did you pick it up?"

Suyin's eyes reddened.

"You only believe her, Mother. Whatever I say is wrong."

"If I hadn't been driven to desperation, why would I expose our family's disgrace before everyone?"

At her tears, some bystanders softened and urged Mother not to rush to defend her own.

I didn't argue.

She'd laid the road all the way here herself. I only needed to let her walk to its end.

When the guards drew their blades, she finally stopped calling me Sister.

"Gu Yingqiu, return everything you took from the Gu family!"

"Identity, money—not one thing less!"

A guard's blade blocked me.

"Wait."

I pushed the flat of it aside and drew an ebony token from my sleeve.

Its plain surface bore twelve silver lines surrounding the character "Feng."

"If anyone calls my money illegitimate, summon Fengtai's chief manager. Have him read my complete accounts before everyone."

Suyin stared at the token and sneered.

"You think carving some wood lets you impersonate the owner of twelve banking houses?"

I looked at her.

"One hundred and twenty thousand taels would be worth my stealing?"

"It's merely the ten-day settlement from three southern branches."

***

Silence held the lakeside for a moment.

Then laughter broke out.

Even Suyin laughed until she bent double.

"Gu Yingqiu, you agonize over buying a braised duck, yet dare claim to own Fengtai?"

"Everyone in the capital knows that owner has never shown their face. They have enough silver to pave the entire Imperial Avenue!"

Censor Liang hurriedly said,

"Your Highness, to escape her crime, this woman dares impersonate a wealthy merchant. Her offense is all the greater!"

The Grand Princess didn't laugh.

She simply sent someone to Fengtai's main house for its manager.

In less than half a quarter-hour, Manager Zhao ran into the garden, his robes soaked with sweat.

Passing the steps before the Grand Princess's seat, he knelt before me first.

"Proprietor, why did you have to present the master token yourself?"

"Who forced you to bring out your most closely guarded proof?"

Suyin rushed to pull him up.

"Look carefully!"

"She's only the Gus' adopted daughter. How could she be your proprietor?"

He shook off her hand, his face darkening.

"Our proprietor dared take over three failing pawnshops at fourteen. In six months, she cleared their bad debts, then invited everyone to withdraw every tael owed."

"Now she reviews the master accounts of all twelve banking houses first. What gives you the right to say she can't?"

The laughter vanished.

I told him to bring over the receipt.

He held it to the light, examined its corner, and pointed it out to the female official.

"This is a ten-day settlement receipt from the southern route. The three branches' secret marks are on the back."

"The silver was transferred from Haizhou, Linjiang, and Qu Port to the main house, into the proprietor's private account. It has no connection to the Gu residence."

"Each incoming remittance has a record at the local pawnshop. If Your Highness wishes to investigate, we can supply everything within three days."

The Grand Princess asked how a girl of sixteen had acquired twelve banking houses.

"When the first pawnshop failed, its manager owed deposits to people all along the street."

"I took it over with the jewelry I'd saved. First, I paid the small depositors in full. I retained the larger deposits of those willing to wait."

"When the shop survived, they were willing to keep depositing with us."

"After that, whenever I took over a business, I checked bad debts first, then secured the customers' deposits."

I spoke calmly.

Afterward, no one at the banquet treated my silver as illicit money stolen from the chancellor's household.

Suyin still refused to believe it.

"You live in the Gu residence and eat the Gu family's food. Your starting capital must have come from them."