The night lamp in the main room glowed dim yellow and soft.
The Old Madam looked around at the people in the room. After a pause, she still spoke those words: “Why not leave it to you?”
The Cheng family, since the generation of the old patriarch, had owned a thousand qing of tea gardens in Huizhou, as well as a number of fields.
During the day, I had learned from the steward that when the Old Master was alive, he had opened several tea houses in Yangzhou Prefecture. Taking advantage of the canal transport routes, he shipped the Cheng family’s tea north and south, and the business grew ever larger. Even many high officials and nobles in the capital liked to drink the Cheng family’s tea.
After the Old Master passed away, the Eldest Young Master, Cheng Cangshi, inherited his post in the canal troops. The Second Young Master, Cheng Huaishi, managed the family business while studying and cultivating his writing, hoping to take the imperial examinations.
I bowed to the Old Madam. “Mother, your daughter-in-law has only just arrived. I fear I may be unequal to the task.”
The Old Madam instructed a maidservant, “The jar of tea by my bedside—pour Second Young Madam a cup.”
The maidservant assented.
A moment later, she brought the tea over in a celadon cup and handed it to me.
The Old Madam watched me. I took a sip.
At first, I thought it perfectly ordinary. In the blink of an eye, a rich breath of mountain wilderness spread from my lips and teeth into my very lungs. Its fragrance surrounded me from every side, fierce and surging.
“How is it?” the Old Madam asked with a smile.
“Good tea.”
“This is autumn wild tea from Jinzhai in Lu’an Prefecture. It does not come from the gardens. Wild tea has no set order to its flavor; it cannot be placed on the counter for sale. Yet what I value is precisely that lack of order. Spring winds, summer rains, autumn’s white dew—it endures them all, receives them all. Once you taste its true flavor, you feel it has neither root nor foundation, its fragrance simple and unadorned, with little selfish intent.”
The Old Madam’s words carried a deeper meaning.
Eldest Young Madam smiled along and said, “Mother, even if you value Sister Zhu, she has never done business before. How would she understand matters at the counter? Trade is no child’s play. Is there any day when silver does not flow in and out like water?”
The Old Madam pondered for a while, then said, “Yuzhen has a point. Then let us do this: Sangyu will first be responsible for collecting the account books from each counter, looking them over, then passing them on to me.”
As she spoke, she ordered a young servant, “Go. Call Wu Bi from the East Street counter.”
The servant answered and left. In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, a tall man walked in and said respectfully, “What instructions does the Old Madam have?”
The Old Madam said, “You have been at the counter for ten years, and you followed the Second Master for ten years as well. You are steady and experienced in handling matters. From now on, you will guide Second Young Madam in becoming familiar with the family business. The Second Master is gone; in the second branch, there is only Second Young Madam. You must do your utmost.”
The tall man called Wu Bi hurriedly said, “Yes.”
The Old Madam beckoned, signaling for me to come to her side.
With reddened eyes, she said to me, “Sangyu, if you manage matters in Huaier’s place, then I can pretend Huaier is still here. In a few years, we will adopt a child for you from within the clan. Only then will the second branch not be considered extinct and without heirs.”
I lowered my head. “Your daughter-in-law will obey Mother.”
Eldest Young Madam said, “Mother, a maternal cousin from my maiden family has done business in Fuliang for many years. He is very capable. Why not…”
“That will not be necessary. Yuzhen. You need not trouble yourself over this matter.”
With a light remark, the Old Madam pressed down Eldest Young Madam’s words.
And so the matter was settled.
At the end, the Old Madam felt that aside from Xiao Yin, there was no reliable servant in my room, so she bestowed upon me a maidservant by her side named Hehua.
Hehua wore her hair in a coiled bun, looking as though she had once been married.
But the servants in the residence who had families all went home at night, or rested with their families in the servants’ quarters in the rear courtyard.
Hehua did not.
She followed me back to the west courtyard, deftly led several old women in tidying up the miscellaneous chores in the room, brought warm water in a copper basin, and attended to me as I settled down to rest. Afterward, she spread a mattress on the floor by the door and lay down.
Her face was cold. Since returning with me, she did not say one extra word, nor take one extra step.
The next day, I rose from bed.
Wu Bi was already waiting in the courtyard early in the morning.
After I washed and dressed, I followed him to the shop on East Street.
The four large characters “Cheng Family Tea House” were in the handwriting of the Cheng family’s old patriarch, written with solemn refinement.
All kinds of tea leaves were displayed at the counter.
Wu Bi greeted the young shop assistants, and everyone paid their respects to me.
Afterward, Wu Bi handed me several thick account books and said, “Second Young Madam, these are the earnings from the sixteen shops in the city this season. Please have a look.”
I took them and turned through them carefully.
The Zhu family had, in fact, also risen from trade. Our ancestors had dealt in flower wine. After Mother married in, she took charge of affairs, and the business flourished day by day. During the Longqing reign, thanks to my maternal grandfather’s influence and by greasing palms above and below, we became imperial merchants. Mother used her dowry and more than half the silver in the accounts to purchase Father a seventh-rank official post. The Zhu family had once been a prominent household in Dongchang Prefecture.
After Mother passed away, Father managed things poorly, and the household declined. After he married my stepmother, he listened to pillow talk, neglected his duties, and in the end even lost his official post. Our status as imperial merchants was also stripped away. The Zhu family declined with each passing day.
Before I left the boudoir, my stepmother never allowed me to interfere in matters at the counter.
Now, holding the account books, I only found them obscure.
I read slowly and studied slowly, gradually sorting out the threads. Before I knew it, several hours had passed.
“Wu Bi—” I called.
He was nowhere to be seen.
A young shop assistant said, “Shopkeeper Wu may have gone to the warehouse in the back.”
I rose and went to look for him.
The fragrance of tea was clear and faint, lingering in the air.
I pushed open the warehouse door and saw a man dressed in black sitting inside. He held several sheets of paper in his hand, as though he intended to place them into a tea box.
Hearing the door open, he swiftly tucked the papers into his sleeve.
As if they were the most vital objects under heaven.
“Who are you? How can you be here? Where is Wu Bi?”
The man turned around.
His bearing was imposing, his face clear and bright, and his eyes were like cold stars.
When he saw me, his clenched fist loosened, and the cold light in his eyes withdrew.
He said, “I am from the West Street counter. Tomorrow, the Cheng family has a cargo ship bound for the capital, so I came to hand over some matters to Shopkeeper Wu. He likely went to check the inventory and will be back shortly.”
“So that is how it is.”
I walked to his side.
“Just now, I saw you wanting to put the papers into the tea box. The road is bumpy, and there are inspections all along the way. If by any chance…”
He said, “Do you have a method?”
He did not call me “Second Young Madam” as Wu Bi had.
I said, “Press the tea leaves into a brick and place the papers inside. From the outside, nothing can be seen.”
“I fear the writing may blur.”
“Wrap them in a layer of oilskin.”
He grew wary.
I smiled. “The cargo ship is being escorted to the capital. Aside from the taxes paid to the court, the officials in charge of canal transport in the capital will inevitably need to be smoothed over with banknotes. These are holiday gifts for the officials, are they not?”
Hearing me say this, he let out a breath. “Yes.”
“I understand.”
Between officials and merchants, such things were always unavoidable.
I signaled that there was no need for him to be so tense.
He suddenly leaned closer to me.
“It seems Madam is not only righteous, but also very clever.”
I abruptly raised my head and looked at him.
His voice—the voice of the masked man at the ferry…
Footsteps sounded outside the door.
“Miss, are you inside?”
It was Qin Mingxu.
How had he found his way to the counter?
I had just been about to say something when the man beside me seized my arm and pulled me down into a crouch. Our heads pressed together, and he covered my mouth.
His eyes were so very close to mine.
“From now on, you are not allowed to associate with Qin Mingxu.”
He reached his fingers toward my neck. “Yesterday, when he held a knife to you, did it hurt?”