10 Letters

The carriage departed from the Crane’s Call Pavilion and made its way back to the Xie residence.

Once inside the mansion, Yan Ming could no longer contain the question that had been troubling him throughout the journey and blurted out, “We haven’t investigated the infant swap incident in Yang City, so how did Your Lordship know there was something suspicious about it? Truly a marvel of insight.”

Xie Jun took off his official hat and placed it on the rack, replying casually, “I don’t know.”

Yan Ming blinked in surprise. “Huh?”

“I said I don’t know. I was just fooling Lu Xuanhe.”

Xie Jun was a man with considerable cunning, but he was no sorcerer. Without any investigation or clues, he couldn’t have known the ins and outs of the matter out of thin air.

“Why would you do that?” Yan Ming asked, pondering that their lord had a good relationship with Lord Lu. Surely he wouldn’t play pranks on him for no reason.

“Because it amused me. No other reason,” Xie Jun replied evasively.

In truth, there was a reason, but it involved strange and mystical matters between him and Lin Yun, things not suitable for others to know.

Xie Jun was currently very busy and did not want to invest too much thought into Lin Yun—whether in protecting her or investigating why someone in the Lin household wanted her dead.

He had secretly arranged for Lin Yun to gain the Empress Dowager as an ally and sent a certain “Twelve” to watch over her. This was all the support Xie Jun intended for Lin Yun.

This “Twelve” was a man of few words, unlikely to send a letter unless something significant occurred. In other words, Xie Jun could afford to set Lin Yun aside for the time being.

However, some matters he did not want to spend his own time and energy on, but could trick others into handling.

It was clear that Lu Xuanhe was the most suitable candidate.

Xie Jun was not acting blindly. The Ningyuan Marquis’s residence indeed had some oddities.

Such a grand marquisate, even if they disliked Lin Yun, it would be merely a matter of adding another mouth to feed. Moreover, for families of high rank like theirs, a daughter was a resource. Why would they want to kill her?

Lin Yun, who grew up in the wilderness, had her greatest conflict with the Ningyuan Marquisate over the Yang City incident.

What had the Lin family done in Yang City back then that they were willing to exclude even a woman who had lived outside for fifteen years, just to bury the truth?

Whether the infant swap actually happened was only one speculation, but using this guess to mislead Lu Xuanhe into investigating the Yang City affair was perfect.

The former Ningyuan Marquis’s daughter was Lu Xuanhe’s own cousin, and Lu Xuanhe was the Junior Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, so assigning this matter to him was both reasonable and logical.

Furthermore, according to Xie Jun’s understanding of Lu Xuanhe, if he grew curious about Lin Yun but couldn’t uncover anything about Yang City soon, he would temporarily protect her. Since he was related by marriage to the Ningyuan Marquisate and often visited their residence, the possibility of Lin Yun suddenly dying would be reduced.

This was a two-birds-one-stone plan. Xie Jun only needed to say a few ambiguous words; why not?

Lin Yun had many troubles, and it would be easiest to just lock her up, but since he had already intervened, there was no reason to give up before the next time she might die.

Xie Jun changed out of his official robe into casual clothes and sat at his desk to continue handling state affairs. On a small stack of memorials lay a letter.

Yan Lü reminded him, “My lord, this letter was delivered today by Twelve.”

“Didn’t she only just become Lin Yun’s second young lady’s maid today? Does she already have something to report so soon?” Xie Jun opened the envelope with some puzzlement.

The letter detailed what the second young lady ate, what she wore, and who she was close to.

[At noon today, the second young lady ate a large bowl of ice cream. It is strange to eat something cold in winter, but she seemed very pleased.]

[She prefers green clothing and finds more than three hairpins on her head to be cumbersome.]

[The second young lady has a very close relationship with her carriage driver.]

Xie Jun’s brows furrowed deeper the more he read. Why did he need to know the second young lady’s preferences?

What she liked to eat, wear, and who she was friendly with—what did any of that have to do with him?

How was the training at the Secret Guard camp conducted?

He was about to question Yan Ming when he glanced at two small drawings at the end.

[The second young lady and her maid learned about the agriculture of the capital and drew two pictures. I briefly memorized and reproduced an approximation.]

The two drawings depicted a plow and a waterwheel. Xie Jun, being somewhat knowledgeable about engineering, noticed the plow’s curved beam resembled the character “几,” roughly like the curved beam plow not yet widespread in the Great Zhou, though the design details differed slightly. He wondered which worked better in actual farming.

The waterwheel drawing even had a sail. Xie Jun had never seen such a waterwheel before. If the wind blew, it should move. But how exactly was it used?

Before seeing these drawings, Xie Jun wanted to scold Yan Lü for letting his subordinates bother him with trivial matters. But after seeing the pictures, he realized the second young lady’s unusual nature far exceeded what he had previously known.

Compared to Twelve’s lack of discernment and omission of critical information, if she chose to report everything, so be it. He would just spend a little more time each day filtering out irrelevant details.

Standing solemnly nearby, Yan Lü watched as his lord first frowned oddly, then showed a trace of pleasure, and finally relaxed his brow, folded the letter, and placed it among the important memorials.

Yan Lü felt he might be slowly succumbing to the same obsession as Yan Ming.

Yan Ming had been quietly telling him these past two days that their lord had never shown special interest in any woman until now, when he cared so attentively for the second young lady. Perhaps he harbored feelings for her.

Yan Lü had previously scoffed at this, thinking their lord had his reasons and was making a subtle plan unknown to them.

But seeing how a single letter stirred such emotional changes in his lord, and that it was carefully preserved, Yan Lü began to doubt. Could it be that their lord truly had deep feelings for the second young lady?

***

While Xie Jun was reading the letter, Lin Yun was doing the same.

She excused herself, asking for the maids and servants to leave, then opened the envelope by the dim candlelight.

Inside were three sheets of paper. The first two seemed to be accounts, torn roughly from a notebook. The handwriting was messy and written vertically, making them hard to understand.

But since it involved accounts, the letter was certainly not trivial. The third sheet sank her heart to the bottom of a valley.

It was a testimony: twenty-five farmers collectively accusing the Ningbo Prefect of colluding with local gentry to seize farmland. Below were twenty-five red thumbprints.

After reading it all, Lin Yun realized the matter was truly grave—not something that could be resolved by simply burning the letter in front of Lord Pei. She felt less anxious.

The situation was finally clear. This was an extremely serious affair; perhaps Lord Pei’s death was no accident.

If an official like Lord Pei could be brutally murdered in his own home by thieves, what fate would befall her if anyone discovered she possessed this letter?

Lin Yun was grateful that Qian Da had been cautious in gathering intelligence; otherwise, she might have had to restart everything within days.

If she had to deliver the letter, with Lord Pei dead, to whom could she entrust it? Who in the capital was on Lord Pei’s side, and who was his adversary?

Lin Yun knew nothing—she could barely even identify the officials in the capital.

She stuffed the letter back into her sleeve, extinguished the lamp, loosened her hair, and lay down.

If it were only a slight difficulty, Lin Yun would fret and repeatedly contemplate solutions. But when there was no clue at all, she chose to sleep quickly, knowing that overthinking was futile.

Indeed, the price of inhabiting another’s body was never small. This matter would have to proceed slowly; rushing would do no good.

***

The next day, Lin Yun went about her routine, doing her best to pretend nothing had happened to keep herself calm. After all, chaos breeds mistakes.

She felt she was doing well and even ordered a plate of five-spice cake for breakfast. Previously, she hadn’t identified which five spices were used, so she decided to try again.

After eating, Lin Yun said, “It seems different from last time—no fennel or mint flavor. Isn’t it missing two spices?”

Shi’er explained, “The five spices are gorgon fruit, ginseng, white atractylodes, poria, and amomum—this is a nourishing medicinal dish. As for the fennel and mint you tasted before, those were just for flavoring. I didn’t use them this time and replaced them with lotus seeds, which are more subtle.”

“Even the same snack tastes different depending on the chef,” Lin Yun sighed.

Talking about food seemed to relax her somewhat. After the meal, when Aunt Yuan prepared to continue teaching her etiquette, Lin Yun casually asked, “May I ask what kinds of officials there are in the capital? If I don’t recognize any, there’s nowhere to apply proper etiquette.”

Since Lin Yun was curious, Aunt Yuan briefly introduced the official positions in the capital.

“The core of power lies in the Grand Secretariat and the Six Ministries. The Grand Secretariat and the Six Ministries often overlap; for example, the extremely powerful Prime Minister Fan Guangbiao also serves as Minister of Personnel. Our youngest secondary prime minister, Xie Jun, serves as Minister of Revenue—these are the top figures in Great Zhou’s political arena. Oh, and we must mention the Directorate of Ceremonial, which is composed of eunuchs and wields considerable actual power.”

These men held high office and were mostly elderly; even the youngest was not truly young. Lin Yun felt she was unlikely to have any dealings with them.

“The Censorate, the Court of Judicial Review, and the Office of Transmission are supervisory and judicial bodies. The Censorate is the most formidable, though its officials rank low, anyone can impeach others. The eldest young lady’s cousin is the Junior Minister of the Court of Judicial Review—a rising star.”

Lord Pei was the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, a risky post, and now that she held this letter, Lin Yun herself was in danger.

As for the eldest young lady’s cousin, Lin Yun hadn’t even met Lin Qitang, let alone him.

“In military affairs, the capital has the Five Armies Command and the Three Major Camps. The Ningyuan Marquis serves as Deputy Commander of the Five Armies Command.”

Since this was her father’s position, Lin Yun had heard a bit about it from Hong Yuan and the others before, so it was not unfamiliar.

Overall, after hearing many institutional and official titles, Lin Yun roughly understood the officials in the capital.

Aunt Yuan added, “Officials from first to fourth rank wear vermilion robes with different embroidered badges on the front. If you see such people, do not offend them.”

Vermilion robes? Do not offend? Lin Yun recalled the only person she’d seen wearing a vermilion robe—the Red-Clothed Chicken Brother. She must have stolen a bowl of his soybean milk and sprayed him with blood.

Luckily, she was starting anew. Even if she met Red-Clothed Chicken Brother again, he wouldn’t recognize her, so it wouldn’t count as an offense.

One cannot become a master overnight. After Aunt Yuan’s brief introduction, she stopped discussing officials and abruptly changed the subject. She called Shi’er in to hand over four books.

“These are the Four Books for Women. Whether you read them or not, I don’t care, but you must place them on your bookshelf so that anyone who sees it will think you’ve read them.”

Lin Yun glanced at the “Admonitions for Women” and “Inner Training,” declined respectfully, but obediently placed them in the most conspicuous spot on the shelf.

Though she disliked them, placing a few books would reduce trouble, so she was willing to do so.

While chatting with Aunt Yuan, Ruyi entered and announced, “The steward just informed us that the eldest young lady’s cousin has sent a visiting card. Second young lady, do you wish to see him?”

Lin Yun was about to refuse. Everyone she’d met associated with the Lin family had been hostile. But then she recalled what Aunt Yuan said—

The eldest young lady’s cousin was the Junior Minister of the Court of Judicial Review.

And Qian Da said Lord Pei’s case was being investigated by the Court of Judicial Review.

This was an opportunity knocking at her door; she had to meet him.