Chapter 930 — The Owner of the Branch

CHAPTER 930

The Owner of the Branch

Snow had come down off the mountain in the night, and in the morning a sledge came up the main street of Lianxia with it.

It was long and black, drawn by four white horses, with a small gold mark on the side that matched the one on the new signboard. Eight riders in grey rode around it. Every one of them was a Shattering Void cultivator, and they weren’t hiding it.

The sledge stopped in front of the branch. A rider opened the door, and a woman in pale blue stepped down onto the snow with a veil over her face.

The street went silent.

The bun seller stopped, tongs raised. Two carters pulled their mules aside. Long Caili was first on the Tianxing and second of the Empire’s Twin Stars. Nobody expected her in a small town below the Serene Jade.

“Is that… is that really…”

“Don’t point! Are you mad?”

“The princess. In Lianxia. My grandmother won’t believe me.”

“…”

Kang Yi came out of the door so fast he nearly fell down the step, and bowed with his face almost touching the snow.

“Your Highness!” Kang Yi stammered. “This humble one didn’t know, nobody sent word…”

“I didn’t send any,” Long Caili said, and walked past him into the shop. “Is the counting room warm?”

“Yes, Your Highness!” Kang Yi said.

Shi Feng was standing at the bottom of the stair in his house robe, with a cup of tea in his hand. Long Caili looked at him once through the veil.

“Come,” Long Caili said. “Bring the tea.”

The counting room overlooked the empty back yard. Its new desk was bare. Long Caili sat behind the desk, took a folder out of her sleeve and laid it open in front of her. Shi Feng sat across from her. Qin Wuyan stayed outside the door.

“Your Highness came a long way,” Shi Feng said, “to inspect a counter.”

“Six counters,” Long Caili said, without looking up. “I opened six houses north of Tianjing this autumn for the snow-lotus trade. I’m touring all of them. This is the fourth.” She turned a page. “The inquiry first.”

“Please,” Shi Feng said, and put down his cup.

“Ruan Heng’s report has reached court,” Long Caili said in her flat voice. “It’s careful, and it’s honest, and it doesn’t help them. So the Censorate will move to the next question. Linghu Yan left Grey Goose Pass alive. He was found in the canal four days later. They’ll ask where you were for those four days.”

“On Hao Dafu’s salt train, with a fever,” Shi Feng said. “Eleven wagons of drivers sat around me every night and told the story of the fight. Then four days at the inn in Hanli, eating rice the scholar paid for.”

“Eleven wagons of drivers under contract to my pavilions,” Long Caili said. “Nobody will ask them to forget anything.” She made a small mark on the page. “A thousand-li dike collapses from one ant’s nest. They’ll look for the ant. My elder brother reads every line they write. Don’t give them anything new to read.”

“I won’t,” Shi Feng said.

“The Zhongli petition,” Long Caili said, and turned another page. “One and a half million, for the Inner Sky Pill. It was signed at this house’s counter, so the house takes a cut. One hundred and fifty thousand.”

Shi Feng had opened his mouth to offer her one. He closed it.

“That’s ten in a hundred,” Shi Feng said.

“It’s the house rate for a guest who signs at my counter,” Long Caili said. She didn’t look up. “Third. The empty lot behind this branch. I’m buying it. It’ll be a furnace room and an herb store.”

“For whom?” Shi Feng asked.

“For the house,” Long Caili said.

Shi Feng looked out of the window at the empty yard, with the snow on it and a single pine at the back wall. A furnace room in Lianxia was no use to Kang Yi. Kang Yi sold herbs. He didn’t refine them.

“For the house,” Shi Feng agreed.

“Fourth,” Long Caili said. “The Helian gave you a guest token.”

Shi Feng took the black iron disc out of his sleeve and laid it on the desk. She looked at it without touching it.

“Keep it,” Long Caili said. “The Helian ride with the Third Prince’s banner at the hunts. That banner will close a lot of doors to you in the north. It can’t close this one. The Helian don’t take back a guest token for anyone, not even a prince.”

“I wasn’t going to give it back,” Shi Feng said, and put the token away.

“Good,” Long Caili said.

She closed the folder. As she moved it, Shi Feng saw what had been lying under it on the desk.

It was a copy of his deposition from Frost Pass, in the Pavilion scribe’s hand, the one Ruan Heng had sent south addressed to the princess. It was eight pages, folded in three. The creases were soft and grey. She’d read it many times.

Shi Feng felt a quiet warmth. He lowered his eyes to his tea, giving her time to put it away.

Long Caili picked up the folder and the copy together and put both into her sleeve.

“I leave for the salt road at noon,” Long Caili said, and stood. “The fifth house is two days east. Kang Yi will build the furnace room in the spring.”

“I’ll be up the mountain by then,” Shi Feng said.

“Then it’ll be ready when you come down,” Long Caili said.

At noon the black sledge went back down the main street toward the east road, and the whole street watched it go. Kang Yi stood bowing on the step until it was out of sight.

Shi Feng stood at the counting-room window and looked at the empty lot behind the branch.

Then he went out to the yard to set up a furnace.