Chapter 17

In every dynasty there have always been a few laws that never change from one age to the next.

Even when the emperor wanted to punish someone — to grind their bones and scatter the ash — he had to find some high-sounding reason and lay out the charges properly before he'd dare dig up a grave, rob it, and flog the corpse.

Chang Lianfang had read the histories and heard his share of strange tales; but getting someone to dig up your own family's grave — that he'd simply never heard of.

Seeing him at a loss, Qi Qian'er reassured him: "It really is fine — dig. It's my family's grave."

At that the young general got a bit flustered and cross: "Even if it is your own family's grave, there's no us digging it! If you want it dug, dig it yourself!!"

Qi Qian'er, brought up short by his pushback, looked around at the people on every side, and understood.

Ai! That toilet business really had gummed up her head — no one in their right mind would come and dig a grave with her!

Whosever grave it was, if it was a grave, you couldn't dig it.

Even a county magistrate wanting to play the upright judge and right some wrong had to pick an auspicious day, bring in a yin-yang master to set out a ritual array, and make offerings to Heaven before he'd dare open a grave and coffin to examine it.

Seeing a landslide start to come over Chang Lianfang's fair young face, Qi Qian'er waved her hands and coaxed him, smiling: "Don't fret, uncle, don't fret — this really is my family's burial ground, only what's buried in these few fresh mounds truly, truly isn't people!"

Not people?

Color came back to Chang Lianfang's face at last, though he still looked at Qi Qian'er doubtfully: "It isn't?"

Qi Qian'er nodded: "Truly not! This is my family's — Master Huo's, that is — ai! the steward of this place, Squire Huo of Huo Manor. Some of the family valuables he and his people hid are down here. That sort's clever — they bury their things and make them up as graves, just to fool honest gentlemen like you. You think they're good people?"

"Your family? Master Huo?"

"Oh — don't get me wrong, uncle, I'm not servant-born. I'll not hide it from you: Master Huo was my own father. His luck ran out... mm, before the city fell his relatives dragged him into trouble and coaxed him inside, and just then Heaven's punishment struck Qingfeng, and in the confusion somebody lopped his head off — it's still hanging on the city wall now!"

Poor Chang Lianfang — the shock all but knocked his soul loose.

Qi Qian'er rattled on to herself: "Don't go thinking he was a remnant. Master Huo, well, he was really nothing at all, just a dim-witted estate steward! I'll not hide it from you, uncle: he did steward the imperial estate that handled the convict-slaves and hard criminals, but that can't count as a remnant, can it?"

Chang Lianfang nodded despite himself. There'd been no shortage of old-dynasty generals who'd fought against them; and when the Emperor met one willing to surrender, didn't he bring him in and treat him like a treasure, all soft words and good food and drink? If that sort counted as remnants, there'd be no governing the new emperor's realm at all — think how many old officials he'd need to use, never mind one steward.

What puzzled Chang Lianfang, though, was that his sister-in-law's own father's head was hanging over the city gate, and yet she looked, if anything, rather cheerful.

He asked, uncertain: "Sister-in-law — you're in mourning just now, aren't you?"

Qi Qian'er nodded: "Mourning, what mourning — before there's any mourning, there's a mother-killing grudge between us; you think I'd take their side? Don't dig too deep into this one, uncle — ask too much and your head'll split... Master Huo's been dead less than seven days, so call it mourning if you like. By ritual law, having married out in hot mourning, I'm already gone from the old Huo house — and besides, it was my stepmother who decided it. Madam traded me for ten strings of cash and fifty jin of grain, and that's how I came to have a marriage contract with your brother."

So that was how it was.

But it still didn't add up: she'd only said how she'd come to the Chen family, not that the things down here were hers.

And besides, if they dug in the wrong place and word got out, it wouldn't matter for himself, but his father and elder brother above him would hate him for it — and at just such a critical time, he couldn't afford the slightest slip.

Chang Lianfang thought it over carefully, then asked warily: "But sister-in-law — what if your elder brother comes back tomorrow?"

Look at this fellow and his tiresome, wishy-washy dithering — what rotten luck today, running into a type like this! Pah! And a man, no less!

Qi Qian'er's eyes rolled round: "You don't know, uncle. My Master Huo took all the household grain, grabbed Madam's valuables, and went into Qingfeng city; and the stepmother and the rest, afraid of being dragged down with him, packed up the whole family and went back to our old home.

"Our old home's over three thousand li from here — with no grain to keep them going, they'll never make it back!

"And so — lucky for me — I met Granny. The old lady's the most merciful soul, kind-hearted through and through; she stepped in to help, and that's how the bond between me and your brother came about. Why, my Madam was so moved by the old lady that, just before she left, she made a point of telling me this very thing: that everything in the ground would all be mine, part of my dowry — one, to give me something solid at my back, and two, to thank the old lady for saving the lives of a few dozen souls of our Huo house..."

Who're you fooling? A few dozen lives, is it? Your Madam thanking the old lady? With Granny's pinch-penny ways — she, the most merciful soul?

Chang Lianfang blinked, mulled it over a good while, and then all at once he was amused; looking at his little sister-in-law, half-smiling, he said: "So that's how it is!"

Qi Qian'er, full of righteous confidence: "Yes, that's how it is! Right! That's just how it is — what else could it be? Isn't that so, uncle?!" She glanced around and lowered her voice: "You don't know, uncle — I wasn't but a few days old when my mother was sold off; she wouldn't have it and threw herself in the river. At three I was minding the steaming-trays for the cocoons at Master Huo's, at four I was hauling firewood taller than me and watching the silk-pots. And now Master Huo's dead and Madam's traded me for grain — if I don't dig up something for myself, there'll be such a knot of grievance in my chest the rest of my life it could smother me dead. Believe me? Understand?"

Understand it he did; none of it mattered to him — so long as what was in the ground was goods and not people, Chang Lianfang could answer to anyone.

But what if it was bones?

So he too lowered his voice and told her straight: "Sister-in-law — if it's goods and not people, then this first mound, we can't dig it... it'll still have to be you that digs!"

Qi Qian'er put on a wronged face: "Can't you be a bit more lenient, uncle?"

Chang Lianfang shook his head, smiling: "I can't! It's nothing to me myself, but these brothers who came along today haven't had their fiefs settled yet. I've got a place to be fed when I go home; they go home to feed whole families. You follow what I'm saying?"

Qi Qian'er shot him a glance and gave a sudden light laugh, then said through her teeth: "Fine, fine! So I dig it myself — that's all. This timid, calculating streak of yours, uncle — one step forward and you peer around three times! With that lukewarm way of yours, up at the front you'll be eating leftovers! Hah! The way I see it, the most you'll ever come to in this life is a Senior General; and here I'd thought you might make Marquis of Champions..."

That said, Qi Qian'er spat twice, once into each palm, then found a hardwood branch-fork nearby and, with one kick, snapped it clean off.

The corner of Chang Lianfang's brow twitched, and he felt a great deal of sympathy for his fool of a brother — that was a hardwood fork as thick as a man's arm.

And this slip of a girl, with an easy twist this way and that, worked it into a sharp-pointed stick; then, heedless of clean or filthy, down she knelt on the ground and set to scrabbling and raking away, till she was grey with dust all over.

Busy and cheerful at her work, she didn't see that Chang Lianfang's face had gone quite blank.

Nothing else for it — his father had said those very words.

But wasn't it his own father who understood him best in all the world? This... this girl, she... she was no ordinary person. What was all this she was saying — it was his father's talk, every bit of it!

Then again — no run-of-the-mill young lady could bring herself to dig up her own family's graves.

While Chang Lianfang grumbled inwardly and turned his guesses over and over, Qi Qian'er, only a few strokes in, looked up in delight: "Got it!"

Chang Lianfang started, walked over, and asked: "That quick? You've hit it? Hit what?"

Qi Qian'er lay flat, brushed the loose earth aside with her sleeve, and pointed at what lay inside: "What else would it be — not a person, anyhow! This is the rosewood tallboy Madam kept in the main hall. The pattern carved on it is the Heavenly Official design — I've looked at it a good ten years. See, isn't that the God of Longevity there... I'm not fooling you!"

At that Chang Lianfang made to go over, but he'd no sooner stepped out than he drew his foot back, and with a twist of his mouth said to his men watching the show: "Go have a look, all of you — see if it's furniture. If it turns out to be a coffin, make her bury it back just as it was!"

At his words, Qi Qian'er's mouth twisted right up.

The few of them, so ordered, went over together to inspect it, and one glance had them looking up with a laugh: "General, it's furniture right enough — the little sister-in-law's got it right."

At that the heart Chang Lianfang had been holding in his throat slowly settled, and he let out a long breath and waved his men off helplessly: "Off you go, off you go! Ai..."

Rotten luck, really, to run into a business like this.

The whole crowd rushed in with a whoosh — prying with wooden spears, digging with crescent spades — and in no great while a rosewood Heavenly-Official tallboy came easily into view.

Hands clasped behind his back, Chang Lianfang walked slowly over to Qi Qian'er, not looking at her, keeping his distance, eyes fixed ahead: "Interesting folk, your family — they bury their things in a shallow pit and just throw a bit of earth over?"

Qi Qian'er didn't look at him either, only laughed mockingly: "What of it? These three mounds here, you can tell at a glance my two elder brothers did them — when did they ever do this sort of thing! They're scholars, that lot! Hmph — getting the things into the ground at all was doing well. Oi, oi, oi — tell them to be careful! This cabinet's gilt-traced, don't go chipping my gold powder — hey! Hey, hey! Gently... there should be a pair of these; underneath there ought to be a matching three-drawer table, gilt-traced too, don't chip that for me either — and a pair of cat-defeating food cupboards, mm, and a kang-cabinet should be here as well... I say, you there — tsk! Where d'you think you're jabbing that battered beggar's shovel of yours?"

Chang Lianfang's mouth twitched to hear it, and right in the middle of his exasperation the great big rosewood cabinet was dug free.

Off in the distance the refugees watching the show all shot to their feet at once.

"General! This cabinet's dead heavy — the few of us can't lift it."

The soldier called out, and Chang Lianfang walked over and bent to look.

The soldier muttered to him: "General, there's something inside — and something pretty heavy, at that."

At that they all looked to Qi Qian'er. The things were hers; if she said the cabinet stayed shut, they'd just have to bear it — who'd told them to go and agree?

The soldier muttered low to Chang Lianfang: "There's not gold buried in here, is there?"

Qi Qian'er drifted over from the side, and hearing it she laughed: "Gold? You wish! Open it up. I've a fair idea what it is — eight generations of the old Huo ancestors' worth: it's... some packets of salt."

Salt?!

Every hand that was digging stopped, and the whole lot of them looked at Qi Qian'er.

Gold you might have no use for, going off to war; but salt — salt was the thing they were shortest of right now. Who went onto the killing-field without spending his strength? An ounce of strength short and your life was gone.

Salt in camp these days was a fine thing indeed — scarcer even than a first-rate warhorse.

Chang Lianfang, who'd been keeping himself so composed, rather lost his poise at that. He strode over, reached out, threw the cabinet open, and looked inside.

Good heavens! Inside, sure enough, were packet after packet, wrapped and tied in oil-paper.

He tore one open, and the yellow-white salt grains spilled into view; he pinched up a little and put it on his tongue, and knew at once, weighing it in his mind, that this was the finest well-salt.

Sea salt had always tasted better than well-salt, true — but where would you find sea salt now? And who could lay hands on this much salt?

Looking at the packets stacked so neatly in the cabinet — any one of them a good five jin or so — the single cabinet in front of him held seven or eight hundred jin at the least.

Chang Lianfang stood and looked back toward Qi Qian'er, and just then a little honey couldn't help creeping onto his tongue. He knew he was about to do this little sister-in-law wrong — this much salt, never mind him swallowing it, his own father couldn't swallow it either!

His voice going soft, he called to her: "Sister-in-law..."

Qi Qian'er waved a hand, her face blank: "I know what you're going to ask. Yes! My Master Huo was an estate steward — but one steward's not the same as another. Some of the laborers on this estate were serious criminals from before; when they were sent here it was never meant that they'd leave alive — and all because of this well-salt." At that she pointed to the ranges not far off: "This Baiquan Mountain has ninety-nine springs of sweet water; but somehow, at one spot, what they dug up was bitter brine instead... Master Huo's family have guarded this salt well for generations."

Chang Lianfang's lips began to twitch to hear it, and his shoulders shook a little too.

Qi Qian'er wasn't exactly pleased at heart; she was only cursing Madam Wang under her breath, and hating herself for not having seen far enough, her own cultivation still too shallow.

She said: "I never thought Madam would hide this. That woman's always been bold as brass. And I know what else you want to ask — go on, have your men dig; once it's all gathered together, I'll talk it through with you properly."

That said, Qi Qian'er stepped aside and held her tongue.

She was thinking: Madam Wang had some nerve. The salt packets coming down off the mountain were always counted; the tally done, they'd be hauled away before the night was out. Who could have guessed Madam had hidden away this many? How had she worked it — squirrelling off this much behind Master Huo's back?

And this was salt... she'd thought all Madam had hidden was the good cloth from the weaving-shed out back.

Chang Lianfang glanced around, caught hold of one man, and jerked his chin; the man nodded, mounted, wheeled his horse about, and rode off toward Qingfeng.

Qi Qian'er acted as though she hadn't seen.

Before very long, a whole crowd of soldiers came clattering up and drove off every last one of the distant refugees.

This lot had brought tools enough, and never mind whose ancestral graves they were: the near-hundred men ringed the circle of fresh mounds and dug away with a will.

Off to one side, a dozen or so rolled-up mats were stacked around the edge... And four hours on, Qi Qian'er and Chang Lianfang were each sitting on a kang-cabinet, worrying together.

In front of them stood seventeen or eighteen cabinets of every sort of material, and every one of them was full of five-jin salt packets — by the eye's reckoning, getting on for ten thousand jin of well-salt here.

This was what the men Madam brought later had buried — in just two days! Where had the three of them, mother and two sons, found the strength? They must have put their backs into it with everything they had.

Setting aside what Madam had buried, Master Huo's things at least made sense. What he'd hidden was for his descendants to rise again, so it wasn't too much against the grain. A steward was a steward: he'd hidden a great heap of iron — plowheads, hoes, rakes... and sickles, kitchen cleavers, wood-hatchets, seven or eight fodder-choppers; and besides all that iron gear, Master Huo had buried more than twenty great iron cauldrons for boiling brine, along with the estate's everyday iron pots of every size, and spatulas... In short, what the man had buried was all iron stock.

Chang Lianfang sighed deeply and said, slow and drawling: "Little sister-in-law, your family — they're this!"

And he stuck up a thumb.

Qi Qian'er nodded helplessly: "Isn't it just — my Madam went and laid up ten thousand jin of salt, my Master Huo went and stashed a few thousand pieces of ironware... heh, a new dynasty and a new spirit, right enough..."

And as she spoke, all at once she brightened: "That's just it — today's an auspicious day, and bringing you along, uncle, was the whole point. What I really wanted was to ask you to stand as go-between: all this — I'll offer it up!"

Chang Lianfang's eyes lit up, and up went his thumb again at once: with a shrewdness that could let go of so much, this little sister-in-law had a boldness not even a man could match.

He said politely: "Ai — we can't just take sister-in-law's things for nothing..."

Not waiting for him to finish, Qi Qian'er said: "I knew you'd be looking out for your brother! And fair enough — dim as your brother is, he's still out there carrying his head in his hands, risking his neck for our Emperor. We're all one family, aren't we?"

Chang Lianfang's next easy breath caught in his chest, and in his ear came Qi Qian'er's voice: "Come round to the house tomorrow, uncle, and I'll draw you the salt well's location. Rest easy — I'll deal with no one but you! However you smooth the business over when you go out tomorrow, that's your affair; I'll act as if I know nothing of it."

At that Chang Lianfang stood and made a steady bow: "My apologies to sister-in-law. In the end it's my own want of ability... these things, I can't protect for you either."

Qi Qian'er sat squarely where she was, took the bow, and laughed lightly: "I know! It's a good thing, really. Go home tonight and talk it over with your father — he's seen far more of the world, and he handles things more steadily than you do, every time."

"That's just what I was thinking — in a little while sister-in-law will get to meet my father..."

At that Qi Qian'er covered her mouth, laughed, and cut in: "What are you saying? My man's not at home... What sort of standing has your father, and what sort have I? I wouldn't dare meet your father. Me — I just went back to the estate to haul off some old odds and ends, that's all; anything else, I never saw, and tomorrow when I go out I'll not own to any of it!"

That suited best of all.

Chang Lianfang breathed out slowly and said, unhurried: "Does sister-in-law have any request? Speak freely!"

Qi Qian'er, not standing on ceremony: "I do!"

"Say on, sister-in-law. Anything I can do, I'll give it my all."

"I trust you, uncle — what sort of man are you? The far-famed city-breaking general! This little matter of mine is no matter at all to you." Qi Qian'er glanced around, shuffled a step closer, and lowered her voice: "I know it must sit badly with you, uncle — but my little household has a hard time of it too, doesn't it?"

A request was all to the good; Chang Lianfang let out a breath at last, thoroughly relieved. He said: "Set your mind at ease, sister-in-law. My father's side, and my elder brother's side too... at any rate, when it all shakes out, a few thousand taels I can always manage..."

Before he could finish, Qi Qian'er cut in: "That much silver — I wouldn't dare take it!"

Chang Lianfang, puzzled: "Then... what is it sister-in-law wants?"

Want? Qi Qian'er looked at the clouds in the sky and thought a good long while before she said: "Two hundred taels of the loose silver would do; leave me a hundred jin of salt, at least; I want two sets of the cooking-stove gear from the yard; and you're to get the fodder-blades and cleavers and all ready for me too; and I want one of the big brine-cauldrons; these bits of furniture are mine, that goes without saying... mm — and the old lady's minded not to leave now, so tomorrow, if they rebuild Qingfeng over there, and there are good bright shopfronts on the street with back courtyards, then if you've any feeling for the old lady, uncle, you'll find me a few... three to five of them will do..."

Chang Lianfang listened blankly and for a good while said not a word. Seeing him like that, Qi Qian'er got a little anxious and raised her voice again: "Ai — I say, uncle, what are you thinking? This is getting on for ten thousand jin of salt! Top-grade salt used to go at just fifty-five wen on the official books, sure — but who ever bought it at the official price? Once the troubles came, go ask around: a jin of the best first-grade salt fetching a few hundred wen is nothing at all. Go into the city now and try finding first-grade salt at a tael of silver the jin! What sweet dream are you having?

"Never mind the salt — take my family's iron stock: even in good times that ran twenty-five wen a jin, and the stuff's only ever sold through official trade — even with money in hand you can't buy it!

"Go and ask now which ironworks would do your family the great favor of opening up and fronting you a few thousand jin of iron on credit — or does the Armaments Directorate your people run have a few thousand jin laid by for you? These two things — you men of the ranks, when you go to war you've to put your backs into it, and you've to have good sharp weapons in hand. And now, of all times, when every man's after battle-merit — I'm handing you a road to the clouds and asking only a few shopfronts. I'm coming cheap...!"

That mouth of Qi Qian'er's had Chang Lianfang in a cold sweat from head to foot — awkward at first, and downright scared by the end. He too felt this woman was fearsome, her mouth full of his own father's words.

Unable to bear more, he quickly raised both hands to plead her off and explain: "That's not what I meant — sister-in-law's misread me. Just now I was thinking to myself, I ought at least to set sister-in-law up with a few hundred mu of good farmland..."

This too was smartly cut off; Qi Qian'er waved a hand: "I want shopfronts, not farmland."

Chang Lianfang was mystified. All this while they'd been reckoning up whose house would end with how much fief, how many mu of prime land, to make the whole bloody fight worth it — so why didn't this little sister-in-law want any?

"Why not?"

Qi Qian'er rolled her eyes and pointed at herself: "You really do think too much of me, uncle."

"I truly wouldn't dare think little of sister-in-law."

"Thank you kindly! Give me a few hundred mu of good farmland? At home it's just the two of us, me and the old lady — oh, lovely, what a blessing that'd be! I don't know much else, but when it comes to farming and estates, you truly don't know it better than I do.

"You kindly toss a few hundred mu my way — but there's not one man in the house. Who's to hold up the family for us? Who's to go out every few days and see how the fields are doing? Who's to keep the tenant farmers in hand and see they till in earnest? A fat year's easy enough to talk of, but come some natural disaster, with only me and your granny — what means could we find to hold the estate steady?"

Chang Lianfang blinked and smiled: "Isn't sister-in-law always the capable one?"

Qi Qian'er's eyebrows went up: "That's right, I'm capable! And being capable, I don't want these few hundred mu of sweet land of yours! I want a few good shopfronts — so that from here on, whatever disaster comes, I can still sit in the back courtyard with the old lady, decked in gold and silver, eating and drinking of the best and never running through the tens of strings a month they'd bring. That's contentment enough. Think about it! You don't lose out!"