"Mad, absolutely mad…" Mrs. Lin's father slumped into his chair.
Lin's father lay motionless on the floor, eyes clenched shut in anguish.
"Waaah…" Lin Mengxuan, scared out of her wits, burst into tears and threw herself into her mother's arms. Mother and daughter wept together.
"Waaah… Mama, will Jinyuan never speak to me again?"
Mrs. Lin could only hold her daughter tight, tears streaming down her face, saying nothing.
Lin Xuejin was better off than the rest. He felt a deep relief that no one had died today.
He was learning, with each passing day, to take things in stride. As long as everyone was alive, there was always a chance to set things right.
"All of you, get out."
The attendants read the room and withdrew at once.
"If anyone outside learns what happened here today, you can all disappear along with the secret."
"Yes, Master." The attendants trembled with fright and hurried out.
Lin Xuejin noticed a damp stain spreading across his father's robe. To spare the old man his dignity, he stepped forward to block his wife and children's view, and said calmly, "My dear, take the children outside."
"Very well." Mrs. Lin, still in tears, led the two children away.
Only then did Lin Xuejin press his hand to his own chest for a moment, steadying himself, before going to his father, helping him up, and settling him into a chair.
"Father, today's trouble was born of careless words. You must learn to guard your tongue."
His father finally opened his eyes, the anger not yet faded from them. "Who… who are these people?"
The lesson had been received. At least he was choosing his words with care now.
"They are simply people we cannot afford to cross."
Lin Xuejin thought of the wolf soldiers he had seen that day—their bearing much like what Mingwu and the other two had radiated this afternoon.
If one were to meet the Ming Prince's army in open country—could even a hundred thousand wandering refugees withstand the charge of a few hundred iron-clad warriors?
Did they have the power to storm the field and cut down the Ming Prince?
He could not say for certain what had not yet come to pass. But in his own heart, the answer was already clear.
"Father, let us suppose I stood in the Golden Throne Hall and jabbed a finger at the Emperor's nose and cursed him to his face. Would I have any hope of walking away alive?"
"That would be impossible…"
"Exactly. So be grateful, Father—we are still alive."
"Everything I possess today, one could say, was given to me by them. They can take it back whenever they please."
"All under heaven belongs to the emp—"
"Then what became of the emperor of the dynasty before this one?"
Lin's father shuddered from head to toe and found nothing to say.
"Father, let me help you inside to rest. Change your clothes and get some sleep."
"I still need to write to Master Zhao and offer my apologies."
"We nearly died, and you want to apologize?"
"Father, you offended my sovereign. The fact that we are still breathing is cause enough for gratitude." Lin Xuejin, seeing his father's stubbornness unbroken, felt a flare of irritation and let a sharper edge into his voice.
His father roared as if stung to the quick. "You ungrateful wretch! What nonsense are you spouting? There is only one Emperor!"
"Are there not two now? There is still one in the capital—and by all accounts he carries more weight than the one in the secondary court. Lately half my old classmates have been writing to urge me to pledge my allegiance to him."
"As for me, it would make no difference if there were three emperors."
His father trembled with rage at his son's treasonous words, jabbing a finger at his face. "You wretched, faithless boy! You beast! What have you done with everything the sages taught you?"
"Father, you may scold me as you wish—you are my father and that is your right. But please, do not provoke Master Zhao's people again. Even if you care nothing for yourself, think of Xuan'er and Yi'er. They should not have to die for a few words that gave you satisfaction. If you go on like this, there is a very real chance those two children will be killed. You saw Mingcheng with your own eyes. Do you truly think he was joking?"
"I…" His father opened his mouth, then thought of the look in that young man's eyes when they had been fixed upon him. He did not doubt the young man's resolve for a moment, and so he closed his mouth.
Lin Xuejin let out a quiet breath of relief, having barely managed to reason with his stubborn father. He turned to look at his father-in-law.
"Father-in-law, you have always been a man of open mind. What is your view?"
"My view? I was frightened half to death. I nearly had to spend the rest of my days with my eyes shut for good."
Mrs. Lin was a remarkable woman—that much was clearly owed to this man who had raised her.
"Xuejin, I could see it just from watching those young people—this Master Zhao is no ordinary man."
"That is putting it mildly. He is formidable—truly formidable—I cannot find another word for it. So formidable that he hardly seems like someone who ought to exist."
"And does this Master Zhao have his sights set on the realm?"
Lin Xuejin considered the question. "I cannot say whether the Master aspires to rule the realm. But he most certainly holds the realm in his heart."
"That said, among his maids and servants there are some who do have that ambition. And Master Zhao indulges them greatly. Even if he were unwilling, I doubt he would stand in their way."
"Those were maids and servants just now?"
"Yes. Merely maids and servants." He put a particular weight on the word *merely*.
The meaning was plain enough: my dear father-in-law, if his maids and servants are like *that*, you can imagine how extraordinary the man himself must be.
"And those are not even the most formidable of them."
"Fascinating. Hearing you speak of him this way, I find I genuinely want to meet this Master Zhao. Could you arrange an introduction?"
"That would be difficult."
Lin Xuejin gave a rueful smile. "As they say, a man who wants for nothing bends to no one. Master Zhao seeks nothing from anyone. Even I have barely seen him a handful of times. He avoids me—he seems to find me… tiresome."
"Tiresome? Ha! How delightful. Tell me—how did you manage to tire the man out?"
"Well, it goes back to the very first time we met. When I first laid eyes on him, I thought he was simple-minded—he was playing games with a group of very young children. But the moment I arrived as an unfamiliar visitor, Master Zhao said just one sentence, and those children who had been running wild transformed in an instant—rather like Mingcheng was just now."
"That bearing? The fearlessness in the face of death that only comes from a hundred battles—that's not easily forged in children."
"It wasn't only their bearing. It was their movements—unified as a single body. I had never seen anything like it. Anyone who hasn't seen it for themselves would likely find it hard to picture."
"Then we fell into conversation. He spoke offhandedly of the court's current troubles, and when I asked whether he had any solutions, he said casually that solutions were plentiful."
Lin's father, who had been sitting with his eyes closed, snapped them open. "Go on."
He had evidently come around to some acknowledgment of Master Zhao's abilities, and was eager to hear what solutions might exist for the court's difficulties.
"But then he said it would do me no good to hear them."
"Stop wasting words—get to the conclusion!"
"Either a ruler of enlightened virtue like the ancient sages, or else a man of sweeping power who nonetheless loves his country—even a great villain would do, provided the love was real."
"Rubbish. What kind of answer is that? Are you suggesting the current sovereign lacks virtue?"
Did that even need to be said?
If he were truly a ruler of enlightened virtue, would he have been driven from the capital, fleeing like a stray dog with nowhere to go?
His father-in-law looked at Lin Xuejin with a strange expression. Lin Xuejin wore the same. After a silence, he lowered his head and said quietly, "Father, I am disappointed."
His father's hands tightened. "I am sorry. I lost my composure. Go on—I will not speak again."
"After that, we spoke of the northern barbarian threat. I said it was a minor irritation, a rash on the skin. The Master called me a fool."
"I took offense and demanded to know why. He said my abilities fell short and that even if he explained, I wouldn't understand. I was too proud to stay, so I left."
His father-in-law nodded slowly, turning it over in his mind. "I wouldn't understand either. But in my place, I would never have stormed off. I would have done everything I could to find out why."
Lin Xuejin nodded. He admitted that in those days he had carried himself with a certain arrogance—nothing like now, when in the Master's presence he felt no arrogance whatsoever. Even if the Master were to rebuke him again, he could face it with equanimity.
"The Master must have grown truly tired of my questions, because he stopped receiving me. After a time I became the assistant village headman."
"The Master also made me a promise: for every merit I accumulated, I could come and ask him one question."
"Some time later I went to seek his counsel on governance. I asked him to give me the simplest method he could—one simple enough for me to understand."
"He said it was simple enough. And he gave me a simple method."
Lin Xuejin paused. His father-in-law held his patience. His father could hold out no longer. "Stop drawing it out—just say it."
"Two very crude characters: *get money*."
"The Master's exact words were: the simplest method is to get money—to get money with everything you have."
"Take money from the rich and give it to the poor. With enough money, you can easily crush the northern barbarians, crush the wandering rebels, crush the Ming Prince."
"Ha—easy to say. Since when is getting money easy?"
"I once thought the same. Not anymore. For the Master—and even for his servants—getting money does seem genuinely easy."
"We have been in Qingjiang Prefecture for just over half a year. We have gotten two hundred thousand taels. And that is only in coin. If you count land and grain, we have probably gathered close to a million taels' worth."
"What—a million taels?" Both old faces twisted with shock.
If the court had had a million taels to pay its soldiers, how could they ever have lost the capital?
"At first I didn't understand why the Master said *get money* rather than *earn money*. Now I do."
"Earning money is genuinely hard. But if it is only a matter of *getting* money, it is truly not so difficult."
"There is a world of difference in that one word—*get*."
"Father, Father-in-law—please don't look at me like that. There is no possibility that I will hand the money and goods over to the one in the secondary court."
"Because when all is said and done, these things may belong to the people of Qingjiang, and they may belong to the Master—but they are not mine to give."
"The eighty thousand taels already given should be quite enough to satisfy him."