Longbei District, Qingxiu Street.
A dozen carriages stood before the entrance of a small building.
"Miss, we've arrived — please step down. Oh, Miss, look, look! Those are the street lamps! I've heard they light up all on their own come nightfall. I can hardly wait — I almost wish it would get dark right now!"
"That's right, Miss. I've heard there's so much wonderful food and so many wonderful things to do here. And we get to stay for a whole year — isn't that just wonderful!"
Amid the chattering of her maids, a composed and graceful young woman descended from the carriage with an unhurried calm.
The five great clans and seven noble houses — impressive as those words sounded, surviving dynasty after dynasty, outlasting empire after empire.
In truth, every household had its own trials. Beyond the mutual support they lent one another, the five clans and seven houses still depended on a steady stream of marriages into the current ruling family to maintain their privileged standing.
And so the court was filled with high ministers whose wives had been born into those great families.
As the eldest daughter of the Cui clan in this generation, she was no more exempt from that fate than anyone else.
Her coming to Longcheng would naturally set certain parties scrambling to advocate on her behalf, each eager to attach her to whoever held the greatest power.
Her father had even taken her aside before she departed and urged her, if at all possible, to make the acquaintance of the mysterious Master Zhao.
Now there was the mightiest leg to cling to under heaven!
Cui Yingying's face betrayed nothing, but within her heart lay a quiet desolation. This was her destiny.
Of all the five clans and seven houses, the Cui clan — by virtue of proximity — was the most eager in courting power, and so the eldest daughter of the Cui family was the first to arrive.
A young security officer in a trim, smart uniform walked over. "Welcome to Longcheng, Miss. If you need any assistance at any time, please don't hesitate to find us."
"I am Li Chengqian, officer of the Qingxiu Street Security Post."
Well — there went the dream of the crown prince. He had walked the same road his father once walked.
Li Chengqian offered his greeting and moved on. The visitors were all young ladies and misses from various families, even princesses and commandery princesses — all of them newcomers from elsewhere.
The conventions of propriety between men and women ran deep, so most of the reception duties had been arranged for female staff. The male officers were responsible mainly for the outer reception work.
Li Chengqian had simply happened upon the moment and felt he could hardly say nothing — they had already made eye contact, and to stay silent would make it seem as though Longcheng had no welcome to offer.
So he'd said a few words and left it at that.
"Li Chengqian — that name sounds oddly familiar. Where have I heard it before? Never mind, I suppose I must have come across someone with the same name."
"Oh, Miss! That security officer is so handsome, and his uniform is so dashing!"
Cui Yingying was seventeen. Her maids were mostly thirteen or fourteen, fifteen at most. In her household they never worried for food or clothing, and the Cui family, for all its eminence, was not nearly so strict as the imperial court. Some of the girls had grown up rather fanciful and romantic.
Cui Yingying was amused and said, with deliberate casualness, "A security officer here is really no different from a petty functionary in a local yamen."
"What? Just a petty functionary!" The maid's lips puckered in disappointment. How could someone that handsome be nothing more than a minor clerk?
That would mean he ranked below not only a scholar, but even a small tradesman. At least tradesmen, however lowly their station, had money.
Longcheng had arranged for each of the visiting ladies to stay in this neighbourhood, a villa district made up of independent courtyard residences. Each had a three-storey main building and two or three annexes — enough to house twenty or thirty people comfortably, forty or fifty if they pressed together a little. Those who had brought particularly large retinues could be assigned an extra courtyard or two.
Such lodgings went for over ten yuan a night — tens of taels of silver a year.
For now, everything was complimentary, and each young lady received a monthly allowance of a thousand yuan in spending money.
Added together, that amounted to roughly two hundred taels of silver per family per year — and with a hundred families, two hundred taels became twenty thousand taels over twelve months.
That may not sound like much, but before the dynasty collapsed, a single prefecture's annual tax revenue was roughly that same figure.
And how many people lived in a prefecture?
How many people had a hundred young ladies brought with them?
Quite a few, it turned out — several thousand, all told.
When night fell, the maids clamoured to go out and explore the streets.
Back home, going out had always involved such tiresome formalities. Here, far from all of that, they were naturally eager to run free.
Besides, they had heard plenty before setting out — this was said to be the most civilised, the most powerful, the safest place in the world.
It was even said that a young woman could walk the streets alone at night in complete safety.
That, of course, was Longcheng's own publicity — a campaign to shape opinion.
The reality, as it happened, was more or less consistent with the claims.
When others with far less to boast of could still sing their own praises to the heavens, was there anything wrong with Longcheng — which genuinely had so much to offer — simply telling the truth?
"Miss, look! Something really is glowing!"
Cui Yingying had never seen anything so extraordinary. Naturally curious, she found herself drawn forward, walking closer before she quite realised it.
"Miss, there's someone there — it looks like the handsome... functionary... from earlier."
Cui Yingying walked closer. The figure in the dim light gradually took shape. She offered a polite greeting.
"Cui Yingying pays her respects. Might you be... Master Li?"
"'Master' is far too generous. I am only an ordinary security officer. You are welcome to call me by name, or simply Officer Li."
Cui Yingying noticed that although Li Chengqian wore the uniform of a minor functionary, his manner of speech was anything but coarse.
Her upbringing, she could not deny, had instilled in her a certain disdain for petty officials — though whether she let it show was another matter. But this particular officer was not only refined in speech; his uniform was clean and sharp, quite unlike the petty officials she had always imagined.
That was precisely why she had not simply turned on her heel the moment she saw him, but paused instead to offer a greeting.
"You are too modest, Master Li. May I ask what brings you to stand here — admiring the lamps, perhaps?"
"Ha — what's there to admire about lamps? I've been staring at them for days now; I'm thoroughly tired of them."
"I'm working."