275 — New Problems

Zhao Zhi was overjoyed that Song Caitang was giving him her full attention, but he knew her well enough to know that he should not hide certain things from her.

Becoming Prince Ping was a good thing. His scope and authority would increase and he would be able to do even more than before. But at the same time, that would bring more trouble, like “ill fortune” that the empress mentioned.

Song Caitang understood all of that, of course. She continued smiling even after he was done talking and just kept staring at him until he felt too shy to look at her.

He turned away and cleared his throat. “There are issues that need to be resolved, but if there’s something I want to do, I’ll definitely get it done.”

He was very serious about marrying Song Caitang.

That was his life’s goal from a long, long time ago.

“But… I don’t want to get married.”

Song Caitang was speaking the truth. She really didn’t want to get married right now. She liked Zhao Zhi for sure and wanted to be with him, but… it was a little too early to talk about marriage.

She was an independent modern woman who believed in earning her own keep. She had hobbies, causes she was passionate about and things she wanted to study further, so time was very important to her. In her opinion, getting married before 30 felt like a loss to her.

Of course, her current situation could not be compared to her previous life. Society was nowhere near what she had before. Besides, the most important part of getting a boyfriend was already fulfilled, so it was a little too long to wait till 30. Waiting till she was in her twenties sounded more reasonable… The body she had right now was just going to turn 18 this year, so she was technically still a minor!

She wanted to check out more of Da’an and travel. The cases she had come across so far had been very interesting too.

Then again, that was only what she thought. It was going to be hard to wait for so long. Her family… probably wouldn’t allow that to happen.

Song Caitang knew that very well. Ever since she started living in Bianliang, her grandmother had been very busy. Springtime was an even busier time, because there were all sorts of ladies-only parties to attend. Her grandmother would always make sure to bring either Guan Qing, Guan Wan, or herself. As for why…

The answer was obvious. These spring parties and ladies-only parties were where the womenfolk of influential families came together to socialize as well as to assess the young, unmarried women of each family. So many engagements were discussed and confirmed at such parties!

Her grandmother was in quite a hurry to marry the girls off.

In this era, marriage affected a woman’s entire life. That’s why there were proverbs like “marriage is a woman’s second life” and “men fear joining the wrong trade, women fear marrying the wrong man” and so on. That really reflected how this society viewed women and their destiny. Every elder in the family would get anxious if they still had unmarried daughters in the house.

Song Caitang figured that Consort Ping was probably trying to use this ideology against her. Youth was a fleeting phase, after all. Men could afford to get married later, but not women. According to custom, someone at Song Caitang’s age should be already engaged and waiting to get married. A year would have been precious time wasted.

But… Consort Ping had underestimated the women of the Guan family.

This wasn’t a big problem for them.

Guan Qing was the eldest among the three girls, so her grandmother was most anxious about her. But after attending many parties, it turned out that everyone was more interested in the youngest, Guan Wan. Guan Wan was adorable and innocent, plus she was excellent at cooking. She wasn’t the best at managing a household, but she was still young and could learn how to do that. Many mothers didn’t mind at all and kept asking about her, especially Madam Gu. She had asked a lot about her ever since she returned to the scene.

That Ji Yuanjia… was doing a pretty good job of fighting for her.

But Guan Wan was still clueless about such things, so she probably wasn’t willing to get married for a while yet. He’d have to wait.

Nobody asked about Guan Wan, so while their grandmother was worried, she wasn’t overly anxious and still felt that fate was important. She never thought that there was something wrong with her granddaughter and was very certain that her granddaughters would all find good husbands. If anybody tried to insult her granddaughters, she never took it to heart. She would just smile the other party into silence.

Besides, nobody was asking about Guan Qing not because she wasn’t a good prospective daughter-in-law, but because her personality was too strong. She was bound to bring prosperity to the family of her husband, so a lot of families were really tempted to ask about her, but they dared not ask too much.

For someone as capable as Guan Qing, she had to be agreeable to the marriage. If she really liked the man and wanted to be with him for the rest of her life, she would definitely make sure the family did well. But if she didn’t like him and was forced to marry him…

Then the family would have to be prepared for the worst!

Guan Qing knew that her reputation was like this and it was hard for her to get married soon. But she didn’t mind. Whether she got married or not didn’t bother her at all. At most, she’d just remain unmarried forever and live with the Guans. Nobody dared to say anything nasty, and she didn’t see the need to be shy about it either. But if anybody said anything they shouldn’t, then… they were doomed.

But while she was in no hurry, someone else was.

Song Caitang had spotted Cao Zhang sneak into the Guans’ home several times and Guan Qing stopped him from getting in each time… But he had spent years dabbling in both legal and illegal businesses, so he was very quick witted. If he couldn’t go by land, he could always go by sea. Taking a slightly longer route was nothing to him.

He sent his men to watch over Old Madam Bai and their uncle, Guan Song. If they ran into any problems, he would be there immediately.

He helped their grandmother more than once, and got Guan Song through a few crises, so they already had a good impression of him even before they knew he was acquainted with Guan Qing. They were full of praises for him and said that while he looked a little scary, he was actually a nice and honest man.

Guan Qing just rolled her eyes whenever they said that.

And today, Mr. Nice and Honest Cao Zhang stood in front of Guan Qing with a big grin on his face as he held up a box. “Bonus for these two months.”

He was also quick to appeal to the thing she was most interested in. Guan Qing was focused on the family business, so he found a way to get himself connected to her business. That way, no matter where she went, she wouldn’t be able to get rid of him.

Guan Qing looked as aloof as always and seemed to keep her distance at all times, but Song Caitang felt that she wasn’t really being distant. Perhaps… it wouldn’t take long for Guan Qing to get married after all.

The atmosphere in the family was harmonious and supportive, so Song Caitang knew that nobody would force her to do anything against her will and she didn’t need to resist anyone either.

But not wanting to do something and not being allowed to do something were two very different matters.

What Consort Ping had done disturbed her.

Song Caitang felt that… there were some major issues between Zhao Zhi and Consort Ping, but Zhao Zhi never badmouthed the consort in front of her, which spoke volumes about his character. He told her what Consort Ping had said not because he wanted her to do anything, but to actually assure her that he would settle this matter and she need not worry about it. That was his sense of responsibility.

Since he gave her the right to know about these matters, she respected his decision to deal with this himself. She just acknowledged the situation and would not overthink it or take it to heart.

But if she had the chance, she really wanted to meet with Consort Ping. It was not to plead with her and give in to her demands, however. She wasn’t Lu Yuxue, so she didn’t know how to lower herself and butter up to the person in power. She wasn’t going to pretend to be noble by tolerating humiliation for her man either. It was just that…

Consort Ping had brought Zhao Zhi up, after all. His mother had passed away when he was very young and his father had died in an accident, so Consort Ping was the one who brought him up herself. No matter how distant they were right now or what disagreements they had, this was a past that could not be erased.

Zhao Zhi would not kill her and certainly wouldn’t chase her away. So, if she really married him in the future… they would have to live in the same house, which meant that they would have to set certain rules.

She would need to sit down with Consort Ping to sort this out.

It would be best if everyone communicated freely and they reached an agreement. But even if they had trouble communicating, they could still resolve this situation. When it came to living together, the people directly involved had to deal with it, not others.

She would eventually have to go head to head with Consort Ping.

But she wasn’t in any hurry and there was plenty of time, so she could take things slow. And also comfort the slightly riled up Zhao Zhi at the same time.

After some time, Song Caitang visited Old Madam Li.

Since this was the Wen family house, she had to see Wen Yuansi too. But it wasn’t awkward like she had imagined it to be.

Wen Yuansi was a rational man who was reasonable and understanding, so there was no need to say too much. Wen Yuansi was just as friendly and gentlemanly as he always was, so she behaved like she always did. Everyone was able to sit down and enjoy a nice chat like old friends.

Song Caitang knew that Wen Yuansi wouldn’t be completely unaffected by this incident and she didn’t know how long he would take to get over it, but she sincerely wished him all the best. She hoped that he would continue to do well in life and meet someone better and more suitable than her in the future.

She carefully kept her boundaries and watched her actions, because even the slightest step over the boundary could give him the wrong signal and that wouldn’t be fair to him.

But she had to come today because Old Madam Li had helped her with so much.

The Guans were merely merchants and not an influential family, plus the only older woman in the house was her grandmother. It was difficult for them to be invited to a lot of parties. But thanks to Old Madam Li, the Guans were brought along to such parties and gained access to the upper echelons of society.

Of course, the aristocratic circles had their own hierarchy and the Guans were not an important family per se. But a family was considered important based on how capable their members were. Being well connected was a capability too. The fact that the Guans were able to get into this circle and do well proved that they were capable people. Besides, not every aristocrat was rich. Many of them actually suffered a lack of money after wasting away the family fortune. But the Guans had no lack of money and were happy to spend it whenever necessary. If money could solve the problem at hand, they were happy to throw money at it…

And so, after a few parties, everyone happily welcomed the Guans.

Even though they knew what Old Madam Bai was trying to do, nobody laughed at her or expressed any displeasure. After all, she wasn’t trying to find a wife for her sons. She was trying to marry off her granddaughters. It was common for women to marry up, so that wasn’t a problem. The Guans were not aristocrats, but they were very wealthy commoners, so the class difference wasn’t too big either.

In any case, Old Madam Li had done a lot for the family in terms of helping them to settle down in Bianliang, so Song Caitang felt that she had to pay the old lady a visit to thank her.

As usual, Old Madam Li would hold her hand and speak to her for a long time because she really liked this young woman.

Sometimes, she would glance at her grandson very slowly, as though she noticed something, but she did not point it out.

She had gone through so much in life and was very clever, plus she had gone through romantic relationships herself, so she knew what was going on. But this was something that couldn’t be forced and she felt that she should not interfere too much either. Everything… was up to fate.

After Song Caitang left, Old Madam Li personally cooked a bowl of her grandson’s favorite sweet porridge.

It was already late at night and the candlelight was dim by the time she finished cooking. Wen Yuansi was silent for a few moments before he finished the entire bowl by himself.

Fourth Missy Gan’s murder case had already been solved, but there was still no clear answer to how Zeng Deyong, Sang Zheng and the other characters involved were connected. There was more investigative work to be done and more secrets to be uncovered.

And that was why Zhao Zhi was still extremely busy even after the case was closed.

Jing Yan’s real identity remained a mystery too. After Qi Yan conducted a proper funeral for him, he felt much better and wanted to investigate this matter as well, so he asked Zhao Zhi for permission to be on the team too. He didn’t mind being barred from investigating anything that was classified or should not be made public, but he really wanted to find out who in the world his uncle really was, what he had done, what he believed in and if there was anything else he had wanted to do but died before he could.

After inspecting the little box with secret drawers and its pattern, Zhao Zhi was certain that there was definitely a traitor among the court officials of Da’an, and this person wielded a lot of power and was very influential, so it was going to be hard to deal with this person. The gold pieces had been shipped via maritime routes, so Zhao Zhi and Cao Zhang ended up rubbing shoulders a lot more often.

Cao Zhang was neutral toward Zhao Zhi. He just acknowledged that Zhao Zhi was a capable and upright man, and cooperated with any investigation with no bias. But he was very eager to get into the good books of his future cousin-in-law, Song Caitang.

After all, Song Caitang was very precious to Guan Qing. If he wanted Guan Qing to like him, he had to make sure Song Caitang favored him too.

But that made Zhao Zhi very unhappy.

The two men were frighteningly similar in this aspect. They believed in protecting and providing for their own woman. They didn’t need another person to show this sort of concern.

They didn’t need it, and they didn’t want it! They didn’t want any of it!

And so, even though they were rational people and on friendly terms when it came to work, if Cao Zhang tried to be even just slightly friendlier toward Song Caitang, they would get into a fight.

Song Caitang could only shake her head.

But work still had to be done. The days went by quickly. The peach blossoms had faded and new things were about to happen.

It was time for the Department of Salt Distribution to give out licenses for the year again.

When investigating cases in Luanze, Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang sensed something amiss with the salt distribution routes, but they couldn’t find any evidence. And now, it was time for those in the business to fight for the limited licenses available. That… could be their chance.

The salt distribution channels were not just connected to previous cases, but it was connected to Song Caitang herself. And that was because of Guan Rongrong.

Song Caitang found out from a letter the year before that after a “misunderstanding” occurred, Madam Zhang had married Guan Rongrong off. Or rather, Guan Rongrong had become this man’s concubine. Her husband, Jiang Wenrui, was from Bianliang and came from a line of scholars. He was very young and only held the position of district magistrate, but his term outside Bianliang was up and he had been transferred back to the capital. Jiang Wenr’s father, Jiang Shaoyuan, was an official working for the Department of Salt Distribution and was merely a Rank 5 official. But a Rank 5 official in Bianliang was a much higher office than a Rank 5 official elsewhere. Also, those who worked for the Department of Salt Distribution were a class above the rest.

The department was getting busy, so Guan Rongrong accompanied her husband back to Bianliang. And since the entire family was already here, they couldn’t possibly leave Madam Zhang all alone in Luanze. Madam Zhang was already on the way to the capital.

None of these things seemed related to one another and seemed like nothing more than a coincidence, but Song Caitang couldn’t help but feel like it was the calm before a storm.

She… had no idea what was going to happen next.

She still had not fully recovered all her memories. Everything was still in bits and pieces and she still couldn’t understand what was going on, including her father’s death, the letters he burned, the portrait she saw… What secret past was buried within these memories?

Zhao Zhi had a lot of subordinates working tirelessly for him, but it was still going to take a long time to find out what happened so many years ago.

Also, Madam Zhang’s arrival would mean chaos for the Guans, right?

Song Caitang felt that Guan Qing and their grandmother would do just fine, since they were good at dealing with her. But… things might be hard for Guan Lang.

His biological mother was coming home, so it was only right for him to welcome her and help her to settle down, so he had to put his books down and even take leave from school. Her uncle didn’t seem to like Madam Zhang very much and couldn’t care less about her, but Guan Lang was her son and couldn’t possibly do that.

If Madam Zhang decided to turn the house upside down…

Song Caitang looked out at the pear blossoms beneath the moonlight outside and began to feel a little worried.