Increasing Speaking Rights

News that the transportation road on the north side of the mine had been cleared spread back to Cangwu Prefectural City by the next evening.

Liu Ruyan was flipping through account books in the study. That recent deficit had not been completely filled yet, and though she had already reallocated the revenues from several small industries, a gap still remained—not enough to grind the entire month to a halt, but requiring some time to be patched from elsewhere.

Cuiwei's letter had been delivered that afternoon. The letter paper was folded unevenly, as if it had been written in great haste, and contained only a few lines.

Liu Ruyan's fingers paused when she reached the first line.

She had originally expected the letter to contain Cuiwei's report: "Ye An has arrived," "the mine is currently stable," "there are no temporary problems."

She had already prepared herself mentally. Ye An had just arrived in the mining area and needed to familiarize himself with the environment first; it would take at least a few days to stabilize the situation.

Liu Ruyan put down the account books and read the entire letter over and over again before confirming that she had not misread it.

She had originally intended to ask Ye An to garrison the place just to make those people exercise some restraint, but instead of garrisoning it, he had directly dealt with the people involved.

She put down the letter paper and sat before the desk for a while. The tea was still lukewarm. When she picked up the letter paper and flipped to the third page, she realized she had not been reading at all, and her vision kept spinning back and forth across the paper without ever landing on anything solid.

That afternoon, Zhao Wan came to the Liu Lineage to drink tea as agreed.

When she walked into the back courtyard, Liu Ruyan was already sitting in the pavilion. Two cups of tea, a plate of pastries, and a letter sat on the stone table, the letter already folded and placed at the corner of the table with the ink on it dried.

Zhao Wan sat down, picked up a teacup, and took a sip, then let her gaze fall upon that letter. "There's news from the mine?"

"A letter from Cuiwei."

"What does it say?"

"The transportation road is already clear, the people staking it out are gone, and the leader is dead. Ye An left the mine this morning to return to the sect."

The fingers with which Zhao Wan held the teacup paused for a moment before she set it down. She did not drink her tea, nor did she speak, looking as if she were waiting for Liu Ruyan to continue, but Liu Ruyan said nothing further.

Zhao Wan was silent for a moment, then gave a smile—not a polite one, but the kind of smile that said, I truly didn't expect this. "So fast? I originally thought it would take at least ten days or half a month to see results."

Then she added another sentence: "It seems the person you recruited truly has some ability. At first, I even thought an Early-Meridian Opening couldn't suppress the scene, but it turns out I miscalculated."

"A retainer capable of handling affairs—I'm almost tempted to poach them from you."

Liu Ruyan did not immediately take up the topic. The corners of her mouth twitched in something that fell short of a smile. "Sister Zhao, spare me the jokes."

Zhao Wan did not continue pressing either, and stood up. "Very well, since the matter is already resolved, I won't stay long. Another day when you have time, have him come over to my shop to sit for a bit so we can get acquainted."

That evening, Liu Ruyan was summoned to Liu Zhengtang's courtyard.

She already had some mental preparation when she walked to the study door. Those few elders of the collateral branch had been frequently walking about the main hall over the past two days, their words revolving entirely around "settling the matter before the end of the year." She assumed her father had called her over for nothing more than to repeat those same words.

Liu Zhengtang sat behind the desk, his complexion still a sallow yellow. His energy was even poorer than before, but his hand could still hold a brush. Several sheets of paper lay unfurled on the desk, beside which rested a few seals, as if they had been sorted through once.

Liu Ruyan stood at the doorway and called out, "Father."

Liu Zhengtang raised his head to look at her and pushed those sheets of paper in her hand across the desk. "I've heard about the matter at the mine."

His voice was not loud, carrying a hollow weakness squeezed from the depths of his chest.

Liu Ruyan did not answer, standing quietly in place to wait.

Liu Zhengtang did not continue speaking about the mine. He glanced at Liu Ruyan, then shifted his gaze away. That single glance had already delivered his meaning: I have seen all your efforts.

He paused, his fingers resting upon those sheets of paper on the desktop. "The resources I've managed in the Liu Lineage over these years, along with several people who have followed me for a long time—their names, resumes, and matters they excel at—are all upon here. Before returning them to the lineage... how much you can grasp will depend on your own ability."

Liu Ruyan looked at that stack of paper without reaching out to take it. Liu Zhengtang did not raise his head to look at her, nor did he speak again, as if these words had exhausted all the strength he had for today.

The edges of those stacked paper sheets were somewhat curled, and the ink upon them was old, not temporarily written, as if they had been organized long ago and merely never brought out.

Liu Ruyan clutched that stack of paper in her hand, her knuckles turning slightly pale. She did not ask "Why choose to give this to me at this time," nor did she ask "Does this mean your body is failing, Father?"

In the end, she merely said with a trace of imperceptible hollow resonance, "Understood."

Liu Zhengtang did not acknowledge it, nor did he raise his head to look at her; he merely waved his hand with a very light motion, as if urging her to leave or as if he no longer had the strength to spare a single word more.

When she walked out of the courtyard gate, she paused for a step. That stack of paper had been clutched by her all the way back, and she only released it upon returning to her room, placing it on the table.

She sat down, not immediately touching the stack of paper, but staring at it in a daze for a while.

She thought of the events of this period: the transportation road being cut off, the cargo rejected, the elders of the collateral branch sitting in the main hall and speaking in senior tones of "You are still young, don't worry too much about the mine's affairs"; down to Cuiwei returning injured, Zhao Wan recommending Ma Rui, and then Ye An replying in a letter that "Leave everything to me," followed by settling the mine's affairs overnight.

If Ye An had not made a move, she would have had no other trump cards left in her hand. Dragging the mine out would only result in increasingly severe deficits, the collateral branch people would use this as a pretext to strip her of her jurisdiction over the mine, and whether that Ma Rui recommended by Zhao Wan was usable was another matter altogether. But the moment she went to ask for him, it would be equivalent to admitting she could not hold on, and those people's words would grow increasingly weighty.

The five characters on Ye An's reply letter: Leave everything to me. She still remembered them now. At Early-Meridian Opening, having just broken through not long ago, he had simply finished the task, asked no extra questions, made no extra demands, and never used the matter to bargain, leaving the moment he was done.

She recalled when she was back in Anping County, she had merely felt that this person was somewhat interesting and worth "tying a good karma."

Looking back from where she stood today, that decision to "tie a good karma" back then was now feeding back to her in ways she had not anticipated.

If she hadn't given that bottle of Flawless Body Tempering Pill back when Ye An was still in the Body Tempering Realm, would Ye An have agreed so decisively now?

She did not know, but she was very glad she had made that decision back then.

Liu Ruyan sat by the desk for a while, spread out paper anew, ground the ink, and began to write a letter. The letter was not long—even shorter than the previous one. She knew Ye An was not the sort of person who enjoyed reading lengthy, polite phrasing, and writing too much would only make things appear superficial.

"The matter of the mine has concluded, and a portion of a token of appreciation will be sent to Master Ye's quarters for inventory in the near future. Additionally, there is another item that still requires time to prepare, which will be presented together at that time. If you have any demands henceforth, the Liu Lineage still retains a measure of surplus strength in the prefectural city—you need only speak."

She finished writing, set down the brush, waited for the ink to dry, folded it, sealed it, and pressed the Liu Lineage's seal upon it, placing it at the corner of the table.

At this time, Ye An had already arrived at the sect.

[Meridian Opening Formula (First Layer): 57/100]

[Star-Shattering Finger (Micro-Realm): 3/200]

[Rosy Cloud Sword Technique (Initial Glance): 61/100]

He needed to break through to the mid-stage before the end of the year, stabilize his realm, and strive to enter the Four Halls ahead of schedule.

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