Jinghe Year Fifteen, the twenty-fifth day of the second month.
Three days had passed since the order to investigate the temples.
The Sage-Protecting Convent bore the brunt, followed by Brahma Peace Temple and Numinous Response Temple.
In West City and North City, alarm struck several times a day.
During those days, Zhang Zai invoked public outrage and publicly executed more than a hundred monks who resisted arrest.
Where the blades flashed, spectators clapped in delight, while wealthy merchants turned ashen.
Why?
Because the Various Temples of Suzhou belonged not only to monks, but also to merchants.
Half their estates had been donated by merchants, half their offerings managed by merchants, and half their filthy deeds sheltered by merchants.
Once, under the name of incense offerings, they had conducted dealings in silver.
Now, with depravity named as the crime, disaster threatened to reach them.
With the incense burner overturned, where was the door through which they could escape calamity?
At dusk that day, carriages and horses clustered like clouds before the Shen Residence's main gate.
Suzhou's great merchants had turned out in full force.
At first, the gatekeepers could still announce arrivals. Later, calling cards piled upon the desk, and they could no longer report the names.
The chairs inside the hall were already full...
Those standing beneath the corridor whispered among themselves.
Those waiting below the steps wrung their hands and stamped their feet.
Several others hovered outside the gate, pacing without leaving, their faces ashen, frantic as dogs bereft of their homes.
In the Shen Residence's Main Hall, Shen Mingxuan sat upright in the Seat of Honor.
He wore a stone blue Zhiduō Robe, neither new nor quite worn out.
Clothes that had once lent him dignity now felt like a cangue and chains.
The assembled merchants