Jinghe Year Fifteen, Third Month, Twentieth Day. The rain had cleared.
Mist wreathed the Grand Canal in Suzhou; clouds hung low, and swallows flew with damp wings.
Willows shaded a solitary bridge, masts loomed indistinctly, and oars creaked. The murderous chill of the preceding days was gone.
The rear hall of the Suzhou Prefecture Office.
Wei Nisheng sat at the desk, the last few confiscation ledgers awaiting review spread beside his hand.
Zhang Zai stood to one side, mud still spattered across his green robe. Clearly, he had just returned from the Granary Buildings outside the city.
Between them stood a small table, with three open wooden boxes arranged upon it...
The left held silver ingots, the middle pearls and jade, and the right stacks of land deeds.
Three boxes stood side by side, like three bright mirrors.
All reflected the greed and fear of Suzhou's merchants over the past several years.
"Zi'an."
Zhang Zai's voice carried the weariness of travel, his words slightly hoarse:
"The estates outside the city have all been inventoried."
He paused briefly, then continued:
"Together with the shops, residences, and granaries within the city, the silver amounts to more than one million seven hundred thousand strings of cash, and the land to over eight thousand mu.
"There are also more than a hundred crates of paintings, calligraphy, and antiques, not yet appraised.
"Though the total falls short of your earlier estimate, it is enough to earn a mark of approval from His Majesty's imperial brush."
"Enough." Wei Nisheng set down his brush and tapped the account books.
"For Suzhou alone to yield such a sum is already an intake the Court has not seen in years.
"Any more would mean scraping the bones and sucking out the marrow. That would spoil the result."
As