Feng Zhiwei listened to Master Zhou’s fury and cheerfully brought out the two villains responsible — Helian Zheng and Yao Yangyu.

  Zhou Xizhong could only stare silently at the two rogues, face twitching. One was the untouchable prince of the steppes and the other was the son of the great teacher who had graded his own Imperial Examination. What could he do? In the end, he could only scoff and flick his sleeves, accepting defeat.

  No matter what, the opening of the granaries had somewhat stabilized the price of rice. With the Huang and Shangguan Families in serious trouble and the other three families stepping away from manipulating the market, the South Sea province’s inflation was stabilizing and the lot of the commoners was improving. Zhou Zixhong was only upset because he had planned on opening the granaries himself to win over support and Feng Zhiwei had robbed him of the opportunity.

  But soon his anger was assuaged.

  Feng Zhiwei proposed an alliance between the three families targeting the Huang and Shangguan Families, promising an even share of the spoils to the local government and the families remaining.

  Of course this was an excellent deal, and Zhou Xizhong fakely insisted that Master Wei also deserved a share. Feng Zhiwei smiled and declined, claiming that a passing Imperial Envoy here only on temporary business could not demand such a portion. Truthfully, she had no need to pluck the feathers of every wild goose that passed by; the Imperial Court’s fortune disdained this small cut of profit.

  Ultimately, the good of South Sea was good for Wei Zhi, and he only had a tiny request. Since the Yan Family was taking charge and carrying most of the burden, they would need a slightly bigger share. Secondly, ten percent of the industries seized should go to the new Department of General Maritime Affairs and function as an operating budget, and the future profits from this share could be used as military expenditure for the department’s future fights with pirates and patrolling of the sea.

  This had been the Imperial Court’s intent in founding this new department so of course Zhou Xizhong acquiesced. Unfortunately, a scholar like Zhou Xizhong did not perfectly grasp the extent of a rich family’s properties and did not understand how many borderline things could be done with this ten percent share.

  There were of course shops that earned money and shops that did not, and there is of course valuable land and worthless land. After a skilled business man like Yan Huaishi was done manipulating the shares, all of the most valuable assets were secured under the control of the new Maritime Department.

  Feng Zhiwei also had an unspoken plan. The fall of the Huang and Shangguan Family was only a matter of time, and once they collapsed, tens of thousands of horde workers and fishermen would lose their jobs. If these people were absorbed into the other three families, the families would grow too strong. Establishing a Maritime Surveillance Sub-Department to take in these skilled workers would be better, and after some simple training they would be ready for work.

  Once the Chang Family was pushed out from their lands, they would very likely escape to sea and collude with the pirates they had funded. At that time, the Maritime Surveillance Sub-Department could immediately function as a new South Sea Navy.

  Feng Zhiwei was only tasked with founding the new department; though she was able to oversee all matters in South Sea, military affairs were still outside her domain. This plan was the only way she could offer Ning Yi help in his future battles.

  After everything was set in motion, Feng Zhiwei went to inspect the construction of the new department headquarters. Yan Huaishi had worked quickly, and somehow the almost finished building was almost more beautiful than the Commissioner’s Mansion. Apparently, the further the land was from the lofty Imperial Capital, the more ostentatious the buildings, and faraway Shang Ye’s General Maritime Department was said to be even more beautiful than the one being constructed here in South Sea.

  Feng Zhiwei watched a happy, high-spirited Yan Huaishi work and decided that she would let him do whatever he wanted with the architecture. Not only had he suffered years of bitterness, Wei Zhi would soon take his wife away; allowing him some freedom here was some compensation for all of that.

  After checking out the new department, Feng Zhiwei headed to the Judicial Commissioner’s Yamen where the recently captured Chang Family spies and arrested officials were all being interrogated. Feng Zhiwei had barely sat down when Judicial Commissioner Tao Shifeng arrived to greet her, smiling: “Ai ya, Master Wei, I was just about to send someone to report to you. I have news.”


  “What happened?”


  “People have been dropping dead in prison.” Tao Shifeng explained. “The batch of prisoners we just captured with the information we got from the second-generation Huang Family scion. These people were captured at Mount Wu Ji by the border of South Sea and Minnan. We think that they were heading from His Highness’s army.

  “Our people took a shortcut and cut them off. Many of them fled to Feng Zhou City, and we managed to wound and capture some of them outside the gates, but before we could even begin our interrogation, everyone we had captured had died.”


  As he explained, he led Feng Zhiwei to one of the corpses. The corpse’s eyes stared wildly, and there was no sign of fatal wounds anywhere on its body. Only the fear and blankness in the eyes stood out, and as Zhiwei stared down wonderingly at that look, a sudden idea struck.

  She squatted on her heels and carefully looked over the corpses as Tao Shifeng spoke: “The coroner has already examined them. There are no fatal wounds, and we are not sure how these people died……”


  At that moment, the quiet Gu Nanyi stepped forward and pointed at a corpse’s wrist.

  A few faint marks, bare hints of scratches.

  “Those could not kill, they are just tiny wounds……” Tao Shifeng began as Feng Zhiwei looked down at the scratches. She interrupted him:

  “Master Tao, where were these people captured?”


  “An abandoned farmhouse ten miles out from Feng Zhou City.”


  “Bring me there!”


  An hour later, a group of riders dismounted in front of a farmhouse, abandoned and desolate with no signs of inhabitants for miles in any direction.

  Feng Zhiwei looked out at the quiet farmyard lit only by the setting sun, anxious. She whispered to Gu Nanyi before calling for the others to wait outside as she and Gu Nanyi entered.

  The carefully swept through the building, but they found nothing. Just as Feng Zhiwei’s heart was falling in disappointment, Gu Nanyi spotted an abandoned hog pen.

  Feng Zhiwei slowly stepped over.

  The gold auburn of the setting sun lit up the tips of dry, yellow grass swaying in the autumn wind.

  The hog pen had fallen into disrepair and the broken door hung creaking in the breeze. The ground was covered in dead grass and pig manure, and the small enclosure was still and silent.

  Feng Zhiwei stepped on a dry branch, quietly cracking it.

  “Cha!”


  A rusty butcher’s knife flashed towards her face in a flash of lightning!

  Feng Zhiwei cried out:

  “It’s you!”


  The butcher’s knife shot forward like lightning, but Feng Zhiwei was exclaiming because of the face underneath the mess of hair.

  Her voice carried pleasant surprise and confusion.

  With a clang, the fierce butcher’s knife was slapped in half by Young Master Gu’s bare hand. The man howled as he pounced forward, throwing himself forward as if his entire body were a blade.

  As soon as he leapt, a pair of golden beams shot forward, squeaking as the flew forward, eight claws striking at Feng Zhiwei’s face.