Partnership

On the twenty-seventh of July, the sky was somewhat overcast, veiled in a light mist. Shao Shuyi and Zheng Fan boarded a carriage and made their way slowly through the streets and alleys of Liujiagang. To tell the truth, though he had been in Liujiagang for quite some time, this was his first time venturing out for a stroll. The only blemish on the outing was the mist, which blurred his view. "Stop staring—there's nothing special to it," Zheng Fan scoffed. "Do your work well, and I'll take you to enjoy everything Liujiagang has to offer later on. Won't cost much anyway." Shao Shuyi believed him. Aside from serving as an official, there was likely no line of work in the world more lucrative than maritime trade; the profits were downright exorbitant. If a proprietor raked in vast sums and happened to possess a bold, generous streak, it was hardly unusual for his subordinates to share in the spoils. Before long, the carriage pulled up before a teahouse, and Zheng Fan and Shao Shuyi stepped down. "Officer Zheng is here!" A middle-aged man in a long gown bustled out to greet them, wearing an ingratiating smile, his eyes darting toward Shao Shuyi as he spoke. Zheng Fan gave a casual nod and strode into the parlor. From who knew where, a youthful woman emerged. She seemed to have just risen and applied her makeup, her figure graceful and lithe, her smile blooming like a flower. Upon spotting Zheng Fan, she covered her mouth with a light chuckle. "It's only the hour of the dragon, yet you're already in such a rush to see your sweetheart? She hasn't even gotten out of bed yet. Why doesn't Officer let me tend to you instead?" Zheng Fan let out a hearty laugh and patted her curvaceous rump in passing. "Are you really that fond of coin?" "What a thing for Officer to say!" The woman rolled her eyes at him, her tone laced with playful grievance. "Seven matters greet the morning: firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea. Firewood is as scarce as lingzhi, oil like sweet dew, and rice as precious as cinnabar. The sauce crock has just run dry, the salt jar is scraped bare, tea is running low, and vinegar is scant. When even the seven essentials are so hard to come by, how can you expect me to pluck willows and pick flowers?" Zheng Fan narrowed his eyes, listening for a moment, then laughed. "You didn't sing the last line right. It should go: *How can you~ expect me to pluck willows and pick flowers?* That's the rhythm." The woman chuckled again. "What tea will Officer drink today? Wuyi tea or Palace Commander Fan tea?" "Wuyi tea and Palace Commander Fan tea only came into vogue in our current dynasty," Zheng Fan said, shaking his head. "Besides, we have distinguished guests today. Bring Guzhu tea." "Leaf tea, powdered tea, or tea wax cake?" the woman asked, shooting a meaningful glance at the middle-aged man in the long gown. "Tea wax cake, naturally," Zheng Fan said without hesitation. "And bring some food too. I'm starved." "Does Officer even need to ask?" The woman leaned close, brushing lightly against Zheng Fan with a giggling laugh. The middle-aged man in the gown quietly slipped away. Shao Shuyi stood respectfully off to the side, slightly embarrassed yet also harboring a hint of excitement. *Is this the Yuan dynasty version of a private club? Quite interesting.* "Off you go now. We have serious business today," Zheng Fan said, waving the woman away as he made his way with practiced familiarity into a private room. Shao Shuyi followed behind, discreetly glancing around out of the corner of his eye. "Close the door," Zheng Fan instructed after sitting down. Shao Shuyi acknowledged the order, pulled the door shut, and took a seat just below Zheng Fan. "The ones coming today are three men of the Shen family of Wuzhong—father, son, and nephew—from Shen Wansan's household," Zheng Fan leaned in and cautioned in a low voice. "Keep your wits about you and don't make any blunders." Before long, the tea was brewed and served, accompanied by several platters of pastries. Zheng Fan and Shao Shuyi ate casually. Nearly half an hour later, footsteps sounded from outside. Shao Shuyi paused what he was doing, quietly set down his teacup, and even discreetly checked the corners of his mouth for any leftover crumbs. "Stand up," Zheng Fan beckoned to him, rising and moving to the doorway. Shao Shuyi hurried after him. A moment later, the door was gently pushed open, and three figures—two grown men and a boy—appeared in the doorway. "Rongfu, Renhe! It has been years since we parted. How have you been?" Casting aside his customary indolence, Zheng Fan stepped forward to greet them warmly. The man addressed as Rongfu was getting on in years, appearing to be around forty. Hearing this, he laughed. "Yifang, it must have been ten years since we last met, hasn't it?" "Eleven years," Zheng Fan chuckled heartily. He glanced behind Rongfu and asked, feigning ignorance, "This young gentleman has such a dashing and refined air—I wonder which noble house he hails from?" "What noble house?" Rongfu said with an amused laugh. "This is my humble son, Sen. He's just turned fifteen, so I brought him along to broaden his horizons." Having said that, he glanced toward Shao Shuyi behind Zheng Fan. "This is the external accountant of our celadon warehouse. I brought him along to do business," Zheng Fan said, drawing Shao Shuyi forward. Shao Shuyi bowed to the three, silently gauging the relationship between the two sides. He concluded that while they were not truly close, they were pretending to be intimate acquaintances. Rongfu and Renhe returned the bow and paid him no further mind. The youth, however, after returning the courtesy, looked Shao Shuyi over with curiosity—someone so young serving as an external accountant took him somewhat by surprise. Zheng Fan invited everyone to take their seats, then gave Shao Shuyi a brief introduction. The eldest was Shen Rong, courtesy name Rongfu. The next in age was Shen Hanjie, courtesy name Renhe. He appeared to be in his twenties and was Shen Rong's younger paternal cousin. The youth was named Shen Sen, courtesy name Maoqing, and was Shen Rong's son. Shao Shuyi observed them quietly. He noticed that all three were clad in splendid attire and adorned with accessories that were clearly not ordinary goods, yet their speech and conduct remained well within proper bounds, without the slightest air of arrogance. Besides that, this was the first time Shao Shuyi learned Zheng Fan's courtesy name: Yifang. "Speak, then. What is the matter? Urgently asking me to stay two extra days, as if your house were on fire," Shen Rong said with feigned exasperation. Outside the door, footsteps approached again, followed by a soft call: "Officers, your tea and refreshments have arrived." "Come in and set them down," Zheng Fan called out clearly. "Yes." Two young maidens entered one after the other, set down the tea and refreshments, curtsied, and withdrew. The door closed once more, cutting off the room from outside. Zheng Fan subconsciously glanced toward the door before asking, "Rongfu, do you have ships putting out to sea for foreign trade this year?" Shen Rong gave him a surprised look and asked, "Yifang, the Zheng family has always done business solely in Liujiagang. Why the sudden interest in seafaring foreign trade?" Zheng Fan answered with a touch of embarrassment, "Our clan cannot compare to the Ye, Yang, or Fei lineages. Before the Old Minister reorganized the grain transport, his postings were mostly shifts among local administrative offices." Shen Rong murmured an "Oh," offering no further reaction. Before Zheng Yonghe took up the post of Deputy Myriad Household Commander in the Transport Office, he had served as the Chief Administrator of Shaozhou Circuit, and prior to that, he had possessed no background in water transport whatsoever. Yet upon assuming the post, he reorganized the transport systems and waterborne registers, supervised grain provisions, and achieved great merit, gradually establishing a reputation. Coupled with his long tenure, the Quzhou Zhengs had steadily grown into a force of reckoning within the Transport Office. The Chongming Ye, Ganpu Yang, and Changxing Fei clans, however, were an entirely different matter. Since the founding of the dynasty, they had specialized in seafaring. Talents had emerged from their families generation after generation, and their private collections abounded with sea charts, star charts, and navigational manuals. They were completely unlike the Zheng family, who had switched careers midstream. And was it not convenient? Shen Rong's wife was surnamed Ye, born into that very same renowned maritime lineage. Naturally, the Shen family enjoyed tremendous advantages when it came to overseas trade. Moreover, the Shens possessed the material wealth to match. After Shen Rong's ancestors relocated to Changzhou, they devoted themselves to developing estates and commerce. By the generation of his father, Shen Fu, and his uncle, Shen Gui, their wealth was already unmatched in Jiangnan, with countless houses, farmlands, and assets to their name. Because Shen Fu, style Zhongrong, was ranked third among his brothers and his fortune could rival ten thousand households, his contemporaries called him "Shen Wansan," while Shen Gui, style Zhonghua, was called "Shen Wansi." Such a deeply entrenched, sprawling clan was naturally far beyond what the Zheng family could match. Yet they too had their shortcomings: they lacked patron figures in high officialdom. Setting aside county-level petty officials who carried no weight before truly influential figures, the highest-ranking officials among the Shens' in-laws were merely Ye Shijian, a Chiliarch of the Songjiang Jiading Chiliarchy under the Transport Office, and Song Tong, a Chiliarch of the Crossroads Army. Their "weight of authority" was still rather modest. Zheng Fan understood this perfectly, so he laid his cards on the table, baring his trump card: "Rongfu, between honest men, let us speak plainly. By the end of next year at the latest, my paternal uncle will be stepping down, but he has the authority to recommend a successor..." At those words, Shen Rong's eyelids twitched. Shao Shuyi sat quietly to the side, eyes cast down in composed stillness, listening to the exchange between Zheng Fan and Shen Rong. Without a doubt, this was an exchange of favors. Yet just for fewer than thirty thousand pieces of celadon, wasn't the price too steep? Zheng Fan's move was surely authorized by Zheng Guozhen. Would they dangle such enormous bait purely for the sake of this single transaction right in front of them? The likelihood was extremely slim. Shao Shuyi felt he needed to broaden his perspective and think on a grander scale... "Does the Old Minister have certainty?" Shen Rong asked in a hushed tone after a moment of silence, subconsciously leaning closer. "Who could guarantee such a thing?" Zheng Fan chuckled. "I can only say that among the four Deputy Myriad Household Commanders, there are those who were promoted from Chiliarchs." "A slip of the tongue on my part," Shen Rong laughed aloud, taking a sip from his teacup to mask his lapse of composure. Having weathered many affairs in his daily life, he was normally a steady and measured man, but this matter was simply too monumental, and his composure inevitably wavered. Among the four Deputy Myriad Household Commanders in the Transport Office, Fei Xiong, a native of Changxing, had indeed risen from the rank of Chiliarch and had been reappointed Deputy Myriad Household Commander four times—a rather storied career. Xia Di, a native of Ji'an, had originally been a Chiliarch as well before being promoted to Deputy Myriad Household Commander. In short, precedents of internal promotions were numerous, making it a very real possibility. Bian Zuo, a native of Weishi, had originally been a Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue before being transferred to serve as Deputy Myriad Household Commander in the Transport Office, while Zheng Yonghe had transitioned from Chief Administrator of Shaozhou Circuit to Deputy Myriad Household Commander. Both had entered the Transport Office mid-career, unlike Fei Xiong and Xia Di. And since such precedents existed, there was room to maneuver. Such matters could never be given an ironclad guarantee, which was why Shen Rong had admitted his slip of the tongue. "As for putting out to sea for foreign trade, there is an expedition this year, roughly set for between the ninth and tenth months," Shen Rong said after pondering for a moment. "My family provides the cargo, while the Chongming Ye family provides the ships, dividing the proceeds according to our agreed shares. If the Zheng family is interested, we can count you in." Zheng Fan nodded slowly. "My family has nearly thirty thousand pieces of celadon. Is there room to accommodate them?" "Naturally, no problem," Shen Rong replied. "I still need to return to Salt and Iron Creek to report to Third Young Master. If he gives his approval, this fellow will liaise with whoever manages your household's affairs." As he spoke, Zheng Fan pointed toward Shao Shuyi. "Agreed." Shen Rong consented directly without even giving Shao Shuyi a second glance, nor did he bring up the profit-sharing ratio for the thirty thousand pieces of celadon; those were minor details. With his mind now at ease, Zheng Fan's smile broadened, and he chatted casually with Shen Rong and Shen Hanjie about amusing anecdotes from the Transport Office, departments, and counties. Shao Shuyi sat to the side. Aside from chiming in with an occasional chuckle or a few agreeable remarks to keep the mood lively, he kept his mouth firmly shut for the most part, merely listening in silence. The men chatted for a full two hours. Seeing that the sun was already high in the sky outside and the mist had completely burned away, they finally exchanged farewells and went their separate ways.