Chapter 231 — Speculation

Dou Yan followed Dou Huaiying into the study in the west side room.

Dou Huaiying pressed a deed into Dou Chu's hand: "A friend invited me to open a silver house in the capital. I put in fifty thousand taels of silver as capital, using Gao Xing's name. Keep it quietly—tell no one." As he spoke, a trace of smugness showed on his face. "If the silver house doesn't turn a profit, you can withdraw the shares. At worst you'll still recover thirty or forty thousand taels, enough to buy yourself a few dresses and pieces of jewelry."

It seemed her father intended to put Gao Xing to use for himself!

But was there any need for all this?

Just to launder this sum of silver, and then lose ten or twenty thousand taels for nothing?

Remembering that her father had never known the cost of firewood, rice, oil, or salt, Dou Yan restrained herself with great effort from saying anything disrespectful.

"Which friend invited you to open the silver house?" She decisively tucked the deed into her sleeve and asked her father, "Besides you, who are the other shareholders? What does each of them do? What proportion of the total capital do you hold? Who manages the silver house?" Like a string of firecrackers, she fired off seven or eight questions in one breath, leaving Dou Huaiying stunned where he stood. He thought for a long while before saying, "It was Guo Yan who approached me. Besides me, there are two colleagues from the Hanlin Academy, Zhao Peijie and Chen Songming, and then Zhang Zhiqi, the proprietor of the Risheng Silver House—five people in all. I put in fifty thousand taels, one third; Zhang Zhiqi holds one third; Guo Yan and the other two hold one third. Zhang Zhiqi will run the silver house, and we need only collect our dividends each year."

Dou Yan was aghast.

Her father was actually going into business with Zhang Zhiqi of the Risheng Silver House!

Was this how fate had originally arranged things? Or was it because she had changed her own fate that her father had been given the chance to know Zhang Zhiqi?

In her previous life she had scarcely exchanged a few words with her father, and had no idea what businesses the family actually had. There was no way for her to judge.

But in her last life, the Risheng Silver House had been nothing more than an obscure silver house in Datong. After Zhang Zhiqi took it over, he married his younger sister to a garrison officer of the Datong garrison headquarters as a second wife, and from then on began doing business with the Datong garrison headquarters. Within a few years he became the richest man in Datong, and then opened a small branch in the capital. After the Prince of Liao ascended the throne, he vaulted into the position of honored guest to Shi Jungui, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet. He began to monopolize the military pay of the Nine Frontiers, and for a time his influence was unmatched. He successively opened branches in Baoding, Jinan, Wuchang, Hangzhou, Songjiang, and other places, becoming a tycoon whose fame shook the land north and south of the Yangtze. Of his two sons, one bought his way into the Bureau of Transmission as a petty clerk, and the other sat the imperial examinations and obtained the status of a palace graduate, becoming a supervising secretary in the Ministry of Personnel.

Everyone in the capital said that the reason Zhang Zhiqi had come to this today was that when the Prince of Liao rose in rebellion, he had donated his entire fortune of two hundred thousand taels of silver to the Prince of Liao to aid his uprising. Shi Jungui was merely carrying out orders...

Dou Yan asked Dou Huaiying, "When is Gao Xing coming?"

"I've already sent word to him," Dou Huaiying said. He walked to the large writing desk nearby, took out from a hidden compartment a red-lacquered box painted in gold with jade hairpin flowers, and handed it to Dou Yan. "These are the deeds of sale for Gao Xing's whole family. Keep them safe."

Dou Yan did not stand on ceremony with him, and put them away together with that deed.

Back in her room, she tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

In her previous life, when the palace was thrown into upheaval, the emperor's personal guards reacted sluggishly. By the time the Prince of Liao had shot the crown prince dead and forced the emperor to write out the abdication edict, and appeared at the Meridian Gate surrounded by the Jinwu Guard, the Five Barracks Army and the Divine Machine Battalion—who had received the crown prince's plea for help—only then arrived at the Chaoyang Gate, where they were blocked outside by the Five Wards Command.

Every sign indicated that the Prince of Liao's uprising had not been a spur-of-the-moment affair.

And now there were only four years left until the palace coup. By all reasoning, the Prince of Liao should long since have begun his preparations.

Was it a coincidence that Zhang Zhiqi had chosen this moment to come to the capital and open a branch? Or had he long since thrown in his lot with the Prince of Liao, and come to the capital this time to pave the way for him?

Dou Yan thought of the other shareholders of the Risheng Silver House.

Guo Yan was the son-in-law of the late Grand Secretary Zeng Yifen, and had formerly served in the Hanlin Academy as a Reader Bachelor. Before Zeng Yifen died, he was posted out as provincial surveillance commissioner of Shaanxi. Three years later he was promoted to grand coordinator of Shaanxi, commanding the Shaanxi Regional Military Commission and the Branch Regional Military Commission—seventy-six garrisons and an army of two hundred ten thousand. After the Prince of Liao ascended the throne, he became Minister of War and Grand Secretary of the Yingwu Hall.

Zhao Peijie was at this time serving in the Hanlin Academy, concurrently Junior Supervisor of the Household of the Heir Apparent, a subordinate official of the Eastern Palace. After the crown prince died, he hanged himself at home.

Chen Songming was the Director of the Messenger Office, a close minister of the Son of Heaven. When the Prince of Liao staged his coup, it was he who wrote out the abdication edict. When the Prince of Liao ascended the throne, he was promoted to Libationer of the Imperial College, and within a few months drowned himself in a river.

Could things really be so coincidental?

The more she thought, the colder she felt.

And what of her father?

If this was premeditated, what had they seen in her father?

In her previous life, she had been concerned only with contending against Wei Wan—how could she have noticed any of this!

When she heard of her uncles' and her father's promotions, she had only hated Heaven for being blind, snorted coldly a few times in her heart, and sent a steward with a congratulatory gift.

Had the Dou family taken part in the Prince of Liao's treason?

Dou Yan could neither sit nor stand still.

She badly wanted someone to talk it over with.

Old Chen and Song Yan were both good choices.

But how could she tell them that the Prince of Liao would rebel four years from now?

Dou Yan leaned against the head of the bed, rubbing her temples.

※※※※※

Song Yan was also leaning against the head of the bed, rubbing his temples.

"It's so late—you burst into Yizhi Hall and wake me up. What on earth is the matter?" He looked helplessly at Gu Yu, who was pacing back and forth before his bed like a caged beast. "Can't you just say what you have to say? I've been on duty in the palace these past days, and finally got my turn off. I was hoping for a good sleep. How about you go rest in the guest room first, and we'll talk tomorrow."

As he spoke, Song Yan yawned.