Chapter 300

Chapter 301: I Did It for You, My Father

Xin An, reclining on the soft couch, sat up at once when she heard Tang Mo was going out again and asked in concern: “Will it be dangerous? Your last wound has not yet fully healed.”

Tang Mo sat beside her with a smile and said with easy confidence: “What danger can there be? The Personal Guards under Liao Zhi are all highly skilled. There are only a thousand of them, yet those very thousand have helped Liao Zhi win merit time after time. I have long wanted to see them.” He added cheerfully: “Give me some silver to take along. I should be able to put it to use.”

Xin An could only feel helpless. Worry was useless and she could not stop his travel; all she could do was prepare more useful things for him to take, especially enough medicine for his wounds. She said then, shifting to business: “There is something to tell you.”

That afternoon, Fang Da had come by with banknotes of twenty thousand taels that her father had sent to the capital. This time the banknotes were for Tang Gang, to be used for the marquis’s year-end social exchanges, the same sum given every year.

Xin An explained plainly: “This year my father sent the banknotes into my hands and told us to decide how to use them.”

Tang Mo opened the box Xin An had mentioned. Looking at the thick stack of banknotes inside, he asked with curiosity: “Just how much silver does my father-in-law have? Since our wedding until now he has sent more than one hundred thousand taels, and he even spent five hundred thousand taels paying that recognition fee. How is he so rich?”

Xin An sat up, lifted the thin blanket on her legs and, feeling chilled, covered herself again as she said serenely: “You do not need to worry about that. It is the accumulation of many years; this much silver, he has.”

Tang Mo closed the lid, thought a moment, then opened it again. He counted out banknotes totaling ten thousand taels and handed them to Xin An, saying levelly: “We cannot give him nothing, or he will definitely look for trouble. But more is unnecessary.” He concluded with decision: “I will speak to him myself.”

Xin An had no objection. Naturally she did not want to spend money on Tang Gang, but everything had to be done step by step. Year-end social exchanges concerned the marquis’s household; Tang Gang could not be left so poor that things failed, nor could he be made too flush, or he would hatch other ideas.

Before Tang Mo could decide when to go, Nan Feng arrived to report: “The Marquis asks the second young master to come to the study.”

Tang Mo snorted, half amused, half annoyed, and said: “The old man is addicted to seeing me. If he goes a day without, he has to send someone to fetch me.”

Nan Feng lowered her head and snickered. Xin An, suppressing a smile, said in warning: “Do not be glib. Mind yourself and do not anger him into some mishap.”

Tang Mo nodded: “Got it.” He rose, picked up the box with the banknotes, and still found time to call back over his shoulder: “I will be right back. Let us have hot pot tonight; it is snowing again.”

In the study, the charcoal burned bright and vigorous. Tang Gang had changed into everyday clothes, but his face was still gloomy. He had actually learned of the Xin family’s affairs from other people; his head was full of what he saw as Xin Kuan’s betrayal.

When Tang Mo entered, that expression startled him. He asked dryly as he seated himself and poured tea: “What now?”

Tang Gang did not quarrel about his discourtesy. He asked in a low voice: “Has the Xin family started selling sugar?”

Tang Mo glanced at the tea cup, the corner of his mouth quirking, and answered casually: “They have been selling it for a while already.” He added with a light tone: “Salt merchants are not limited to selling salt; any business that makes money can be done. Since when did Father begin to care about this?”

Tang Gang shot him a look and said with disapproval: “Speak properly; stop your loafing.” Then, cutting to his concern, he asked: “What is the story with the Northwest salt route?”

Tang Mo set down his cup and said without hurry: “That is a question for you, Father.”

Tang Gang did not understand. Tang Mo kindly enlightened him: “Father-in-law once came to ask you to help with the Northwest salt route. You were unwilling. Do you remember that?”

Tang Gang of course remembered. It was not that he was unwilling to help, but after asking around he felt the matter would not be easy. If he intervened he would have to pull in other people; he worried about the reputation of the marquis’s household and feared drawing His Majesty the Emperor’s suspicion. He also believed that even without the salt of the Northwest the Xin family would have no trouble making money. So he had not intervened.

Tang Mo said it straight: “Father must have thought that even if Father-in-law could not trade in Northwest salt, he would still rake in money, and even if he did not, it would not affect the annual offerings to the marquis’s household. So you did not care whether he lived or died. Is that it?”

Tang Gang lifted his eyes, gaze sharp as a blade. Tang Mo did not soften: “Because you did not care, you did not know how fiercely his peers attacked him. He has been losing money for two years in a row.”

He added with frank curiosity: “This is where I do not understand. Everyone knows the Xin family is backed by our marquis’s house. Bullying him is the same as saying the marquis’s house is incompetent. How could you stomach that?”

Tang Gang said in a heavy voice: “He did write to me about the Northwest salt route. After I wrote back, he never mentioned it again. How was I to know he was being squeezed?”

Tang Mo met his father’s simmering glare and said evenly: “It means he decided you could not be counted on, so he stopped telling you.” He leaned back and went on, clear and cold: “If the marquis’s house cannot be counted on and he himself is struggling, then if someone else reaches out a hand to pull Father-in-law up, would he not take it? As a merchant, so long as he can make money and gain protection, whose pocket he puts his silver into is all the same. It does not have to be the marquis’s house. More than one or two have designs on him. Officials of lower rank may not dare touch him, but faced with someone like the Xu family, what can he do?”

He concluded with a shrug: “The marquis’s house is distant water that cannot put out a nearby fire. That the Xu family succeeded this time is not surprising at all.”

Tang Gang fell silent. Tang Mo crossed one leg over the other and said with leisurely frankness: “Father-in-law has always had choices. He simply refrained for Grandfather’s sake and did not choose. Why did you and Eldest Brother assume he would hang himself on the tree of the marquis’s house?”

The look he gave was nakedly frank, as if to say: how could you be so naive.

Perhaps because his son’s words were too bluntly realistic, Tang Gang did not refute them at once, though of course he would not admit he was at fault. He asked instead: “Does your wife know about these things as well?”

Tang Mo replied without hesitation: “How could she not?” He then spun a picture on the spot, shaping Xin An into a gentle, long-suffering wife who endured humiliation and wanted to win a chance for her natal family: “She believed Father would help the Xin family. She even prepared to come beg Father to make a move. But Father does not look kindly on her. No sooner had she entered the marquis’s household than a string of things happened. What could she do? You do not know how hard it has been for her.”

To make that ten thousand taels he had skimmed off sound perfectly reasonable, Tang Mo went on glibly: “The day you smashed her tea cup, she had just received a letter from Father-in-law, along with banknotes of twenty thousand taels, to be brought to you for year-end entertaining. Before she could take them out, your flying tea cup scared her stiff.”

He looked at Tang Gang with mock solemnity and said: “You hurt her heart.”

Understanding dawned on Tang Gang. He had been wondering why he had not yet received the banknotes from Xin Kuan and had even thought the man had really turned his back. So they had come, and he had scared them off with a tea cup.

No, something was off.

He jerked his head up and demanded: “So she embezzled those twenty thousand taels?”

Tang Mo said blandly: “Not at all.” Then he bared eight white teeth in an infuriating grin and confessed without shame: “I intercepted that silver. Otherwise how do you think I have been doing so well lately?”

He spread his hands: “Do you think social calls with food and drink cost nothing? Father does not make arrangements for me, and Mother has no silver to subsidize me. I can only think of my own ways. I must say, opening doors with silver is exhilarating.”

“You little wretch!” Tang Gang was already regretful over the Xin family affair. Seeing Tang Mo’s attitude, his blood surged with anger. “Father-in-law gave you thirty thousand taels earlier, and you still privately intercepted another twenty thousand. Who gave you the courage?”

Tang Mo nimbly dodged the tea cup flung his way and retorted without missing a beat: “If Father were not so biased, would I do such things?”

He pointed at himself and said, righteous and shameless all at once: “Am I doing all this just for me? Is it not for the marquis’s household, to win Father some face? If I lived like a nobody, Father would be shamed along with me.”

He counted on his fingers with exaggerated seriousness and asked: “How much does Eldest Brother spend in a year, and how much do I spend?”

Then he finished with a flourish, smiling as he declared: “The silver I intercepted was all for you, my Father.”