Chapter 168 — River Works

Wei Fan came out of Cuizhen Pavilion.

When Wei Wan heard that Song Yan had invited Wei Fan to take part in the dredging of the canal, it was like a pie falling from the sky, and she was overjoyed. "Is this true? How did Song Yan put it to you? What exactly did he say? How much silver does he want? Which section did he allot to you?" She dismissed the maids serving in the room and pulled Wei Fan down onto the large heated kang by the window.

Excitedly, Wei Fan recounted their conversation to Wei Wan, every last detail.

Wei Wan's mind began to race.

With river works of this kind, the price was set by the Ministry of Works, the money came from the Ministry of Revenue, and the labor was drawn from the corvée levies of the various prefectures and counties. All they could do was take on the contracted supply of some stone; and since they were not in the habit of dealing in such stone, they would naturally need to find a merchant of real substance. Four sections of the river—that was a business worth over a million taels. Let those merchants advance part of the funds, and there would surely be men fighting tooth and nail for the chance. If one contented oneself with only the margin in between, the profit would be smaller, but it was safe, and there was no worry...

She seemed to see heaps upon heaps of silver pouring ceaselessly into her own purse, and she grew wildly excited. "Little brother, you must hold on to this. If we can pull off this deal, our family will have capital afterward—whether we open a shop or go into the ten-warehouse trade, we will have silver. And then it will not matter even if you want to keep your distance from Song Yan..."

At the mention of this, it was as if a ladle of ice water had been poured over his head, and the hot blood in Wei Fan's veins cooled a few degrees. "This—this isn't quite right, is it? To burn the bridge after crossing the river—the man meant well, inviting me to take a share..."

"Did you not say that this Song Yan is ruthless and vicious, no good man at all?" Wei Wan's face could not hold up when Wei Fan exposed her inconsistency, and she could not help snapping, "First it is this out of your mouth, then it is that out of your mouth—what is it you actually want?"

"I—I... I did not say anything," Wei Fan murmured, remembering Song Yan's cold, clear eyes. Suddenly a chill rose in his heart. "Or perhaps we should not touch this business at all... I have heard that with river works, one careless move and a case of embezzlement breaks out, and who knows how many great ministers of the court have been stripped of office and beheaded over it... It is truly not a good business! Otherwise, Gu Yu and Song Yan are neither of them men short of silver—why would they think to bring me in..." The more he spoke, the more reasonable he felt, and his tone grew firm. "We had best have less dealings with Song Yan. Mother has said it too: peace and safety are the blessing. What is not ours, we should not force..."

Wei Fan's words cooled Wei Wan as well, and she began to think the matter over in earnest.

Her brother was right. A thing that others could not beg or scheme their way into—how had it suddenly fallen upon her brother's head?

Or perhaps trouble was about to break on that side, and Song Yan wanted her brother to bear the blame?

Otherwise there was no explaining why Song Yan would take the initiative to befriend her brother...

The more she thought, the more fishy the whole affair seemed.

Could it be that Song Yan had fixed on this design from the very start, when he first began to associate with her brother?

"You are right!" Wei Wan said to Wei Fan with a frown. "This matter..." She had meant to say "let it go at that," but at the thought of silver pouring like water into another man's pocket, her heart ached unbearably, and the words that came out changed. "We must think it over carefully... best to discuss it with your brother-in-law... And you—you must quietly make some inquiries... What if Song Yan really does mean to give you a hand? Would we not have let the chance slip away for nothing! Such chances are not many... once you pass this village, there may not be this shop again... We must think it through carefully..."

Discuss it with her brother-in-law. That struck Wei Fan as a good idea, and he urged Wei Wan to send for Zhang Yuanming at once.

But Wei Wan's heart stirred, and she smiled. "What is your hurry? Your brother-in-law is going over the accounts with the household stewards. Did Song Yan not also say that this matter has barely one stroke of the character written? Do you mean to shout it abroad for all to hear at this stage? Naturally we must wait until your brother-in-law is free, and then I will put it to him nicely." She instructed Wei Fan further, "This matter is of great consequence. You must not breathe a word of it to anyone else—even to Wang Qinghai, you must keep it sealed tight. Do you understand?"

"That... is not quite right, is it?"

"You blockhead," Wei Wan thought. The Wang family had made its fortune on river works for the Ministry of Works, and that Wang Qinghai was a man who could not keep anything in his heart; if he let slip a careless word, with Wang Yu's shrewdness and ability, he would force his way in, and then even Song Yan and Gu Yu would have a headache over it. But this she could not say to Wei Fan, who took his friends too seriously.

Wei Wan drew a deep breath, and only then said, "If this matter falls through, how will you explain it to Wang Qinghai then? And how will the Wang family look at you? Can you not conduct yourself with a little more steadiness?"

"That is true!" Wei Fan scratched his head sheepishly, gave his sister a few assurances, then spoke a while of his hopes and a while of his worries, tossed this way and that by gain and loss, until the hour for the evening meal drew near. Mindful of his mother alone at home, he declined his sister's urging to stay and returned to the Jining Marquis's mansion.

Zhang Yuanming had been kept by his father to dine in the outer courtyard. Wei Wan ate a little carelessly, then lay down on the kang to think the matter over.

When she married, her parents had done all in their power to prepare a dowry of a hundred and twenty carriers; it looked splendid enough, but it would not bear close scrutiny, and among her sisters-in-law her own foundation was the thinnest. Had her father-in-law not often quietly slipped them some silver, even the ordinary exchanges of courtesy between kin would have left them straitened. If this matter could be brought off, she would not have to be so hard-pressed for money. But if Zongyao learned of it, he would certainly tell his father. Brocade and silk move the hearts of men; if her father-in-law put in a hand, what would be left for the Wei family? And what would become of Wei Fan?

Wei Wan decided not to tell Zhang Yuanming.

So long as she kept her ears open, it was not as if she could not find out the news herself!

When the money was made, brother and sister would split it evenly—no, her brother would take the larger share, and she the smaller, that would do. She needed only enough private silver for entertaining kin and friends; all the rest could go to her brother.

From this matter, Wei Wan's thoughts turned to Wei Fan's marriage.

Husband and wife were one flesh; she had slapped Dou Zhiwei's face, and her brother had lost face as well—this much she understood. The reason she had proposed bringing Dou Yan in within the hundred days was in fact to use the occasion to sound out Dou Yan's standing in the Dou household.

The Second Madam had come forward in person to refuse the proposal, which showed that Dou Yan was still held in some regard in the Dou family.

She wondered how large a dowry Dou Yan would bring.