Reincarnation In The Shanghai Dynasty

Chapter10

Chapter 10 : The Command Center

The fire at the North Pavilion was still smoldering when Lin Xia led her daughters across the courtyard. They were covered in soot, their hair was singed, and they were exhausted—but they walked with their heads high. Behind them, the midwife was carried on a stretcher by two terrified guards.

They reached the West Wing. The golden doors were still open from the guards' search. Inside, the luxury was sickening. While the daughters had lived in a room with a leaking roof, Concubine Hua had been surrounded by ivory carvings and silk-covered walls.

"Mother," A-Mei whispered, looking at the ornate chaise where Hua used to sit. "Are we really staying here?"

"We aren't just staying here, A-Mei," Lin Xia said, her eyes scanning the room like a surveyor. "We are converting it. This is no longer a nursery. From this moment on, it is our Office."

Lin Xia didn't wait for permission. She began barked orders to the servants who were standing around in shock.

"You! Move that cradle to the servant's quarters. The boy will sleep there under the midwife’s watch. You! Clear that table. I need space for ledgers, not perfume jars. And you! Bring me the stable logs and the weaver’s contracts."

Master Chen wandered in, looking like a man who had lost his soul. He held a cup of wine with a trembling hand. "Lin Xia... you cannot just take over. This is Hua’s wing. What will people say?"

Lin Xia turned to him, and for a moment, a chill was in the air in the room.

"The people will say that I saved your head from the Imperial axe tonight, Chen," she said, her voice like a cold blade. "While you were crying over a fake son, I was stopping a coup.

Once the room was cleared of its useless trinkets, Lin Xia sat at the head of a long rosewood table. Her daughters sat around her.

"We have thirty days to produce the Tribute Silk," Lin Xia began. "But we have a problem. The Physician and Lord Feng didn't just frame us. A-Ling, tell them what you found in the warehouse logs."

A-Ling, the Accountant, opened a charred book she had saved from the fire. "Mother, the fire wasn't just to kill the midwife. Someone emptied Warehouse Seven before the fire started. We have no raw silk left. We have the looms, but we have nothing to weave."

The sisters gasped. Without raw silk, they couldn't fulfill the Emperor's contract.

"Then we buy it from the market," A-Zhen suggested.

"No," Lin Xia said. "The Merchant Guild under Lord Feng has already frozen the market. No one will sell to the 'Traitorous Chen Family.' They want to starve us of resources so we fail the thirty-day deadline."

A-Jiao, still smelling of smoke, leaned forward. Her sharp eyes moved to the map of the estate.

"If we can't buy it, and we don't have it," A-Jiao whispered, her quick wit sparking, "then we have to find where they hid what they stole from us. Lord Feng wouldn't burn raw silk; it's too valuable. He’s hiding it."

"Where?" A-Mei asked.

"Lord Yan’s estate," A-Jiao said. "The Blind Lord. He’s the only one in the city with a warehouse large enough that the Imperial Guards aren't allowed to search because of his noble rank."

Lin Xia smiled. The youngest had found the target.

"A-Mei," Lin Xia said, looking at her eldest daughter. "You are the Actor. Tomorrow, you go to Lord Yan. You aren't going to beg for the silk. You are going to tell him that his business partner, Lord Feng, is about to be executed for treason, and he doesn't want to be caught holding the stolen goods."

Just as Lin Xia was about to dismiss them, a heavy knock sounded at the door. A servant entered, looking pale.

"My Lady... a carriage has arrived at the front gate. It has the seal of the Blind Lord Yan. He says he isn't here to see the Master. He is here to see... the 'Lady who survived .'"

Lin Xia froze. She had never told anyone . How did a blind man she had never met know the secret.