Governing the country, enriching the people, an unparalleled imperial tutor

As the morning light bathed the courtyard of the Imperial Preceptor's residence, Lin Yanzhou had already been sitting in his study for half an hour.

Before him lay four volumes of documents, neatly arranged by Xiaolan. He turned to the third page of the gray volume, having already read the footer's annotation three times: "The gray-robed guest said: It's not about the quantity of things, but about having someone who remembers how to use them." The handwriting was Xiaolan's, small and steady, with a faint horizontal line drawn below, indicating that this record required special attention.

He added his own note below the horizontal line: "The markings on the silver ingot have not been confirmed. The vendor's address is on file pending further investigation."

Xiaolan stood by the desk, holding a scroll of black-bound paper that hadn't been unsealed yet. She handed it to Lin Yanzhou only after he put down his pen: "Grand Preceptor, this was delivered this morning from Heming Teahouse. The binding rope has been changed, and the end is now waxed." Lin Yanzhou untied the rope and pulled out the paper inside. The handwriting was even more hasty than before, as if it had been written in a hurry. It contained only three lines:

"Two people entered the old residence of Guandi Temple again. Their identities are unconfirmed, and they were not carrying any items. A corner of paper was sticking out from the side of one of them as he climbed over the wall."

Lin Yanzhou's gaze lingered on the words "paper corner." Last time, someone took something from that house—a tattered roll of curtain. The fact that they went again this time meant they hadn't found what they were looking for in that last roll of curtain.

"Are there people keeping watch over the old residence of Guandi Temple?" Lin Yanzhou asked.

Xiaolan: "They stayed. Two people took turns. The person who saw the person climbing over the wall this time was watching the back wall. Their position was right across the alley from the attic where they piled up miscellaneous items, so they could see all the movements on the back wall."

"Replace the person watching the back wall. Since they already know someone is watching from the outside, the next person who goes there will look up at the attic window first," Lin Yanzhou said. "Change to a less conspicuous location. Behind the dried fruit stall next to the fortune-telling stall at the alley entrance, that angle is just right to see the junction of the side wall and the main entrance."

Xiaolan didn't ask why the positions were changed. She simply bent down and wrote it down on a thin piece of wood, the sound of the pen tip gliding across the wood soft and clear. After finishing, she looked up at him: "There's one more thing. The teahouse in the south of the city changed its fourth batch of staff. The timing of the change coincides with the date in the Northern Border Army's grain allocation records, and it overlaps twice before that." She paused, "It was also completed on the same day. The change of staff and the grain allocation were done on the same day, operating in parallel."

Lin Yanzhou's gaze lingered on her face for a moment. He didn't respond immediately, but instead looked down and flipped to page four of the gray scroll, finding the record for the South City Teahouse. He remembered that the last time he saw this record, the "change of staff" and "allocation of military rations" were simply placed on the same page, not yet forming a complete correspondence. Now Xiaolan reminded him of the timeline he had previously preserved—two overlaps.

"Make a note of this," he said. "If these two lines continue to overlap, extract their records from different files and archive them separately side by side." Xiaolan responded by adding another note on the back of the wooden slip. Lin Yanzhou turned his gaze back to the new slip of paper: "The people who were removed from the old residence at the Guandi Temple should not return directly to the mansion. They should take a walk around outside first before coming back. After three months of surveillance, the other party has already sensed that they are being followed. Going in and out directly will only attract attention."

"I'll arrange for them to go to the East Market first," Xiaolan said. "They can also check if the cloth vendor is still there."

"We don't need to get too close to the vendor; just make sure he's still setting up his stall." Lin Yanzhou paused for a moment. "If he's not there, then find out where he moved to."

Xiaolan nodded and was about to turn and leave when Lin Yanzhou called out to her, "Wait a minute. You just said that the timing of the personnel changes and grain transfers overlapped. How many times did this happen?"

"Twice. The first time was three months ago, and the second time was half a month ago."

"How long was the interval between the two times?"

"Two and a half months."

"If the third overlap occurs, it should be soon," Lin Yanzhou said. "From now on, keep a close eye on the tea shops and the allocation of military rations. Report to me whenever either of them moves at the same time."

"When did the intelligence begin to be categorized?" Lin Yanzhou sat down at the desk.

"It's the third day since the Grand Preceptor left," Xiao Lan said. "More and more messages are coming from Heming Teahouse, and it's easy to miss them when they're all mixed together. I've categorized them—cyan is the movement of the border garrison, red is the movement records of former officials in the court, black is the activities of Zhang Lin's former subordinates, and gray is scattered news from other channels that doesn't yet fit into any category."

Lin Yanzhou opened the blue scroll, which contained information on the troop movements at the border, the time differences in the forwarding of documents between various departments, and the points of delay. Xiao Lan had marked the interval between the receipt and dispatch times on the corner of each page, accurate to the hour. He closed the blue scroll: "How many documents are in the black scroll?"

"Thirty-two articles. Ten of them are about confirming the identities of former subordinates, and twenty are in doubt. The other two are uncertain and are placed separately at the bottom."

Lin Yanzhou flipped to the bottom two pages. The first page recorded the owner of a teahouse in the south of the city, who had changed three batches of employees in three months, each batch having some connection with Zhang Lin's former subordinates. The second page recorded a peddler who traveled from street to street, appearing at fixed times but stopping at random places, his movements closely related to the location of Zhang Lin's residence.

Why are you unsure about these two points?

"As for the first teahouse, Xiaolan had the people from Heming Teahouse check it. The accounts are correct. They did change three batches of employees, but each batch worked at the teahouse for a very short time." She paused for a moment. "If there was no direct connection between those three batches of employees, how were they all summoned to the same teahouse? Sending three people to separate teahouses is itself a connection."

Lin Yanzhou didn't say "You did the right thing." He simply went through the chain of reasoning in Xiaolan's words in his mind, and then turned to the third page of the gray scroll—a cloth vendor in the East Market had left a silver ingot with engravings on the bottom, resembling the upper part of a character.

"Starting today, you will review all messages sent from Heming Teahouse. You will be in charge of organizing, classifying, prioritizing, and initially assessing their reliability. Mark any messages you are unsure about, and I will review the summary when I return. When I am not here, you will be in charge."

Xiaolan lowered her head slightly: "Husband, Xiaolan knows what to do."

Lin Yanzhou turned to Lin Xiaoyu: "You've lived in the capital for so long, have you ever met a gunpowder craftsman who can make firecrackers?"

Xiaoyu thought for a moment: "There is someone I can try to find. His surname is Zhou. He used to run a firecracker shop in the south of the city. He was very skilled, and his firecrackers were louder than those of other shops. Later, the shop closed down, and he disappeared."

Lin Yanzhou looked at her and said, "Tell me when you find out. If Master Zhou is still in the capital, bring him here. If not, find out where he went."

"Xiaoyu understands."

Xiaolan finished writing with her head down, then turned and left. Lin Yanzhou sat back down at his desk, looked at the new note again, and then reopened the gray scroll. On the edge of the page recording the old residence of the Guandi Temple, he added a new annotation: "Corner of paper. Possibly a fragment of an account book. Follow up." He then closed the scroll, turned his gaze to the rising sunlight outside the window, and mentally rearranged the three lines—the old residence of the Guandi Temple, the teahouse in the south of the city, and the silver ingots in the east market—they were not in the same place, but they were all beating the same rhythm. Regardless of who was directing this rhythm, the direction it pointed to was becoming clearer and clearer, and what he needed to do now was to secure all the threads he could hold onto before that direction became fully apparent.