I am Shen Chengyu, the eldest legitimate daughter of the Xingyang Shen clan.
For generations, the Shen clan has overseen Aocang.
Every brick, every cellar, every tunnel in the granary city bears the footsteps of the Shen family.
When the court's grain shipments enter the storehouses, the amount is whatever my Shen family says it is.
My grandmother, Madam Lu, is the sole surviving member of her generation of the Xingyang Lu clan.
Half of Aocang's land deeds are in the imperial family's hands, and the other half are in hers.
In peaceful times, they are just pieces of paper. In times of chaos, whoever holds the deeds controls Aocang.
My maternal grandfather's surname is Zhang. The Zhang clan alone knows how to store grain in the greatest granary under heaven.
My second aunt by marriage, Madam Wei, is the deputy leader of the Grain Transport Guild. All thirty-six guilds of the grain transport network answer her summons.
Aocang is the greatest granary under heaven, the lifeline of war, and the throat of the Great Yan Empire.
The Shen family guards the granary, the lifeline, the throat.
In the twenty-first year of Jingyou, someone killed my father
and tried to seize my Shen family's granary.
They thought the Shen family was easy prey.
Then I'll show them:
My Shen family has never been merely the keeper of Aocang.
For a hundred years, my family has survived through more than good fortune.
Ledgers can record grain, and they can record lives.
Whoever killed my father, whether you are royalty or nobility,
even if you hold power over the entire court, I will make your whole clan pay with their lives.
(I'm not being edgy. I'm an adult.)
