Wind over Heavenly Porcelain

[Selected for the Golden Conch Online Literature Creation Support Program]

Winter, the tenth year of the Jiading era, Quanzhou.

On the ninth day of the month, the newly appointed superintendent of the Maritime Trade Office, Zhao Chongdu, and the prefect, Zhen Dexiu, held a prayer-for-favorable-winds ceremony at Jiuri Mountain. Xu Hua, the widowed daughter-in-law of Kuang Mingshan, owner of the "Green Jade Kiln," gathered many merchants at the foot of the mountain to seek an audience with the officials and plead for justice for those who perished in the "Shun'an" shipwreck.

The ceremony was interrupted, but rather than grow angry, Zhao and Zhen were delighted. They saw an opportunity to tackle the long-standing ills of Quanzhou's Maritime Trade Office...