In the seventeenth year of Jingrui, on the night of the Lantern Festival, Wen Xuanzhi, the Grand Secretary, and all seventy-three members of his household were wiped out in a single night. Only one person survived.
Three years later, the Fushi Pawnshop opened in Fruit Lane, the capital. Its owner, Su Qi, greeted everyone with a smile and could calculate accounts better than anyone. The powerful and wealthy assumed he was merely a shrewd merchant. No one knew he kept half a bloodstained ledger close to his chest.
It recorded every shipment of grain rerouted on the night of the massacre, every ship that changed course, and every name.
He didn't kill his enemies. He simply entered their names in the ledger one by one, then collected every debt, with interest.
The Grand Preceptor invited him for tea, the prince's mansion kept an eye on his shop, and old associates from the northern frontier whispered “Young Master” from the shadows. But he had only just made his first move in this game.
The green-girdled beetle crosses the river not to settle in. It comes to collect a debt.
