Mingzhe had spent the first few hours of the morning balancing the family accounts. The one thing both his parents had been happy to hand off to him. The sheer number of accounts and vaults and daily expenditures was migraine-inducing, and Mingzhe was convinced that the only people who wanted this much gold and this much work were the fools who had no idea what it took to actually handle it all.
Also, why did fabric cost so much? Yunli and Linlin had ordered a dozen new bolts in a range of colors for something Mingzhe was sure they considered important, but he had no idea what it was. They did it every six months or so. Mingzhe would never have noticed if he didn't have to pay the atelier two hundred gold talons every time. It was nothing compared to their overall household costs, but it still seemed extravagant.
And thread? The thread was almost as expensive, but had to be purchased from three different weavers. One day, he would work up the courage to ask his sister and mother why these things were necessary and why they cost so much.
The knock on his office door was a welcome distraction.
"Enter." He glanced up, expecting to see a guard with more reports, but was surprised to see Lord Yin himself step inside. Mingzhe rocked to his feet. "Lord Yin."
"Lord Zhao. Please." He waved Mingzhe back to his seat and gestured to one of the empty chairs in front of Mingzhe's desk. "May I?"
"Of course." Mingzhe returned to his seat as the older Lord sat down. "I apologize; did we have a meeting?"
"No, no. It is mine to apologize. I was in the neighborhood and thought I would stop in. I can leave if you are expecting someone."
Mingzhe shook his head, relaxing. "No, it's fine."
Lord Yin glanced at the papers covering his desk. "Ah, the family accounts?"
Mingzhe nodded, exhausted.
"Worst part of the job," Lord Yin confided. It made Mingzhe grin. "Can you set it aside for a moment?"
"Of course. Is something wrong?" Lord Yin was friendly with everyone and almost universally well liked, he'd even been a nominee for regent when Chenzhou was younger, but Marian's husband had been chosen instead, but he'd never shown up at Mingzhe's office like this before.
Lord Yin sighed and stopped looking so friendly and became far more serious. "I suppose that depends on your definition of it. I think very highly of you, Lord Zhao. You are far ahead of your peers in your leadership and combat skills, and you possess a level head that few young men do at your age."
Mingzhe shifted, uncomfortable with the praise. "Thank you?"
Lord Yin offered him a small smile. "These rumors…"
Mingzhe winced, then remembered himself and did his best to affect an unbothered expression. "I've heard them."
"Someone is trying to hurt you." Lord Yin frowned. "I have served this estate for sixty years. I grew up here, and I have never seen a campaign like this. Someone is trying to destroy you."
"I'm aware." Mingzhe snapped.
Lord Yin paid no mind to the flash of temper. It was understandable after all. "The sheer amount of effort and time that has gone into it. Not everyone would be capable of that."
Mingzhe sighed. "There is an investigation into it right now. I have full confidence Lady Ye and Lord Rong will find out who is behind it."
"Even when they do, that will not be the end of this." Lord Yin cautioned. "The trial will only bring more attention to it; whoever it is will have one final stage to do what damage they can."
"They will be worried about saving themselves at that point, not me," Mingzhe argued.
"I would not count on that." Lord Yin frowned. "They have gone this far. There is no guarantee Lady Ye and Lord Rong won't catch an agent instead of the mastermind. Gold can drive people to do crazy things."
"Gold won't let them breathe through a noose."
"It could feed someone else." Human motivation was a complicated thing. Sometimes it was straightforward greed, other times it was love so powerful it moved mountains. Lord Yin had benefited from it and been burned by it plenty of times in his life so far. He knew better than to believe he could predict how it would go. Or to count on it to go a specific way, no matter how much evidence was presented. "You can never truly predict what someone else will do, Lord Zhao. Be careful believing you can count on it."
"As you've said, I am no fool." Mingzhe had worked and studied hard to get where he was, to fulfil this duty. He wouldn't risk it by miscalculating over something so obvious.
"No, you are not." Lord Yin agreed, but there was something off in the way he said it. Like he agreed, but didn't think it changed anything. "It won't always be up to you." He paused. "And it won't always be up to Lord or Lady Ye."
The words hit like a hammer blow to Mingzhe's chest. No one had commented directly on his closeness with Chenzhou and Eirian besides his family in the privacy of their home. He wasn't foolish enough to believe no one was talking about it, but he had thought, stupidly hoped, that the fact that no one was talking where he wasn't supposed to hear meant that no one had a real issue with it. They hadn't even done anything really…physical yet, Mingzhe wasn't even sure he cared about that part of it, since they were already dedicated to each other completely and he didn't have much…experience with it. It hadn't been a priority or even a very strong desire before he'd gotten to know Chenzhou or Eirian.
And now he was terrified of the two of them getting caught up in whatever these rumors were, and it was starting to sound like Lord Yin thought there might be some truth to the rumors.
"I did not know about the ambush." Mingzhe didn't like having to say it. It hurt, which made him angry and defensive, even when he knew logically that he didn't need to be.
"I didn't say you did." Lord Yin responded immediately. "I don't believe you did." He added quickly. "But I also believe it doesn't matter. You may well be completely faultless, but that is not the point."
"Then what is?"
Lord Yin sighed, as if Mingzhe were the one being irrational. "The damage has already been done. Even if you are utterly vindicated, people will never forget what has been said. It will linger in their minds like poison, and the next time someone says something that's not anywhere near as dangerous, it will amplify it until it is. It will just continue to build and build, and in the end, it will eclipse everything you do in your life."
Mingzhe stared at him, horrified. "You think that is the only possible outcome of this?"
"No." Lord Yin was resolute. "I think there is one other option."
Mingzhe growled when he fell silent.
Lord Yin sighed. "But I do not think you are going to like that one either."
"Spit it out." It was more disrespectful than Mingzhe should have been. The Yins weren't as powerful as the Zhao's, but Lord Yin was his elder and far more experienced. Such a show of disrespect could have gotten Mingzhe in a lot of trouble if anyone else had been around to see it.
"Step away."
Mingzhe recoiled. "What?"
"Step away. Now. Before anything, the rumors, the investigation, go any further."
"That would be admitting guilt." Mingzhe would never, ever do that.
"To some, but not everyone. If you step away quietly now, you can claim whatever you'd like as the reason, and it will be believable enough that you could live in peace for the rest of your life."
"Stepping down will just magically erase the rumors?" Mingzhe scoffed.
"No, but what gives them power now is partly because everyone can see you. You are such a public figure that people listen to everything that is said about you. That has its own power. And its own cost."
"I'm aware."
Lord Yin raised an eyebrow at his tone. "Then you are also aware that it also has a cost on everyone associated with you. Your family. Your friends." Chenzhou and Eirian. He didn't say their names, but Mingzhe understood what he was saying. "This is the time to think of them, instead of just yourself."
"I am." Mingzhe ground out, but deep in his heart, there was a kernel of doubt he couldn't quite shake. He was not going to allow them to be hurt by this, but if he was vindicated by the investigation, he believed they wouldn't be.
Lord Yin, who had decades of experience in the court of the Camelia, much more than Mingzhe, Chenzhou, or Eirian, was saying something different.
Which one of them was right?
~ tbc