Xian Ling began her role as Duke Yuan Long's "eye and ear" modestly. Her first task: observe the Zhu family's movements and their visitors.
"The enemy you see is not always the true enemy," Yuan Long had told her. "The Zhu family may merely be a front for greater forces."
Using her connection with Li Feng, Xian Ling accessed basic information. She discovered that the Zhu family regularly received visitors from the capital—under the guise of trade.
"My father says they trade silk," Li Feng said as they walked through the market. "But the amount of silk they buy doesn't match what they sell."
"Then they're trading something else," Xian Ling murmured.
One day, while lingering near the Zhu residence under the pretext of buying medicinal herbs from their pharmacy, she noticed something unusual: a man dressed in modern capital fashion exiting through the back gate, his belt unnaturally heavy.
Gold.
He was carrying a great deal of gold.
She sent her first report to Yuan Long through a secret channel—a servant at the town inn who was his agent.
The reply came quickly:
"Continue. Discover where the gold goes."
At home, tensions escalated.
After her defeat in the necklace incident, Lady Wang grew more subtle in her attacks.
New rumors spread—that Xian Ling was involved in an improper relationship with a traveling merchant, and that this was the true source of the estate's funds.
"A woman's reputation is her weapon," Lady Wang remarked during dinner. "Once a girl loses her reputation, she loses everything."
Xian Ling did not respond.
Instead, the next day, she announced that she would donate half of the first soybean harvest's profits—expected in two months—to build a small school for the farmers' children.
"Why do you care about peasants' children?" her father asked in surprise.
"Because education is power. When farmers' lives improve, the land improves—and so do the harvests."
The reasoning was practical, but the effect was clear: her reputation began to shift—from a loose girl to a benevolent patron.