Chapter 580: Secret Counsel

Old White Bull: Every time I ask for monthly tickets, the response is always so overwhelming — my gratitude and delight. A new volume begins; I will strive to write it brilliantly.

……

The tenth month of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Taiyuan.

The weather grew ever colder. A single blast of the deadly north wind would instantly turn faces ashen and lips purple. Fine, dense snowflakes drifted from the sky from time to time. Yet today was the ancient “Lower Primordial Festival,” and every household was grinding glutinous rice flour to make little dumplings. The joy of the festival diluted the deepening chill.

Taiyuan was famed as the most magnificent city under heaven, a city of splendor. This was the seat of the Prince of Jin’s estate. At this moment, within a residence on Zhaoyang Street by the Yinghui Gate, waves of clamor rose one after another. The residence looked ordinary from the outside, but inside it was a world of its own. Its multiple courtyards and wings were all lavishly decorated — Jingdezhen sacrificial red porcelain, the capital’s embroidered tapestries, Suzhou goldware — all laid out as if they cost nothing.