At the third quarter of the *mao* hour, morning dew was seeping from the grape trellis in the East Side Courtyard of the Lu Mansion. Purplish-blue vines wound their way up the vermilion pillars, casting diamond-like patterns of light and shadow upon the stone table. Jiang Wan held the ledger she had just received, her fingertips pausing over the red-ink notation that read, "Yuelai Silk Shop Changes Hands," the edges of the pages frayed from repeated thumbing. Lu Jingyuan stood at her side, his fingertips gently pushing aside the drooping grape vines; a silver hairpin at his cuff brushed against the edge of the ledger, its twin lotus pattern aligning precisely with the gold-thread embroidery on her wedding gown, resembling a pair of reunited stars from another lifetime.
"The rice shops in the West City, the tea firms in the North City, and the silk shop in the East City," his voice was mixed with the crisp chill of the morning dew, "seventeen long-established shops have changed hands within three months, and the new proprietors are all nobodies." Before his voice faded, a pair of koi fish beneath the trellis suddenly leaped out of the water, their tails shattering the pool's reflections of the moon and causing Jiang Wan's fingertips to tremble.
As she gazed at the frolicking koi, she suddenly recalled the day the Yan Family fell, when the commoners of Vermilion Bird Street cheered while holding lanterns. Mr. Zhou's words still echoed in her ears: "When all these new shops op…
Chapter 262