Chapter 9

Prefect Luo was in the hall handling official duties when he heard the report. He let out a “Hmm,” raised his head, and was momentarily stunned upon seeing who it was. “It’s you?”

Only half a month had passed since the death of the Prince of Dai, so he naturally remembered Zhan Jianxing.

Zhan Jianxing stepped forward and bowed. “This humble commoner pays respects to the prefect.”

Prefect Luo waved for her to rise and studied her intently. “—What has happened in your household?”

For the position of Study Companion, no matter who came to apply, it shouldn’t have been this young boy who had just narrowly escaped the jaws of Prince Dai Manor. Logically, he should want to stay as far away from the manor as possible. That such an unreasonable situation had occurred meant something else must have gone wrong, forcing him to come here.

With Prefect Luo’s age and experience, he had near-perfect insight into worldly affairs and immediately grasped the crux of the matter.

Zhan Jianxing hadn’t expected Prefect Luo to be so understanding. Previously, the prefect had been upright and unyielding, resisting the pressure from Prince Dai Manor to save her and her mother’s lives. Now, his tone was gentle, like a kind elder. She had been holding back her emotions until now but could no longer contain them. As she recounted the events at home, two tears welled up involuntarily, but before they could roll down her cheeks, she quickly wiped them away.

Prefect Luo’s eyes flickered. After a moment of contemplation, he asked, “Zhan Jianxing, why didn’t you simply ask me to intervene and reclaim your family’s property for you?”

Zhan Jianxing steadied herself and bowed again. “First, as a commoner, I have no right to bypass the proper channels and appeal directly to the prefect. Second, my grandparents are still alive, and the blood ties between me and my uncles cannot be severed. If further conflicts arise in the future, how would I handle them?”

She couldn’t keep coming to Prefect Luo for help. She was a mere commoner, while Prefect Luo was a high-ranking fourth-grade official. The gap between their statuses was vast. Even this time, there was no reason for the prefect to help her. Bringing it up would only invite embarrassment.

According to the law, as long as grandparents or parents were alive, children were not allowed to divide family property. Violators would be punished with a hundred lashes. This was why Zhan Jianxing’s uncles had been so brazen, openly ransacking their brother’s home in broad daylight. Even if reported to the authorities, they could argue they were moving the property for the elderly couple. Under the law, children were not permitted to hold private wealth while their parents lived.

The walk to the prefecture government had been short, but Zhan Jianxing had already thought everything through. After suffering repeated blows, every path forward seemed blocked by thorns. Yet, in her anger and defiance, a perilous idea had emerged in her mind.

She was determined to compete for the position of Study Companion to the Royal Grandson. It might sound audacious to the point of absurdity, but she had no other options left.

Prefect Luo watched her, a faint smile appearing at the corners of his lips. “So, you plan to use a tiger to fend off wolves?”

Zhan Jianxing thought for a moment, then nodded.

“You strike me as a newborn calf unafraid of tigers,” Prefect Luo remarked. “It’s not a bad idea. But your situation is different from others. The entire Prince Dai Manor will undoubtedly harbor malice toward you. Aren’t you afraid?”

“I am very afraid,” Zhan Jianxing admitted honestly. “But whatever the manor plans to do to me is a problem for the future. Right now, my family has no food left for tomorrow. If I don’t enter the tiger’s den, I’ll starve to death at home.”

To Prefect Luo, the events in the Zhan family were nothing unusual. Throughout his career, he had seen how powerful rural clan forces could be and how difficult life was for widowed women. Xu Shi, unwilling to remarry for the sake of her child, had no choice but to endure the torment from her in-laws.

How many women in this world suffer in silence and pass away unnoticed.

Yet the Zhan family’s circumstances were anything but ordinary.

Zhan Jianxing, a mere child, possessed such courage and integrity that she was willing to risk her life to launch a desperate counterattack against her own uncles.

Was it filial? Not entirely, as she was defying her own kin. But to say she was unfilial would be even more wrong, for she was protecting her mother and her home.

In this world, nothing is more sacred than one’s parents. True filial piety lies in honoring them.

Prefect Luo pressed further, “Have you considered what would become of your mother if something were to happen to you in Prince Dai Manor?”

Zhan Jianxing hesitated before replying, “This humble subject believes that perhaps nothing would happen—”

Seeing her pause, Prefect Luo encouraged her, “Go on.”

“It’s just my own speculation, but I’ve heard that the Emperor in the capital is wise and just. He issued a stern reprimand to Prince Dai Manor and withheld the conferment of the Prince of Dai’s title. Therefore, I thought that for the sake of the title, the nobles of Prince Dai Manor would likely behave more cautiously for the time being.”

“And what else?”

“If Prince Dai Manor remains incorrigible and insists on causing trouble, the likelihood of them targeting me might be even lower. The Emperor has just cleared my mother and me of wrongdoing. If Prince Dai Manor were to relentlessly seek revenge against me, wouldn’t that be openly defying the Emperor’s decree? If something were to happen to me in Prince Dai Manor, it would only further jeopardize the Prince of Dai’s succession.”

As she spoke, Zhan Jianxing’s voice grew quieter, for this was purely her own conjecture—immature and possibly naive. If Zhu Xunshuo lacked such rationality and chose to act recklessly, there would be little she could do.

Yet Prefect Luo finally revealed a clear smile.

Their positions were unequal, and so was the information they possessed. From what he knew, the court would not consider approving any titles for Prince Dai Manor during the three-year mourning period for the late Prince of Dai. Petitions for conferment would be futile. As for afterward, it would depend on their conduct.

This struck at the very heart of Prince Dai Manor’s concerns.

The eldest Prince of Dai had already passed away, and his descendants, lacking both the Emperor’s favor and the authority of their elders, could no longer rely on their status. Having tasted the bitterness of being reduced to commoners, Prince Dai Manor would not wish to relive it. Thus, they would have no choice but to learn humility.

If they failed to learn, the solution was simple: no title for them.

As the presiding official of the Prince of Dai case, Prefect Luo had been closely monitoring its aftermath. He had also received the Emperor’s edict, which allowed him to make such confident deductions. Yet for Zhan Jianxing, at her tender age, to arrive at a similar conclusion based on mere hearsay was truly remarkable.

This child, though still young, already showed signs of extraordinary promise.

Suppressing his admiration, Prefect Luo said, “This official can grant your request. Moreover, I will send someone to reclaim the property taken from you, as a reward for solving a dilemma of mine.”

Before she could feel joy, Zhan Jianxing was startled: “—Prefect, why say such things? What merit does this humble subject have? And—is it really settled? Doesn’t the Prefect wish to test my knowledge?”

Though Prince Dai Manor was filled with wolves and tyrants, they were still royal nobles. To become a Study Companion among them—shouldn’t there be some selection process?

She looked utterly bewildered, mixed with a trace of fear, her cheeks still flushed red from the wind even after standing in the hall for so long. At this moment, she appeared just like any ordinary young boy.

Luo Zhifu chuckled: “You ask many questions, but in fact, all your questions can be summed up into one. For nearly half a month now, I have been tasked by imperial decree to select study companions for the royal grandsons of Prince Dai Manor. Zhan Jianxing, you’re a clever lad—care to guess how many candidates I’ve found so far?”

A flash of insight struck Zhan Jianxing. Given Luo Zhifu’s question, if she still couldn’t grasp the implication, she’d be unworthy of his earlier praise. She blurted out: “Only… myself?”

Luo Zhifu nodded: “Correct.”

How could there be so few applicants for such a position serving royal grandsons?

Zhan Jianxing found it unbelievable. She had thought people would be fighting tooth and nail for the opportunity.

Some were born fortunate, inheriting wealth without lifting a finger. But most toiled their entire lives just for a full belly—breaking through social barriers was that difficult. Given such an opportunity, why wouldn’t common youths see it as a ladder to advancement and compete fiercely?

Noticing her confusion, Luo Zhifu explained: “Having not grown up here, you’re unfamiliar with Prince Dai Manor’s reputation. But given your own experience, you can deduce how the manor typically conducts itself. Even among ordinary commoners, few are willing to associate with them, let alone established gentry families.”

Still puzzled, Zhan Jianxing ventured: “If I may be so bold—surely there must be those undaunted by difficulty who’d dare seek noble connections?”

“Such individuals’ character speaks for itself. How could I, in good conscience, place such people beside royal grandsons as daily companions? Would that not betray His Majesty’s paternal concern?” Luo Zhifu countered.

At this point, Zhan Jianxing finally understood.

The recruitment of study companions for Prince Dai’s grandsons could be summarized simply: No respectable family would send their children, and those willing to come weren’t respectable.

As an upright official who valued both reputation and people’s welfare, Luo Zhifu refused to forcibly conscript qualified candidates. Yet he disdained those who volunteered, seeing their ambition as too naked. Thus after all this time, not a single suitable candidate had been found.

It was in this awkward situation that Luo Zhifu had described Zhan Jianxing’s arrival as “solving a dilemma.”

He didn’t examine her scholarly abilities because they didn’t matter—the royal grandsons already had Hanlin academicians as tutors, needing no instruction from companions. What did matter was the companion’s moral character.

While tutors for the royal grandsons were dispatched from the capital, the selection of companions was delegated to local officials—both arrangements deliberately bypassing Prince Dai Manor, revealing the emperor’s profound distrust of the establishment.

The previous Prince of Dai (the grandfather) was dead and needed no discussion. His sons like Zhu Xunshuo had grown into irredeemable characters. Only the young grandsons might still be salvageable.

This layer of imperial intention was clear to Luo Zhifu, hence his extreme caution. The edict for selecting companions had actually arrived alongside the verdict for Prince Dai’s case. That very day, he personally went to release Xu Shi and her son from prison. Yet after all this time searching, the only suitable candidate he’d found was Zhan Jianxing—who had nearly been wrongfully executed in that same case.

The unpredictability and coincidences of life’s encounters left Luo Zhifu with an indescribable feeling. In the end, he offered Zhan Jianxing a word of comfort: “There’s no need to fear. Your guess is correct. The Prince Dai Manor is still in mourning. Only after the funeral rites are completed can the matter of the Royal Grandson’s studies be addressed. I will send someone to notify you. By the time you go there, even if the Prince Dai Manor originally harbored some resentment toward you, they should have calmed down by then.”

Having said all that needed to be said, Zhan Jianxing knew she could no longer disturb Luo Zhifu’s official duties—for him to speak this much was already considered condescending.

She tactfully took her leave without a word, and Luo Zhifu didn’t detain her, instructing the gatekeeper to see her out.