Chapter 1615 - The Contact Chart
Lu Xuan's study was in a side courtyard of the second compound—a small courtyard that formed its own little world. Both its construction and landscaping represented the finest craftsmanship in the entire residence. The small courtyard had been designed by Li Xiaolü, the sole professional landscape architect at the Lingao Construction Company—which had made chief designer Mei Wan quite jealous.
No expense had been spared on this courtyard, which had cost about a third of the total budget for the whole residence. But Lu Xuan considered it money well spent. Compared to the main hall, this was his command center. In truth, aside from sleeping at night, he rarely went to the main compound; most of his time at home was spent in the study.
The study was exquisitely decorated, furnished largely with confiscated goods purchased from the General Affairs Bureau warehouse. At the moment he sat in the study, gazing at the miniature rock garden in the courtyard, absently flipping through the "contact chart" he had taken from the safe. His mind was a tangle.
The document in his hands was just a slim paper folder, yet it represented the sole fruit of five years of lying low in the Grand Library.
In the past, whenever he took out the "contact chart," his mood had always been buoyant.
You lot scheme and plot to set up your patronage systems, your knight's oaths, your private retinues... Hmph. The real knight is right here.
Over the years he had sponsored over a dozen students, most of whom had already entered various government departments and the military. He held a roster that gave him considerable satisfaction. And each year he continued to add new names—this roster was his capital for future maneuvering in the Elder Council, even in the empire at large.
But now five years had passed. The Elder Council's enterprise was advancing by leaps and bounds. Not only had the Council established a firm foothold in Hainan, it now commanded power that overawed all rivals. Though the Council's governance was still rough-hewn, it was constantly learning, constantly adjusting, growing ever more mature—which also meant the window for him to turn the tables was closing.
Lu Xuan's anxiety sprang precisely from this: if he couldn't soon secure an ideal position within the Elder Council and accumulate sufficient political resources, he wouldn't be able to maintain control of his team. He had taken them in, supported them, trained them—but ultimately he had to lead them upward and provide a bigger platform to maintain their cohesion and loyalty. Otherwise, all his years of patience and sacrifice would only serve as a wedding dress for someone else, and he would truly become a soy-sauce Elder dependent on others' patronage—something Lu Xuan absolutely could not accept.
He began to wonder whether his current capabilities could sustain such grand ambitions.
He had already sensed, albeit faintly, signs of wavering among his "clients." He hadn't taken it too seriously before. But Liu Hui's remarks today had made him realize that the crisis in his blueprint was staring him in the face.
His outburst at Zhang Lan and Liu Hui was less an emotional release than a deliberate warning. Liu Hui and Zhang Lan were both bedfellows; in the Lu household they ranked just below him. They were literate and had lived for years in Lingao, the transmigrants' heartland—their horizons far exceeded those of ordinary natives.
Lu Xuan's actual standing in the Elder Council was something they could observe firsthand. Though over these years Lu Xuan had been the sole provider for everyone in the manor, these people he sheltered had grown up and matured. Merely keeping them fed no longer sufficed for gratitude. Yet maintaining the current situation was already the limit of Lu Xuan's capacity. Of the dozen-plus naturalized citizens he had placed in the system, not one had yet become a cadre of any real rank. Most were still ordinary clerks or workers.
The students he sponsored at Fragrant-Grass graduated batch after batch and were assigned jobs. But once they entered the purview of the Civil Administration Commission's Personnel Office, Lu Xuan lacked the resources to influence their futures and fates.
Meanwhile, the people he was cultivating here in the manor looked out at the blazing, flourishing world beyond the walls, their eyes shining with eagerness. "With skills in letters and arms, one serves the emperor." The Elder Council certainly counted as an "emperor"—but Lu Xuan did not. And his Elder's halo was gradually dimming.
Those kept outside the system and raised in the manor were originally meant to become the business talent for his own commercial ventures—"white gloves" for future profit-taking, in other words.
But to do that, first you needed money, and second you needed power.
Unfortunately, he now had neither. He had a bit of face, but that only sufficed for small favors.
The construction gang now contracted out to Zhang Youfu wasn't something he could conveniently take back and run himself. That would look too ugly. After all, no Elder currently had a proper business of his own. Even the booming South Sea Coffee House was legally the Agricultural Committee's property, not the owner's.
In theory, Elders' dividends were quite substantial. But in practice, Elders had almost no access to those dividends. The Elder Council followed a high-accumulation policy; dividend accounts were effectively frozen. What an Elder could actually spend was only salary and allowances. At the end of each fiscal year, a certain amount of cash was released based on that year's currency-issuance situation.
Even so, the Finance sector was constantly dreaming up ways to "withdraw currency from circulation." Some Elders joked that the "General Affairs Office Special Items" sold at the special supply store were really just the local era's equivalent of "fancy pastries."
Lu Xuan's income was unfortunately among the lower tier for Elders. His base salary was no different from anyone else's, but in the allowances category he lagged far behind. After all, work at the Grand Library involved neither heavy labor nor exposure to wind, rain, sun, or dew, nor climbing mountains and crossing ridges, nor risking life and limb in factories or on battlefields. So the Grand Library's allowance scale was set at the lowest level—central-agency administrative positions. Thanks to his frequent side assignments, Lu Xuan received the highest allowances of anyone at the library.
For other Elders—Cheng Yongxin, for example, who sat across from him—her income was actually lower than his. But she had no burdens: she could live serenely on her salary alone. He could not. He had a large household, and the Elder Council's bizarre tax policies only aggravated his financial difficulties.
In fact, since last year the Lu household finances had been showing strain. The "precedents" for "gifts" to his clients dated from that period.
His advancement prospects limited, his financial support unsustainable—people were practical creatures. No matter how indebted they felt, once they realized their patron couldn't benefit them much, all that remained was gradual estrangement. As a result, even the manor was growing unstable. Liu Hui in particular—he silently cursed himself for sending her to the maid training program for foster training. The modern knowledge she had learned was useful to him, but it had also filled her head with a jumble of nonsense that made her hard to "manage." Her relationships with the other maids alone were a headache—who knew what she might be saying behind their backs.
I'll have to give her a proper lesson so she learns to fear me, he thought silently. Otherwise she would remain a hazard.
Of course, warning alone wouldn't solve the problem. The only way out was to strengthen himself rapidly. Otherwise, his years of effort would not only be wasted—they might become someone else's wedding dress. Worse, if the political winds shifted one day, a powerless, non-conformist Elder like himself would become the Cheka's target, and the Lu Family Manor might become ironclad evidence of his downfall. But there was no turning back now; no second chances. He had to press on.
"I can't wait any longer!" Lu Xuan shoved aside the pile of public-opinion analyses on his desk and shot to his feet, his expression resolute.
Ding-dong, ding-dong. The doorbell at the courtyard entrance was ringing. No one was allowed in here without his order.
"What is it?" he called irritably toward the gate.
"Master," Zhang Lan said timidly from outside, "Sister Hui—"
"Come in and speak!"
Zhang Lan hurried in and stood in the middle of the courtyard to report: "Sister Hui—she fainted..."
Lu Xuan frowned: Fainted from a mere paddling? When he had inspected the punishment, she had still been able to hold the railing and walk down to kneel on her own. It had been barely ten minutes.
"Take her back to her room to rest."
The next day, in Yu Eshui's office, Lu Xuan sat before the Director looking disheveled—hair unkempt, face haggard.
Yu Eshui had seen Lu Xuan in all his modes: earnest, joking, or pretending. But this defeated look was something new. Concerned, he asked: "What happened? Is something wrong?"
"Ah... I'm about to become the second Yang Xinwu—it's karma! Karma!" Lu Xuan let out a long sigh followed by a string of laments that left Yu Eshui thoroughly confused.
"What on earth is going on? What 'second Yang Xinwu'?"
"When the maid case broke, I was laughing at him—couldn't even manage one maid, made such a huge mess, a disgrace to the Elder Council. And now... now I've become a disgrace myself... Karma, karma!"
"Speak clearly—what disgrace?" Seeing Lu Xuan's indignant expression, Yu Eshui pressed him.
Lu Xuan saw Yu Eshui getting impatient and quickly straightened up, speaking with feeling: "Just some household trouble. Ah, Director, you know my situation..."
Yu Eshui nodded repeatedly: "Didn't you, like Old Xun, marry a local native's daughter? Your little life seems pretty comfortable."
"The little life is fine, but you know I also have a life secretary—"