The first drop of rain hit Su Wan's nose exactly seventy-two hours after the Third Prince's departure. By midnight, the sky didn't just rain; it collapsed.
Thunder rolled across the North River like the drums of war. Inside the Su Manor, Su Wan stood by her window, her hand resting on the jade bracelet that hummed with a quiet, protective energy. While the rest of the province slept, her household was a hive of activity.
"Madam! The wood has all been moved to the high warehouse," Yan reported, his clothes drenched. Behind him, her two sons, Su Ren and Su He, were slumped in the corner, their hands blistered from a week of manual labor they never thought they'd perform.
"And the townspeople?" Su Wan asked, her eyes fixed on the horizon.
"They think you've gone mad," Su Ren muttered, his voice raspy from his recent "cleansing." "Buying up every scrap of timber in the three neighboring counties... we're paupers again, Mother. If that levee doesn't break, we won't even have wood to cook our last meal."
"It will break," Su Wan said, her voice like iron. "Now, get the lanterns ready. When the water comes, it won't be just mud and debris. It will be opportunity."
At dawn, a sound like a thousand stampeding horses shook the earth. The North River levee—the one the Third Prince had boasted was "unbreakable" snapped like a twig.
The roar of the water was deafening. Within minutes, the lower streets of the city were waist-deep in a surging, brown torrent. The granaries, the pride of the Third Prince's secret army, were swallowed by the silt. Merchants wailed as their goods floated away, and the wealthy elite scrambled onto their roofs, clutching their silk robes.
By noon, the rain stopped, but the city was a lake of despair. And Su Wan was the only one with a dry warehouse.
"Master Su! Please!" A wealthy merchant banged on the Su Manor's reinforced gates. "I need timber for rafts! My warehouse is sinking, and my family is trapped! I'll pay ten gold pieces for a single beam!"
Su Wan stepped onto the balcony, looking down at the crowd of desperate rich men standing in the ankle-deep mud of her driveway.
"Ten gold?" Su Wan's laughter was cold and clear. "Ten gold wouldn't buy you a toothpick in this manor. The price of timber has gone up, gentlemen. Supply and demand."
"You're a monster!" someone shouted. "Profiteering off a disaster?"
"I'm a woman who warned the Prince of this disaster four days ago," Su Wan replied, her voice carrying over the crowd. "While you were buying silk and wine, I was preparing for your survival. The price is fifty gold per beam, and I will only accept payment in land deeds or gold bullion. No promissory notes."
The crowd erupted in fury, but Su Wan simply turned to Yan. "If they don't like the price, let them swim to the next county. Oh wait... I bought all the timber there, too."
By sunset, the Su Manor's courtyard was no longer filled with dust and debt. It was filled with desperate merchants signing over their shops, warehouses, and ancestral lands just to save their lives.
As the stars began to reflect in the floodwaters, Su Wan sat in her study, drinking a cup of spring-water tea. Her "ruined" family was now the largest landowner in the province.
"Madam," Yan whispered, entering the room. "The Third Prince's messenger is here. He looks... terrified."
Su Wan set down her tea, her rejuvenated face glowing in the candlelight. "Tell him the Matriarch is busy counting her new assets. If the Prince wants to discuss the 'North River Flood' now, he'll have to wait in line behind the people who actually paid their debts."
She looked at her jade bracelet. She had lost 300 million in one life, but she had just made its equivalent in gold in a single day.
I told you, she thought, I'm rewriting the ending. And I'm just getting started.