by Rose Lerner
There was a passage circled in fresh ink at the center of the page. I read through the lines, recognizing a passage from the Analects. A dot of ink appeared beneath one character.
Chen Xi Hao had missed a character in the memorization section. Examination lore claimed that a single character could be the difference between success or failure. In this case, Chen had still passed. Perplexed, I looked into the drawer and saw the blue cover of another examination booklet.
My hand trembled as I opened the second one. The same exact error occurred in the Analects passage.
Had Chen Xi Hao copied the passage? Cheating would strip him of any rank or title. His family would be disgraced.
Holding my breath, I scanned to the name stamped at the end.
It wasn’t Huang’s.
My relief was short-lived. According to Gao, my brother had started inquiring about Chen Xi Hao a month before the scholar was killed. Was Chen a friend or a rival? Why would my brother be searching for information on Chen?
The only answer I could think of was that Huang was trying to either protect Chen or destroy him. A third possibility came to me a moment later. Huang could be trying to protect himself.
I folded the booklets back as I’d found them. Huang wouldn’t do that, I told myself over and over. He wouldn’t cheat.
He’d be dishonored among the scholar-elite and reduced to poverty. Our entire family would be barred from taking the exams ever again.
I jumped at a knock on the door. Ink. I’d come in here to get ink.
“I’ll be right there,” I called out.
But it wasn’t Chang-min. It was our housekeeper, telling me that someone was at the gate with an urgent matter.
I put the booklets back into the drawer. As I pushed it closed, I wished I could unsee what I had seen. Whatever Huang was entangled in, it was much, much worse than gambling.
Chapter 7
* * *
The caller had refused to come inside, our housekeeper told me. He’d said the matter was urgent.
Outside the gate stood a man of perhaps fifty years of age. He was dressed simply in dark robes, and his top knot was fixed with a wooden pin. There was a sprinkling of gray in his hair and beard. As soon as I saw him, I was struck with a sense of familiarity.
He bowed upon seeing me. “Lady Bai. Lord Bai Huang wishes to speak with you.”
It had been just that morning when we had argued. Whatever he wanted to say to me, Huang didn’t want to let it wait. I wasn’t surprised. We so rarely fought, and I was sick to my stomach that we were at odds.
“We are to take you to him,” the man said.
His speech had the overly polite patterns of the scholar-elite. There were ink stains on his fingers, which immediately marked him as a clerk or record keeper. A man of some education, though perhaps lowly employed from the humble simplicity of his clothing.
“Is my brother at the records office?”
“Yes, Lady Bai.”
I’d never been to the imperial archives, but from what I understood it was a very formal place. Whatever it was that he had to say, Huang wanted to keep it away from our family.
The functionary was visibly agitated as he waited for my response. His gaze shifted nervously away and then back, making my stomach twist with concern.
“Is my brother alright? Is he in need of help?”
He shook his head. “Please, if the lady will come with us.”
I realized where I knew him from. He was the associate who had met with my brother outside Wu’s teahouse.
Huang had hired two sedan chairs. They waited for us out in the street. As I seated myself beneath the awning, I considered the possibilities.
Whenever my brother needed me, it was for counsel. The last time I’d helped him was when he’d fallen in love with Yue-ying but was not allowed to woo her because of our family’s objections.
We were very close growing up and knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses. This time, I was worried. I knew how to deal with Mother and Father, but if Huang had become involved in some corruption scandal, I didn’t know what I could do.
The one thing that was certain was that he needed me to be discreet. By summoning me away, he was keeping Yue-ying and Mother away from it.
I was so torn with worry that I hadn’t noticed our travels. The carriers were moving at a steady pace down the lane, but I couldn’t tell which direction we were headed in. I believed the administrative offices to be in the center of the city, at its heart, so to speak. But the buildings around us looked far more simple. Shops and homes.
The messenger’s sedan was before me. It seemed rude to shout across the street to him, so I held back and tried to orient myself on my own. It wasn’t until I saw the walls of the East Market that I had some sense where I was. We had bypassed the administrative center.
In the daytime, the ward gates were open for commerce in and out of the ward. The carriers passed through and continued to the western section.
The carriers came to a stop at a street corner and I stood back as the messenger paid them.
“What is your name, honorable sir?” I asked when he returned to me.
“This humble servant is known as Fan Jing, noble lady.”
Once again, I was stricken by his dialect and cultured tone. Fan moved with his gaze fixed straight ahead. I could see the tightness in his jaw and the stiff tension of his shoulders.
Humble servant? He spoke like a gentleman. Perhaps that was why Huang had entrusted him to find me.
As we turned the corner, the streets seemed to become narrower. The buildings were stripped down to bare wood and cracked from the unkindness of the elements. Ahead, a pair of too-thin boys ran through the streets, kicking a loose pebble back and forth. Their worn sandals revealed feet that were black with dirt.
Wherever Fan was taking me, it seemed out of the way. “How do you know my brother?”
“I know Lord Bai Huang very well,” he murmured. “He and others like him. Come, we are almost there.”
I slowed my step.
“Fan Jing is very well spoken,” I observed. “One would think he is a gentleman of the highest rank.”
The compliment affected him, but not in the way I expected.
The corners of his mouth turned downward. “There was a time I was a young scholar in this city. A candidate for the imperial exams.”
I thought I would hear a tale of heartbreak next. Many young men studied for the exams, but so few attained the highest levels.
“But this city is full of temptation. My purse was split between paying for lessons at the academy and the dice.”
I looked down at my feet. Slips of paper had been scattered at the mouth of the alleyway. They lay gray and trampled, each step grinding the litter deeper into the dirt.
“Soon I found myself in debt. Even when I passed the provincial exams, I couldn’t make enough money to climb out of it. But the den bosses, they are so kind. They let you keep on playing no matter how much you owe.”
The last part was said with a flash of teeth. He started us down the dark corridor, but I dug in my heels. I started to back away when Fan clamped a bony hand over my arm. He jerked me forward in one sharp motion and all pretense of civility disappeared.
He stood behind me, blocking my escape. “I used to be an imperial examiner.”
His voice cracked and I knew then how I’d been lulled into believing Fan could be trusted. He spoke the way I’d been taught to speak. He acted like a member of the scholar-elite I’d been taught to respect.
My throat went dry as I frantically searched for escape. “What do you want?”
The alleyway was walled in on all sides with a doorway standing ominously at the end of it.
“I was well respected,” Fan Jing continued.
There was a hint of grief in his words, but it was mixed with a desperation that made my blood run cold.
“There are always wealthy and noble sons willing to pay for any advantage in t
he exams.”
He reached to shove me forward, but I shrank back of my own accord just to avoid his touch. I stumbled toward the end of the alley in my haste to get away from Fan.
“I took their money to pay my debts, but it was never enough.” The words flowed out of him like a confession as he advanced on me. “Do you know there’s a special mark you can place in your exam? If you go before the right examiner, he knows what that mark means. Score this candidate highly and you will be rewarded.”
He laughed hollowly. “After I was discovered and thrown out, I still knew people. There were still ways to smuggle answers. You see, I had no other way to earn money anymore. They already had me.” His voice started to shake. “Before I knew any better, they already had me and there was no way out.”
I straightened to face him. “My father is a ranking official. My brother is newly appointed.”
It felt weak to have to fall on my family’s reputation, but I had nothing else to stand behind.
Fan stared at me, trying to keep his expression hard, but it was too much for him. His face crumpled with a mix of shame and grief.
“It is like digging yourself out of your own grave.” Tears streamed over his cheeks, awful and ugly. “The more you dig, the further you fall. You keep on falling.”
The door opened behind me. I glanced back and recognized the symbol on the signboard above it. It was a full circle, not the sun or the moon, but a dynasty coin, cut with a squared hole in the center. The symbol had been smudged on the gaming slip I found.
There was no time to run. I was too stunned to do anything but stare at Fan’s anguished face as rough hands grabbed me and dragged me inside.
* * *
A rough voice told me to keep quiet before thrusting me into a tiny enclosure. The door slammed shut to leave me in darkness.
I sank down in the corner, curled up as tight as I could. Then I heard the rattle of chains against the door and my eyes flooded with tears. The only thing that stopped me from crying was a thought worse than my fear. It was irrational, but now that my captors had left me alone and no harm had come to me yet, I started thinking of my family.
My family would be so disappointed. Mother would be angry with me. And Huang. He’d told me to stay out of trouble.
I had been protected all my life. But rather than making me fearful, I was so sheltered that it made me bold when I had no right to be. Cautionary tales were told to me as stories in the night. Not as harsh realities. If I fell into “dire circumstances”, “unspeakable” things would happen to me.
How could I truly be wary of unlawful characters and unfortunate happenings? In my world, such vague words had no weight or meaning. Even now, I only had a cloudy picture of what might happen. Yue-ying and her sister had been sold to the pleasure quarter as children—but all I knew of that was a story retold.
Gradually, I uncurled myself from the corner. It was getting uncomfortable there. I could sit for hours at a desk if my mind was occupied, but here in the darkness, there was nothing to anchor me. Nothing but this door and the heavy chain outside.
Feeling around the floor and walls revealed nothing. I tried to breathe steadily, to keep the panic from rising. It seemed to work. After a few steadying breaths, I rose to my feet, grateful I could stand in the small space.
It was time to sort through the situation.
First, yes. I had been very foolish to follow scholar Fan of unknown origins. But I could see now how it had happened. No one ever came to the Bai mansion with ill intent. In fact, calling at our mansion indicated some knowledge of our family, and with that, some implied connection.
And then there was Fan’s cultured manners and speech. Even before he’d revealed that he had once been an imperial examiner, I’d read the signs in him. Education. A genteel upbringing. The way he addressed me was the proper way of a gentleman. When he’d spoken of being a humble servant, it had rung false to me, but I had assumed he was better than what he claimed, not worse.
I’d been raised to trust these signs. I’d been raised in a world of trust in general. How could I know without having any lesson to learn from? Well, lesson learned indeed.
I shuffled forward, feeling for the door. As I pressed my hands against it, feeling the solid, unmovable barrier, all of my calm, rational thoughts fell apart.
I wanted to go home.
Tears streamed down my face.
I’d come here thinking Huang somehow needed me. I’d been foolish and willful and now I was trapped here waiting for the unspeakable to happen. An angry voice came from the other side of the door, making me jump back. There was the rattle of the chain once more and then the door was flung open. I stared at a rough, bearded face.
“Come out.”
The order came from behind him, from a voice that was neither genteel nor cultured. The bearded stranger stepped aside as I tentatively moved forward.
There were three men outside, all staring at me with a wary eye. The head man, the one I assumed was the leader as he stood in the center of them all, appeared agitated as he looked me up and down.
As far as unspeakable, unlawful characters went, he was not what I expected. The man was well fed, with a fleshiness that rounded his cheeks. His clothing was that of the merchant class. Wealthy, but not ostentatiously so. His expression wasn’t threatening or cruel, but the calculating look in his eyes made me shrink back.
“This is how that dog settles his debt?” His lip curled. “She’ll only create more trouble for us.”
“We should be rid of her, Master Hui,” one of the men said.
“This is not someone you can just throw into the river,” the den boss scoffed.
My entire body went cold. These were the unspeakable things, I thought wildly.
“She’s Lord Bai’s sister. That rich fool who likes to throw money around. We’ll have the magistrate and his constables tearing the entire ward apart now.”
“Please let—” My throat had closed tight in fear, and I had to force out the words. “There’s been a mistake. Please let me go.”
I started shaking when the head man turned to look at me. I clamped down hard on my bottom lip to keep it from trembling.
“You’ll run to the magistrate’s office first thing,” he said, testing me.
“What would I tell the magistrate? I’ve seen nothing,” I pleaded, forcing myself to meet Hui’s eyes. It was the wrong decision. Hard and black, they narrowed on me like the eyes of a snake.
A curtain swung open revealing another of Hui’s men. He had an abundance of them.
“Lord Bai is here,” the new arrival announced, tossing a nod in my direction. “We have to be rid of her quickly.”
Hui appeared to be considering his options. His mouth pressed into a grim line before he shook his head. “We might have to be rid of them both.”
Chapter 8
* * *
I was led down a narrow corridor with Hui’s men forming a cage around me. I could hear the hum of a crowd at the front of the house and the telltale call of the dice men. The sounds faced away as we moved to an interior room.
We entered through a curtained entranceway, and my gaze fixed onto my elder brother. Huang stood beside a high table with his arm resting lazily on the edge. He was dressed in a brightly dyed blue robe with green and indigo trim, giving him the semblance of a peacock. His flamboyant appearance was countered by the serious expression on his face.
“Wei-wei,” he acknowledged quietly.
The sight of him filled me with both relief and dread. Though his outward demeanor remained calm, I detected the tightening at the corners of his mouth. His eyes echoed the turmoil inside me.
Whatever this was, and it certainly wasn’t good, we were in it together now.
Huang turned to address the den boss. “Why so formal, Brother Hui?”
“Lord Bai, I hear you’ve been coming around again. How fortunate.” Headman Hui swaggered forward until he stood opposite Huang at the gaming table. “
I had thought you were done with us.”
Huang’s smile was forced. “One is never done with old friends. I’ve brought a gift, as friends do.”
He hefted a case tucked under his arm onto the table and lifted the lid. The henchmen edged closer as Huang lifted a silver ingot for effect.
The headman remained unimpressed. “What are you proposing, Lord Bai?”
“Take this gift and I will leave with what’s mine.”
Hui didn’t bother to glance back at me. He raised his hand and made a forward gesture. One of the obedient minions shoved me forward. I resented the rough treatment, but there was little I could do about it.
“Is the value truly comparable, Lord Bai?” He addressed the silver with a dismissive flick of his wrist. “This is nothing, considering your family’s wealth.”
Huang laughed, a little too loudly. “Are you trying to bleed me dry here?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve bled, Lord Bai.”
That elicited a round of crude laughter, which I didn’t understand. I stood at the edge of the table, close enough that Huang and I could almost reach each other across the surface.
For the first time, I saw my brother as others saw him. He was a fool dressed in a garish robe, loose with his money and oblivious to insult. It wasn’t the Huang I knew.
He met my eyes once more and I saw his true self in a way that only I knew as his sister.
He was worried that he would fail.
Huang’s smile faded. “It’s no longer a game when my family is involved. Take the money, Hui.”
The den boss snorted. “I have plenty of your money already. How about we turn it into a wager? A roll of the dice. If you win, I’ll release Lady Bai to you gladly. If you lose, you’ll owe a small favor to me which we can settle at a later time.”
Bribery.
“You’ll be stripped of rank for corruption,” I protested, unable to bite my tongue. “It’s not worth the risk.”