by Jeannie Lin
“But the lady is here as well.”
“I had to make quite an effort to get out of the house. And only with a trusted chaperone.” She indicated the manservant outside. “But I am so happy to have met you, Miss Yue-ying. I’ve been curious about the North Hamlet for a long time.”
They sipped tea while Wei-wei asked questions about banquets and drinking games. “Huang never tells me anything,” she complained.
Yue-ying was able to satisfy some of her own curiosity about Bai Huang as well. She learned that his family lived in a gated ward just to the east of the Six Ministries. Bai Huang chose to stay in the scholars’ quarter to continue his studies and also be close to the circles of influence.
“Nowadays, one has to establish a reputation even before passing the palace exams,” Wei-wei said sagely.
“Lord Bai is attempting to establish a good reputation?”
“Of course. What else would a son from a good family want other than to distinguish himself in the exams and secure a good appointment?” Wei-wei said. “Though he has at times become distracted.”
Yue-ying didn’t think it polite to point out Bai Huang’s reputation in the Pingkang li was hardly an exalted one or that he appeared to be doing everything possible to ruin it. Then again, all sorts of behavior were waved aside in the North Hamlet. Wasn’t it known as a place for young scholar-gentlemen to spend their wild youth before the responsibilities of family and state took over?
“How was Lord Bai distracted?” Yue-ying asked. The question was likely too personal, but she was too curious to stop herself.
“I misspoke.” Wei-wei waved the question away and sipped at her tea. “It’s all in the past anyway.”
Yue-ying let out a sigh of disappointment. Bai Huang had admitted to enjoying his share of wine and women. Perhaps there was a tale of heartbreak or unrequited love in his past. Maybe he always wooed unlikely girls like her.
That wasn’t fair of her. Only now was she starting to know Bai Huang outside of his antics in the pleasure quarter. The two halves didn’t fit together.
Wei-wei lingered over the last of her tea and teased out more details about banquets and poetry duels. Finally, she rose to her feet. “Well, I have to go home now. Our younger brother has lessons I must attend to. I assigned him a composition this morning that he should be done with by now.”
Wei-wei stepped out into the courtyard and raised her parasol overhead. She looked about wistfully, seeing something besides the cracks in the wall and the weeds growing up between the stones. “Hopefully we can speak again soon, Miss Yue-ying.”
The manservant started after his lady, but paused as he passed by.
“Give this to Lord Bai,” he said, before disappearing through the gate.
She stared at the letter in her hands. It was something important, maybe even something about Mingyu, but its meaning was locked away until Bai Huang returned.
* * *
HUANG RETURNED FROM the city academy a few hours later when the sky was not yet dark. He set his writing box and notebook aside and removed his scholar’s cap.
“Your sister came to visit,” Yue-ying reported.
He raised an eyebrow. “Wei-wei?”
“Her manservant handed me this to give to you.”
“That would be Zhou Dan. She must have grabbed him by the ear and forced him to take her here.” He opened the letter and glanced at the contents before returning his attention to her, looking her up and down. “You’ll need something to wear.”
She hardly had time to question him before he was back in the bedchamber, searching through his wardrobe. Though it had become her sleeping area, she couldn’t really complain about his intrusion since the rooms were all his.
“You have more clothes than Mingyu,” she remarked dryly.
He shot her a cross look, one hand still on the door of the wardrobe. She blinked at him innocently.
“There is a cargo ship scheduled to arrive tonight,” he explained. “The city authorities are planning to capture it once it docks. I intend to be there to inspect the cargo along with a manservant.”
“Zhou Dan?”
“You.” He disappeared once more to hunt through the wardrobe. “This is very close to the location where Mingyu’s hairpin was found. She and Huilan might have encountered a similar shipment when they came by at night. We need to pay attention to every detail, see if there’s anything suspicious about.”
He emerged with a garment in hand. “We might encounter some unruly characters, so it’s better that you go in disguise.”
She took the brown robe from him and held it up before her. “This is silk, which is hardly fitting for a servant. You’re also much larger than I am. It would fall off of me. Practicalities,” she reminded him.
He shot her another look, this time a heated one that said he wanted to take her clothes off himself.
Yue-ying’s pulse skipped. “I will see what can be done.”
She found a seamstress working from a small shop near the market area. With the exchange of a few coins, the seamstress adjusted the robe to fit her and fashioned a cap for her. She would have to rely on darkness to hide everything else.
As evening approached she and Bai Huang walked toward the canal and found a seat at a wine shop that faced the waterway. A little farther up, a string of boats housed a settlement of people who made their living through various jobs along the docks. Small cooking fires were visible now upon the vessels.
“We have a lookout watching for the cargo ship,” Bai Huang said. “He’ll signal once it approaches.”
She looked down the stretch of dock and across the black water, but saw nothing. “You think Mingyu and Huilan might have become mixed up with these smugglers somehow?”
“It’s possible. If that’s not the case, then at least the crew can be interrogated for more information about who operates here. Perhaps the magistrate can get them to identify who the dead man was.”
“It’s hard to believe Mingyu and Huilan would have come here alone.”
It was possible the two women could have passed by on their way back to the North Hamlet, but they were unlikely to have done so by coincidence. The docks were dangerous and known to be frequented by drifters. Bai Huang had insisted Yue-ying come in disguise even though he was by her side and guard patrols were nearby.
“Maybe they were lured here,” he suggested, which led to questions of why and how.
Though the night was warm, a chill lifted the fine hairs on the back of her neck. Mingyu hadn’t been a helpless victim. She had likely stabbed the man before he was drowned. It had happened here, not a hundred paces away.
“It would have been very late,” she pointed out. “Mingyu didn’t come home that night until halfway between dusk and dawn.”
“The patrols will thin out after the first hour. It would make sense for any illicit activity to occur then.”
Which meant they had a long time to wait. The wine shop eventually closed down, leaving them on a bench outside with a jug of wine. By the end of the twelfth hour, the jug was empty. Only the glow of the stars provided any light.
“Are you cold?” Bai Huang asked.
“No.”
He reached out his hand to twine his fingers through hers. If the rice wine didn’t warm her blood enough, his nearness certainly did. She sat shoulder to shoulder with him and let the balmy night air flow over her.
“Your sister was asking about your studies,” she said after a while. “Lady Bai showed an interest in how you were doing.”
Bai Huang snorted. “More like she wanted to use me as an excuse to explore the city.”
“Excuse?”
“My sister can be deceptively manipulative. Everyone has her marked as an obedient daughter, but the truth is she does whatever she wants. Why are you laughing?”
“You sound envious of her.”
“Of course I’m not!”
He sounded so offended that she wanted to laugh even harder. “She was
envious of you as well.”
“Wei-wei is convinced that if she had been born a man, she would already be an imperial scholar and rising through the ranks of the imperial court. She’s spoiled.”
“You’re spoiled,” she pointed out. “You do whatever you want.”
“Whatever I want?” He grinned, reaching for her.
She stopped him, her hand pressed against his chest to keep him at bay. “I’m posing as your manservant.”
“It’s dark.” Obligingly, his arms loosened their hold on her, but he didn’t let her go.
“Your sister also said something about you being distracted at one time.”
“I’m distracted now—”
She punched him lightly in the arm, the blow not moving him in the slightest. For someone who had never labored a day in his life, Bai Huang was surprisingly solid.
“I know Wei-wei is clever,” he admitted begrudgingly. “She’s always been more focused than I am and more dedicated as well. In the past, I didn’t know anything. I made mistakes, foolish mistakes. Wei-wei may sound envious, but my success or failure reflects on her as well as on our entire family. I need to redeem myself for them.”
Hearing Bai Huang speak of his sister made her think of Mingyu. They had been separated from each other when Yue-ying was so young. Yue-ying had grown up in the brothel, suffering the indignity of being bedded by strangers, having no will of her own. All the while, she dreamed of one day finding her sister again.
Then Mingyu had floated through the door like a goddess. For a long time, all they had done was stare at one another, unable to find words. They knew each other immediately, but so much time had passed. Ten years. Their birth names had been cast aside for new names given to them by their masters. The place where they had been children together was long gone.
Even when Mingyu brought her to the Lotus Palace, they remained distant. Neither of them spoke of the home they had left behind or the parents who had abandoned them. Without those memories, the only life they shared was these past few years in the Pingkang li, as they tried to become sisters again.
Bai Huang must have sensed where her thoughts had wandered because he pulled her in close. “Whatever happens, I swear you will be taken care of.”
“I’m not worried for myself.” She allowed herself to lean against him. “I worry about Mingyu. She was the one the procurer noticed among the dust of our village, and she has borne the scar of that all these years. It’s difficult for her being the older one, the prettier one.”
“But you’re the stronger one,” he said gently.
“I’m not. All I had to do was endure.”
Yue-ying had never fought back. She never tried to flee, but she never gave up. She had watched and waited, always searching for a way out even when there was none.
Mingyu was the one who took it upon herself to bring them back together. She used her beauty to find the means to do it. Certainly Bai Huang as eldest son could understand the weight of such responsibility.
A bright flash came from the other side of the canal. It was there and gone, making her wonder if she had imagined it, but Bai Huang straightened beside her. He’d seen it as well. Another orange flash came and then another, controlled and directed. They must be using a mirror to deflect the light from a fire.
“That’s the signal,” Bai Huang said. “The ship is approaching.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
IT WAS AN efficient operation. The ship glided into the passage from the main waterway, oars extended and pulling in a steady rhythm. As it neared the dock two smaller, more agile patrol boats moved into position, blocking any exit. The foot patrol, manned with soldiers from the local garrison, rushed the dock with lanterns lit and swords drawn.
After his experience with smugglers off the eastern coast, Huang half expected a fight to erupt, but within moments the boat was secure. He approached with Yue-ying closely behind as the crew was escorted from the vessel and taken into custody for questioning.
A command had been established on the dock and Huang stepped up to identify himself to the head of the patrol as well as to the official from the commerce office.
“Interesting to see the Ministry of Defense working on a local smuggling case,” the official remarked, referring to the elder Lord Bai’s involvement.
“These are unusual circumstances.” Huang looked to the hull of the ship. “Are we free to board?”
The man signaled to someone who signaled to someone else. The word that came back must have been a good one.
“The young lord is free to do whatever he requires. The cargo is being unloaded and the inspectors will make their rounds shortly.”
Huang thanked the official and started up the gangplank. Yue-ying’s soft, careful step followed behind him.
“I didn’t realize your father had such influence,” she remarked.
Once they set foot on deck, he was able to get a sense of how many men had been pulled together for this scheme. He sincerely hoped something would come of it. Otherwise, Father would have to suffer the embarrassment of this mishap. The Bai family might find themselves wishing for the days when their son’s exploits, though disgraceful, had been less public.
The soldiers formed a line from the cargo hold and began to transfer sacks from one man to the next, stacking them onto the deck to be transferred dockside. Huang loosened the tie on one of the sacks.
“Tea,” he declared, sifting a pinch of the dried leaves through his fingers.
He headed to the cargo hold. As he started to climb down the ladder Yue-ying’s hand tightened over his arm. When he looked up at her, her mouth was set in a thin line, but she said nothing. She merely raised the lantern over the passage to light the way down. A moment later, she descended the ladder to join him and remained silent as they explored below deck.
There was little space to move and the few lanterns below provided only dim lighting. The hold was filled with more sacks stacked from floor to deck. An inspector was supervising the transfer of the cargo.
They could have easily stayed topside to await the official account, but Huang was too impatient for that. Searching through the other sacks, he found more tea as well as a supply of grain. At one point, he felt a tug on his sleeve but thought nothing of it. Moments later, he looked behind him to find that Yue-ying had disappeared.
He found her up on deck, sitting with her head bent, breathing steadily. A wisp of hair had escaped from her cap and the image she presented was undeniably feminine: the delicate shape of her chin and long neck. Even the way her hand was raised to press against her brow was graceful and womanly in manner.
Everyone was too busy to notice a woman among them. Even he had been too caught up in the search to recognize the subtle signals she had relayed.
“You don’t like boats,” he recalled, lowering himself beside her.
“It’s nothing. Just very confining down there.”
Her voice was pitched too high and she still wouldn’t look at him. Instead, she focused on breathing. He wanted very much to touch her then, just to run a hand along her cheek or tuck that stray hair back beneath her cap. Unfortunately, it was no longer dark and they weren’t alone.
“You didn’t have to go down there.”
“I’m fine,” she said, a note sharper.
It was so like Yue-ying to continue on without complaint, just as it was so like him to push forward without any regard to those around him. Maybe she got along with him so well because she was accustomed to attending to Mingyu, someone else who was also self-absorbed and self-important.
Now that he understood how protective the two sisters were of each other, he knew Mingyu would have had to force Yue-ying to leave the night of the banquet. Fear of being on a boat wasn’t enough to chase Yue-ying away from her sister’s side.
The commerce official approached them with his report. “We found tea and other common goods, my lord. The shipment will need to be weighed and recorded. The crew will be held for questioning a
s well. Most claim to be mere laborers hired for the job.”
“Well, this is disappointing,” Huang muttered. “We were looking to apprehend some vicious outlaws.”
“Not a disappointment at all!” The official gestured toward the stacks surrounding them on the deck. “It could be that this shipment was brought into the city on the sly to avoid required taxes. We’ll know once we check against all the required documents and manifests.”
“I suppose that’s something.”
The man chuckled. “Thankless work, my young lord. Such is corruption, a little here and a little there. Like ridding oneself of rats. No glory in it. Nothing as dramatic as battling gangs of pirates or river bandits.”
The official moved on to finish his business, which apparently involved the exciting act of looking through records and official documentation.
“I want to go back down below,” Yue-ying said. She appeared a little less pale, but not too enthusiastic as she rose.
“There’s no need. A ship like this would have workers unloading for hours in the middle of the night. We can interrogate the crew to see if anyone went missing recently or if any of them had seen Huilan or Mingyu on their last run.”
“I just felt suffocated in that small area,” she insisted, as if saying the words would make them true. “I’m not afraid.”
Huang stayed close this time as they climbed back down into the hold. The men were still clearing the cargo. Yue-ying wove around them, heading to the end where most of the sacks had been removed. Bending over, she held her lantern up while running one hand along the boards.
“What are you looking for?” he asked, crouching beside her.
“I’m not certain, but we hear stories in the quarter.”
She paused at one section and directed the light downward. There were small holes bored into the wood.
Together, they felt along the floor. What appeared to be a flaw in the wood was really a handle to a trapdoor. Yue-ying glanced at him anxiously before lifting it.
The area below the door was black as night. He thrust his lantern into the opening, not knowing what to expect. What he saw was a small hollow, only big enough to hold a person if they curled up knee to chest. Though the compartment was empty, a set of iron chains lay at the bottom, leaving no doubt as to what was usually smuggled inside the hidden chamber.