Chapter 8

The Young Lady's Bargain

It was the night seven days after Liu Qingsong had left. Xiao Han was standing in the corner below the rock as always, holding his horse stance. The warmth in his belly had grown from the size of a bean to that of a jujube stone, and it rose and fell with his breath far more easily than before. What the second line of the formula, the words bidding the intent go before the sword, pointed to seemed faintly within his grasp, and so, not wishing to lose hold of that faint thing, Xiao Han stood with his eyes closed, steadying his breath.

Just then, from the direction of the pine grove, came the sound of a dry branch snapping, and before Xiao Han had even opened his eyes his body had lowered itself of its own accord. If it was a wild beast, it would have been a raccoon dog or a badger; if it was a person, there was no one who would climb the hill behind the manor at this hour. Old Wang would not have made a sound. Even on the night the old man had come to fill in the earth of the clearing, he had not left a single footfall.

Something stirred in the shadow of the pines, and a small shadow came rolling out; to be exact, it came rolling out because its foot had caught on a pine root and it had fallen. The shadow lay sprawled face down on the earth at the edge of the clearing, motionless for a moment, then at length raised its head, and the face revealed beneath the moonlight was none other than Qin Shuran's.

Her hair was carelessly tied, she wore in place of a skirt a pair of servant's trousers that Xiao Fu had worn and cast off, rolled up at the cuffs, and in her hand, in place of the jade pendant Liu Qingsong had given her, she gripped a poker that looked to have been carried out of the kitchen. Her knees were caked with dirt, and a pine needle clung to one cheek. The only daughter of Qin Manor had crawled up a mountain path in the dead of night wearing servant's trousers and holding a poker, and anyone who saw her would have thought her bewitched by a goblin.

The servant frozen in horse stance and the young lady sprawled on the earth looked at each other for some time without a word, and it was the young lady who spoke first.

"...You, what are you doing right now?"

Xiao Han straightened his knees and stood upright, but a bead of cold sweat ran down his spine. The master had said he feared Shuran might climb to the clearing at night and had bidden him tell him if he saw her. Yet the one caught first at the clearing was the very servant who was supposed to do the telling.

"I might ask what the young lady is doing here at this hour."

"I asked first."

"This lowly one... came out for some air."

"If you're getting some air, why are your legs spread like this? You're not squatting and you're not standing."

Shuran pointed at Xiao Han's legs with the poker. Xiao Han could not find an answer. His habit of overdoing the courtesies when he lied rose to the tip of his tongue, but if he indulged that habit before this young lady it would only earn more suspicion.

Shuran got up and brushed the dirt off her knees, then imitated Xiao Han's posture, spreading her legs and bending her knees, and before three breaths had passed she landed on her backside.

"Ow. What is this, why is it so hard?"

"That is why it is not a thing for the young lady to do."

"You do it."

"This lowly one is a servant, so his legs are sturdy."

"Liar. Up until last year you staggered if you carried two water jars."

Xiao Han had no choice but to hold his tongue. This young lady was one who forgot her socks and tied her jacket ties on the wrong side, yet she remembered exactly since when a person's legs had grown sturdy.

Shuran perched on the rock with the poker laid across her knees and swung her legs, and Xiao Han, standing before her, racked his brain over how he might send this young lady safely back down the mountain.

"You're secretly copying what Father does, aren't you?"

It struck the mark, but Xiao Han did not answer. That not answering was the best answer, this young lady could hardly fail to know.

"I knew it. Lately your walk has become exactly like Father's. You walk pressing your feet down like this. At first I thought you were just imitating him."

When Shuran leaned forward on the rock her eyes glittered in the moonlight, and they looked exactly like the eyes of someone who had got hold of a fine article at the market for a cheap price.

"If I told Father, what do you think would happen to you?"

Xiao Han knew the weight of that question. A servant who had stolen his master's sword formula would be beaten and driven out, and if he were driven out, he could not stand before the fire three years hence.

"...What does the young lady intend to do?"

"Whether I tell or not, I'll decide. But there are conditions."

Shuran held up one finger right under Xiao Han's nose.

"First. You run every errand I tell you to."

A second finger went up. There was dirt under the nail.

"Second. Father can't find out that I came to the clearing. You don't tell either."

Xiao Han heaved a long sigh inwardly. The servant who had been ordered to tell the master, and the young lady who had caught that servant by the scruff, stood facing each other on this mountaintop, each holding the other's leash. If the master found out, both would be in deep trouble, so there was nothing for it but for both to keep their mouths shut.

"Third."

"There is more?"

"Third, teach me too."

"That I cannot do."

Xiao Han's answer leapt out faster than he had intended, and Shuran's brows shot up just as fast.

"Why not?"

"This lowly one knows nothing either. It is just as the young lady saw. I only stand with my legs apart."

"Then at least teach me standing with my legs apart."

"That, the young lady tried just now and landed on her backside."

Shuran raised the poker and Xiao Han stepped back half an inch, but Shuran did not swing it; she laid it back down across her knees, glared at Xiao Han for a long while, and pouted.

"Fine. Third, later. But start with the first."

"What errand would it be?"

"Lao San is going to the market tomorrow, isn't he? At the market outside the north gate there's a shop that sells candied haws. Hawthorn berries coated in sugar. Mother won't let me buy them because she says sweets rot your teeth. Five of those."

"Five of them?"

"I'll give you one."

Instead of answering, Xiao Han looked up at the moon sinking toward the west. The market outside the north gate was where the Black Wind Gang had its stronghold. The herbalists that had closed their doors, of which he had heard at Auntie Zhang's hearth, were in that area too, and the tale Liu Qingsong had brought up in the hall, of the new deputy who handled poison, had flowed out of that place as well.

A servant who loitered outside the north gate for no reason would arouse suspicion. But a servant who had gone on an errand to fetch the young lady's candied haws could wander the marketplace for half a day without anyone giving him a second look.

"...I will do as you command."

"Really? What's this, so meek?"

"How could I disobey the young lady's command?"

Shuran looked up at Xiao Han with a dubious face, then, seemingly satisfied, jumped down from the rock, and when she staggered again in doing so and Xiao Han reflexively reached out and caught her sleeve, Shuran snatched the sleeve away.

"Don't grab me. I can go by myself."

"The mountain path is dark. This lowly one will go ahead."

"...Then walk in front. Don't walk behind. It's scary if you walk behind."

Xiao Han led the way without a word. As they passed through the pine grove, Shuran's footsteps followed close at his back, and each time she caught her foot on a pine root there came the sound of small grumbling, so that without realizing it Xiao Han slowed his pace by half a beat each time.

Before the dog-hole in the wall at the foot of the hill, Shuran stopped. The only daughter of Qin Manor had been going in and out through a dog-hole. Xiao Han resolved to say nothing about it. Between two people who held each other's leashes, such courtesy was necessary.

Shuran had pushed herself halfway into the dog-hole when, as though remembering something she had forgotten, she turned only her head back.

"Ugly Han'er."

"Yes."

"That thing of yours, you really have to teach me later."

Without waiting for an answer, Shuran vanished into the dog-hole. Xiao Han stood there for a moment, then swept away with the tip of his foot the two small footprints left in the earth before the dog-hole.

At dawn the next day, carrying a servant who bore in his breast the command to buy five candied haws, Lao San's cart set off toward the north gate.

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