I Ran Away With His Child novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The Hall
On the day of the winter solstice the Xu family hall smelled of sandalwood, and forty people stood in it in dark clothes without speaking.
It was the last building of the old house, at the back of the fourth courtyard, with a stone floor and a high beamed roof.
The ancestors' tablets stood in rows on the long altar, black and gold, under a haze of incense.
Beneath them lay a table covered with yellow silk, and on the silk lay the register.
Mu Qing stood in the second row of the men, with Ran's hand in his and Xu Zhengyuan a half step to his left.
Xu's fingers brushed the back of his hand once, and went away, and Mu Qing carried that for the whole of the hall.
He had a plain envelope in the inside pocket of his jacket, against his ribs.
He could feel the corner of it with every breath.
Old Madam sat in a carved chair at the head of the hall with her cane across her knees.
Madam Xu stood to her right, straight-backed, in black.
She wore her pearls again.
"We are here to open the book," said Old Madam, without raising her voice.
"Every name that is to be written this year is to be written today or not at all."
"The family has heard a claim. Daughter-in-law will state it."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of I Ran Away With His Child are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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