Chapter 16: Twenty-Six Names

Jinyu woke Qiao with the note held under her nose.

Qiao read it, sat up, and was dressed before the lamp had finished flickering.

"The flour," she said.

"The flour. Ruolan's maid heard him say it to the clerk."

"Where do we put it?"

"Where nobody would look for a bank book." Jinyu was already wrapping it in an oilcloth. "Where Ruolan and I swore our oath."

They went out before light by the roof and the wall.

The City God Temple was empty except for a sweeper dozing against a pillar.

Behind the hall stood a plum tree older than the lane.

At its foot a flat stone had been cracked for years and grown over with moss.

Jinyu lifted the stone with both hands, laid the book in the hollow, and set the stone back.

"Burned incense here at fourteen," she said. "Swore to be sisters until death. Ruolan cried. I pretended I didn't."

"Does anyone else know the stone?"

"Only Ruolan. If he beats it out of her, I'll never forgive myself."

"He won't beat her," Qiao said. "He will lock her door and let her listen to him smile."

They walked back through the lane at sunrise, and on the way Qiao said what Jinyu had been waiting for.

"We can't hide the rest of it."

"He knows the book is in the Tingsong."

"He knows I'm in the Tingsong."

"All we still have is the twenty-six."

"Then we do it in daylight."

"Jinyu."

"Front doors, with your own face."

"With the lane watching."

Jinyu took her hand and held it in the open.

"Every house on this street has a wall that talks."

"Let them talk about a woman handing over money, in public,."

Qiao drew a long breath and let go of the headcloth she had been holding.

She tied her glasses firmly behind her ears.

By eight o'clock the Tingsong had put out a sign that said it would open late.

By nine, Auntie Hu had the bigger envelopes in a flour sack.

The headman, the printer, the silk winders and the storyteller each carried a packet and a folded list.

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