Chapter 6: Sworn Sister

Zhou Ruolan came into the teahouse.

She wore a long camel coat and jade earrings, with her permed hair set close to her head.

A maid followed her, carrying a lacquered box.

Every head in the hall turned.

At the corner table, the sergeant stood up and bowed.

"Madam Pei."

"Sergeant." Ruolan inclined her head. "Don't let me interrupt your vigil."

She crossed to the counter, where Jinyu stood pale from the roof.

"Jinyu, dear," she said, in a voice meant to carry. "I've come to buy tea for my husband's guests."

"Your leaf is better than the Hengtai Bank's, and he knows it."

"Come and see the stock," Jinyu said.

"I hoped you'd say that."

Ruolan walked into the kitchen as though she had been there a hundred times.

She had, once, when they were girls.

The maid stayed in the hall to guard the box and the sergeant's gaze.

In the kitchen Jinyu pulled the storeroom door open, and Ruolan stepped inside.

Qiao was already there, standing between the barrels with her satchel on her arm and her cardigan buttoned wrong.

Ruolan took one look at the two of them.

"Four seconds," she said. "I only needed four."

"Ruolan," Jinyu started.

"She's wearing your hairpin." Ruolan pointed.

"And you have a mark on your neck the size of a coin, and both of you are the exact shade of tea."

Jinyu clapped a hand to her collar.

Qiao went scarlet from her throat to her ears.

"Sister," Jinyu said, with all the dignity she could find. "It's not what you think."

"It's exactly what I think." Ruolan pulled the door shut behind her.

"And I came here half afraid of that and half hoping, so spare us the speeches."

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