Chapter 20: A Year

She found him in the corridor outside the commissar's office.

He stood by the window with a sheet of paper in his hand.

He was in his working uniform.

He had shaved, badly, and a small cut stood at the edge of his jaw.

"Hanzhou."

He turned.

"You ran," he said. "You are out of breath."

"You went to the commissar at half past four."

"Luo talks too much."

"The colonel's wife talks more. What did you say to him?"

"I said the marriage was arranged by me to cover a lie, and that you did not choose it."

"And?"

"And he refused it."

He looked down at the paper.

"He said that a marriage ended in nine days is a scandal."

"A marriage that ends after a year, quietly, is nobody's business."

His voice was level.

"He said I made terms, and the army would be satisfied if I kept them."

Wanning's shoulders relaxed.

"So he's not annulling it."

"No."

"Then why do you look as though somebody died?"

He held the paper out to her.

It was army paper, written in his square hand and signed at the bottom.

I, Ji Hanzhou, agree that Qiao Wanning may end our marriage on its first anniversary, without reason given and without question.

I will sign whatever she asks.

"A year," he said. "Then you walk."

"Your words. Your first term."

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