Chapter 10: Say It Again

They read the letter together at the low table, and Jiang Lü read it twice.

"It says I broke into his machines," she said.

"You didn't."

"It says I must appear in person with a certificate of identity within three days."

"You don't have one," Tang Yu said.

"I have a great many things. A jade seal."

"A deed to this courtyard, written in the Qing. A bowl that is worth more than your building."

"None of those is a certificate."

"No."

Jiang Lü set the letter down with great care.

"He is frightened of me."

"He's frightened of the thing that works and that he can't explain. That's different."

"Is it?"

"It's worse. People do worse things when they're frightened." Tang Yu took her hand.

"Granny Bai said she'd find papers. We have three days."

"I have an agency, a friend who is very loud, and a junior engineer who is braver than he thinks."

"We won't let him."

Jiang Lü looked at their joined hands.

Then she smiled, a small and wondering smile.

"Nobody has stood in front of me before," she said.

"Get used to it."

"I would like to."

The sun slid behind the roofs.

The courtyard filled with long blue shadows, and the ginkgo's gold went amber and then dim.

Tang Yu got up, took the wooden comb from the desk, and knelt on the bed.

"Come here."

"What are you doing?"

"Your hair has a knot the size of a fist. Sit."

Jiang Lü sat with her back to her, and her shoulders loosened by degrees.

Tang Yu drew the comb through the red-brown length, patiently, from the ends upward.

It crackled a little in the dry air.

It smelled of cedar and smoke.

"Nobody has done this for me since Qinghe," said Jiang Lü, very low.

"I know. I'm sorry."

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