Chapter 8: The Temple

Grandmother did not believe it.

Shuyao had not expected her to.

"You want me to hide behind a wall at midnight," said grandmother, "to spy on your own cousin."

"Yes."

"On the word of a child with a hairpin."

"On the word of the child who just saved your house, Grandmother."

The old woman gripped her cane so tightly that the knuckles went pale.

"If you are wrong," she said, "you will kneel in the ancestral hall until your knees give out."

"If I'm wrong, I'll kneel until my hair turns white."

"And if you're right?"

Shuyao looked at her steadily.

"Then you will have to decide what kind of family this is."

They went out after the second watch.

Grandmother wore a dark cloak and carried no lantern.

Zhengyu came with his arm in a sling, whispering jokes until Qin put a hand over his mouth.

They stood in the dark behind the bamboo screen by the plum wall.

The garden smelled of wet earth.

At the third watch, a small figure came down the path.

Wanrou wore a plain gray cloak and walked carefully.

She stopped at the wall and tapped twice.

A boy's head popped over the top, in a messenger's cap.

"Miss Jiang."

"Is he angry?" Wanrou whispered.

"He is calm, miss. He says the steward was a mistake and it will not happen again."

"He wants the next report quickly."

"I have it."

She drew a folded paper from her sleeve and held it up.

"When the Marquis's letters come. How the guards change. Which door the old lady uses."

"And the tally?"

"The Marquis took the wax with him. The tally is in the ancestral hall now, behind the middle tablet. My cousin moved it."

"Moved it where?"

"I told you. Behind the tablets."

"Thank you, miss."

The boy reached down for the paper.

Qin stepped out of the bamboo, took the boy's wrist in one hand, and plucked the paper from Wanrou's fingers with the other.

The boy yelped.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.