The Sect Leader's New Daughter Has Her Hands on My Hips novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: What the Blood Costs

Han Bailu was already at his desk when they came in together.

He looked at Yuxi's split lip, and at Wanning's flat face, and closed his ledger.

"You read it," he said.

"All but the last clause," Yuxi said. "It points to the Book of Debts, ninth clause."

"I'm not asking you," Wanning said. "I'm asking the man who keeps the book. Read it to me."

Bailu sat very still.

"I would be going against the sect leader's word."

"Yes."

"I have kept these ledgers eleven years. In all that time nobody has asked me to read anything aloud."

He took a thick old volume from the shelf and opened it flat.

His ears were red, but his voice was steady.

"Ninth clause. A sworn disciple of the sect may take up the adoption debt of a sworn child."

"The debt is paid in silver or in service, and must be pledged before the elders on the eve of renewal."

"When the debt is pledged, the oath lapses at dawn. The child owes nothing, and is free to go."

Wanning went still, her fingers tightening on the wood.

"How much?"

"Nine thousand taels. It is the price of your mother's medicine."

"And a disciple pays it how? With what silver?"

"With service, usually." Bailu closed the book. "Years of it. The border posts take such pledges."

"Which disciple?"

"Any sworn disciple of the sect." His eyes went to Yuxi. "Heir."

Yuxi did not hesitate.

"I'll do it."

"No," Wanning said.

"Wanning."

"No. I know what a border post is. I've walked past them. It's ten years of sleeping in a tower in the snow."

"Yes."

"And you'd lose the seat."

"A disciple who pledges service to the posts can't hold the heir's seat. It would pass to a cousin."

"You'd lose all of it. For me."

"I have never in my life chosen anything," Yuxi said. "Let me choose this."

Wanning stared at her.

Her hand came up and caught Yuxi's wrist, hard, and held it.

"Not here," she said, thick. "Not yet. Tonight."

Bailu looked at the ceiling with great interest.

"The eve of Double Ninth is in eight days," he said mildly. "I will write nothing down before then."

Yuxi came to the bamboo cottage at dusk, and found it swept and the lamps lit.

The smashed teapot was gone.

Wanning sat on the edge of the bed in her sleeping robe, with something in her lap wrapped in a cloth.

"Close the door."

Yuxi closed it.

"Come here."

She came.

Wanning unwrapped the cloth.

It was the dragon-carved jade rod from the practice hall, and it had been fitted to a harness of soft dark leather.

Two straps ran from a wide belt, and the green stone sat at the front, smooth and heavy.

"It's from my scabbard strap," Wanning said. "I cut it up. It took me four hours and a lot of swearing."

Yuxi's mouth had gone dry.

"You made this today?"

"All afternoon. I couldn't sit still." Wanning stood and let her robe fall.

She stepped into the harness and pulled the straps tight around her round hips, and buckled the belt over her belly.

The jade stood out from her body, green and carved, against the tanned thighs.

She looked down at it, and up at Yuxi, with a wicked crooked grin.

"You're going to give up a mountain for me. I want to give you something first."

"Wanning..."

"Undress, Yuxi."

The flat command settled over Yuxi.

She took off the robe, the shirt, the trousers, and stood bare in the lamplight.

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