Chapter 4: Present Tea

The house doctor had treated the Ji family for thirty years, and he did not bother to be gentle about it.

"Ten years," he said, reading Rongan's chart. "Every three months, without a gap."

"The Guard required it," said Rongan.

"The Guard required you to be predictable. It did not require you to stop being an Omega."

The doctor took off his round glasses and rubbed his eyes.

"When did you last have a heat?"

"Twenty-one," said Rongan.

"Then your body has been saving it for ten years."

Rongan said nothing.

"Stopping is safe," the doctor went on. "The first heat afterward will not be gentle. I'm telling you so you hear it from me."

"I'm not stopping."

"Nobody has asked you to."

"Nobody will," said Rongan, to the doorway.

Wenzhou stood in it with his hands behind his back.

He had been there the whole time, and the doctor had not had the heart to send him out.

"Nobody will," Wenzhou agreed. "It's your body, Captain. That is a rule, if you want a third one."

"I want a third one."

"Then you have it."

At noon the tea was served in the family hall.

The Great-Uncle sat in the black chair, with the aunts on his left in their best silk and every Ji cousin lined along the wall.

Rongan knelt to present the cup, and the floor tiles were hard under his knees.

Even kneeling, he was nearly eye level with the Great-Uncle.

"Lower, boy," said the Great-Uncle, taking the cup. "You block the light."

An aunt laughed behind her sleeve.

Madam Ji, in the chair beside him, set down her own cup without a sound.

"At a Ji wedding table," she said, "whoever mocks the bridegroom's pair drinks three cups of the bridal wine, standing, before the guests."

The hall went still.

"It was my husband's grandfather's rule," Madam Ji went on, pleasantly.

"It has not been enforced in my lifetime.

I intend to enforce it on the ninth."

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