Chapter 12: Paper Walls

The inn at Heron Lake had been built by a man who hated carpenters.

The room had a window, a lamp, two straw mats and one wall made entirely of rice paper.

On the far side of the paper, a silhouette sat at a desk with a brush, and it was the shape of the Inspector.

"Good evening, Heir!" the silhouette called, cheerfully. "I am recording the authenticity!"

"Good evening," said Mian.

"Please do not mind me. Be natural!"

Shouyi, standing by the door with his arms folded, closed his eyes.

"This is a disaster," he said, mouthing it.

"It's a very thin wall," Mian mouthed back.

They each lay down on a mat, a yard apart, and stared at the ceiling.

On the other side, the brush scratched.

A cough came through the paper, and a rustle, and a sound as if somebody were eating a pear.

"Ahem," said the Inspector. "Heir? Are you comfortable?"

"Very!"

"And the guard?"

"Adequate," said Shouyi.

"How reassuring. Sleep well. I shall listen carefully."

"For what?" Mian whispered.

"For the Saint's breathing patterns," said the Inspector, quite clearly. "I understand they are distinctive."

Mian pulled the quilt over his face and made a noise into it.

It was a long, dark hour.

The lake lapped under the window.

Down the corridor, Wei Xiaoman could be heard explaining the odds to a sleepy innkeeper.

At some point a hand came across the gap between the mats.

It found Mian's under the quilt and held it.

Shouyi's palm was warm now, no longer cold, and Mian liked to think he had something to do with that.

He turned his head.

Shouyi was looking at him in the lamplight, grave and grey-eyed and very close.

He mouthed a warning.

Quiet.

Mian grinned and mouthed it back.

Then Shouyi rolled over onto him with the unhurried care of a man crossing a frozen river.

There was no more sound than a sheet turning over.

His mouth found Mian's, and Mian clapped a hand over his own mouth, because he was afraid of what it might do.

They undressed each other a button at a time, with a breath held after each one.

Mian lay back on the mat and Shouyi bent over him and kissed his chest, his stomach, the inside of his wrist.