The Constable Booked the Assassin Every Night novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: The Plum Lantern Stage
The crowd closed around them.
Nobody touched Shouzhi, and nobody spoke, and a baker's boy he had once arrested for brawling pressed a hot bun into his hand and vanished.
Qinghe reached his elbow and stayed there.
Dou limped past on the other side, with his stick and his bare belt, and did not turn his head.
"Tan," he said, to the air in front of him.
"A Doors man keeps his dead beside him."
"Your father is on the hill behind the Hall."
"Go and look at the stone."
"Chief..."
"I'm not your Chief," said Dou. "Go to ground. The captain's men are watching you already."
He went on.
Shouzhi and Qinghe went the opposite way, through the fish market and down the back stairs to the Willow Canal.
The front door of the Plum Lantern was sealed with the Prefecture's wax.
The kitchen door was not.
Hui's tea-girl let them in with a candle and her finger across her lips, and left them in the dark of the empty house.
The tables were stacked.
The tea smelled stale, and the lanterns hung unlit from the beams.
Qinghe led Shouzhi up the three steps onto the stage.
It was a small round platform of old boards, with one chair and a rug.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Constable Booked the Assassin Every Night are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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