Chapter 10: The Adoption Account

Han Bailu kept his ledgers in a narrow room behind the Oath Hall, with one window and a smell of old ink.

Yuxi went there at first light, alone, with her sword at her hip so that nobody would ask why.

He was already at his desk.

He looked up over his brush, saw her face, and put the brush down.

"Heir."

"The second line on Su Wanning's tablet. I want to know what it says."

"The tablet is read by the sect leader."

"I'm the sect leader's heir."

"Yes." He folded his hands. "Which is why I will not read it to you without his word. I'm sorry."

His voice was dry and exact, and his ears had gone red.

Yuxi stood very still.

She had never in her life been told no by a steward.

"Then show me what you can," she said.

Bailu hesitated.

He turned a heavy page of the open ledger toward her, and laid a finger on a line near the bottom.

It read: Adoption account, Su Meiqing, medicine hall, nine thousand taels.

Beside it, in a column of its own, was a single word she did not understand: Pending.

"What does pending mean?"

"That it's owed." Bailu closed the book.

"That is all I may say, Heir. Nine thousand taels is her mother's medicine for the next several years."

"Owed by whom?"

"I did not say."

He met her eyes for the first time.

"I would ask a question," he said. "A steward's question."

"Ask."

"Does the girl know what she is signing on her birthday?"

Yuxi's mouth went dry.

"She was told it's a blessing."

Bailu nodded slowly, and reopened the ledger, and began to write again as if she had gone.

She was at the door when he spoke without looking up.

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