Chapter 16

Gu Hongyun's staring made Qi Qian'er thoroughly uncomfortable, so she shot him a glare.

Guilty as he was, Gu Hongyun ducked his head, sheepish, and only kept his ears pricked, on his guard.

Qi Qian'er gave him a wide berth as she walked. In her simple way of thinking, there were only two sorts of people in the world: those who were good to her were good people, and those who weren't — like this man, who'd flung knives at her — were bad people, no question about it.

She walked slowly up to the awning-cart and looked it over, and then a pain like a needle stabbed her heart. The most wretched thing in this world, really, wasn't a family ending up with a bad son — parents could always have four or five, and like a roll of the dice, even if one turned out unfilial, they might still land a good one, the way you net a fish.

But look at this.

Deep autumn, the weather cold, and these two little ones had their tender feet covered in scratches and cuts, the grubby little feet caked with layers of black mud. Whoever was mothering them wasn't paying attention — all she knew to do was bundle the middle of them up in a quilt. Was the woman a fool?

Sickness starts at the feet, cold comes in through the soles — but never mind their little backsides freezing, she'd wrapped the two children up tight everywhere else.

I mean, tell me — could you give them good food and drink, or fun and games? A fine child born into your house, born three notches below everyone else to start with, and made to be somebody's horse to ride on top of it...

Ugh... how had she gone and thought of that sad business again? Qi Qian'er pinched her own face, which gave the people across from her a real fright.

Seeing them so afraid, Qi Qian'er forced up a bit of a smile and tried her best to sound gentle: "Don't be scared, don't be scared. Those children's feet — couldn't you at least wrap them in a few strips of cloth?"

She really couldn't stand to see children looked after like this.

The woman looked at Qi Qian'er, then at the children's feet, and — out of fear, most likely — nodded at once, reached out and tore off the cart's cotton lining, and set to wrapping the children up as hard as she could.

Heartbreaking... what a waste of her cart.

A woman who'd kept house for a poor family always cherished things, and here was a perfectly good awning-cart turned upside down inside, its very window-curtains torn off by that bad man outside to bind the wound on his chest.

And the fine lambskin mattress that had been spread underneath, that bad man had laid on the ground to sit on, and now it was soaked all over with blood — no saving it now, no matter what.

Qi Qian'er had been reckoning the cart would last the family a good ten years and more; well, that was that. Fate had decided, and what wasn't hers wasn't hers.

Never mind that Qi Qian'er had seen the muck and treasure under the god's statue — for one thing, she'd been drunk at the time, and for another, she couldn't picture just how rich a life those things could buy. In her last life she'd moved in third-rate official circles, and only the women's-quarters side of them at that; even with money in hand, she'd never bought anything big.

The most she'd ever spent was on a household servant and a donkey cart to get around in.

In short, she'd never seen big money, so she had no idea about it.

As the young woman fumbled at her work, Qi Qian'er caught sight of the cloth at her cuff — eh? That was fine palace-made gold brocade, the pheasant-and-cloud figured silk.

Mm... it looked like it. In the twenty-seventh year of Yong'an, a household across on Quanqian Street had married in the eldest legitimate daughter of a secretary in the Ministry of Personnel, and among the first few trays of her dowry were some fine things granted from the palace. But those two bolts had been aloeswood-figured satin — the workmanship about the same as this, only this sort of thing you couldn't buy. It was made in the imperial workshops.

And this woman was using it for underclothes?

Qi Qian'er turned to look at the well again, but the low sound of a child sobbing drew her back, and only now did she see clearly that the one lying with its back turned was a little girl with her hair in two small buns — fine brows, big eyes, quite pretty.

Its feet wrapped, the little boy in the brocade quilt met Qi Qian'er's eyes; children being quick to sense things, maybe, he saw she meant no harm, and spoke up: "Auntie, I'm hungry."

This was what came of a good family, the kind only such a family could raise: a child like this had never had a stranger near him, born and brought up deep in the inner quarters, so he didn't know to be shy of strangers.

Auntie? I'm no auntie of yours. Who was this "auntie" he meant? No telling whether it was a blood aunt, or a household nursemaid he called auntie.

Qi Qian'er gave a small smile, reached into her bosom, and took out the dried taro the old woman had wrapped for her, holding it out to the boy.

The boy was very well-mannered. Opening it and seeing food, he thanked her, his two little hands clasped together in a small bow. Only once he saw she was gentle with him did he take a piece, and even then he first turned and gave it to the little girl. The girl took it, and then he gave the woman a piece too: "Eat, Auntie."

So that was the sort of "auntie" she was.

The woman looked at Qi Qian'er, shrank back, and shook her head: "You eat it, young master. Your servant's not hungry yet."

Only then did the boy start gnawing at the dry, shriveled taro with his milk teeth.

Qi Qian'er watched, smiling the whole time.

An'er had been the same before he lost his baby teeth — a hard roll baked by the stove would keep him gnawing half the morning.

The boy, embarrassed at being stared at, held the taro up to Qi Qian'er's mouth and said, all eager to please: "Auntie? You eat?"

Qi Qian'er shook her head and gave the child's nose a little scratch: "You eat it, sweetheart. Auntie's not hungry."

Leaning by the cart-wheel, Gu Hongyun heard how Qi Qian'er was behaving and let his guard down completely, and then he grew ashamed.

When Qi Qian'er turned to look at him, he half-leaned against the cart, cupped his hands, and said: "I acted rashly just now. Here I offer the young lady my apology."

At that Qi Qian'er gave a few cold laughs and pointed at him: "You didn't act rashly — you're just bad! You meant to hurt me from the start!" Then she looked Gu Hongyun up and down and jeered: "A grown man, and behaving so vilely! You lowlife!"

Gu Hongyun pressed his chest and gasped a few quick breaths.

The woman in the cart looked cautiously at Gu Hongyun, then at Qi Qian'er, murmured as if she wanted to say something, but in the end didn't dare.

Gu Hongyun thought: she was right, there was no denying it — what he'd just done really was that low and shameful. He was ashamed, but he wouldn't explain himself, and there was no explaining it. He truly had ambushed her, and she'd been perfectly aboveboard, doing them no harm — even taking pity on the little ones and lending a hand.

His eyes drifted shut; then he opened them and cupped his hands again: "The young lady is right. I've been low and shameless, base in what I did; everything today was my fault. If I've the luck to get clear of this someday, I'll surely come back and kneel and beg your pardon — and whether I'm living or dead by then..."

Qi Qian'er hated that kind of talk more than anything — "from now on," "in future," "from this day forth," it was all hot air.

She cut him off: "Oh, shut up! Anything these two eyes haven't seen, I don't believe, full stop. And you needn't come back to apologize — I don't know who you are anyway, and you needn't ask who I am!

"You! And spare me the pointless nonsense besides. Whether you live or die is your own business — only, even if you want to die, you can wait two years. Look at the cart..." She pointed at the two children on it, her eyes going a little red. "At least get them raised first. Once they can find their own food and look after themselves, then it won't be too late for you lot to go dying!"

Qi Qian'er had caught the old woman's scolding habit: once she had hold of somebody's weak spot she'd never let it go, and had to nag away at it till she'd had her fill.

Gu Hongyun thought it a crying injustice: a man of his years, poor fellow, and here a slip of a girl was pointing at his nose and dressing him down like this — but he was in the wrong, so he didn't dare argue back. The truth was, the ones on that cart were the children of a loyal, upright house of the old dynasty, and he'd come, plain and simple, to save their lives.

"Take you people — day in, day out you're hacking and killing over things that don't matter a whit! You want to die? Then go and die, by all means. Down on the banks of some great river, swing your blades and raise your spears and hack at each other all you like — winners jump down a well, losers jump in the river! Carry on however you please, who's stopping you!

"But these children — only a few days in the world, and what do they know of any of it? For want of good deeds in a past life they were born into a house like yours, doomed to suffer from the cradle, and now they can't even keep their own lives safe..."

Unable to bear it any longer, the woman in the cart poked her head out and explained, timidly: "Miss, we — we aren't the children's parents..."

That only made Qi Qian'er angrier, and she turned and snapped: "That's worse! You be quiet! That's — that's even more infuriating — you can't even raise them, can't even watch over them... then what's the good of bringing children into the world at all? Well?!"

At that the woman went pale on the spot, wiped at her tears, and wept: "How was your servant to know? How was I to know? We were sleeping safe at home, and then we woke and... and... and we were here."

Qi Qian'er looked down at Gu Hongyun; he had no way to explain, and could only lower his head and say nothing.

Qi Qian'er edged back a step: "Are you — are you a villain?"

Gu Hongyun quickly raised his head: "No! I was charged by the Senior General to save one thread of the Sima family's line."

Qi Qian'er looked at the woman again, and the woman nodded hard, like pounding garlic; and when she'd done nodding she started sobbing again.

Seeing the woman cry, the little girl looked set to wail once more, so there was nothing for it but for the woman to cover her mouth again.

Seeing what a muddle the whole scene was, and that explaining would take far too long, Gu Hongyun had no choice but to try the secret cant of the martial world — the coded phrases by which the sects sound out one another's allegiance: "Miss — er — mm — ahem! The Nation-Guarding pillar that props up the sky; three sticks of incense at the north and south hall-gates; long gowns and short, and round collars — I wonder which robe the young lady wears, and which stick of incense she burns? And at whose altar is her incense set?"

At this Qi Qian'er's neck went stiff, cracking audibly. What was he on about? She peered down at him, thinking: had she gone too far just now? The man didn't seem the petty sort — had she actually driven him mad?

Seeing the odd look in Qi Qian'er's eyes, Gu Hongyun thought she hadn't caught it, so he said it again, finishing: "So I wonder, miss — which way does your hall-gate face? What incense do you burn? Once I've settled things tomorrow, I'll surely..."

Half following it and half not, Qi Qian'er quickly waved her hands: "No 'surely,' no 'surely'! I say, brother — have you gone mad? What are you talking about? I can't make head or tail of it. Hall-gates, burning incense — this is the Plague God's own ground; mind you don't talk nonsense here! Coughing up blood and still babbling? Standing in his lordship's yard and coming out with this half-baked rubbish? Shut up, would you."

At this Gu Hongyun was stumped; he puzzled over it a good while before saying: "Miss — you're really not of the martial world?"

The martial world? Playing the fool, Qi Qian'er said: "The what now? The marital world? Do I look like a matchmaker to you?"

Gu Hongyun felt worn out, as if a whole Milky Way's width lay between him and this girl. He thought a long while before murmuring: "The young lady's elder... never told you anything?"

Qi Qian'er blinked: "Told me what? My elders are all dead."

So that was it — no wonder the girl knew nothing.

Gu Hongyun looked Qi Qian'er up and down: solid-boned (from all the work in the inner court), her sinews and hundred channels opened out wide. A little envious, he said: "So that's how it is — no time even to tell you anything. Then... has the young lady felt anything a bit off with her body lately?"

Qi Qian'er paused, then reached up and pulled another handful from the top of her head to show him — ai, at this rate there wouldn't be much left to grab.

She said: "My strength's a bit off, and my hair keeps falling out — does that count as off?"

Gu Hongyun took a look and nodded with a smile: "It counts, of course. So it's like that — started from the crown of the head, did it. Your elder truly cared for you."

His own elders had said that opening the channels this way, the crown of the head was the most dangerous point; the safest method was to pour the qi into the half that wields weapons.

Qi Qian'er didn't understand a word of it, but she didn't want to lose her hair either, so she plumped down in front of him: "I don't follow you, and my elders are all dead — but you, you bad man, you seem to know something. Tell me all about it, all of it."

Gu Hongyun gave a wry smile: "Miss, I'm not a bad man."

"You threw knives at me."

"I'm truly not a bad man!"

"You threw them at me!!"

Gu Hongyun thought helplessly: where had this strange girl even come from? Why couldn't she be reasoned with?

But one thing was certain: this girl's elder had to have been a master of the old dynasty's northern qi-sect. He'd likely seen the northern and southern schools at each other's throats, the martial world in turmoil, and made up his mind to die — meant to die for his country — but, cherishing a junior, had poured his qi into her crown... mm, and maybe something had gone wrong partway through, so that he'd had no time to set his affairs in order. At that thought a greedy urge rose in Gu Hongyun, and he looked at Qi Qian'er and said:

"Miss, your elder forced your channels open with his qi. Now the primal qi runs right through your body — every channel clear, but with no proper way to move it. If the young lady doesn't mind trusting me, once I'm home tomorrow I'll report it all to my elders, and then..."

"I won't have it!!" Qi Qian'er cut in. "What sweet dream are you having? You old thief — your eyes were rolling all over the place when you looked at me, and just now you flung knives at me. You're a bad one! How could I trust you? And this martial world you keep on about, I don't know it and I don't want to know it. I'll ask you just one thing: what's happened to my body?"

Gu Hongyun still wasn't ready to give up. He glanced back at the awning-cart: "Does the young lady know whose descendants these two children are? They're the children of a loyal and upright—"

"Stop right there!" Qi Qian'er cut in again, all scorn: "Back then, you'd haul four dan of southern rice all the way to the capital and they'd reckon it for tax as if it were worth barely two dan of millet — rigged against you every time. And on top of that the common folk still owed the household levy, the land tax, the forced labor — not one of them could you escape. Who dared pay a scrap less? Hand over a grain less? And the country fell all the same! A court that raised good-for-nothings like that, and you still dare call them loyal and upright? I'm talking about you lot — don't tell me jokes like that. Loyal and upright, my eye! I'm only helping you for the children's sake — you think it's for you? Flinging two great knives that big at me!!"

The business of the knives clearly wasn't going to be dropped.

Gu Hongyun was about to go on at length, but Qi Qian'er had had enough. She shot to her feet, suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder, and dragged him straight over to the wall of the Plague God's temple yard.

Poor Gu Hongyun — a famed hero of the martial world, a grandmaster of the southern school — dragged along by a slip of a girl like a chick snatched up by the scruff, and at the wall hoisted one-armed clean over the top.

Gu Hongyun squeezed his eyes shut, so ashamed and furious he could have died — then heard the girl say, below him: "You! Open your eyes."

Gu Hongyun slowly opened his eyes, and at once saw, two hundred paces off, a troop of new-dynasty soldiers waiting on their horses.

"See them?"

Gu Hongyun nodded helplessly, half his forehead beaded with cold sweat.

Only then did Qi Qian'er set him down, and watched him slide slowly back down against the wall.

She pointed outside, then pointed at her own nose: "You think I'm bluffing? That man out there is a fifth-grade Roving Cavalry General the Emperor just appointed! He calls me sister-in-law — who do you take me for? You'd match wits with me?"

Drag you out to the back courtyard and finish you off, and you'd still have to burn incense to me in thanks — believe it or not!

Every hope gone to ash, Gu Hongyun gave a bitter laugh: "So the young lady's one of the new dynasty's people after all?"

Qi Qian'er was about ready to die of anger at the fool. She grabbed him by the collar with both hands: "Look at you, the very picture of a man — how can't you understand plain talk? I've told you! I don't care about your loyal-and-upright this, old-dynasty-new-dynasty that! The old dynasty built its walls — five zhang high, two zhang five chi wide at the base, one zhang two chi five cun at the top — and half a cun short, the ones they beheaded were the laborers! The heads of the corvée men!

"Do you mean to tell me the old dynasty never conscripted labor, never worked people to death year after year? Or that the new dynasty will spare anyone from now on? That they won't conscript labor? Won't do anyone harm? They're all the same to me — people like you are born bad! And I'm telling you, don't play your twisty games with me — nobody's a saint! I'll just ask you: what's wrong with me?! Speak plainly, or I'll toss you out there — believe me? Well?!"

This time Gu Hongyun behaved. He answered plainly and quickly: "Your elder forced your channels open but never passed on the method for moving the qi, so it runs about your body every which way — that's why these things are happening."

Qi Qian'er pointed at her own head: "And this is all because there's no method?"

Gu Hongyun nodded readily.

Qi Qian'er curled her lip and gave his cheek a pat: "Good boy! Should've done that from the start — look at all your dithering!"

At last she thought of the two books, and the dream... so it hadn't been a dream after all.

She turned to look at the collapsed old well, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

She, Huo Qiqian, had had no grand ambitions in either life — she only wanted to stay by her child and watch him grow, watch him make something of himself, watch him marry and set up house. Who'd have thought that one wrong step would stir up all this fuss? Now she couldn't even keep her hair, her own days weren't running smooth — and on top of it, out popped this thing called the martial world?

Oh, to hell with the lot of you!!

From far outside the wall came a horse's whinny. Qi Qian'er sniffed, turned, and went to the front of the awning-cart, where — in the spot the driver sat — she found a little panel and lifted it: underneath was the loose silver the eunuch Liao had spoken of.

The eunuch Liao had said, too: Girl, this one's put by three hundred taels and more of loose silver. That money's clean — this one saved it up bit by bit... You — if one day your belly's full, and you remember any kindness of mine, would you give this silver away for me? Take it to whatever temple gate you like, relieve whatever poor soul you please — any of it will do... call it buying me a smooth road to my next life...

Relieving these few here would count as charity too, wouldn't it? And it surely wouldn't get out of the Qingfeng area anyhow. The grain and the books she'd already thrown under the god's statue; the donkey cart... never mind it. For the children's sake, let them have it.

Truly, money gone and the heart at ease — Qi Qian'er tossed the silver bundle over onto Gu Hongyun.

Gu Hongyun caught it and could tell at once by the weight what it was; and remembering that the cart and the donkey too had been hers to begin with, he felt his whole life's good name was gone for good — from now on he'd no face to show anyone.

What a devil-driven notion it had been — how had he kept wanting to carry this girl off, back to the Pavilion? He wasn't fit for it!

And this girl so big-hearted, holding no grudge — next to her, he really had been... out of his mind, bewitched.

Qi Qian'er looked at the dry well and thought: Old man, see that? I'm a woman of my word — for all that you wronged me, you old thing, look, I don't hold it against you, and I've used your silver to save people! Two innocent children, no less... May you be born into a rich house in your next life, and come back a whole and healthy person, safe and sound.

Her muttering done, Qi Qian'er said to Gu Hongyun: "The cart's yours too. Take the silver and be off, quick — while there's still a mouthful to be had at Qingfeng's gates, your donkey can still push through the crowds and make some road. Once the grain up front runs out, and the cold sets in, and the snow comes down, it'll be a hell on earth here, I fear..."

That said, she walked briskly out; but at the doorway she remembered something and turned back to ask: "That method, whatever it is — mm, the channels and sinews and acupoints and such — do you know it?"

Gu Hongyun answered readily: "That's simple. Tomorrow the young lady need only find a physician's clinic, and get hold of one of the bronze figures acupuncturists use to practice their needling. Your family will have a transmission of its own; but if not, no matter — a few taels at an ordinary escort agency will get you an everyday method, of which there are plenty. As for whether the method's any good — that, I imagine, the young lady won't much care about."

This time Qi Qian'er did nod: "Mm, don't care."

So long as her hair stopped falling out.

Gu Hongyun braced himself against the wall to stand, and with an effort cupped his hands: "Just follow the bronze figure, work by the method, find the right points and practice — that's all it takes. The young lady's different now; any method will come easy in your hands, and the day you master it fully is only days off. You're kind-hearted, and Heaven watches over you; tomorrow, surely..."

He'd have liked to go on, but Qi Qian'er had already left the yard; only as she reached the gate did he hear her say: "After today, we've never met."

Gu Hongyun sat stunned a long while; when he listened again, the sound of the horses had already faded into the distance.

Neither grown-up had noticed the little boy sitting on the awning-cart, both hands clutching the dried taro, his eyes following Qi Qian'er the whole time; only when she'd shut the gate and gone did he slowly lower his head, look at the food in his hands, and after a long moment call out softly: "Auntie..."

---

Qi Qian'er sat on the cart, too mortified to bear it. She'd been gone the better part of an hour, and for that kind of reason too — really, thinking it over, she might as well die of shame.

And now she was back empty-handed, which only proved... ah, there was no living it down, no facing anyone now!

Riding ahead to clear the way, Chang Lianfang wore his usual smile, but inside he was thinking: this sister-in-law of mine, well — she's all right, really. Thin on hair, sure, but then, who hasn't got some failing? Only — mm — the thing is — that trip to the bushes did go on an awfully long time...

The better part of an hour!

Poor Chang Lianfang, always thinking the best of everyone — and Qi Qian'er, pointing this way and that, led him twisting and turning to a graveyard outside a hamlet.

The hamlet was close to Qingfeng, and famine refugees were milling about all over it; but at the sight of a pack of soldiers arriving they all scrambled up and backed well away, standing on high ground to watch.

Qi Qian'er got down from the cart and made for her goal, her face all delight, while Chang Lianfang, half his soul drifting off somewhere, followed her, looking around, baffled.

This was a graveyard, wasn't it? Hadn't she said they were going to fetch her dowry? The hairs on his neck standing up, he looked at Qi Qian'er's feet — mm, she had a shadow, at least.

He felt a bawl coming on again — what was he to do?

Qi Qian'er, with no idea what he was thinking, walked straight up to the spot, pointed at a few fresh graves, and said, quite excited: "This is it — dig!"

Chang Lianfang's face contorted; he sucked in cold air through his open mouth and was half-laughed into anger: "Sister — sister-in-law? Do you know grave-robbing has been a grave crime in every dynasty there's ever been?"

Qi Qian'er said, all unconcerned: "It's fine — they're my family's graves! Dig!!"