Chapter 2: Rain Over Sweetwater Alley

The blue bricks beneath the hanging-flower gate were still damp, with puddles from last night clinging to the crevices. Yu Ping leaned against the doorframe, one hand propping her up and the other fluttering a handkerchief to cool herself, the silver hairpin in her hair swaying with every movement. Her lotus-root-colored jacket was starched stiff, the snow-white trim of the collar framing a face that looked perfectly content to watch a disaster unfold.

"You're covered in mud, sister. Planning to head out of the city and dig up some graves?"

Yu Wan rolled her sleeves up another inch. Mud splatters reached her elbows, and grime was packed deep into the creases of her fingernails. She looked up at her sister, her voice flat. "I'm digging the path you'll be walking soon."

The smile vanished from Yu Ping’s face. She stopped fanning and crushed the handkerchief into a ball in her palm. "Stop acting like you've got it all figured out. Tell me—yesterday, you took two peasants to the base of the West City wall to dig holes. Was that you?"

"Yes."

The answer was so blunt it actually left Yu Ping speechless. She recovered quickly, stepping forward until the tips of her embroidered shoes nearly touched the mud stains on Yu Wan’s skirt. Her voice rose. "Do you have any idea what the rumors are? They're saying the Zhongyong Marquis Manor has produced a jinx—that you cursed Grandmother to death and kept Father stuck in the same spot for three years. Yesterday, after court, that man named Wang from the Ministry of Rites asked him in front of the entire assembly: 'I hear the eldest daughter of the Marquis is digging ditches in the West City?'"

She mimicked a man's tone, stretching the words into a shrill, mocking drawl. She laughed at her own impression, the sound echoing through the gateway. Behind the covered walkways on either side, a young maid peeked out, then quickly shrank back.

Yu Wan didn't respond. She reached up to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. The wind had plastered the strand to her cheek, and it was speckled with bits of dirt; it took her two tries to get it to stay.

Seeing no reaction, Yu Ping’s temper flared. She reached out to snatch the roll of mulberry paper tucked under Yu Wan’s arm. "What is this? Let me see!"

Yu Wan stepped aside, her shoulder sliding against the doorframe. Yu Ping lunged and missed, stumbling forward. She caught herself against the frame to keep from falling, her fingernail leaving a white scratch on the wood.

"A map," Yu Wan said, pulling the paper out and unfurling half of it. Dense ink lines crisscrossed the page like a woven net. "The drainage layout for Tianshui Lane. The alley is thirty zhang long with a height difference of one foot two inches between the ends. I spent three nights calculating it."

"You calculated it?" Yu Ping burst out laughing, doubling over. She pressed the handkerchief to her mouth and looked back at the maid. "Chunying, did you hear that? Our eldest daughter can do math. Why not just become a fortune teller?"

Chunying gave a flattering smile, her voice just loud enough for the two old servants sweeping the courtyard to hear. "Second Miss, everyone says the eldest miss is a jinx. A map drawn by a jinx... wherever she draws, the ground will collapse."

The two servants slowed their brooms, exchanging a knowing glance.

Emboldened, Yu Ping reached out and slapped the roll of paper out of Yu Wan’s hand. The map spun through the air and landed in a puddle by the threshold. The charcoal ink immediately bled, spreading like a rotting scar.

Not satisfied, Yu Ping stepped on the corner of the paper with her embroidered shoe. The sole pressed into the wet pulp with a sickening, sticky squelch.

Yu Wan looked down at the map for three long seconds. No one spoke. The only sound was a single drop of water falling from the eaves into the puddle—*drip*.

"This paper came from the accounting office. Three silver coins for a cut, less than one copper per sheet." She knelt, picked up the soaked roll, and shook it, water droplets flying off the edges. "With that one step, you just stepped on the water two hundred people in Tianshui Lane have to wade through every summer."

"Don't try to use those peasants to guilt me." Yu Ping tossed her chin up and flung her handkerchief behind her. "Mother has already settled it with Father. On the eighth of next month, you're being sent to the family temple in South City. You can calculate all you want under the glow of the lamps and the gaze of the Buddha."

Yu Wan rolled up the wet map, stuffed it into her sleeve, and stood up. A patch of her skirt was soaked through at the knee, but she didn't even glance at it.

"Fine."

Yu Ping blinked, her grip on her handkerchief loosening. "What did you say?"

"I said fine." Yu Wan walked past her, her shoulder brushing against her sister's, leaving behind the scent of raw earth. "It'll save me from walking halfway across the city to Tianshui Lane every day. The temple is in South City, and Tianshui Lane is right outside the gates. It's much closer."

Yu Ping stamped her foot in fury, the tassels on her silver hairpin shaking violently. "Yu Wan! Do you not understand a word I'm saying—"

Yu Wan had already passed through the second gate.

Tianshui Lane was in the West City. Getting there from the Marquis Manor required crossing two bridges and traversing three streets. The river beneath the bridges had risen, the yellow water swirling in thick eddies. The alley was narrow, flanked by low tile-roofed houses with eaves so close they nearly touched, leaving only a sliver of sky above. The blue bricks at the base of the walls had crumbled; a finger could flake them away. A few women washing clothes squatted at the entrance; seeing her approach, they scrambled back against the walls, clutching their basins and babies. A wooden basin scraped against the wall with a harsh *shriek*.

A woman in her forties spat on the ground, loud and vicious. "The jinx is here. The whole alley's going to cave in."

Someone tugged at her sleeve, but she shook them off.

Yu Wan didn't stop. She walked straight to the middle of the alley and knelt beside an old ditch that had collapsed on one side. The stone slabs of the ditch were broken into fragments, the edges blackened, with a cluster of wilted wild amaranth growing in the cracks.

The head stonemason was named Master Zhou. He was in his fifties, his hands thick with calluses. He was leading four men in prying up the old slabs; every time one came loose, a stench of black sludge wafted up. The men covered their noses with rags, sweat and mud streaming down their foreheads.

"Miss, this is a nightmare job." Master Zhou wiped his face, leaving a streak of mud from his brow to his chin. "This ditch hasn't been cleared in thirty years. There's three feet of silt; the stones at the bottom are rotting. If we're going to dig the culvert like you said, we have to clear the silt first, lay the base stones, brick the walls, and cap it with slabs—how much material is that going to take?"

"I'll provide the old bricks." Yu Wan spread the wet map on her knee, tracing the ink lines with a mud-stained finger. "The ruined wall in the back garden of the Marquis Manor—I counted. There are three thousand two hundred whole bricks that can be salvaged. I'll provide the lime; I'll use my own monthly allowance to buy twenty stones' worth first."

"That still won't be enough."

"It will." She looked up, her eyes devoid of hesitation. "Thirty zhang. One zhang takes one hundred and six bricks. That's three thousand one hundred and eighty. The remaining twenty will cover the corners."

Master Zhou stared at her for a long moment, his Adam's apple bobbing. He slammed his crowbar into the ground, making the stone slab beneath them hum. "Miss, your math is better than mine. But will the people in this alley actually let you dig?"

No sooner had he spoken than someone arrived at the alley entrance.

The owner of Tongshun Shop was named Master Sun. He was in his early fifties, and his belly arrived well before the rest of him. Dressed in a soy-colored silk robe with the hem tucked in meticulously, he stood on his own threshold and threw up his hands. "Miss Yu, it's not that I'm being unreasonable. These bluestones in front of my door were laid by my father's own hand forty years ago. If you dig this up, how am I supposed to run my business?"

Yu Wan stood up, brushed the dirt off her knees, and walked over. She knelt on the stone steps of his door, measuring the height of the threshold with her palm, then pointed toward the other end of the alley.

"Master Sun, your threshold is eight inches lower than the rice shop at the end of the lane."

"So what?"

"Water flows to the lowest point." Yu Wan stood up. "During that rain last June, how many stones of wheat in your shop got soaked?"

Master Sun’s expression shifted, and his open hands quietly retreated into his sleeves.

"Two hundred and seventeen stones," Yu Wan said. "You wrote it in your own ledger. I saw it last month when I bought lime from your counter."

The crowd erupted. Master Sun’s face turned the color of pig liver, the veins in his neck bulging. He flicked his sleeve. "You... you went through my ledgers—"

"I didn't," Yu Wan replied. "Your ledger was lying open on the counter. The wind blew it open."

Someone in the alley started laughing, and soon others joined in. Master Sun stiffened his neck, finally choking out, "Then... then dig. If you break anything, you pay for it."

"If it breaks, I'll pay you with a formal letter from the Marquis Manor." Yu Wan turned and shouted, "Master Zhou, start digging!"

Everyone in the alley heard the first strike of the shovel. The blade sliced into the silt with a dull thud, followed by a second, then a third. The entire alley fell silent, listening.

The sky changed after noon.

First came the wind, blowing the laundry at the alley entrance sideways; a blue cloth jacket snagged on an eave. Then the clouds pressed in from the west, turning the undersides of the eaves black. The women hanging clothes looked up, forgetting to gather their laundry. Master Zhou glanced up but didn't stop working. "Miss, it's going to rain."

"Let it rain." Yu Wan knelt by the edge of the newly dug ditch, reaching down to feel the bottom. Her fingers paused in the damp air. "Perfect time to test the water."

The rain hit hard and fast. Fat droplets hammered the tiles like scattered beans, splashing into the ditch and creating tiny craters in the mud. The alley instantly descended into chaos—women scrambled for clothes, children bolted for cover, and wooden doors slammed one after another. Master Sun stood at his door, his face darker than the sky, while his clerks frantically bolted the entrance.

"It's over, it's all over." A woman holding a baby stood under the eaves, her voice trembling as she pulled the child closer. "It was just like this last year. In the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, the water was at our knees. My husband almost had to lift the baby out of the house..."

Before she could finish, the water arrived at the alley entrance.

Yellow muddy water poured in from the street, slammed into the newly built stone curb at the entrance, swirled, and dove straight into the opening of the new culvert. The paving stones at the bottom of the ditch gleamed with moisture as the water flowed along the surface—not fast, but steady and relentless.

Yu Wan knelt by the outlet, dipping her hand into the water to measure the level. "Still two inches off. Master Zhou, clear out another foot of the drop-water outlet at the end of the lane."

"If we open it too much, the water won't move fast enough and it'll overflow," Master Zhou said, wiping rain from his face.

"It won't overflow." She stood up, wiping the rain from her forehead, her soaked hair clinging to her temples. "A drop of one foot two inches over thirty zhang is a slope of four per thousand. The water will move. Dig."

Master Zhou gritted his teeth and signaled the men. Two men waded through the water toward the end of the alley, the sound of pickaxes hitting stone blending with the rain.

Once the outlet opened, the water level in the alley dropped visibly. First it fell below the ankles, then to the soles of the shoes, until finally, only a damp sheen remained. In the time it took to burn a stick of incense, the alley surface was nearly dry.

Master Sun stood at his door, looking down at the bluestones in front of him—dry.

He reached out and touched them, rubbing his fingertip across the stone. He knelt to peer into the gap of the new culvert, and when he looked up, his lips moved, but no words came out.

The woman with the baby walked out, wading through the thin layer of moisture. She knelt by the ditch for a long time, then suddenly shouted back into her house, "Husband! The wheat! The wheat didn't get soaked!"

A clerk from Tongshun Shop ran out from the backyard, having lost a shoe in the process, his voice cracking. "Boss! Two hundred stones—not a single grain is wet!"

The alley fell silent for a moment, save for the rhythmic dripping of water from the eaves.

The woman who had previously spat at Yu Wan squeezed through the crowd, holding a bowl of ginger soup. She offered it to Yu Wan, her hands still shaking. The steam from the soup dissipated quickly in the rainy air. "Miss... have some something hot."

Yu Wan took it and took a sip, frowning at the spice, then handed the bowl back. "Give it to Master Zhou and his men. They've been in the rain longer than I have."

By the time the rain stopped, a sliver of red appeared in the western sky. Yu Wan stood by the outlet, watching the water flow steadily toward the end of the alley, the surface still two fingers' width below the rim. She suddenly looked toward the west.

The clouds were still pressing down on the mountains, their bases low, as if soaking in water.

"Master Zhou," she said softly. "This rain came from the western mountains. The ditches in the city are a small matter; the water on the mountains is the real problem."

Master Zhou followed her gaze west, the wrinkles on his face tightening. "Miss, are you saying—"

Before he could finish, a frantic clanging of gongs echoed from the street.

*Clang—Clang—Clang—*

An officer came sprinting from the other end of the street, covered in mud, his hat gone. His voice was hoarse from screaming as he plowed right through an empty wooden basin at the alley entrance.

"The South City embankment—it's cracked! Thirty zhang! The water has already flooded the main road!"

The relief that had just settled over the alley vanished instantly. The woman clutched her child tight; Master Sun gripped his doorframe, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

Yu Wan set the empty bowl down on the stone steps with a sharp *clink*. She turned and headed for the street, her soaked skirt sweeping across the bluestones.

Master Zhou chased after her for a few steps. "Miss, where are you going?"

"South City."