Chapter 1: The Copper Piece in Her Sleeve

When Granny Zhang pushed the door open and came in, Shen Du was slipping a copper piece into her sleeve.

"Third Young Lady, Madam is calling for you." Granny Zhang's eyes swept around the room. "Wash your hands clean before you go."

Shen Du rubbed her fingers against the hem of her clothes. The copper piece pressed against her wrist, cold as a lump of ice.

In the main room the charcoal burned bright, and a heavy scent of aloeswood pressed down until it was hard to breathe. Matchmaker Sun sat in the lower seat, twisting a handkerchief in her hands, her eyes following Shen Du's heels. Her stepmother, Madam Wang, reclined on the couch, the lid of her dressing case open, with one compartment inside left empty.

"Kneel."

Shen Du stood still. She looked first at the dressing case, then at Matchmaker Sun.

"Has Mother lost something?"

"My filigree gold hairpin." Madam Wang set her teacup down on the small table with a sharp clink from its base. "Yesterday, in the shen hour, you came into this room of mine."

"I came in to bring Mother medicine. Mother was coughing, and Granny Zhang said the medicine had to be taken while it was hot."

"And bringing medicine took you right up to my dressing case?"

Matchmaker Sun hurried to cut in: "Oh, Third Young Lady, a single hairpin is not worth much money. Just admit it and be done, and do not make Madam angry. For a young girl to have light fingers - if word gets out, what family would dare take you afterward?"

Shen Du turned her head to look at her and smiled a little. "Mother Sun, are you here today to arrange a match, or to judge a case?"

Matchmaker Sun choked on her words.

Madam Wang slapped her handkerchief down on the couch. "Impudent! I am questioning you, and you start making up stories about a guest first. Granny Zhang, search her."

Granny Zhang took a step forward, her hand already reaching out. Shen Du stepped back half a step, back to the doorway, and unhurriedly shook out both her sleeves and turned out the linings.

"You may search me," she said. "Mother has lost a hairpin, and your daughter is anxious for Mother. Only, before you search, your daughter has one question she would like to ask."

"Speak."

"Yesterday, at the end of the shen hour, someone left Mother's room." Shen Du raised her eyes. "He went out by the rear corner gate, wearing a blue cloth straight robe, with shoes caked in mud, mud all the way up to his ankles. In his hand he carried a bundle, the bundle cloth was blue-flowered, tied with a dead knot."

The room fell silent.

Madam Wang's fingers tightened on the edge of the couch.

"If Mother wants to search your daughter, your daughter would not dare stop her." Shen Du let her sleeves fall. "Only, that bundle - would Mother also like to have someone search it?"

"What nonsense are you talking!" Madam Wang's voice turned shrill. "Where would there be any blue cloth straight robe in my room!"

"Then your daughter must have been mistaken." Shen Du lowered her eyes. "Last night your daughter got up in the night and saw the rear corner gate open, and thought a thief had got in. If your daughter saw wrong, then go ahead and search. Granny Zhang, you come."

She held out her hands.

Granny Zhang, on the contrary, did not dare move. She turned back to look at Madam Wang. Madam Wang's face flushed and paled by turns, and the veins stood out on the back of the hand clutching the handkerchief.

Footsteps sounded outside, the door curtain lifted, and Shen Yan came in. He wore the old robe of a junior registrar of the eighth rank, its cuffs frayed, and as soon as he entered he looked first at Madam Wang, then at his daughter.

"What is it this time?"

"Ask your daughter!" Madam Wang's tears came as soon as she spoke of them. "One of my hairpins has gone missing. I ask her about it, and she makes up stories that a wild man got into my room!"

Shen Yan's face flushed red at once. "Nonsense! Can such things be said carelessly?"

"Father." Shen Du spoke, her voice not loud. "Your daughter did not say anything about a wild man. Your daughter only said that someone went out by the rear corner gate, carrying a blue-flowered bundle. If Mother says there was no such person, then your daughter must have seen wrong. As for the hairpin, your daughter did not take it. If Mother does not believe that, there are more than a dozen people in this courtyard, above and below, and a search will make it clear. Only -"

She paused.

"Only, I fear what a search turns up will not be just one hairpin."

Shen Yan was not a stupid man. He had copied documents in the yamen for twenty years, and was best at hearing what was meant beyond the words. He looked at his wife, then at his daughter, and at last pressed his anger down and waved a hand.

"It is only a hairpin. It has probably fallen into a crack between the chests. What is all this fuss. Everyone, disperse."

Matchmaker Sun stood up awkwardly. "Then... then what about this marriage..."

"We will talk about the marriage later." Shen Yan flicked his sleeve and went out.

Madam Wang sat on the couch without moving, her eyes pinned to Shen Du's face, pinned there for a long time.

"You are very good," she said.

Shen Du bowed. "Your daughter takes her leave."

Once she was out of the main room, a gust of wind blew, and the layer of sweat on her back went cold through. She walked to the turn in the corridor before she pinched the copper piece out of her sleeve. The copper piece was thin, with a curved hook ground along its edge, which she had spent half the night filing out the night before.

She had indeed been in Madam Wang's room the night before. Only, what she took was not the hairpin.

In the evening, Shen Du was called to the front hall.

This time there was no Matchmaker Sun, and no charcoal fire. Shen Yan sat in a chair smoking gloomily, and Madam Wang stood beside him, holding a sheet of paper in her hand.

"General Qin's camp needs a batch of washerwomen." Madam Wang handed the paper over. "I have already submitted your name. In three days a carriage will come to fetch you."

Shen Du did not take the paper.

"Washerwomen." She turned those words over in her mouth. "Mother, is General Qin's camp so short of washerwomen that it has to pick unmarried girls from officials' families in the city?"

"The army is short of hands, and the government assigns the duty - it is only right and proper." Madam Wang's tone was very even. "Your father holds a post in the yamen, and those above have named names, so our family has to produce one person in any case. Lan'er is still young. You are sixteen, and it is right that you share the family's worries."

Shen Du looked toward Shen Yan. Shen Yan kept his head lowered, his pipe turning between his fingers, not looking at her.

"Does Father think the same?"

Shen Yan coughed. "Du'er, go for three months, and you will come back. Father has asked around. The camp is strictly run, and they will not make things hard for anyone..."

"Three months." Shen Du gave a laugh. "Mother just said that those above named names. Which above? Father is a registrar under the Judicial Intendant's Office, and General Qin is with the garrison - the two sides have nothing to do with each other. Where was this duty assigned from?"

Shen Yan's hand shook, and ash fell onto his robe.

Madam Wang cut in ahead of him: "Your father is in the yamen, and official documents pass through his hands. Does he need to account for them to a little girl like you?"

"Mother is right." Shen Du nodded. "Then your daughter will ask one thing: this duty - what is your daughter being traded for?"

The hall fell silent.

Shen Yan jerked his head up. "What did you say?"

"The man yesterday in the blue cloth straight robe, carrying the blue-flowered bundle out by the rear corner gate." Shen Du looked at her father. "Father, the key to the rear corner gate of this house - in whose hands is it?"

Shen Yan turned his head and looked at Madam Wang.

Madam Wang's face went white. "My lord, do not let her drive a wedge between us! She stole my hairpin, and now she wants to throw dirty water on me as well -"

"The hairpin is in the hidden compartment under the bottom layer of Mother's dressing case." Shen Du said. "Mother put it there herself, last night. Your daughter did not take it."

Madam Wang stood with her mouth open, unable to get out a single word.

Shen Yan slapped his pipe down on the table, stood up, and walked in front of Madam Wang. He was not tall, and his shoulders slumped, but this time he stood perfectly straight.

"In whose hands is the key?"

"My lord..."

"I am asking you, in whose hands is the key!"

Madam Wang took a step back and bumped into a chair.

Shen Du did not watch any longer. She turned and went out through the hall door, shutting the clamor behind her inside.

The sky was already completely dark.

After the drum of the third watch, Shen Du climbed out through the rear window of her own small room.

She had lived in this courtyard for seven years. Seven years ago her mother died, and Madam Wang came through the door. Which brick in this courtyard was loose, which rafter could bear a foot, which stretch of tiles on the wall top was movable - she could find them all with her eyes closed.

Madam Wang's room was in the east wing. Under its window stood a pomegranate tree, its branches reaching to the edge of the eaves. Shen Du stepped onto a fork of the tree, touched her toe to a crack in the wall once, and was up on the eaves. She lifted two tiles; below was the ceiling. She reached in, felt a crossbeam, and on the crossbeam rested a small box.

The copper piece slid out of her sleeve, hooked the lock of the box, and with a twist of her wrist, it opened.

Inside the box were three letters, a stack of silver notes, and a wooden token.

Shen Du did not touch the silver notes. She drew out the letters and read them by the moonlight leaking down from the edge of the eaves.

The first letter was written by Madam Wang's elder brother, in a scrawled hand: "Everything has been arranged properly with General Qin. Just send the person over. If that girl is unwilling, just use medicine on her on the road. Once she reaches the camp, Steward Zhang will be there to receive her."

The second letter was shorter, only one line: "I have already dealt with Squad Leader Cui's side. You can rest easy."

The third letter had no signature. On the paper there was only a mark drawn, like a knife.

Shen Du turned the wooden token over. On its back was carved one character: Ye.

She held the wooden token and sat on the eaves for a moment. The wind came from the north, carrying the smell of smoke from cooking fires over by the barracks.

She stuffed the letters back into the box and tucked only the wooden token into her bosom. She put the box back in place and covered the tiles properly. As she left, she casually felt out a needle from a crack in the ceiling and stuck it into the keyhole of the box lock - next time it was opened, it would take some trouble.

As she came down the tree, she heard Madam Wang turn over in the east wing.

Shen Du did not go back to her own room. She climbed over the rear wall and followed the lane south.

In the south city there was a dark lane, with a broken lantern hanging at its mouth. She walked to the middle of the lane and stopped.

"You have followed me for half a street," she said. "Come out."

A man walked out from the shadow of the wall. He was around forty, in short clothes, with an iron ruler tucked at his waist, and an old scar on his face running from his brow bone to his cheekbone.

"Third Young Lady has good ears."

"Squad Leader Cui." Shen Du turned around. "How many days have you kept watch at my family's gate?"

Cui Jiu smiled a little, and the scar moved with it: "Seven days."

"Seven days." Shen Du nodded. "My stepmother's letter said that Squad Leader Cui's side had already been dealt with. So this is how it was dealt with - watching at the gate."

Cui Jiu stopped smiling.

"You know everything."

"I know half." Shen Du tucked her hands into her sleeves. "The other half - is Squad Leader Cui willing to tell it?"

Cui Jiu felt something out from his bosom and tossed it over. Shen Du caught it. It was a wooden token, exactly the same as the one in her bosom, only on its back was carved the character Cui.

"In Qin Ye's army, there is something the court wants," Cui Jiu said. "There is also a person the court wants to find. Three years ago you went into his study and took away a seal. What characters were carved on that seal, you know more clearly than I do."

Shen Du's fingers pressed once on the wooden token.

"You want me to go in."

"Your stepmother's elder brother has paved a road for you, and I will give you another one." Cui Jiu took a step forward. "Both roads lead to Qin Ye's camp. Which road you take, I will not ask. I will ask you only one thing - do you want to live?"

"I am living perfectly well."

"The medicine your stepmother has prepared for you is on the carriage," Cui Jiu said. "Once you reach the camp and Steward Zhang takes over, you will no longer be the Shen family's Third Young Lady. You will not even be a person."

The lane was silent for a breath.

"If I go in, how do I get out?" Shen Du asked.

"You cannot get out," Cui Jiu said. "Unless Qin Ye dies, or you die."

Shen Du put the two wooden tokens together and turned them once between her fingers.

"If I work for the court, what does the court give me?"

"It gives you your life."

"This life of mine was mine to begin with." Shen Du threw the token carved Cui back to him. "Squad Leader Cui, you have found the wrong person."

She turned to leave.

"Shen Du." Cui Jiu called her from behind. "The year your mother died, you were nine years old. You climbed over the wall and went out, and hid for three days in a broken temple in the south city. Your father searched for three days and did not find you. On the fourth day you went back by yourself, and the first thing you said when you came through the door was - 'I am hungry.'"

Shen Du stopped in her tracks.

"Where you went in those three days, I know," Cui Jiu said. "You slipped into the old Qin residence, and under the floor of his study, you slept for three nights."

The wind made the lantern at the mouth of the lane sway once.

Shen Du turned her head back.

"Squad Leader Cui, whose man are you, in the end?"

Cui Jiu did not answer. He tossed the token carved Cui over again, this time very slowly. The wooden token turned over in the air and landed in front of Shen Du's feet.

"In three days, there will be a carriage to meet you at the camp gate. Whether you get on the carriage or not, decide for yourself."

He retreated back into the shadow of the wall, and the sound of his footsteps went toward the depths of the lane.

Shen Du bent down and picked up the wooden token. The two tokens were the same weight, the same cold, and carved with the same neat edges.

She placed them side by side in her palm and looked at them for a while.

One was Cui, one was Ye.

So this chess game had been set up as early as the year she was nine.

She blew out the lantern.