Sect Year 1 · eighth month · day 27 · Azure Stream Sect, the spring by Shen Mo’s grave
The spring path ran down from the stone house through the cut terraces, and in the late afternoon the shade under the bamboo lay so deep that Lin heard Pei before he saw her. She was climbing with a basket on one arm and a stick in her other hand, tapping the stones as she came, and every few steps she stopped to say something to the bamboo. The bamboo did not answer. It wasn’t expected to.
“Liu Mai made you a cake,” she said, when she reached the last turn. “The cook says it’s wasted on Outer servants. I told him he could say that to Liu Mai’s face.” She set the basket on the step between them and lifted the cloth. Inside was a pear cake, dense and dark, still warm at the centre.
“Thank her for me.”
“You can thank her yourself. She’s at the pots.” Pei sat down on the spring step, tucked her knees under her coat, and held out her hand. “Now the thing you owe me.”
Lin took the paper kite out of his sleeve. He had folded it the night before from the back of a spoiled Inner Court form, the sort of form that asks a man how many times he has been seen at the basin. He had kept the printed side turned inward so that the questions did not show…
