Chapter 5

Ying Que gave me the bed after all.

Holding his sword, he stood by the window, staring motionlessly at the deserted street.

I lay tossing and turning.

Having grown up in the north, I found Lingnan’s climate hard to bear.

“Ah Fu, once your eyes are better, will you go back to Apricot Village?”

Perhaps sensing my restlessness, Ying Que suddenly struck up a conversation.

“Oh… yes.”

“Then I’ll come with you.”

There was nostalgia in his voice. “It’s been a long time since I saw the village head or Auntie Li.”

Ying Que had spent only two days in Apricot Village, but he’d gotten to know everyone well.

Curious about an immortal descended from Heaven, they’d all come to my house to visit.

They’d brought us lots of eggs and cabbages, too.

It felt so long ago, remembering it now. Yet it had only been three years.

As I answered Ying Que, sleep began to weigh on me.

Perhaps thinking of the past before bed was the reason I dreamed.

In the dream, I was back in Apricot Village, racing Pea Pudding into the wind beside the river.

Auntie Li had just returned from the market. She stood upstream holding a bolt of new cloth. Her daughter-in-law had recently become pregnant, and she was going to make clothes for her unborn grandchild.

Granny Song called to me to be careful not to fall in, then invited me to lunch.

The village head came over with his cane, smiling. He held up a stone and challenged me to see who could skip one farther.

The stone skimmed the water, sending out ripples.

I looked toward the village head, but he was no longer beside me.

When I turned again, a withered corpse bobbed to the surface. Its eyes bulged from their sockets, staring straight at me.

The village head drifted toward me with the ripples, his shriveled mouth opening and closing.

I leaned closer to listen.

“Ah Fu, why are you still alive?”

A rustling sound woke me.

Everything was black. For a moment, I couldn’t tell dream from waking.

My throat was dry. I was about to call Ying Que when the door creaked open.

The newcomers moved stealthily. Their footsteps sounded like a man and a woman.

“Damn it. Why didn’t they light the lamp?”

It was the proprietress.

Then I heard a fire striker being lit.

Warmth approached my face.

Seeing me asleep, the proprietress let out a relieved breath.

“Sister Chun, the man’s gone!” the inn boy cried in alarm.

“Quiet. Let him be.”

The proprietress laughed coyly. “Such a handsome young fellow. I’d hate to send him to the Heavenly Dragon Workshop anyway. When he comes back and finds his wife missing, I can comfort him.”

She ordered the boy to carry me out of the room.

As she passed him, I bit through the tip of my tongue.

The boy carried me downstairs and laid me in the back yard.

Some distance away, Pea Pudding barked without stopping.

“Be quiet, or I’ll pickle you to go with my wine!”

After threatening him, the proprietress and the boy shifted something that sounded like a large earthenware vat.

I had two choices: keep pretending to sleep, or run.

But I didn’t know this place. I couldn’t move as swiftly as I had that day in Yanhe Town.

While I hesitated, the scraping of pottery over earth stopped abruptly.

The boy dragged me up. “She looks like prime goods. What’s she worth?”

“Why are you asking? Do you think I’d shortchange you?”

The proprietress snorted and hurried him on. “Prime or not, she’ll only work herself to death down there. Throw her in.”

They lowered me into a tiny opening. It was damp and cold inside.

The boy let go, and I fell.

Instead of rough ground, icy deep water met me.

I struggled desperately on the surface before someone hauled me out.

“Make a sound and I’ll kill you!”

I’d barely reached dry ground when a dagger pressed against my throat.

“Sir, isn’t there some misunderstanding—”

“Shut up. From today on, you work for our Heavenly Dragon Workshop. You’re here to work, not talk!”

He tied my arms and led me onward.

After roughly a thousand feet, he stopped.

I could hear many people breathing, their breaths broken by stifled sobs.

“This is your job. Until you’ve filled a thousand, don’t even think of leaving!”

He forced me down and flung something in front of me.

Feeling around, I found a bag of round wooden plaques and a bowl of powder.

I touched a little with my fingertip and sniffed it.

Copper powder.