Chapter 1

After the madman left, the words “the bedding of ten thousand” spread through the general’s household.

At first, I had no idea what they meant.

I was only nine that year. When the general took Qingzhou, he found me beside a heap of corpses and brought me home.

The steward said I had been nothing but bones, clutching half a moldy cake to my chest and biting anyone who touched me.

The general took pity on me and brought me into his household to serve the young lady.

I had no name.

While we were fleeing famine, my parents had always called me Ah Man, hoping that one day I would have enough to eat.

Later, they both died.

The name stayed.

The day after the madman wrote our fates, I went to the stables for hot water as usual. Several older women newly hired by the household covered their mouths and laughed when they saw me.

One of the oldest looked me up and down. “This girl? Such a skinny little thing. Who’d have thought she’d have such good fortune waiting for her?”

Another laughed harder. “Good fortune? It’s the bedding of ten thousand. Didn’t you hear what they’re saying out front? She’ll serve more men than we’ve ever laid eyes on.”

They all burst out laughing.

I stood there with my bucket. I did not understand, but I knew they were laughing at me.

That evening, while making the young lady’s bed, I could not help asking.

Xie Mingzhao was sitting by the lamp, wiping down the new bow her father had given her.

She was two years older than me and already had some hazy understanding of what went on between men and women. Her hand stopped. She looked up at me for a long time.

“My lady, what does ‘the bedding of ten thousand’ mean?”

Xie Mingzhao frowned without answering.

I asked again, “Does it mean I’ll have to make beds for lots of people?”

This time, the cloth in her hand went still.

After a moment, she put the bow on the table. “If anyone laughs at you over those words again, tell me.”

I still did not understand.

Seeing me stare at her, she offered a stiff explanation. “It’s nothing nice. That’s all.”

I thought about it and decided it did not matter much.

I had heard plenty of ugly names over the years.

Little beggar.

Jinx.

Bastard.

Filthy pauper.

A few more words hardly made a difference.

So I nodded and went on arranging her bedding.

Then she suddenly asked, “Ah Man, aren’t you afraid?”

I looked back at her. “Of what?”

“That the madman was right.”

I gave it some serious thought.

I was more afraid of hunger, really.

During the famine, I had seen an old woman lying by the road, too hungry to move. One day she was still breathing; the next, her body was stiff.

I had also seen people sell their own daughters to passing caravans for half a sack of bran.

Beside that, something more than ten years away felt terribly distant.

So I told her, “As long as I get to eat every day, I’ll do anything.”

She stared.

Just then, the door opened and the young master, Xie Linchuan, came in carrying a rolled map.

He had plainly heard my last sentence. He tossed the map onto the table and sneered. “No ambition at all.”

Xie Mingzhao glanced at her brother. “And what brings someone so ambitious here?”

He lifted his chin at once. “Father’s taking me outside the city to inspect the troops tomorrow. I’ve come for the book on warfare Uncle left behind.”

His eyes shone as he said it.

Ever since the madman left the words “A dragon shall rise from humble beginnings and ascend the throne,” everyone in the household had looked at Xie Linchuan differently.

Before, they had only called him the general’s only son.

Now some were already whispering that perhaps he really was destined to be emperor.

Even his tutor in military strategy had become far more attentive.

Xie Linchuan said he did not believe it, yet lately he had been reading military treatises deep into the night.

Xie Mingzhao threw him the book. “Really planning to become emperor?”

He caught it, his face actually turning a little red.

“You believe a madman?” he said stubbornly.

“If you don’t, why read those books every day?”

The two of them soon started arguing.

I crouched to pick up the map Xie Linchuan had tossed aside.

It showed the garrisons around Qingzhou.

Black lines marked the mountains, blue lines the rivers, and red circles showed where the rebel troops were stationed.

I could not read, but I understood the circles.

The household was short of hands, so I often went with the supply stewards to deliver grain to the camps.

I had been to the cavalry camps, the camps for the wounded, and the one that needed twenty cartloads of grain every day.

After studying it for a while, I noticed something that seemed wrong.

Xie Linchuan and Xie Mingzhao were still arguing.

I could not help interrupting. “Young master, why isn’t there anyone here?”

The room fell silent.

He looked down at the spot beneath my finger.

It was a stretch of shallows north of Qingzhou.

“With water at its back and no defensible ground, of course you can’t put troops there,” he said impatiently.

“Oh.”

A moment later, I added quietly, “But when I delivered fodder yesterday, I saw all the Northern Camp’s horses drinking there.”

He paused.

Afraid he would think I was talking too much, I quickly pulled my hand away.

But he did not scold me.

He spread the map on the floor and crouched beside it. “Explain.”

I tried to remember. “The Northern Camp has lots of horses, and so does the Eastern Camp. They all go here to drink every day. If you can’t station troops there, does that mean nobody’s guarding it either?”

Xie Linchuan stared at the shallows without a word.

Xie Mingzhao came over too.

Their strange expressions made me uneasy. “I was only wondering. I don’t know anything about fighting.”

He suddenly rolled up the map and ran outside.

Startled, I called, “Where are you going, young master?”

He did not look back. “To find my father.”

Before dawn the next morning, the call to muster rang through the general’s residence.

Holding the clothes the young lady had taken off the night before, I stood in the corridor and watched troop after troop of cavalry charge through the gates.

Xie Linchuan did not return until after noon.

He was covered in mud, but his face glowed red.

The moment he entered the courtyard, he beckoned to me.

“Ah Man. Come here.”

I put down my wooden basin and approached carefully.

He rummaged inside his robe for a long while before producing a slightly crushed piece of osmanthus cake and pushing it into my hand.

“For me?” I asked, puzzled.

He nodded, for once dispensing with his airs.

“A cavalry unit from the old dynasty really did try to slip across the shallows last night to burn our supplies. Father had men waiting. They captured the whole lot.”

I stared at the cake in my hand.

After a pause, he added, “I told Father I worked it out from the map.”

I looked up.

At last seeming embarrassed, he turned away. “They wouldn’t believe me if I said you spotted it. Besides, you can’t even read. What’s the use of understanding a map?”

That made perfect sense.

I nodded.

He looked taken aback. “You’re not angry?”

I bit into the cake.

It was sweet.

So sweet that my eyes narrowed in pleasure.

“No,” I told him.

I was only a maid, after all.

The young master would one day ascend the throne.

The young lady would be praised by all the people.

As for me—

I looked down, brushed off my clothes, picked up the basin of used bedding, and headed for the back courtyard.

The older women were right.

What right did someone with a fate like mine have to study maps?

For the rest of my life, washing clothes and making beds was probably all I would ever be fit for.