Chapter 2

In the end, I ate only half the osmanthus cake.

I wrapped the other half in oiled paper and hid it beneath my bed.

It was not that I could not bear to finish it.

During the famine, Mother had always said that with a bite of food in your hand, you need not be afraid.

I liked that feeling very much.

Three days later, the general returned from outside the city.

It had been a splendid victory. Half the old dynasty’s three hundred cavalrymen had fallen, and the rest were all captured. Even their commander was trussed up tight and marched into the city.

The household held a victory feast.

I stood with the other maids in the corridor, waiting to serve. From inside came praise for the young master’s ability to see through the enemy’s movements at such an early age. He was bound for greatness, they said.

Xie Linchuan drank two cups of wine, his little face flushed scarlet.

He said nothing.

I lowered my head and refilled the wine jug. I thought nothing of it either.

The credit suited him better.

Who would believe him if he said I had worked it out?

After the feast, I cleared the cups and dishes.

Then General Xie called me back.

He was over forty and had spent many years at war. A deep sword scar ran from his right eyebrow to behind his ear. When he was not smiling, he looked frightening.

I was a little afraid of him and quickly put the dishes down.

“Your name is Ah Man?”

I nodded.

“You were the one who noticed the shallows north of the city?”

I did not know how to answer.

Xie Linchuan stood behind him, looking awkward.

After a moment, he said quietly, “Father, I told you. I only saw that it wasn’t defended. Ah Man said the horses drank there every day. That was what made me think the old dynasty’s cavalry might come that way.”

General Xie glanced at his son.

Xie Linchuan lowered his head further.

So he had told him after all.

The general did not praise me.

He merely had someone bring the map, spread it on the table, and pointed to several places.

“What’s here?”

I looked for a moment. “The Southern Camp.”

“How do you know, if you can’t read?”

“It’s near the granary. Seven cartloads of millet and two of beans go there every day. Only the Southern Camp eats that much.”

His finger moved elsewhere.

“That’s the camp for the wounded. They don’t need much grain, but they need lots of firewood to boil their medicine.”

His finger continued north.

I frowned at the map for a long time.

“I’ve never been there.”

At last he asked, “Why not?”

“The steward won’t let us deliver grain there.”

The room went silent.

He studied me, then turned to Xie Linchuan. “Do you know what that place is?”

Xie Linchuan went pale.

“The armory.”

I did not know what an armory was.

But I knew I seemed to have hit upon something again.

After that day, two of the stewards at the general’s armory were replaced.

One confessed that very night.

He had been selling weapons to wealthy families in the city and secretly dealing in iron.

General Xie had him beheaded.

For the first time, I learned that understanding a map really could get someone killed.

That evening, I was frightened.

Xie Mingzhao pushed her own writing brush into my hand.

“What are you afraid of? He was stealing military supplies. You weren’t.”

I held the brush, not knowing what to do.

“From today on,” she told me, “you’ll learn to read with me.”

I jumped.

“Maids can learn to read?”

“Who says they can’t?”

I thought for a long while.

Nobody had actually said so.

But back in the village, the people who could write were scholars, bookkeepers, and the landlord’s sons.

Women could not.

Certainly not beggars.

So I asked, “What use will it be if I learn?”

She looked at me as though I were a fool.

“You like maps, don’t you? How will you know what they say if you can’t read?”

That made good sense.

I sat down beside her.

The first character I learned was “grain.”

The second was “soldier.”

The third was “person.”

Xie Mingzhao asked why I had chosen those three.

I told her they seemed to be what war was made of.

You needed people.

People needed to eat.

Only people with full bellies could take up weapons and fight.

She was quiet for a moment.

The next day, she told General Xie what I had said.

From then on, I had another duty besides serving her.

I was to learn accounting from the household’s grain officer.