The next morning, when Bai Youwei woke, Shen Mo was no longer beside her.

He was standing by the window, which was open halfway. The rain outside had stopped, but the sky remained overcast.

“What time is it?” Bai Youwei sat up and asked.

“Seven,” Shen Mo replied.

Bai Youwei felt momentarily disoriented. She had slept that long? Looking at the light she’d have guessed five or six, but it was already seven… She usually couldn’t sleep well in unfamiliar environments, so she had no idea how this had happened. She’d closed her eyes and simply fallen asleep.

Something about that didn’t feel right.

Bai Youwei slowly got out of bed. There were washing supplies by the folding screen — a damp wooden basin, a rough boar-bristle toothbrush, and a cloth that smelled of damp earth.

She touched none of it. She opened the dollhouse and asked Teacher Cheng to pass out washing supplies for her and Shen Mo.

She brought out breakfast at the same time.

Teacher Cheng had prepared scallion-stuffed rolls and five-grain soy milk.

Staying inside the dollhouse with nothing else to do, Teacher Cheng spent his days cooking and experimenting with recipes — his culinary skills had improved considerably.

Over breakfast, Teacher Cheng looked through the doorway at Bai Youwei and Shen Mo on the other side, then hesitantly asked, “Weiwei… is this game of yours difficult?”

“Quite difficult, actually — Shen Mo and I can’t understand the Fuzhou dialect.” Bai Youwei nibbled on her roll and asked Teacher Cheng, “Do you know how to speak the Fujianese dialect?”

“Fujianese?” Teacher Cheng shook his head blankly, then murmured, “I thought it would be classical poetry again?”

Bai Youwei burst out laughing. “Teacher Cheng, you didn’t get your fill last time, did you?”

Last night he’d gone toe-to-toe with someone in a poetry battle and come away full of fire and energy.

Cheng Weicai chuckled with mild embarrassment and admitted honestly, “You’ve all been taking care of me — I want to actually be of use too…”

“When we need you, I definitely won’t be shy about asking,” Bai Youwei said, biting off a piece of her roll — warm and fragrant, soft and yielding in the mouth, with a chewy bite to it, the savory saltiness giving way to a gentle sweetness at the end. “…Mmm, this is so good.”

“Then have plenty more.” Teacher Cheng smiled. “Little Shen, you eat plenty too — there’s still a lot in the steamer.”

“Send a few over to Du Lai,” Shen Mo said to Bai Youwei. “His rations only seem to be compressed biscuits — that’s not going to last him very long.”

“Sure.” Bai Youwei nodded. “We’ll just say we grabbed them from the old scholar’s kitchen — he can take it or leave it~”

They’d already formed an alliance after all. It was fine to be generous about it — sharing a bit of food and drink was nothing.

Shen Mo took a few of the stuffed rolls and went next door.

Teacher Cheng then consulted Bai Youwei, “The vegetable garden on the slope is mostly sorted out. There’s plenty of space here, but it’s lacking in color — all green and nothing else. Should we plant some flowers…”

— If growing vegetables and grain could at least be justified by having something to eat, then growing flowers was purely for the pleasure of looking at them. There was no practical necessity to it. But old people simply couldn’t sit still — they always needed to find themselves some task, some reason to feel useful.

Bai Youwei agreed at once. “Of course. Shen Mo and I will go dig some up in a bit.”

The old scholar’s garden was full of peonies and herbaceous peonies — they all appeared to be fine varieties too.

Teacher Cheng got up and said, “Let me go find you a couple of shovels…”

He hadn’t even finished speaking when a wailing cry came from somewhere in the distance —

Teacher Cheng froze. Bai Youwei startled too, then immediately raised her hand to close the dollhouse door and said quickly: “Teacher Cheng, I’m going to go check it out — we’ll talk about the flowers later!”

She wheeled her chair toward the door, only for the raised threshold of the old-style architecture to block her way.

These ancient buildings were so ill-suited for her.

Fortunately Shen Mo returned quickly and effortlessly lifted her wheelchair over the step.

Bai Youwei asked him, “Where are Du Lai and Fu Miaoxue?”

Shen Mo shook his head. “They weren’t in their room.”

—