The outskirts of the city were open countryside, and the road back had been more or less as usual — but once inside the city walls, the scene was utterly transformed. Everywhere there were crumbled walls and collapsed ruins, and everywhere the weeping of women and children. Those who had just endured this calamity had not yet recovered from the shock, and stood with arms hanging limp at their sides, faces blank and bewildered.

The carriage could go no further. The road was blocked by fallen brick walls and by people wandering in a daze. Yun Pan and Qin Dan could only climb down from the carriage and make their way on foot, skirting around the obstructions. With each new sight they encountered, the shock within deepened.

Fortunately, the tall and sturdy buildings deep within the city had survived. The famous thirty-two wine houses and shop fronts remained standing. The worst of the damage had fallen upon the ordinary residential dwellings within the district wards. The ward walls had collapsed, and many people who had not escaped in time had been crushed to death beneath them. Their bodies lay covered with grass matting or bedding along the roadside.

Qin Dan, fearing Yun Pan would be frightened, kept herself carefully between Yun Pan and the worst of it. They had walked perhaps half a li when the ground trembled again beneath their feet. At once, cries broke out on all sides. A tottering section of broken wall crashed to the ground with a thunderous sound, startling everyone into silence. Fortunately this aftershock was not strong — it passed in the blink of an eye. After settling their nerves as best they could, they quickened their pace and pressed on.

The Yong’an Marquis’s residence lay deep within Vermilion Bird Street. Coming down from Water Fairy Bridge, one had to pass by several other estates first. Those noble households all had their gates tightly shut — they were surely assessing their own damage while also guarding against the desperate displaced people who might stream in and take advantage of the chaos.

Yun Pan looked around on all sides and realized that before a natural disaster, human beings were no more than insects. All their pride and dignity — nothing but useless burdens.

“Please save my child — where is the physician… where is he…” A woman staggered toward them, her arms cradling a small girl whose clothes had been soaked through with blood. The woman looked frantic, like one who had lost her mind, and clutched at them wildly: “Has anyone seen Physician Yang? Miss… Miss, do you know medicine?”

Qin Dan waved her hands repeatedly in refusal: “We know nothing of medicine — go seek a physician elsewhere.”

The woman lurched away again in desperation. The child’s hand fell slack. Drops of blood fell steadily from the fingertips into the dust below, leaving tiny pitted marks in the earth.

A clap of thunder sounded overhead. Heaven itself apparently found this upheaval insufficient and wished to add to it — in an instant, rain came crashing down in torrents. There was nothing to be done but lift their skirts and run for home. The marquis’s residence too had its gates tightly shut. The gate and the area before it did not appear to have suffered any obvious damage — but what state the back of the compound was in, they could not know.

Qin Dan went forward and knocked at the gate ring, but no one came to answer. Growing anxious, she pressed herself against the crack of the gate and shouted for them to open up.

After a considerable wait, a small attendant finally lifted the bar and poked his head out with an unfriendly snarl: “This household has no room for disaster refugees. Try somewhere else — off with you, off with you, off!” He made to shut the door.

Qin Dan’s anger flared. “Are you blind, you wretch? Open your eyes and look properly — it is Miss of this very household who has returned. Open the gate this instant!”

But the small attendant bellowed right back at her: “The back of the compound has been damaged, and Miss was killed by a falling roof beam — they are preparing the coffin right now! If you dare speak such nonsense again, I will have someone bind you up and beat you to death — now get out of here!” And he slammed the gate shut with a thunderous bang.

Yun Pan’s mind buzzed with a blank, hollow sound. She truly could not fathom how she — standing here perfectly well before him — had been killed by a roof beam.

She took a closer look at this small attendant. He was completely unfamiliar — she had never seen him before. Yun Pan asked: “What has become of the people who used to stand watch at this gate?”

The attendant rolled his eyes and said: “What used to, what did not — this gate has always been my post to guard. Are you trying to deceive me?”

Qin Dan had met the immovable force, and was livid — she stamped her foot and said: “You insufferable wretch — once things are sorted out, I will have your legs broken for this! Where is Liu Niang — have Liu Niang come out and identify us. One look and it will all be clear.”

But the small attendant would not be moved, and spat back: “What sort of creatures are you? The people of this household are not for you to see whenever you please. Liu Niang is weeping herself to death at this very moment — she has no time to bother with the likes of you. Are you going or not? If you do not leave, I shall call people!”

Qin Dan refused to give up. “What of Juan Bai? Call him!”

“There is no one here called Juan Bai.”

“What of Nanny Pan?”

“No one of that name here either.”

Every road seemed to have been blocked. Yun Pan had never, in all her life, imagined a day when she would be unable to enter her own home.

Seeing that argument was getting them nowhere, Qin Dan bowed her head and made to rush through the gate. In an instant, five or six unfamiliar figures came running from either side and dragged her away, throwing her down on the gatehouse steps.

“Get out, get out, get out!” That small attendant bared his teeth like a demon, and slammed the great gate shut with a thunderous boom.

Yun Pan stood there in a daze, and suddenly no longer knew even who she herself was.

In Pi Xiu Courtyard, the western side of the room had half collapsed, leaving a gaping hole in the roof. The rain fell in a heavy downpour — ten thousand arrows of water streaming down, drenching the young lady’s inner chambers until they resembled a water curtain cave.

In the still-intact half of the room, Liu Shi was there with Xue Pan and two close personal maidservants, searching through everything in the room. Beneath the writing desk, under the dressing table, inside the jewelry boxes — they had even overturned the embroidered bed — and yet however hard they searched, that bond servant document was nowhere to be found.

She was furious and vexed, and ground her teeth: “Has it flown up to the heavens? I simply do not believe that she went out to attend a Fanhua Banquet and would still carry that document on her person.”

The marquis’s residence had not suffered catastrophic damage in the earthquake — only two horse stables had collapsed, a row of servant quarters had fallen, and all the other rooms, apart from Pi Xiu Courtyard, were still intact.

As it happened — what a strange coincidence — it was Pi Xiu Courtyard that had had one of its corners shaken down. A maidservant called Mu Xiang had not been able to flee the room in time and had been caught underneath. When Liu Shi ordered people to dig her out, that face was truly a mass of blood and mangled flesh. Yet as Liu Shi looked and looked, a bold idea took shape in her mind. She ordered the maidservants to dress Mu Xiang in Yun Pan’s clothes.

The young lady had perished in the earthquake — so any person outside claiming to be Jiang Yun Pan was a fake, and must not under any circumstances be allowed through the gate. All these years, what Liu Shi had feared from the County Princess — and from that legitimate daughter — was this: the document those women held could be used to sell her off like chattel without any difficulty. Now that Yun Pan could not return, Pi Xiu Courtyard was hers to search at will. So long as she could find that document, everything could begin anew.

Sometimes she blamed herself — blamed herself for having been rash and impetuous in her youth, for not having thought things through with sufficient care. She had assumed that once she was inside the household, the rest would be easily managed. Who could have known that the Yuyang County Princess would be a stone impossible to warm? No matter how many schemes Liu Shi had devised afterward to win her over, she had never been able to coax that document out of her hands.

Now she had truly found her footing in the marquis’s residence — yet as long as that bond servant document still existed, she would remain a bond servant for the rest of her life, unable to rise in status for as long as she lived. This time, heaven had taken pity on her and given her an opportunity. If she did not seize it, would she not be wasting heaven’s goodwill?

Although Xue Pan was also searching as hard as she could, after all this time it had amounted to nothing. She picked up several sheets of paper and shook them. “All that can be found are some salt trade vouchers, and a twenty-tael bank note. For the legitimate daughter of a marquis’s household to have so little to her name — no one would believe it if you told them.”

Liu Shi glanced at her. “Keep looking.”

Xue Pan pouted, and realized she had never truly understood her mother at all.

All this time she had thought A’Niang was timid and weak — as if everyone in this Yong’an Marquis’s residence could trample on her. Even after the County Princess died, A’Niang had still been deferential and obliging toward Jiang Yun Pan. But this time, A’Niang’s conduct had changed her view entirely. Only now did she see that A’Niang had always been playing the fool to hide her cunning — beneath the weak exterior, all along, there had been concealed a beast that devoured people whole and left not a bone behind.

Yet there were still things about A’Niang’s methods that Xue Pan could not quite understand. “To pass off a dead maidservant as her — will it really work? What if she goes to the home of some acquaintance and gets them to vouch for her? Or, taking it back ten thousand steps — if she makes it to the capital and finds Father, won’t A’Niang’s plan fall apart?”

Liu Shi’s hands did not stop for a moment. She emptied a drawer and let its contents scatter across the floor, and said as she searched: “The impersonation can only hold for a short time. Unless she truly is dead, it cannot be concealed for long. I only need this short time — one night will do, or two nights… ” She raised her head, and a mocking smile curved at the corners of her lips. “Right now the whole city is in chaos, like a cauldron of roiling water. Every family is too preoccupied with its own affairs to be willing to involve itself in someone else’s household disputes at a time like this. With no one to take her in, a noble young lady of a gentry household drifting outside for several days and nights — what remains of her, that delicate, pampered creature? Never mind the possibility of being seized by some ruffian and carried off — even if she does find her father and returns safely, after wandering lost for several days, her reputation is ruined. Ask all across this territory of Youzhou: what family would dare take in a woman with such an unclear and questionable history? In any case, her life is destroyed. After this, naturally she will have no face left with which to hold her power over me.”

Xue Pan listened, struck dumb. She had never imagined there could be such deep calculations behind it all.

“In that case, why not simply kill her and be done with it?”

Liu Shi was startled. “Kill her? Will you go and do it?”

Xue Pan indeed fell silent and said no more.

Liu Shi shifted her gaze away. Though the girl was her own flesh and blood, there were times she found her too single-minded.

“The County Princess has just died, and now her legitimate daughter dies as well — even if your father were to formally elevate me afterward, you and your siblings would be targets of censure, and you could forget about making a good marriage. Besides, she attended the Fanhua Banquet today — how many people saw her? If anyone were to seriously look into it — a human life, after all — we would not be able to bear that charge. This way is the best. At the time, one can say a maidservant had secretly changed into her clothes and I mistook her for the young lady — even if there are discrepancies, there is nothing in the penal code to convict a person on that basis. Let her wander in destitution for a few days outside — it will teach her what I am capable of. After this, for the rest of her life she will not dare put on the airs of the marquis’s legitimate daughter in front of me.”

Xue Pan smiled. “A’Niang truly has it all figured out.”

It was at least a compliment of sorts. Liu Shi gave a quiet, derisive laugh. “If not for myself, then also for the sake of planning a future for you. The few maidservants who attended her closely — I have already found a pretext and sent them off to the farm estate. The remaining one, Chen Xiang, I have set to work in my own rooms — she will cause no trouble.”

But the bond servant document simply could not be found, no matter what. She questioned Chen Xiang, who said she too had no idea of its whereabouts — only that she attended the young lady in her dressing and did not concern herself with anything else.

Xue Pan was beginning to lose heart. She turned to ask the two maidservants: “Have you found anything?”

Both shook their heads. Looking around, the room had been searched as thoroughly as if it had been turned inside out — nothing had been found. Would they truly have to dig up the floorboards and tear down the walls?

Xue Pan threw up her hands in defeat. “Forget it — stop looking. It may well have been crushed under the roof or soaked to ruin in the rain. In any case, even when she comes back, she will be a phoenix stripped of its feathers — there is not much she can do.”

But though the words came easily, the unease lingered. If only they could find the document and destroy it with their own hands — then at last that would put to rest all those years of living with that constant dread hanging over them.

“Could it be that she stored it somewhere else…” Liu Shi looked at the objects scattered all over the floor and could not help but feel disheartened. She was truly the daughter the County Princess had raised — always on guard against the people within her own household. If it was not in this room, it must be hidden somewhere outside. Suddenly remembering that the newly placed attendant at the gate had just come in to report to her, she quickly turned and gave instructions to the trusted nanny waiting in the corridor: “Go quickly to the front and see if the person is still there.”

The nanny said she would, but stood still without moving, and hesitated before asking: “If she is still there — do we bring her in now?”

Bring her in — and then face this room in such a state of disarray, with her no doubt making heaven and earth tremble? Besides, the plan had been laid so carefully, and its intended effect was so close at hand — why would she undermine her own scheme at this moment?

Liu Shi gave her a sideways look. “That is not what I meant! I expect she will not be able to get through the gate and will try some other means. Have someone follow her — keep watch to see where she goes and who she meets.”

The nanny acknowledged the order and, umbrella in hand, hurried quickly toward the side gate, then doubled back in a wide arc and stood far away at a corner of the building, peering toward the front gate. But she stood there and watched for a long while, and through the swirling curtain of rain, all she could see was the gate standing stern and forbidding. There was not a single soul remaining in the covered gatehouse walkway.