Yu Ping was afraid he had read it wrong. He quickly trimmed the lamp wick brighter and read through the document once more carefully. When he saw that the seal pressed on it was not the prefectural seal but an imperial envoy’s seal, he felt his heart settle again. The old saying held — a powerful serpent does not crush the local snake; this matter would actually be easier to handle. He read every word once more, and congratulated himself: thank goodness it was I who found this first. Better to avoid unnecessary complications — this needn’t be too difficult to smooth over.

To pull Zhū Shenhan out of the situation was beyond him, but extracting himself from it would not be too much trouble. His eyes moved back and forth for a moment, and Yu Ping had recovered his composure. He tucked the document into his robe, picked up a bunch of keys, held the lamp, and slipped quietly toward the room where the registration books and files were stored.

Yu Ping avoided the night-watch runners, unlocked the door, and by the faint lamplight went in and found several records — removing some entries, pulling out others — and broke into a fine sweat in the process. When that was done, he went over the words he would say to the county magistrate the next day from the beginning, satisfied that there were no remaining gaps. By the time he had finished, the sky to the east had begun to turn the color of fish-belly white. Yu Ping washed up hurriedly and went with the document to see the county magistrate.

The magistrate looked over the document and said: “Whose relative was it I was told surnamed Zhū?”

Yu Ping answered with a respectful smile: “Your Excellency has a good memory! It was indeed my aunt who married a man surnamed Zhū, but he was a country commoner, nothing to do with this spirit-medium fellow. My uncle has since died, and I have brought my aunt to live here so I can care for her.”

The magistrate said a few approving words, then said: “In that case, have them go look into this Zhū Shenhan.”

Yu Ping said: “If Your Excellency will permit — this Zhū Shenhan, I happen to know a bit about him. His ancestors came here fleeing a famine, and he is not truly a local. He has no household registration. If we report the truth, it will invite questions about why your jurisdiction still has unregistered transients, which will not look favorable in your performance evaluation. Since he has no registration, we can simply report that no such person exists in this area. Why drag ourselves into a sorcery-and-cursing case unnecessarily?”

The magistrate said: “What nonsense! This Zhū Shenhan the spirit-medium — there must be people in this county who know him. If the imperial envoy sends someone to investigate and finds out we concealed it, wouldn’t we be guilty of a cover-up?”

Yu Ping replied respectfully: “Your Excellency, consider — if this were truly a major case, they would have sent the imperial envoy in person, not merely a document. Even if the envoy’s staff were short-handed, they could direct the prefecture to dispatch runners. Since they have only circulated a general inquiry, it clearly cannot be a matter of great urgency. Your Excellency’s jurisdiction is known for its pure customs and honest people — it would never harbor anyone capable of such vile cursing!”

The local jurisdiction could not have unregistered households left unaccounted for, nor could it harbor those who corrupted public morals — both would be the magistrate’s responsibility. Of course the magistrate had no wish to bear such responsibility. The only option, then, was to paper over the whole thing.

The magistrate stroked his beard: “There is something to that. Draft a response for me to look over.” Yu Ping had already composed it in his head, and set it to paper in one stroke. The magistrate read it and shook his head: “Your writing is still lacking — you need to read more.” He picked up his brush and corrected the few flaws Yu Ping had deliberately left in the phrasing. Then he told Yu Ping: “Send this out with the seal at once — don’t delay the imperial envoy’s case!”

Everything went exactly as Yu Ping had wished. As far as the official record was concerned, the matter was smoothed over. In any case, Zhū Shenhan was in the prefecture, which had nothing to do with the county. After a few days he would listen for news, and if things were manageable, he would lend a hand and pull Zhū Shenhan out — doing Zhù Three a favor in the process. If the situation proved difficult to handle, then it was left to fate. Yu Ping would simply proceed as though he knew nothing. At most, it meant one Zhū Shenhan dead — and that had nothing to do with the man with the surname Zhù who was the madam’s son-in-law.

If Zhù Three found out later, he only needed to say he truly had not known, that it must have been handled by someone else, and that would be the end of it. And what ability did Zhù Three have to go confront the county magistrate directly?

The more Yu Ping thought about it, the more certain he was that there were no remaining flaws. He called over a runner and had him take the document to the prefecture, and also instructed him: “When you arrive, don’t go wandering about. Discreetly ask around about what case the imperial envoy is handling, and come back and report to the magistrate and to me.” He then went back and briefed the county magistrate accordingly, and the magistrate was well satisfied.

Having dealt with this one matter, it was already past midday. Yu Ping did not go home but had a few small dishes set out in the duty room, poured himself a flask of liquor, and drank alone. As the wine warmed him, he thought: Zhù Three losing a father might actually be a good thing for his aunt. Zhù Three was no worse off for it either — a sorcery-and-cursing case like this was bound to drag in the wives and children of those involved. Keeping Zhù Three and her mother clear of it was saving them. Letting it all come out would only bring the whole family to ruin.

I have truly done a good deed.

In good spirits, he drank himself drunk again, and slept at the yamen once more. This night, nothing came to rouse him from his comfortable sleep.

While Yu Ping was run off his feet, his aunt, the madam Yu, was not idle either. She was in the middle of a battle of wills with Zhang Xianggu.

The madam Yu was a widow who had lost her son. Even though she had returned to the place where she grew up and knew every corner of the streets, she had no choice but to keep the gates closed and stay quiet for a period of time.

This suited the madam’s plans as well. She said to Zhù Three and her mother: “Sanlang has been to the city before and even played a child deity at the temple fair — people may have seen you. It’s better to stay home and not go to crowded places, except for going to school. Give it two or three years — by then Sanlang will be older, and the way you look will have changed enough that people won’t recognize you or trace where you came from. Sanlang, Xianggu — what do you think?”

Zhang Xianggu, though she had developed some friction with the madam, agreed with this idea without hesitation, and was about to coax her daughter along — when she looked up and saw her daughter sitting in the doorway, watching the stream of people and carts on the street outside, staring for a long while even at a donkey tied by the roadside, fixed on the animal’s hooves.

The madam asked again. Zhang Xianggu said: “That’s the best thing to do! Third — stop looking out at the street. Once these two years are done, you can play with whoever you like, you won’t have to watch from a distance and be afraid they won’t include you.”

The madam gave a quiet sigh. “Alas, that’s true — one of us is a widow, one of us is from an outside family. Neither of them would let us play…”

The madam knew something of what Zhù Three’s childhood had been like. A poor child from a family of outsiders, from a spirit-medium household, looking prettier than the village children to boot — three things stacked on top of each other, and yet without the ability to fawn and flatter and play the fool to win people over, she was naturally excluded. Some of the simpler village children, drawn to her looks without caring about those things, would be warned off by their parents after a beating or two, and wouldn’t play with Zhù Three anymore.

Zhù Three had been very alone. No playmates, no friends. Beyond “practicing skills” — learning the spirit-medium arts, helping with all manner of chores around the house — there was only listening in on lessons through windows. In the quiet times left over, there was nothing but sitting at a distance and watching the village people play and game and make merry.

Looking at Zhù Three’s fair, pretty face, the madam felt her heart soften toward this newly-adopted child, and said: “Sanlang, stop watching that. Come here — I’ll tell you about the goings-on of this street so you’ll know what to expect.”

Since Zhù Three was no soft lump of dough, the madam’s intentions toward her were different from what they had originally been. She was determined to teach her more, so she could be of use.

Zhù Three heard her and turned around. “All right.”

Zhang Xianggu felt a pang. This daughter she had worked so hard to raise — in the past, that look had been for her alone. Now there was a new “sworn mother” added to the mix. Watching this new mother and child get on so well together, Zhang Xianggu quietly gave her daughter a sharp look and cursed inwardly: ungrateful little wretch!

She gritted her teeth, turned back to her room, and dug out a small clay pot hidden under the mattress. Pulling off the cloth tied over its mouth, she reached in and took out several strings of coins — nearly all of her private savings, set aside for buying Third new clothes, and salt and rice for the household.

She counted the coins back and forth several times, and finally took out half — two strings — tucking the rest back into hiding. Clutching the two strings, she went back out to find the madam.

The madam was already teaching Zhù Three to distinguish between different kinds of household registration documents, and from there had opened into talk about the everyday disputes and lawsuits she had witnessed — her father, grandfather, brothers, and nephews had all eaten the yamen’s bread, and she had absorbed more than a little of the county yamen’s workings over the years. She picked the most important things and told them to Zhù Three, hoping that this adopted child who dared to raise an axe against a man would learn that the law of the county seat still counted for something, and be a little more careful in her conduct.

Zhang Xianggu padded over carrying the coins. The madam said pleasantly: “Sister, what brings you?”

Zhang Xianggu set the two strings of coins on the table in front of her and said: “The madam is a widow managing alone — that’s not easy either. We should help each other. I can’t have us eating and wearing and living all at your expense.”

The madam said: “Sanlang still calls me Sworn Mother — what is there to talk about, taking advantage or not? You did me a great service. How could I have nothing to show for it? If you calculate it this way, that’s being too formal about things.”

The two of them went back and forth in polite refusals, courteous as blood sisters.

Huajie watched from the side and shook her head quietly to herself. She stole a glance at Zhù Three. Zhù Three seemed to notice, and glanced back, letting out a quiet sigh. The two women in mid-quarrel had eyes everywhere, and both paused at once. The madam said: “Sanlang, what do you say?”

Zhù Three said: “Sworn Mother, take it.”

The madam scolded affectionately: “You child!” And said nothing more about being formal or not. Zhang Xianggu allowed herself a small private satisfaction, cleared her throat: “Now that’s how it should be. It’s not as if we’re the sort of shameless people who only ever take.”

The madam had Huajie put the coins away for household use, then sent Xiao Ya out to buy plenty of meat, cakes, and other food to give Zhù Three. She also said she wanted to arrange for Zhù Three a position as a yamen runner, to give the child a steady livelihood. Zhang Xianggu couldn’t help letting some unease show on her face. The madam pretended not to see.

But Zhù Three saw it and kept it in her heart. That night, once the lights in the madam’s part of the courtyard had gone out, Zhù Three quietly got up and knocked twice on Zhang Xianggu’s door panel. Zhang Xianggu knew this pattern well — this was how Zhù Three had always knocked at home. She got up and wrapped herself in her clothes. “What is it?”

Zhù Three said: “There’s something I need to say.”

Zhang Xianggu let her daughter in. Zhù Three felt for the tinder and struck a flame, lighting the oil lamp. Zhang Xianggu asked quietly: “What? You can’t sleep at this hour — you’ve just been to see your sworn mother, have you? Do you still remember who you are? Getting close to outsiders and letting them see through you — what would you do then?!” She settled onto the bed as she spoke.

Zhù Three set the lamp in place and sat at the table. She asked Zhang Xianggu: “I can see Mother doesn’t much like Sworn Mother. If we were to part ways with Sworn Mother right now, Mother — what would your plan be?”

Zhang Xianggu was stumped. She truly had no plan. Zhù Three asked again: “Mother has been passing me off as a boy for ten-odd years — what’s the plan going forward?”

What plan? There was none. Zhang Xianggu said through gritted teeth, keeping her voice down: “You’ve come to interrogate me! I didn’t call you a boy, your good-for-nothing father would have drowned you then and there! That I could spin a lie and keep you alive was already enough — and now you’re asking me for a plan?! Is this you blaming me? What fate did I draw, to raise an ungrateful wretch like you, who does nothing but press her own mother, while growing close to a halfway-arrived sworn mother!”

By the end of her tirade, even she had gone grey with despair. That’s right — the child was growing bigger every year. How was it going to end? Surely Third couldn’t go on this way for the rest of her life? And when she herself was gone, what would Third do? Looking at her daughter, who sat with the expression of a dead person and not a flicker of feeling on her face, Zhang Xianggu felt worse and worse inside.

Zhù Three drew something hard from her waist and set it on the table with a dull thunk. Zhang Xianggu looked over in surprise, picked it up and held it toward the lamplight, and bit it: “Where did you get this?”

Zhù Three said: “Mother has no plan. I do.”

“What?”

“And Mother needn’t worry about me growing close to Sworn Mother. I know my own mind.”

“What is it you know?”

“Even without Sworn Mother’s involvement, I had no intention of spending my life buried in that village.”

Zhang Xianggu had never imagined that her daughter, small as she was, had already formed such a grand idea — she was genuinely startled: “What? When did you start thinking like this? How did you come to think this way?”

“I don’t remember when.” Zhù Three knew that some things were better left unsaid, for they would only wound her mother’s heart. She only said: “To leave the village, one needs money — so I saved a little. Mother gave her money to Sworn Mother, so these can all go to Mother to keep.”

The sourness Zhang Xianggu had felt all day was smoothed away completely. Her heart was warm, and she ached for her daughter, and said: “I know what I’m about. I won’t fight with that old she-fox again — I don’t want to make things difficult for you. You know what’s what — don’t be fooled just because she’s buying you clothes and meat right now. If she were a truly honest person, there’d be nothing left of her by now, not even bones! She did spend medicine money on you once — fine, we acknowledge it. And you helped her this time too — that makes them even. You say Huajie is a good person, fine — but don’t fold yourself up for her sake. She has her own fate. And it’s a better one than yours.” At least Huajie could get married openly and properly.

“Mm.”

“Once we have word of your father, we’ll go our own way. The madam has too many schemes — I don’t want to get tangled up with her.”

“Mm.”

Zhang Xianggu’s mind turned again to her husband: “That worthless man! Who knows where he’s gone wandering off to! Don’t let him die out there somewhere! A family still needs a pillar to hold it up — I’ll have to ask Officer Yu to make inquiries again. Who knows when the officer will have a free moment to come by…”