Zhi Lan tried not to notice the sturdiness of his chest or shoulders. “There is a freshness to a spontaneous mark. It cannot be replicated. The result would be utterly soulless.”
He smiled at that, an odd sort of smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Zhi Lan shuddered.Nothingseemed to reach his eyes. She quickly extricated herself and brushed off her robes, wondering if he had deliberately held her for that long to nettle her.
“I doubt the magistrate will be able to tell the difference,” Shao Qing said. “He only wants it for the sake of his pride.”
Zhi Lan set her jaw. “Even so—”
A small street urchin scampered up to her, no older than seven or eight.
“Miss, mister? Might you spare some change?”
The girl’s dirt-streaked face was thin, framed by matted hair. She looked like she hadn’t washed or eaten for ages.
Zhi Lan’s heart melted a little for the poor child. She reached for the money pouch at her belt—but her hands met air. It was gone.
“We don’t have any money. Be on your way,” Shao Qing said.
“But—”
“On your way,” he repeated, clamping a hand over the urchin’s shoulder and pushing her aside. There was a faint clinking sound.
The urchin squeaked and scampered away.
Zhi Lan frowned. “That wasn’t very nice.”
“Neither were they.” Shao Qing jutted his chin to the two small figures that disappeared around the corner. One of them was the girl urchin, the other was a boy Zhi Lan hadn’t seen.
Shao Qing held something out to her. She gasped.
“My pouch!” She snatched it back from him. “You stole it!”
“They would’ve stolen it if I hadn’t first. I recommend you keep your belongings somewhere more intimate.”
Zhi Lan’s eye twitched. She stuffed the pouch into her left sleeve.
They seemed to have passed through to the more impoverished side of the city, where the buildings weren’t quite so grand and the streets more unevenly paved. Zhi Lan knew there was a more direct path to the outskirts of the city—across the large bridge. Hehadbeen trying to lose her!
“I won’t give up so easily, so don’t bother trying that again.” Zhi Lan meant this as a threat, but really she was tired of jumping over walls.
Shao Qing glanced over his shoulder. “Trying what?”
She scowled, narrowing her eyes at him. This thief was as slippery as a river fish.
They walked for some time, Shao Qing always a few steps ahead with his longer strides. Thankfully he took a more straightforward path this time on the main roads. They passed by market stalls and a public bath house. Zhi Lan’s stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten since last night’s banquet, and she was already exhausted, but she carried on, determined to follow this errand to the end. After she got Master Dan’s painting, she’d eat as much as she liked.
The streets slowly populated as the sun rose higher in the sky. It seemed to Zhi Lan that they had walked for ages before the buildings grew more sparse, and straw cottages peppered the landscape in the distance, framed by the sprightly greens of the bamboo forest. The scene was beautiful and quaint, reminding her of her quiet village. She wished she had the leisure to paint it.
In her admiration, she hadn’t realized Shao Qing had stopped abruptly. Zhi Lan stumbled into his back, then righted herself.
“Have we arrived?” Zhi Lan looked around in confusion. They were still in the market, but they had stopped on the street between a tea house and an herbalist’s shop. Did the criminal leader live here?
She glanced down.
A small red pouch had fallen from somewhere on Shao Qing’s person. It had a blue silken tassel and a peach embroidered on the front. A rather feminine ornament for a man.
She bent to pick it up. The pouch was soft and well worn at the edges, though it appeared to be empty. “You dropped this.”
Shao Qing turned, looking somewhat disoriented before his eyes focused on the trinket pouch. A crease appeared between his brows and he swiftly took it from her, tucking it into the front folds of his robe. An intimate keepsake, then. Was it from a lover?
