“I confess I do not understand this line of questioning.” Zhi Lan bent down to pull on her shoes, then she tightened her belt and ran her fingers through her hair. Her pins had fallen off in her excitement, leaving her hair running loose down her back. She patted her head in a panic.
Shao Qing retrieved the two wooden hairpins from the bed and offered them to her. He noticed the tip of one was carved into the shape of an orchid.
Zhi Lan snatched them from his hand and hurriedly twisted up her hair.
“You were holding me last night,” Shao Qing said slowly. “Why?”
She stood from the bed and busied herself with tidying the room, straightening her clothes, and rummaging through the things in her bag. “You slept fitfully. I thought you needed comfort,” she mumbled, so quickly he barely caught it. There was a flush to her cheeks that hadn’t been there before. She went to the basin of water that someone must’ve delivered when they were both asleep and splashed her face with more violence than necessary.
Shao Qing considered her explanation. Hehadslept fitfully because of his dream. Yet she still had no obligation to comfort him, unless he was disturbing her sleep. He nodded slowly. He must have been bothering her, then.
“This changes nothing, so don’t get any ideas,” Zhi Lan said after emerging from the basin, her face dripping and pulled into a scowl. She dried herself with a hand towel. “We’re going to Yun City today and we’re going to get my master’s painting. Then you’re taking me back immediately. Got it?”
Shao Qing nodded.
“Good.” She flung the damp towel at him. “Now get dressed.”
9 – Zhi Lan
Thanks to Yao’s expertlyforged papers, they passed through the city gate with little trouble and entered Yun City. It wasn’t so different from Zhu City, with plenty of businesses and market stalls and lively crowds. They even passed by the grand opening of a restaurant that celebrated with long strings of exploding firecrackers. In the adjacent street, there had been a wedding procession. The groom rode at the front in red robes, his bride carried in an ornate red palanquin behind him, surrounded by a procession of lively trumpet players and servants.
Zhi Lan was grateful for the noise, as it made talking nearly impossible. She was still recovering from the mortification of that morning.
She had awoken to Shao Qing laying across from her, playing with her hair like they were lovers, his white inner robe gaping open to expose a smooth sliver of muscled chest. It was a terrifyingly intimate sight, and for a moment her heart had stopped beating.
Then he had the gall to ask if shedesired his body.Wheredidmen find the audacity to say such things?
Zhi Lan felt heat creep to her cheeks at the mere memory. Perhaps she should have just confessed to physical attraction. Somehow that was less embarrassing than the truth. But Shao Qing seemed to have no capacity for embarrassment, so why should she?
Whenever Zhi Lan fell sick, Ma would lay next to her and stroke her back until she fell asleep. It always made her feel better.
Last night, Shao Qing had been shuddering violently. Zhi Lan was worried that he had caught something, but it wasn’t until he had spoken that she realized he was crying.
“I’m sorry, Su Su,” he had said. There was such pain in his voice.
Zhi Lan had been half asleep herself. Her first instinct had been to comfort him in the only way she knew how. He was clearly a man haunted with terrible regrets, which was more than Zhi Lan had given him credit for. It was quite pitiful. Why else would a careless thief be sorry to the point of tears?
