“He told me to go to the herbalist shop for a job. I’m respectable now,” the urchin said, patting her puny chest.
If Zhi Lan had any lingering doubts, they eased slightly. It appeared that Shao Qing had a heart after all. Zhi Lan squatted so she was level with the little urchin. “I’m looking for this young master,” she said. “Have you seen him today?”
To her relief, the urchin nodded. “He went to the place where adults go.”
Zhi Lan frowned at this. “Where’s that?”
The urchin merely took her sleeve again and led Zhi Lan down the street. After a few turns, they stopped in front of a three-story building.
“There,” the urchin said.
Zhi Lan swallowed, her gaze sweeping over the gaudy red banners and perfumed women giggling near the windows.
Skies. She couldn’t believe she was about to walk into a pleasure house for some stinky thief.
15 – Shao Qing
Shao Qing hadn’t takena bath in over a month.
Just as dawn cracked, he entered the public bathhouse. A few pools of steaming water dotted the room, soaking the air in fog. The bathhouse owner gave him a towel and a cake of soap before showing him down to a pool situated in a far corner.
As it was early in the day, the water was still fresh. Shao Qing stripped off and submerged himself. The heat eased his muscles. After sniffing his underarms, he realized that he did, in fact, stink. He wondered why he hadn’t noticed before.
He put the soap to good use.
When he finished scrubbing himself, Shao Qing laid his head back, watching the swirls of steam rise from his bathwater. It was an insignificant thing, something he wouldn’t have paid any mind to three days ago. Now, he observed the water vapors dance and dissolve into nothingness, wondering how Zhi Lan with her artist’s eye would interpret something so inconsequential. What would it be like to view the world through her eyes? How vivid colors and objects would be. He didn’t even have the capacity to imagine it.
Shao Qing didn’t realize how long he had been there until more patrons entered the bathhouse. The morning was growing late.
“Did you hear? Magistrate Bu caught the thief he was hunting for!” a man exclaimed. “He turned himself in not ten minutes ago. Struck the bell himself!”
“Good riddance! Now he can finally listen to his petitioners.”
“We may have to wait until tomorrow. Apparently his lordship is sentencing the man today.”
“Do you think there will be a public beheading?”
