Chapter 194 — The Toad and the Swan

CHAPTER 194

The Toad and the Swan

The whispers started before Shi Feng reached his hut.

“That's him?” someone whispered from the left window.

“The champion?”

“He's thinner than the story.”

Shi Feng kept walking down the eastern lane. Zhu Liu followed close behind, hugging his ledger. Disciples opened their doors to stare. Some withdrew when Shi Feng looked over; others made no attempt to hide their curiosity.

Hut nine stood at the end of the lane, beside a crooked pear tree. Its roof was whole and its door hung straight.

He reached the step. Behind him, the lane had filled. Perhaps thirty outer disciples were standing in doorways and on the low walls, pretending to hang washing, mend sandals, or look at the sky. A big young man with a patched sash leaned against the pear tree and spoke loudly to nobody.

“So our champion’s been sent to the outer court?” Wu Qiang called, making sure the lane heard him. “Did he ask for a hut, or can the great Artificer Hall no longer afford a bed?”

A few people laughed.

“He even carries his own bag!” another voice called.

“Quiet, Wu Qiang,” Zhu Liu whispered, though he didn't sound as if he meant it.

“Why? I'm only asking,” Wu Qiang said. He pushed off the tree and came closer, grinning. He was at early Bone Refinement. “A cripple who got lucky for three days, and now he's a champion? Dead meridians don't just climb out of the grave.”

Shi Feng set his bag down on the step. He didn't turn around. He had heard worse in Yunze Town, and from people who knew him.

“Senior Brother?” Zhu Liu whispered. “Shall I report them to an elder?”

“For what?” Shi Feng asked.

“For talking,” Zhu Liu said miserably.

“Let them talk,” Shi Feng said.

“He won't answer!” Wu Qiang announced, delighted. “A champion with no teeth!”

A boy on the wall joined in. Hut ten housed a real princess from Great Liang, he called. Wasn’t Shi Feng embarrassed to move in beside her? Others laughed and waited for the champion to lose his temper.

“A toad lusting after swan meat!” Wu Qiang said.

The lane roared.

Behind the laughter, a latch clicked.

Hut ten's door opened. Sima Lan stepped onto her threshold in her travelling robe. She had clearly arrived minutes ago, and she had clearly heard every word. Her face was calm.

The laughter thinned out quickly. It was hard to keep laughing when the swan was looking at you.

“Princess,” Wu Qiang said, bowing too late. “We were only joking about the new senior brother. You understand.”

“I understand,” Sima Lan said.

Her gaze moved along the lane and settled on Wu Qiang's patched sash.

“Your name is Wu Qiang,” Sima Lan said. “Hut thirty-one. Rent due on the first of every month. Three spirit stones.”

Wu Qiang's grin slipped. “How do you…”

“There's a board beside the well,” Sima Lan said. “I read it while I was waiting for someone to show me my hut. You owe the Treasury for two months and a half.”

Someone in the crowd made a small, strangled noise. Someone else started to laugh and stopped himself.

“The toad pays his rent on time,” Sima Lan said. “Can you say the same?”

“I—that—” Wu Qiang said. His face went from red to a deeper red. “That's a private matter!”

“It's on a board,” Sima Lan said.

She went back inside and shut her door. The latch clicked again.

The lane was silent. A pear dropped from the crooked tree and rolled past Wu Qiang's boot.

“…”

“…”

“Two and a half months?”

“Shh!”

“Who reads the rent board?”

“Apparently her. And that Wu Qiang doesn't know the height of heaven or the depth of the earth.”

Shutters closed. Boys slid off the wall. Within a minute, only Wu Qiang remained, staring at the shut door of hut ten.

“Senior Brother Shi,” Wu Qiang said, in a much smaller voice. “I hope there are no hard feelings.”

“You’ve already got enough trouble with the Treasury,” Shi Feng said. “Pay your rent and leave me out of it.”

Wu Qiang left very fast.

“Senior Brother,” Zhu Liu said, his brush frozen above the page. “I think the Princess just defended you.”

Shi Feng looked at the shut door of hut ten. It stayed shut.

“She heard a fool shouting outside her door,” Shi Feng said. “I’d have been annoyed too.”

He opened his own door.

Inside was one room. There was a plank bed, a table with a short leg, a cold stove, and a window that looked out at the pear tree. It smelled of dust and old soap, but nothing leaked. He'd lived in worse. The Qingliu Lane room had been smaller, and it had held two people.

He put his bag on the table and pushed the thought away.

Zhu Liu hovered at the door. Then he stiffened.

“Senior Brother, wait. There’s something nailed beside your door,” Zhu Liu said, pointing at the frame.

Shi Feng turned.

A strip of bamboo hung from a nail beside the hinge. Someone had written on it with a very cheap brush, in handwriting that seemed to save ink on every stroke.

Dawn tomorrow. Be awake. Don't wake the neighbours. The brazier is not free.

“Who wrote it?” Zhu Liu whispered.

Shi Feng read the note again. He remembered a patched robe and a chair that was too big for its owner.

“Someone who counts his charcoal,” Shi Feng said.