Chapter 105: The Corner of the Body Inspection Clause Is Folded

The long table from the Main Hall had been moved inside the threshold. The regulations lay spread across it, a paperweight at each end.

Eleven people stood below the steps. Cheng Banshan stood by the door with his gourd in hand, Shao Ming at his side. Qian Duoduo pressed both hands against his apron. Du Xiaochuan hung back half a step. A He and A Sui crowded together, A Sui's toe pressing against A He's heel. Jiang Wan leaned against a veranda pillar, her sword at her hip. Huo Qing, Shi Po, Bai Xiaoman, and Qi Qi stood at the head of the group below the steps.

Xu Yan began reading from the third clause.

"Clause Three. Once the registration deadline has passed, substitutions are not permitted. No alternates."

Qi Qi's eyes flicked up.

"Clause Eight. A match consists of five rounds, each side submits a sealed lineup sheet, which the ring judge opens and reads aloud on the spot. One person per round. The trial circle is three zhang across. One incense stick per round. Stepping out of the ring, failing to rise, or conceding all count as a loss. If the incense burns out without a clear result, the ring judge decides. The side that wins three rounds first takes the match. If a round cannot be fielded, it is forfeited and counted as a loss. Magic implements, talismans, and formation banners may be used. Taking medicine on the field is forbidden."

Shi Po raised his head. "A three-zhang circle."

"Three zhang."

"If he can't put me out of the circle within one incense stick."

"The ring judge decides. The judge rules for the side holding the circle."

Shi Po turned the words over in his mind, then asked again: "If I don't fight back, does that count as a loss."

"There is no clause about not fighting back." Xu Yan said. "No step out of the circle, no fall, no spoken concession—the incense keeps burning."

Shi Po nodded and asked nothing more.

Xu Yan read Clause Nine.

"Clause Nine. Before entering the field, the ring judge performs a body inspection on the spot. If the chief evaluator sees anything questionable on the field, he may come down and inspect personally, and the chief evaluator's inspection takes precedence. Anyone who has taken a spirit-surging elixir loses that round, the sect's ranking is struck from the record, and the matter is filed on record."

He set the paper flat and lifted his eyes.

No sound came from the veranda pillar. Cheng Banshan moved the gourd from his hand to his belt, then took it back into his hand.

"What does the body inspection check." Qi Qi asked.

"Wrists. Face. Neck."

"How long does it take."

"The ring judge decides." Xu Yan said.

Qi Qi did not ask again. He closed his mouth. Shi Po turned to look at him and saw only his lowered eyelids.

"As set on the fifteenth day of the Second Month." Xu Yan said. "We leave the Mountain Gate during the Yin hour on the eighteenth, board the carriage at Luoxia Town at the Mao hour. Going: myself, Senior Sister, Huo Qing, Shi Po, Bai Xiaoman, Qi Qi."

"Six packets of flatbread." Qian Duoduo murmured from below the steps.

"Six people, provisions through the twenty-fourth, when we return to the mountain."

"Elder Cheng and Uncle Shao stay to watch the mountain." Xu Yan said. "Qian Duoduo runs the stall as usual on the twentieth. Du Xiaochuan takes A He and A Sui."

"When do you return." Cheng Banshan asked.

"The twenty-fourth."

"The twenty-fourth." Cheng Banshan bit the stopper off the gourd, sniffed it, and pressed it back in. "The mountain won't collapse."

A Sui raised her hand halfway then let it drop. "Sect Master, can I go?"

"No." Xu Yan said. "The guest quarters give us six berths, one communal bed. Six people share one carriage. One more means hiring another."

"Oh." A Sui looked down at the toes of her shoes.

Beside her, Qi Qi lowered his voice. "I'll bring you something back."

"What?"

"Something, if we win." Qi Qi himself felt the words sounded hollow, so he added: "A stone from Linchuan City. I heard the city wall bricks are bigger than our Mountain Gate's."

A Sui smiled a little and tucked that away.

Wei hour, the Accounts Room.

Jiang Wan pushed the door open, closed it behind her, and did not sit.

"Those two sentences on the night of the seventh." she said. "What do we do about the preliminary rounds."

Xu Yan set his brush down on the inkstone. "The lots and the body inspection are both final-round matters. The preliminaries we fight straight."

"Who handles the body inspection in the preliminaries."

"That gets read out on the nineteenth. Four rings, four ring judges."

"What if he's the one put in charge of our ring."

"Then when he reaches for a wrist, I'll be standing right there." Xu Yan said. "How long he holds it, whether he looks at the neck—I'll see it all."

"And if you see it?"

"If I see it, I say nothing about it."

Jiang Wan's fingers tapped once against the sword sheath, then stopped. "He actually loosens his grip, and you just watch."

"I record it in my own ledger."

"Recorded in your own ledger—who recognizes that?"

"Record first." Xu Yan said. "Record every stroke, one by one. Only then can any of it ever be laid on the table."

Jiang Wan looked at him for a long moment. "And the final round?"

"That waits until before the third day of the Third Month."

"There is no 'waiting.'" she said. "He controls the lots, and he controls the body inspection. Both of those are in his hand. What do you trade for it."

"We trade on the field." Xu Yan said. "Whoever the lots draw us against, we still have to win our way through. Even if he draws Chixiao against us, that only matters once we've reached the top four. First, get through the preliminaries."

"How many rounds are the two stages."

"Three rounds is enough for the first stage. The second stage is uncertain; it depends on the opponent." Xu Yan said. "Right now I'm working out the road expenses: four spirit stones for the carriage round trip. Food is the flatbread we bring. We only ask the guest quarters for hot water. Six days, not one cash spent."

"That's not what I'm asking about."

"I know." Xu Yan straightened the brush at the edge of the inkstone. "Money, I can work out. The lots, I can't."

Jiang Wan asked no more. She walked to the door and stopped, then looked back. "When we reach Linchuan, if anyone hands you anything, don't eat even a bite."

"We brought flatbread."

"I know we brought flatbread." she said. "I'm talking about things other people hand you."

She pushed the door open and went out. The door did not latch; it left a crack.

Si hour on the seventeenth, at the foot of the front courtyard wall.

Bai Xiaoman crouched in front of the pile of stone shards, a faded handkerchief spread across her knees. She picked up the stones one by one, tapped each against the edge of two grey bricks, and brought it to her ear to listen. After listening, the good ones went onto the handkerchief; the bad ones she tossed beside her feet.

A Sui crouched next to her, handing her stones. A He stood behind with both hands tucked into his sleeves.

"Are five enough?" A Sui asked.

"Enough." Bai Xiaoman said. "One more and I can't hold it."

"What happens if you can't hold it?"

"The formation scatters." She tossed aside one that sounded wrong. "Once it scatters, all that pressing was for nothing."

Shi Po had crouched down by the rejected pile without anyone noticing. He picked one up and scraped his thumbnail across it twice. "This one has a crack inside." He tossed it aside.

Bai Xiaoman took it back, tapped it, and threw it away too. "Dull sound. How did you hear that?"

"Years of listening at the quarry." Shi Po said. "Dull on the tap means there's a crack inside."

"Then help me pick."

Shi Po didn't refuse. He raked a handful from the shard pile and tapped them one by one, the dull ones to the left, the clear ones to the right. Around the tenth, his hand stopped. "This one rings."

Bai Xiaoman leaned over, listened, nodded, and placed it on the handkerchief.

With all five chosen, she recited their positions: "East one, south one, west one, north one, center one." Then she gathered the four corners of the handkerchief, tied a knot, and pressed it into the front of her robe.

"After winter set in, I practiced this in the front courtyard." she told A Sui. "You and A He went in once."

"That time, when I walked inside, every path led back to the center." A Sui said. "By the time I came out, half the day was gone."

"That time I was slow." Bai Xiaoman said. "This time I'll be fast."

Shi Po stood, dusting the soil from his hands.

Shen hour, the Medicine Hall.

Cheng Banshan first hung the gourd at his belt to free his hand, then pressed pulses one by one.

Jiang Wan extended her wrist; he laid two fingers on it and let go at once. "Yours needs no long look. Just don't draw the sword." Shi Po's wrist he pressed twice and released. Huo Qing's right hand he skipped entirely, going around to press the left. Bai Xiaoman's pulse he held the longest, and when he finished he said, "Weak foundation. Spend it sparingly." When he came to Qi Qi, he asked first: "The blisters on the soles of your feet."

"Gone."

"Gone is the only reason I'm letting you down the mountain."

After all five, he walked to the water basin, rinsed his hands, and wiped them dry on his robe.

"Not one bottle of Qi-Gathering Powder goes with you."

"Not one?" Bai Xiaoman looked up.

"The regulations say 'spirit-surging elixir.'" Cheng Banshan said. "The one doing the inspection can't tell this from that. If he can't tell, don't make him try."

"What if someone gets hurt?" Huo Qing asked.

"If someone gets hurt, come back and I'll look at it." Cheng Banshan said. "Don't seek out anyone on the streets of Linchuan."

He noticed Xu Yan at the door and studied his face. "You're not going?"

"I'm going. I won't be on the field."

"A man standing outside the ring burns more than a man inside it." Cheng Banshan said. "Endure it."

You hour, the Kitchen.

Qian Duoduo mixed coarse grain from the Second Month's rations with flour and griddle-cooked batch after batch. He wiped a layer of oil across the pot bottom, pressed the flatbread on; when it was time to flip, he pressed the back of the spatula into it. When it pressed down and sprang back, it was done.

A He hovered near the stove platform. On his third pass, Qian Duoduo tore off half a cake and stuffed it into his mouth. "It's hot. Blow on it."

Six packets, a stack in each, wrapped in oiled paper and tied with hemp rope. Into Shi Po's packet he slipped two extra, pressed into the very bottom so they wouldn't be on display.

"Enough for six days?" A He asked.

"Two per person per day, then one more day for the return." Qian Duoduo counted on his fingers. "Enough. Any more and they go hard."

He lined up the six packets in a row, counted them once, counted again, and only then carried them to the corner of the stove platform.

Xu hour, the Accounts Room.

Xu Yan took out the registration regulations and the entry slips from the cabinet and spread them under the lamp. He read the regulations from beginning to end. When he reached Clause Nine, he folded down the corner of that page, pressed it flat with his thumbnail, and folded it back into place.

He dragged the cash box out from the bottom of the cabinet. An iron box, the clasp broken, tied shut with hemp rope. He untied it, counted out twenty low-grade spirit stones into a coarse cloth pouch, neatened the rest back into rows, retied the rope the way it had been, and pushed it back to the bottom of the cabinet.

Qian Duoduo was waiting outside the door.

"The money from the market on the twentieth goes into the cloth pouch in the kitchen." Xu Yan said. "After the market closes, buy the next market day's spirit rice as usual. Five stones."

"And the rest?"

"Hold it. Wait until I'm back on the twenty-fourth to post the ledger."

Qian Duoduo acknowledged, reached the door, then turned back. "Sect Master, the flatbread goes hard by the third day."

"Hard bread soaked in hot water still counts as food."

"It's not the same." Qian Duoduo said. "Hot is hot, soaked is soaked. Five people in Linchuan, and not one bowl of hot soup to be had."

"The guest quarters provide hot water."

"I don't trust the hot water." As soon as he said it, he felt the words made no sense, and scratched his neck. "When they're back on the twenty-fourth, I'll griddle fresh ones."

He trimmed the lamp wick; the flame shrank by half. Then he tucked the regulations, the entry slips, and the coarse cloth pouch one by one into his chest, bent to test, straightened and tested again. It didn't chafe.

The eighteenth day of the Second Month, Yin hour. The sky was still dark.

Two lanterns were lit at the Mountain Gate. The wind was light; the flames stood straight up.

Cheng Banshan stood inside the gatepost, the wine gourd at his belt. Shao Ming came out carrying six small bundles, all strung on one rope, six people's rations inside. He laid them on Shi Po's back and tied the rope in a slipknot. "When you get there, find somewhere clean to put these. Don't set them on the ground."

Du Xiaochuan stood behind, rubbing his hands together. A He clutched a lantern and refused to let go. A Sui tugged at his sleeve.

"Let's go." Xu Yan said.

Jiang Wan was the first down the steps, her stride steady. Qi Qi followed. Shi Po walked in the middle with the bundle on his back. Bai Xiaoman clutched a handkerchief with five stones inside it. Huo Qing came last.

The six of them descended the stone steps, the lantern light moving down the stairs one step at a time.

At the first bend in the path, Xu Yan pressed a hand to his chest. The regulations sat on top. He had folded the corner of the body inspection clause; his fingers could find it.