Chapter 130: A Finger-Wide Crack

Mao hour, the sky still black. Xu Yan carried a lantern, walking from the east end of the front courtyard to the west, shining it spot by spot.

Jiang Wan stood at the gate of the east courtyard, sword already at her waist, hair pulled back tight. Huo Qing sat on the veranda steps, left hand resting on his sword sheath. Shi Po came out of the west wing, outer robe slung over his shoulder, one foot still hunting for his shoe. Bai Xiaoman stood by the door, turning a pebble between her fingers. Qi Qi crouched against the base of the wall and spoke first: "I'm here." Shao Ming pushed Du Xiaochuan out of the inner room of the west wing. Qian Duoduo's apron was tied on backwards, a bowl in his hands, steam rising from it. A He and A Sui stood shoulder to shoulder by the kitchen door, crowded together. Cheng Banshan came out last, wine gourd dangling from one hand.

Xu Yan looked them over one by one, counting up to twelve.

Nie Bo stood in the doorway of the low hut by the mountain gate, broom planted in his hand, leaning against the doorframe.

"With me, thirteen," Xu Yan said.

"The ground jumped. Who could sleep through that?" Cheng Banshan said.

"Any damage in the buildings—say it one thing at a time."

A few tiles had fallen from the eaves of the west wing, landing on the steps. Only one had a chipped corner. The kitchen's pot lid had jumped to the floor, but the pot was fine. The east courtyard's back wall had a thin crack; Jiang Wan measured it with her finger—a finger deep. Incense ash from the offering table in the Ancestral Hall had scattered in a layer. Qian Duoduo said that when he picked the pot lid up, the water in the pot was still warm.

"The sound from the back mountain came up from underground," Qi Qi said. "It rose once, then stopped."

Xu Yan nodded. "Elder Cheng, come up with me. Bai Xiaoman, you're coming. Shi Po too."

"What about me?" Jiang Wan said.

"Senior Sister, you keep watch over the mountain," Xu Yan said. "I'll go up, look, and come back and report."

Jiang Wan shot him a glance, pushed her sword tighter against her waist, turned into the east courtyard, and left the door open.

"No one goes north," Xu Yan said. "The back mountain—apart from those I called, no one goes. Breakfast as usual. Cook, and wait."

"There's still fire on the stove in the Medicine Hall," Cheng Banshan said, hanging his gourd at his waist. "I'll have A He keep an eye on it. The fire's not to be smothered, and not left burning wide open."

A He ran over from the kitchen door, wiping his hands on his robe, nodding. Xu Yan said: "Don't leave the stove unattended. If you can lift the firewood, add it; if you can't, wait for someone." A He answered and ran back.

Chen hour. The path behind the Ancestral Hall, heading north. Two li of mountain road; two quarter-hours to the formation eye. The vines this year grew thicker than in years past, hanging over the path. Shi Po walked in front, shoving vines aside with one hand. Water from the vines soaked his sleeve. Cheng Banshan walked second, gourd in hand, unhurried. Xu Yan came last, checking the slopes on both sides as he walked.

The formation eye sat on a stone platform halfway up the slope. Five formation stones arranged by the five elements: Metal in the west, Wood in the east, Water in the north, Fire in the south, Earth in the center. Bai Xiaoman crouched down, pushed her sleeves up past her elbows, and started with the west stone. She traced the groove with her fingers first, then tapped the stone face twice with her knuckles, tilting her head to listen.

"Metal, west," she said. "No crack. Groove's not shifted."

Then Wood, east. Water, north. Fire, south. Each one took a long look. When she got to the Earth stone in the center, she pressed both hands flat on it, face close.

"Not one cracked. No grooves out of line." She stood up, dusting her hands. "Formation eye is intact."

"Can it be raised?" Xu Yan asked.

"It can." Bai Xiaoman said. "Metal, Water, and Earth were replaced in the Eighth Month of Alliance Year 300. Wood and Fire are old, but still fine."

"What's needed to activate it?"

"A person with all five elements complete." She let her sleeves down. "Right now, on this mountain, that's only me."

"Once activated, how long?"

"About one shichen, depending on how much spiritual power I have."

"If a groove shifted?"

"The formation stones won't align to their places. The formation rises halfway, then scatters." She gestured. "Scattered is worse than not rising at all. The stones will crack on their own."

Cheng Banshan stood on the slope, not coming down, his eyes fixed upward. "That up there—go up and look."

A few zhang above the formation eye, the cliff face cut inward. That stone slab was there.

In the Seventh Month of Alliance Year 300, they had hacked through the back mountain's vines and found the formation eye. Bai Xiaoman had pushed at the slab then: no seam could be found between its edges and the stone wall. No door ring, no door bolt. She'd said at the time—this isn't a formation.

Now it had split clean down the middle.

No longer one piece—two. Left panel and right panel, top to bottom, both still set in the cliff face. The crack between them, a finger wide, black so deep there was no seeing the bottom. The broken stone at the edges was fresh, dry and white, and the debris at the foot of it still held a loose layer of dust.

Bai Xiaoman made a small sound and reached out to touch it.

"Don't," Xu Yan said.

Her hand stopped midair, pulled back, and clutched her sleeve.

Wind came from the crack. Mountain wind carried the smell of earth and grass. This wind had no smell at all—only cold, retreating in slow waves, blowing against the face like air rising from the bottom of a well.

"Cold," Shi Po said. He put his hand in front of the crack, palm facing it, not touching the stone. Then he crouched to look at the layer of debris at his feet, pinched a bit between his fingers, and rubbed it apart. "Fresh. The kind of dust the wind would scatter—still here. It fell tonight."

"Can we push it?" he asked, standing.

"No," Xu Yan said.

Cheng Banshan walked up, pressed his gourd to his waist, bent over, and brought his face to within half a foot of the crack. He smelled for a while. Then he straightened, without drinking.

"Elder Cheng, what's the smell?" Bai Xiaoman asked.

"No smell," Cheng Banshan said. He turned the gourd half a turn in his hand, leaving the stopper in.

"What about the slab's edges?" he said. He pressed the back of his hand to the wall outside the left panel, moving up along it, all the way to the top, then back down. "The edges still hold. The crack was forced open in the night, but the door has never opened."

"Three hundred years, never opened," Xu Yan said.

"Three hundred years, never opened," Cheng Banshan said.

Bai Xiaoman stepped back, looked at the left panel, then the right, top to bottom. "Both panels are the same width. The crack is straight, from top to bottom, not a hair off." She crouched again to look at the bottom, then stood. "The pivot is inside. It opens inward."

"It's a door?" Shi Po asked.

"It's a door," Bai Xiaoman said.

Xu Yan did not move forward. He stepped back, counting his steps, and stopped at the third. He pointed at the ground before his feet. "No one touches it. No one enters. Not a single person on Qingya can say what this door is. If it's damaged, or if it's opened, we can't pay for it—and it shouldn't be on Qingya's hands alone to pay."

"What if it opens on its own?" Bai Xiaoman asked.

"Then everyone pulls back to here and watches."

"And guard duty?" Shi Po said.

"Two per shift, one shichen—three shifts." Xu Yan said. "Mao to Si: Senior Sister and Bai Xiaoman. Wu to Shen: Uncle Shao, Du Xiaochuan. You to Hai: Huo Qing, Shi Po. Zi to Yin: me and Qi Qi." He pointed at the line before his toes. "Stand here, three paces. Feet do not cross it."

"You can't see at night," Bai Xiaoman said.

"Bring lanterns. Hang them outside. Don't shine the light into the crack."

"What about meals?"

"Brought up, set down three paces away. No one carries a bowl up to the door."

Shi Po asked, "Should I go down and get Senior Sister?"

"Yes. On the way, tell Uncle Shao and Du Xiaochuan to come up at noon to take the shift." Xu Yan looked at the vines on the path. "Don't run. Watch your feet."

Shi Po went down. As soon as he came through the mountain gate, Qian Duoduo intercepted him. He relayed what they'd seen up top: the formation eye was fine; a crack had opened on the cliff—the crack was a door. Nothing else. Qian Duoduo followed him to the middle of the front courtyard and stood a while, then went back to the kitchen and set the pot lid right. A Sui chased after him asking what was behind the door. Shi Po said he didn't know. He called Jiang Wan from the east courtyard, then knocked on Shao Ming's door in the west wing.

Jiang Wan went up the mountain without a word the whole way. She stopped three paces out and looked at the crack for a long time, then tilted her head, tracing it from top to bottom.

"How wide?" she asked.

"One finger," Xu Yan said.

Bai Xiaoman held up her index finger beside the crack, not reaching in.

"Not going in to look?" Jiang Wan asked.

"No."

"When will we?"

"I don't know," Xu Yan said. "We record it first."

Bai Xiaoman lowered her hand. Jiang Wan went to stand beside her, one on each side. After a while Jiang Wan said: "The wind is blowing outward."

"Yeah," Xu Yan said.

At noon, Shao Ming and Du Xiaochuan came up to take over. Jiang Wan and Bai Xiaoman went down. Du Xiaochuan stood three paces out staring for a long time, rubbed his hands together, and said nothing.

Shao Ming went to stand beside Xu Yan, looking at the crack. "How long do we guard it?"

"Until we know what it is," Xu Yan said.

"And once we know?"

"Once we know, we'll figure out the rest."

Shao Ming pressed his hands to his knees and moved to stand three paces out.

Mid-afternoon, Huo Qing and Shi Po carried a ladder to the west wing eaves. Shi Po climbed; Huo Qing passed tiles up from below, extending them one by one with his left hand, saying "this one" each time. Shi Po answered from above, took each tile, fitted it to the old marks, and pressed it flat with his palm.

"This one's chipped at a corner," Huo Qing said.

"Where should it go?"

"Wherever you think. Chipped corner goes in, where it won't show from outside."

So Shi Po slipped it in at the wall end, pressed it twice, and straightened to check the eave line. Not a single tile wasted—within the hour, the eave was neat again.

At dinner in the main hall, Xu Yan said only one thing: the stone slab on the back mountain cliff had cracked, it was a door, and no one was to go up and look except the two on duty. A He asked what was inside. Xu Yan said he didn't know.

"All we know is it's cold," Qi Qi added.

"Cold we don't fear," Cheng Banshan said. "What I fear is not knowing what's inside—and still reaching a hand in."

You hour. Huo Qing and Shi Po took the lanterns and went up. Qian Duoduo chased them to the front courtyard, shoved two flatbreads into Shi Po's hands, and said the wind was strong at night—eat if they got cold.

Xu hour. The Accounts Room. Xu Yan added a line beneath the day's running ledger: "End of Yin hour, earthquake on the back mountain. Formation eye intact. Stone slab on cliff cracked." When he finished writing, he looked it over, set the brush down, closed the ledger, and sat still. After a while he pulled out another sheet of paper, wrote the four shifts' names and hours line by line, and slipped it under the cash box.

Zi hour. He and Qi Qi went up the back mountain. Huo Qing handed over the watch with one line: "Nothing's moved."

The two of them took their places three paces out. The night wind ran colder than in the day, coming in waves, tugging the hems of their robes back.

"Stronger than daytime," Qi Qi said.

Xu Yan didn't answer. He raised his lantern and pushed it forward.

Qi Qi brought his lantern forward too. The moment the lantern reached the crack, the flame bent outward, flattened low against his hand. He pulled the lantern back and the flame stood up, flickering twice.

"Blowing outward," Qi Qi said.

Xu Yan counted the steps beneath him and stopped at the third pace. The crack was still black, not a sound from it.