Chapter 244: The Lanterns at the North End of Market Street

The first lantern hung beneath the door lintel, its light catching the lower edge of the plaque, where the carved characters sat under a thin film of dust.

Qi Qi stood on a low stool, looping fine hemp cord twice around an old nail in the lintel. He tugged down to test it, and only when it held did he reach out. "Hand me that one."

Shao Ming lifted the scale down from the lintel and hung it on a nail inside the door to clear the space. Qi Qi carried the lantern along the eaves, tying them one by one to the rafter ends. The paper face yellowed first, then caught light, and the black shadow beneath the eave retreated half a foot.

Jiang Wan sat on the bench, her sword leaning against the wall, watching them hang the lanterns.

Qi Qi came in through the doorway cradling one more lantern. "Let's hang one over the cabinet too. It's too dark inside."

"Hang one over the cabinet, for the ledgers," Jiang Wan said. "The back room, the back wall—nothing."

Qi Qi looked toward the back. The door to the back room stood half open; inside, empty baskets were stacked, and the darkness was dense.

"Lanterns go where the people are, out front," Jiang Wan said.

"Hang one where no one goes, and who's it lighting for?" Qi Qi brought the lantern back.

"The light is for the people standing out front," Xu Yan said from behind the counter. "Hang one on the back wall and you're telling everyone there's no one watching back there."

Qi Qi stopped smiling. He tied that lantern to the nail above the cabinet inside. The light fell straight onto the open market ledger. Bai Xiaoman nudged the pages closer under the glow.

Shao Ming took two lanterns and went out, heading north. The wall of the grain shop's rear courtyard facing the street was mud brick, with wooden stakes nailed in for hanging sacks. He hung the lanterns there, then stepped back to the middle of the street to look.

The north end of Market Street was bright in a block.

The shops at the west end had long since put up their door planks; only a sliver of light came through the grain shop's window. Down this end, a whole row of lanterns burned, whitening the dirt road. Even the spiderwebs under the eaves showed. Wind came off the river; the lanterns swayed on their cords, light swayed on the wall, sweeping in waves across the ground beneath people's feet.

"On the fifth day of the Eighth Month I said one pot of oil wouldn't last a night." Shao Ming came back and stood outside the threshold, looking up. "You set it at two lamps inside, one row outside."

"Tonight we hang them all," Xu Yan said. "There's oil left."

He pulled the oil pot out from behind the counter, gave it a shake, set it back, and wiped his hands on the cloth.

Xu Yan came out from behind the counter and stood in the doorway looking out.

The first to come was a child, running all the way from the far end of the street, stopping under the lanterns, face tilted up, unmoving. Two more followed, reaching for the tassels under the lanterns. They couldn't reach; they jumped twice.

"Don't pull the cords!" Shao Ming shouted from down the way.

The three children scattered and went to crouch under another lantern, poking their fingers at the light pooled on the ground.

An old man who sold flatbread came over with his hands behind his back, stopped beyond the threshold, and looked up at the row of lanterns for a long while.

"It's a Lantern Night," he said.

"What's that?" Qi Qi asked.

"The Qingya Market Lantern Night." The old man said it again, louder, as if for the people nearby.

A water-carrying woman came from the other end of the street and set her buckets down. "Lantern Night?"

"Once a year. Today's the Settling-Up Night." The old man lifted his chin. "I've sold flatbread on this street my whole life. Never seen the north end this bright."

"Old man, you selling flatbread tomorrow?" someone under the lanterns called.

"I am," the old man said. "Tonight's for looking at lanterns."

The woman peered in through the doorway with her buckets. "You open tomorrow?"

"On fives and tens," Shao Ming said. "Next market day."

"Next market day." She picked up her buckets. "Then I'll come next market day, bring my load of dried greens and ask the price."

"Bring them," Shao Ming said. "Weighing costs nothing."

A child circled around to the counter and looked up at the lantern beside Bai Xiaoman. "Big sister, is that fire inside the lantern?"

"Fire," Bai Xiaoman said, lifting the lantern a little higher so he could see the yellow glow through the paper. "Don't touch the paper. It tears at a touch."

"What happens if it tears?"

"Then it goes out." She said it plainly. "One lantern out, and the street gets a patch darker."

A rogue cultivator from the wharf pushed up to the doorway carrying two bundles of grass, looked up at the market rules posted on the wall inside, and read down, stalling at the last line. "The tenth day of the Eighth Month, every year... Settling-Up."

"That's today," Qi Qi said.

"Today?" He hitched the grass higher on his back. "Then I'm just in time?"

"You can make it in time to consign goods, but not to collect money," Bai Xiaoman said. "Money from goods sold is collected on this day next year."

"As long as they sell." He shifted his bundles a step closer to the counter, then paused. "That scale of yours really costs nothing?"

"Nothing," Shao Ming said, flicking the scale hook. "If you don't believe it, check it yourself on the wharf."

Lu Shoutian came from the street corner with his small scale under his arm. He stopped under the lanterns and looked both ways.

"Market Chief Lu," Xu Yan said.

"Lantern-watching's lantern-watching." Lu Shoutian shifted the scale to his other arm. "But don't block the doorway. People need to pass, goods need to pass."

He glanced past the threshold. "Ledgers settled?"

"Two names still open."

"Then I'll stand here." He clamped the scale firmly under his arm. "I mind the crowd. Your affairs, I've got no part in."

Bai Xiaoman leaned out from behind the counter and looked down the street. "There are more townsfolk than market people."

"They're not here to buy," Xu Yan said.

"Then what are they here for?"

"They came to see the lanterns." Jiang Wan said, "Under the lanterns, no one can tell which sect anyone belongs to."

Miao Zhong and Zhuo Ying had appeared across the street at some point, both of them looking up.

"Daoyou Jiang," Zhuo Ying spoke first.

Jiang Wan rose from the bench. "Steward Zhuo."

"You came down too," Miao Zhong said.

"The door's open, the money's on the table," Jiang Wan said. "I watch from my seat."

"It's good to watch." Miao Zhong nodded. "One night like this, all year."

Zhuo Ying swept her gaze down both ends of the street. "I've walked this street for years. Never seen the townsfolk out at night."

"Tonight no one has to step through anyone's door or buy anyone's goods," Miao Zhong said. "The lanterns hang in the middle of the street. Anyone can stand beneath them."

"Next year's goods, I'll still bring them," Zhuo Ying said to Bai Xiaoman. "As long as there's space behind the counter."

"There's space," Bai Xiaoman said.

At the tail of the You hour, Kuang Lun came from the direction of the inn, his back basket strapped on his shoulders. He did not come in. His money had been collected around midday. He had spent the whole time wandering the town.

"Sect Master Xu, I'm leaving tonight."

"Traveling by night?"

"These legs are faster than a mule cart." Kuang Lun hitched the basket straps up. "They're waiting for this money on the mountain. It's due before the Autumn Evaluation. Not a day to spare."

"There's frost on the road."

"Frost and a moon too." He laughed, then raised a hand to point at the lantern above the lintel. "This one's brighter than the moon tonight."

He turned and headed toward the official road. The basket bounced on his back; by the end of the street, his figure had melted into the dark.

A young rogue cultivator stood beyond the threshold with a small bundle tied to his back, dried mud caked on his cloth shoes. He looked at the lanterns, and then into the market.

"Sect Master Xu."

Xu Yan turned. "Mm."

"Do you take people in here?"

The market went quiet. Bai Xiaoman looked up. Jiang Wan was watching him too.

"We'd need a room, and rations," Xu Yan said.

"I'm not picky about the room."

"There's no room free right now." Xu Yan said, "Rations run on a count. One extra mouth means one more pot to cook."

The young cultivator nodded, stepped aside from the doorway, cleared the path. "Then I'll remember that sentence."

"What sect are you from?" Shao Ming asked.

"No sect. I came down from the north. Walked half a month."

"Ask again next time," Xu Yan said.

"Next time, will it be the same sentence?"

"It'll be the same sentence."

The young man stood under the lanterns a while longer, hitched his bundle up, turned and left. At the corner he looked back at the row of lanterns one more time.

At the Xu hour, people still lingered under the lights. Inside, beneath the ledger lantern, Bai Xiaoman read out the last two names.

Two men came from the far end of the street, carrying goods on their backs, looking up at the lanterns as they walked. They didn't realize this was the market until they reached the door.

"Qingya Market?"

"That's right," Shao Ming said. "Here to collect?"

"We came from the north. Heard on the road that today's the Settling-Up Night." The one in front lowered his goods outside the threshold. "Are we in time?"

"You are," Xu Yan said. "What did you consign? Tell me."

"Three rabbit pelts, two bundles of dried mushrooms." He wiped his face. "Don't matter if I can say the names. You read them, that's enough."

Bai Xiaoman turned to the last two pages, her fingertip coming to rest on a line. "The rabbit pelts. Three consigned, two sold. Two bundles of dried mushrooms, both sold. Owed twenty-one."

"Twenty-one." He repeated the number to himself.

Xu Yan pulled two stacks out of the market box, counted out one more, and slid it across. The man gathered the stones onto his knees and counted them one by one, lost his place halfway, started over. Bai Xiaoman read the amount for him again, and only then did he look up. "It matches."

"Put your thumbprint." Xu Yan pushed the cinnabar dish over.

He pressed his print, dunked the finger in the water basin beside him, then gathered the money. The man behind him was his traveling companion, the same—no writing. He pressed a print too, too hard, leaving a red blob on the paper.

"Gently," Bai Xiaoman said. "The paper's thin."

"I was afraid it wouldn't know me."

"It will," Xu Yan said. "The mark's there. It knows."

Bai Xiaoman waited for the last print to come down, then closed the ledger and pressed both hands on the cover.

"All signed," she said.

Xu Yan lifted the lid of the market box. The bottom showed, empty, nothing left but smears of cinnabar and a few bits of grit. He lowered the lid and latched it.

"Empty," Bai Xiaoman said.

"We'll fill it again next year," Xu Yan said.

Jiang Wan stood and gathered the loose ledger pages from the counter, handed them to Bai Xiaoman. "Put them in the box. Don't leave them on the counter."

Bai Xiaoman placed the ledger into the box, wrapped it in blue cloth, tied it tightly with two lengths of cord, and hugged it to her chest.

Miao Zhong and Zhuo Ying came to the door. Zhuo Ying pulled her sleeves together. "We'll sleep tonight at the Luoxia Inn and each head back in the morning."

"Does the inn have a lantern at the door?" Qi Qi asked.

"One," Zhuo Ying said. "You'll see it when you get there."

Miao Zhong looked back. "Who's keeping watch here tonight?"

"No one's staying," Xu Yan said. "Once the ledgers are settled, we go back up the mountain. No one sleeps in the market."

"Then make sure the door planks are pressed tight," Miao Zhong said. "A room full of goods, a street full of lanterns."

He looked up at the one over the lintel for a moment. "Next year on this day, I'll come again."

"Come," Xu Yan said.

"Sect Master Xu." Miao Zhong said the name and turned to leave. In the middle of the street he stopped, looked down the dirt road under the lanterns end to end, then went to catch up with Zhuo Ying.

Xu Yan pushed the market box under the counter, wedged it against the base of the wall. He walked to the door and looked down both ends of the street. The lanterns still burned. People in the street still wouldn't leave. A few children crouched by the wall splitting a flatbread.

"I'm going for a walk," he said.

"The lanterns haven't been taken down," Qi Qi said.

"Don't take them down. Let them burn this one night."

Jiang Wan picked up her sword from the wall and followed him out.

Shao Ming stood inside the door and shifted the lantern on the counter, moving it to the spot where the ledger pages had been. "I'll mind things here."