Chapter 250: The Steps Outside the Administration Office

On the twenty-third day of the Eighth Month, during the Yin hour, the mountain was still dark. Xu Yan carried a lantern into the Ancestral Hall and set it on the corner of the offering table. He crouched down, lifted the wooden box from beneath the table with both hands, opened the lid, and took out the paper roster. The lid went back on and the box slid back into place. He wrapped the roster in the faded oilcloth—the one washed so many times the color had gone out of it—tucked the four corners in, and hefted it against his chest.

The lantern lit the row of ancestral tablets above. He stood still, silent, then picked the lantern up and backed out, pulling the door half shut behind him.

In the accounting office, he opened the ledger and slipped out the Seventh Rank promotion document from between two pages. He folded it once—careful not to crease the square seal—and tucked it inside his robe against his chest. The joint testimony was still in the ledger. He smoothed the folded corner flat, glanced once more at the signature marks at the end of the statement, then shut the book and wrapped it into the bundle. Inside the bundle were also two packets of coarse flatbread Qian Duoduo had griddled on the night of the twenty-second, and a water flask. The thin ledger went against his chest, pressing over the document.

Qi Qi waited in the front courtyard, his own small bundle at his feet. When Xu Yan came out, he slung it over his shoulder. "Everything packed?"

"Roster, document, statement." Xu Yan said. "You carry the flatbread."

At the end of the Yin hour, the two of them left through the Mountain Gate. The sound of the broom in the gatehouse swept back and forth. Qi Qi shifted to one side, skirting around the sound, and glanced back at the small hut by the gate. He said nothing.

By the time they reached the Luoxia carriage office, the sky was barely light. The gaunt-faced driver had already harnessed the mule. His whip tip was tied in a knot and he was jamming a bundle of fodder into the back of the cart. He looked up at the bundles in their hands.

"Linchuan?" he said. "Eighty li. Be there by the Monkey hour. Won't miss it."

Xu Yan counted out four pieces and handed them over. The driver took them, knocked them against his palm, tucked them into his belt, then bent over and tightened the rope on the fodder.

The mule cart started at the Mao hour and didn't stop once along the official road. Qi Qi sat in the cart bed. He asked a couple of questions about which fork was ahead, then crossed his legs, leaned against the side of the cart, and slept. He woke once, fished half a flatbread from the bundle, chewed it down, and went back to sleep. Xu Yan did not sleep. The roster rested on his knees with one hand on the oilcloth, pressing it down when the cart hit ruts, letting go once they passed.

At the Monkey hour, the cart stopped at the end of the yard. The two of them entered the city, walked for half a shichen, and took a room at the inn by the edge of the Market. The innkeeper flipped through his register and said, "East end of the second floor—it's empty. Water's on the stove. Say the word if you want it heated."

The room had two plank beds, one by the window, one against the wall. Xu Yan asked for a pot of hot water, unwrapped the bundle, and laid the roster on the inner side of the bed against the wall, tucking a corner of his outer robe over the oilcloth. They ate flatbread with hot water, and neither said a word about what was coming the next day. Qi Qi finished eating and wiped his mouth. "The Rank Evaluator doesn't even have a bowl of tea on her desk."

"A Rank Evaluator doesn't drink anything from a sect being evaluated."

"I know that. I'm saying she doesn't even set out her own." Qi Qi wiped his hands on his trousers. "Tomorrow, I stand at the door?"

"Stand."

The next day at the Dragon hour, the two entered the Sect Alliance Dongzhou Branch. The administration office was on the east side of the front courtyard. Wen Su sat behind the desk. On the desk lay a Ratings Register, a seal, and a brush—nothing else. A clerk stood beside her with a stack of papers in his hands.

Xu Yan presented the joint testimony first. Wen Su took it and, without asking a question, read from the first line at the top all the way down to the end of the statement, down to where the three names had been signed. She turned the paper over, checked the back, then pressed it down on the corner of the desk.

"The supply cutoff—that's no longer a matter for Qingya alone," she said.

Xu Yan didn't respond. Qi Qi shifted his weight from one foot to the other by the door, also silent.

Wen Su's finger rested on a line in the middle of the statement. "On the twentieth day of the First Month, you were not at the wharf."

"I wasn't. Elder Kuang took Azure Brook Sect's spirit herbs to sell. The buyers refused them. Steward Miao was beside the wharf that day and heard it directly."

"That's what the statement says." She straightened the paper. "Write what was seen, what was heard. Not what was guessed."

On the line below, she paused for a moment, pressing her fingertip into the paper. "The Willow Bank Gate entry—it originally said 'people,' and it was corrected to 'goods.'"

"Steward Zhuo corrected it herself. She said he didn't say not to come. He was talking about the goods."

"Written correctly," Wen Su said.

The clerk stepped forward, unwrapped the oilcloth, and turned the Ratings Register to the front. He drew out the name-verification papers from the ninth day of the Ninth Month of Alliance Year 301 and spread them on the desk. Then he opened the paper roster to the first page and checked name by name. He read one, moved his finger one space, compared the handwriting against the name-verification paper, and went on.

Jiang Wan, Shi Po, Bai Xiaoman, Huo Qing, Qi Qi, Shao Ming, A He, A Sui, Qian Duoduo, Du Xiaochuan.

"Ten. Handwriting matches," the clerk said.

He closed the roster and took up the Seventh Rank promotion document, checking it against the entry recording the promotion to Seventh Rank on the ninth day of the Ninth Month. He looked up at Wen Su. She nodded once.

The clerk lifted his brush and wrote a line in the register: Alliance Year 302, the twenty-fourth day of the Eighth Month, Qingya Sect, application submitted for promotion to Sixth Rank.

The ink dried slowly. When he finished, he touched the page with the back of his finger, closed the register, pushed the roster and document to the edge of the desk, and handed the oilcloth back to Xu Yan.

Xu Yan wrapped the roster himself, held it against his chest, and put the document back inside his robe as before.

"Rank Evaluator," he said, "what are the conditions for Sixth Rank?"

Wen Su straightened the testimony at the corner of her desk before speaking. "Registered Disciples numbering no fewer than ten. At least one Golden Core on the roster. At least three at Foundation Establishment or above on the roster. The sect-protecting formation must be operable, must withstand one palm strike from the Rank Evaluator without breaking, and must hold for a full shichen. Rank Silver paid in full. And one more—no record filed against this sect by the Branch this year."

She stopped there and added nothing more.

Xu Yan turned "withstand one palm strike without breaking" over in his mind. "This palm—is it the same as the palm trial of the formation before?"

"The same palm. Nothing added."

He asked, "How much is the Rank Silver?"

"Seventh Rank Rank Silver: one hundred eighty pieces. Counted twice in person on the day of the Autumn Evaluation."

The office went quiet. The Ratings Register lay closed on the desk, its corners worn white. Xu Yan ran the numbers through his head and remembered one more thing. "On the day of the hearing, does the roster need to be brought?"

"No. The statement is what matters that day."

Wen Su pressed her hand flat on the desk and set the dates. "On the sixth day of the Ninth Month, I'll arrive in Luoxia. The seventh, Snake hour, hearing at the Qingya Market. All those who signed and co-signed are to attend. Wanbao Tower will be notified by Branch dispatch to appear."

"Understood."

"Take every word of that back with you."

"Every word."

They left the administration office and sat down on the front steps to split the remaining flatbread. In the Branch's front courtyard, men were moving wooden crates. The crate bottoms knocked against the stone steps, thud after thud. Qi Qi took two bites, then looked up. "What she said—'no longer a matter for Qingya alone.' I'm keeping that. In the Third Month at the Branch, she said it was a matter for one sect alone, submit before the thirtieth day of the Eighth Month. Today she changed her words."

"The changed words are not for us to say. She'll say them herself."

Xu Yan gathered the flatbread crumbs into a pile in his palm, counting as he went. "Roster: ten people." He paused. "Golden Core: Senior Sister. Foundation Establishment or above: Senior Sister, Uncle Shao, Huo Qing—three. Great formation: Bai Xiaoman. Rank Silver: one hundred eighty pieces. Record on file: none."

Qi Qi counted on his fingers, then pulled his hand back at the sixth item. "Is it enough?"

"What can be counted is enough. Two items can't be counted today: the formation depends on that palm, the Rank Silver depends on counting twice in person." He tipped the crumbs into the paper packet. "Four items are on paper. Two are day-of matters."

Qi Qi clicked his tongue. "First time I've heard someone say 'enough' like that."

"Enough is enough. Not enough is not enough. Murk, and something'll go wrong that day."

"Then on the seventh," Qi Qi said, swallowing his flatbread, "if those two from the tower show up too, can the Market hold them?"

"It can. The long table in the front room, benches on both sides. Standing works too." Xu Yan folded the paper packet. "That day the Market gate opens an hour early, and the long table gets wiped down twice."

"I'll remember."

The sun passed its peak. Qi Qi stood and brushed the flatbread crumbs off his trousers. "I'm heading out of the city to book the return trip." At the bottom of the steps he turned. "Fifteen days to the Autumn Evaluation."

Xu Yan grunted and pressed the oilcloth bundle tighter against his chest.

At the end of the Wei hour, Qi Qi came back and said the man at the carriage yard had flipped the wooden sign—there was a cart at the Mao hour on the twenty-fifth. They stayed the night in the same room. Xu Yan ran the six conditions through his mind, laying them out one by one, from the roster to the record. When he finished, he didn't write anything down. The lamp wick had burned short. He nudged the lamp toward the wall side, afraid the light might fall on the roster.

At the Mao hour on the twenty-fifth, Xu Yan went downstairs to settle the inn bill.

"Two nights," the innkeeper said.

"One per night." He counted out four pieces and set them on the counter.

The innkeeper took the money and closed the register. "The return trip—are you taking the cart you arranged yesterday?"

"That one."

The two left the city and boarded the cart. The mule took a few steps, and the driver turned and tossed back, "Round-trip fare already paid." Xu Yan answered with a sound and settled the bundle into a steady position on his knees.

That same day, the market in Luoxia ran as usual. The gate opened at the Dragon hour. Bai Xiaoman kept the Market Ledger in the front room, selling consigned goods at their marked prices—one line per item sold. Shao Ming watched the gate and the scale, moving the scale to the doorway and taking goods as customers came to weigh, calling out the number, writing a line. Du Xiaochuan carried his pots down before dawn with ten bottles of Qi-Gathering Powder in his chest. He sold out by the Horse hour and bought two more pots of spirit rice at the grain shop. When the market closed, a rogue cultivator asked where the Sect Master had gone. Bai Xiaoman answered only, "Gone to Linchuan on business," and lowered her head back to her calculations. She put the Market Box and the Market Ledger together, followed Shao Ming out of town, and returned to the Mountain Gate at the Monkey hour. Box and ledger went into the accounting office together, locked beneath the ledger rack.

At the Rooster hour, Xu Yan and Qi Qi walked through the Mountain Gate. Nie Bo's broom was sweeping toward the edge of the gatehouse, leaves layered in piles. He stepped aside half a pace, but the broom never stopped.

Xu Yan went in first, to the Ancestral Hall. He set the lantern on the corner of the offering table, took the roster out of the oilcloth, put it back in the wooden box, closed the lid, and slid it under the table with both hands until it reached its original place. The tablets were above him, and he looked down the rows one by one before picking up the lantern and leaving.

Back in the accounting office, he returned the Seventh Rank document to its place between the two pages of the ledger, next to the land deed and the three judgment documents. He turned the ledger to the last page and wrote one line with his brush:

_The twenty-fourth day of the Eighth Month, Branch administration office, presented statement, applied for promotion to Sixth Rank._

He started a new line below and wrote "the seventh day of the Ninth Month," leaving the rest blank.

That empty space was wide enough for two more lines.