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We sat by a drainage ditch under a pear tree. It wouldn’t be the first time we slept outside in recent weeks, but something about it felt distinctly and conspicuously poor in a city as magnificent as Chang’an. We were invited here as scholars, the best in Lingnan, and yet we were sleeping on top of rotten fruit.

Maybe it was something about the vastness of the streets when empty, but I couldn’t relax enough to grow tired, despite how far we’d traveled. I rolled onto my side, wincing when a stone jammed into my hip. When I reached down to move it, I knew at once from the touch that it wasn’t a stone.

I scooted to the side, making Yufei grumble, and picked up a single pearl covered in muddy red. Even through the dirt, I knew the scent of blood. I brushed aside some smashed pears and found several more scattered pearls jammed into the ground.

I glanced at Wenshu and Yufei’s sleeping forms, then stuffed the pearls into my pocket to clean later. Maybe I could trade them for gold to buy us breakfast. I leaned back against the tree until my eyelids grew heavy, and when I finally sank into a dream, it was solid and unchanging as a painting, nothing but five tall archways leading into darkness.

CHAPTER TEN

We woke to the sound of gates creaking open. The sun was already hot enough to turn the smashed pears around us to a sticky jelly, but somehow its light hadn’t disturbed us—a testament to how exhausted we’d been. We sat up and brushed off our clothes, then Yufei and I tied back each other’s hair while Wenshu stared half-awake at the horses pulling carts down the street. I pulled Yufei’s hair just a bit too tight when I remembered I’d have to leave her and Wenshu again as we went to our respective practice grounds. The guard she’d pickpocketed had been kind enough to mention that all the candidates were supposed to meet today for a welcoming ceremony.

We stumbled sleepily through the streets, munching on pears, until we had to part ways at the eastern courtyard, where the alchemists were supposedly meeting. It didn’t ease my nerves that a stern guard before the only door was eyeing me with his arms crossed. I knew I’d earned my place beside the other alchemists, but if my experience in the south was any indication, I didn’t think they’d be thrilled to see someone like me among them.

Yufei punched me in the spine.

“Ow! What are you—”

“You’re slouching. At least pretend you’re confident or they’ll walk all over you.”

I sighed but straightened my spine a few degrees.

“Good,” Yufei said. “Now go destroy them.”

“It’s an informational meeting. I’m not destroying—”

“Destroy them,”Yufei said, shaking her head. “No making friends until you pass.”

“And keep your clothes on this time,” Wenshu said. “We don’t have any extra fabric.”

“How boring,” I said, trying to smile. I could feel the conversation ending, which meant my cousins would be leaving me again soon.

“Meet back here for dinner?” Yufei said.

I nodded. “Oh, I almost forgot.” I reached into my satchel, digging around for a moment before pulling out the pearls I’d found, offering Wenshu a handful. “I found these where we slept. I want to keep some for my transformations, but we can trade the rest for gold. This should get you lunch, at least.”

Wenshu frowned and picked one up, holding it to the sky. “Is that...blood?”

I shrugged. “Probably.”

He clenched his jaw, carefully setting the pearl back in my palm, holding the hand that had touched it away from his body like he wanted to cut it off. “Do I even want to know where that came from?”

“The ground.”

“I mean, who did it belong to?” Wenshu said. “It looks like a robbery gone wrong. We shouldn’t get caught up in things like that.” Bloody jewels were a telltale sign that they hadn’t been earned by honest means. People often paid for míngqì with bloodstained gold nuggets.

“Of course you would find a way to scold Zilan for finding money,” Yufei said.

“I’m not scolding her,” he said, crossing his arms. “I’m just—”

“Asking too many questions about free money?” I said.

Wenshu shook his head. “We have enough for lunch. You hang onto them for now, and tomorrow we’ll just trade them all for gold and wash our hands of whatever crime-scene evidence you’ve somehow stumbled upon.”

“Yes, we know how much you like washing your hands,” Yufei said.

I shrugged and added the pearls to my satchel. “Go now, or you’ll be late,” I said, waving them off so that they’d walk away rather than miss their own meeting because of me. As they turned away, I found it hard to breathe, my throat closing up and my eyes burning.You’re being childish, I thought. I wasn’t some little girl being dropped off at school for the first time. But this strange city felt so large without them, the dialect so sharp, the sunlight so bright. For the first time in my life, I felt small.

Luckily, the guard let me past the gates after I told him my name, and then the world opened up into a garden of dove trees and lily ponds full of sunlight. The courtyard had paths paved in gold so polished they cast my reflection back up at me. My shoes tracked red dirt onto them, which servants quickly swept behind me, brushing at my heels. I stumbled away from them, crashing into a stranger in red robes who looked at me like I was a dead rat before hurrying toward the grassy areas where the other alchemists were gathered.