Part 2, Chapter 19

Ch 19

War was coming.

Everyone in the palace down to the lowest scullery boy, who was Leng Zai, knew it.

“What will happen to us?” Renping asked.

Xiaomin, Shun, Xun, Leng Zai, and Renping had come to Madam Lai’s apartment to celebrate Shun’s birthday. Renping’s presence had been a surprise to everyone, but she and Shun had begun talking while Shun was waiting for Xiaomin one night and a close friendship had formed between the two. Xiaomin had been jealous at first, but in a rare moment of assertion Shun had told Xiaomin that just because Shun loved her it didn’t give Xiaomin the right to decide who she could be friends with. Xiaomin had backed down. Even though she and Renping still didn’t like each other, they got along for Shun’s sake. 

“Nothing will happen to us,” Madam Lai snapped. “We’re cooks not soldiers. There isn’t much call for ten course dinners on the front lines.”

“But if the Emperor goes to fight,” Renping persisted. 

“If the Emperor commands us, then of course we will go. But I doubt he’ll be throwing banquets on the battlefield. He doesn’t even throw them now,” Madam Lai muttered the last part under her breath.

Renping looked like she wanted to say more, but she held her tongue. 

Xun and Leng Zai exchanged a look. If the Emperor left the palace they would loose their chance to obtain the pendant. 

 Xiaomin put her arm around Shun’s shoulders. “Enough about that, tonight we are here to celebrate Shun’s birthday. Let’s discuss something more pleasant.”

So the conversation shifted to kitchen gossip and Shun shared a few stories from the pharmacy after some gentle encouragement. Leng Zai used his newly recovered magic to light up the room with an indoor fireworks display. He tried to hold Xun’s hand, but Xun cleared her throat and pointed surreptitiously to her mother, who was watching them speculatively.

As the night wound to a close Leng Zai escorted the girls to their dormitory. Xun waited for the other girls to go in before she came back to stand by Leng Zai. Saying nothing, she waved at him and the two slipped off to the back garden that separated the mens dormitory from the women’s.