alley along the western side. ‘Six of us could cover it. Maybe seven.’
‘What are you planning?’
‘Better you don’t know.’ Bai Shen started down the empty lane, head bowed in concentration. Fei Long imagined he was scripting out his performance line by line.
He followed Bai Shen into the shade cast by the high wall. The hum of the street faded behind him in a rare silence seldom found in the crowded city. It seemed as if had been ages ago when he and Bai Shen had walked the streets of Changan together. Not since his days as a student.
It was tempting to think of those days as carefree. He’d had his wild times carousing in the entertainment district, but Fei Long had always felt the weight of responsibility. He’d never forgotten it, even when he’d left the city to try to make a name for himself. The sense of duty just hadn’t been as palpable until his father had left them.
‘Thank you,’ he said, putting as much feeling as was proper into his words.
Bai Shen’s back was to him, but the actor stopped in the middle of the alley and turned. ‘What, we’re friends here, right? No need for thanks.’
Fei Long never imagined he’d have to lean on the hapless companions of his youth or a stranger he’d just met in a remote teahouse. He never thought he’d have to deal in deception
either or hide so completely from their family’s respectable associates.
‘Not just for this,’ Fei Long said. ‘For the work you’ve done with Yan Ling as well.’
Bai Shen raised an eyebrow. ‘Done with?’
‘Whatever you’re teaching her, it must be working. The other day we were discussing a poem—or I was explaining a poem to her—and it was almost as though she understood its deeper meaning. At first she asked so many questions. Incessant really. Enough to make one’s head hurt.’
‘So she seemed intelligent enough,’ Bai Shen mused.
Fei Long couldn’t quite decipher that tone. ‘Well, poems are simple—’
‘Deceptively simple.’
‘What I’m trying to say is, if I hadn’t known where she had come from, I might have believed that she was an educated lady. She sounded like she had a true interest in the discussion. Of course I know she’s only pretending.’
‘Pretending to have some wit and intuition.’
‘That’s what you’ve been teaching her to do, isn’t it? Acting lessons.’
Bai Shen made a snorting sound that raised Fei Long’s ire considerably. The actor’s eyes were gleaming as if there was some joke here that only he understood.
‘So during all these pleasant conversations you’ve been enjoying with the young lady, she’s been only acting.’
‘I didn’t say I was enjoying—’ He hadn’t said anything like that, had he?
‘Playing a role,’ Bai Shen continued relentless. ‘And you were playing a role, too, of course. That’s the only way to explain how you could pretend to have a conversation of equals with your little tea girl.’
‘That’s insulting.’
‘To you or to Yan Ling?’
His pulse was rising. The conversation had got out of hand. ‘She’s not a “little tea girl” and it’s insulting to refer to her as mine—’
Fei Long stopped himself. Bai Shen was baiting him for his own amusement and he should have known better than to react. The situation was black and white in his head and no amount of taunting could change that.
He took a deep, steadying breath. Yan Ling didn’t belong to him. She was here to fulfil a role, as they had agreed upon. And of course any intimacy between them was only for the purposes of her training. They were co-conspirators in a grand scheme.
Bai Shen laughed and the sound clanged in Fei Long’s skull like a dissonant chime. ‘Look at you! Ready to give me a thrashing over the slightest insult. It’s not as if she’s really your sister.’
‘No,’ Fei Long said after a pause. ‘No, she’s not.’ He was confused and he did want to hit Bai Shen, now that the rascal mentioned it.
His friend grew serious. ‘You’re really going to do this, aren’t you?’
‘We have to. If we don’t, my family name will be dishonoured. We’ll be left with nothing.’ It wasn’t only him. Yan Ling, his steward, Dao—the entire household was involved. They had served his father and now him in good faith. ‘They’re all looking to me to do something, Bai Shen. I need to make this right.’
‘Then maybe you should take credit for Yan Ling’s transformation. You’re the puppet master, after all.’ There was no hint of amusement or teasing in his friend’s remark. ‘Though you’re