Page 17 of The Scarlet Alchemist

“Remember,” Wenshu said, “if any men bother you—”

“—I jam the heel of my palm into their nose,” I said. Yufei had become all too interested in self-defense techniques as of late, which she insisted on teaching Wenshu and me as well.

The horse neighed and the cart jolted forward, my cousins moving farther and farther away from me into the morning mist, waving as the landscape of tall grass swallowed them whole. I stood alone in the cool dawn on the empty street, waiting for my own dream to begin.

Eventually, the next wagon to Huizhou let me hop on. I sat among the hay bales hugging my knees as we rolled over rocks and the sun rose above the countryside.

We finally reached the walls of Huizhou along the path of the Pearl River. The air smelled of green tea leaves, the scent blowing down the valley from the rolling fields in the distance. The ride had only taken me a few hours from Guangzhou, but the dialect was different enough that I could only catch fractured pieces. Auntie So said the language here was mixed with the words of the Hakka people who came south from central China.

I stepped off the wagon and handed the driver a few coins, then pushed through the wall of words I didn’t understand toward the city center. Merchants and horses and carts crammed together in the dirt roads, fighting for passage. More trade moved through here than Guangzhou, which was why the royal court had chosen it for the exam location.

It wasn’t hard to find the city center, because scholars in their blue robes were all moving in the same direction through the streets. Down by the muddy silt of the river, two court officials in fútóu hats stood with scrolls in hand, the path of scholars narrowing into a single line that awaited their approval before moving into the gated market. I gripped the straps of my bag and got into the line, ignoring the strange looks of the men around me. At the front, each competing alchemist passed the guards a handful of gold and received a strip of cloth with their name on it, which the guards tied tightly to their wrists.

When I reached the front, the two guards stared at me for a long moment, the disapproval in their gazes making my palms sweat. I was used to being looked at like vermin—no one liked merchants, after all—but it was easier to glare back when safe in my own shop with a knife under the counter than here, alone in a new city. The taller guard narrowed his eyes and shouted something in Huizhou dialect at me.

“I’m here for the alchemy exam,” I said in Chang’an dialect. “My name is Fan Zilan.” I offered them fifty gold coins in my hand, the entrance fee.

They stared at my palm like I’d offered them a dead frog. The man’s eyes skimmed over me, lips curling. Long ago, he might have turned me away just for being a woman, but Empress Wu’s perpetual reign had changed everything. If a woman could be the sole Empress, then women could serve her as scholars. But just because it was allowed didn’t mean it was common. Most women didn’t go to school, so few had the means or motivation to take the exams.

“You’rean alchemist?” the taller one said.

“Yes,” I said, moving my hand closer and shaking the gold as if to tempt him. The guard relented, scooping the coins from my palm.

“Are you ahùnxie?” the other one said.

I bit down on my tongue, afraid I might say something that would instantly disqualify me. Instead, I nodded stiffly. He made a note of something on his scroll and I nearly snatched the brush from his hands. What did that have to do with an alchemy exam? All that should matter was my skill as an alchemist.

The other one grabbed my arm and tied a cloth around my wrist tight enough that my hand nearly popped off. He hadn’t even asked what characters to use for my name, so how did he—

I froze at the two characters scrawled messily onto the fabric, ink bleeding down my wrist.

?

?

“This sayshùnxie,” I said.

“Ah, so youcanread,” the first guard said, trying to wave me past.

I clenched my jaw. “That’s not my name.”

The guard shrugged. “There is only onehùnxiehere, so it won’t be a problem,” he said. “Now go inside or get out.”

A firm hand shoved me past, and then I was in the testing grounds, the line rushing up behind me. I considered tearing the cloth strip off, but that would probably disqualify me. I crossed my arms to hide the wristband and stomped deeper into the yard.

In the town square, people peered through their windows and sat fanning themselves in the shade of the buildings, snacking on pears and berries. A crowd of young men hovered in the center, talking among themselves—some of them wore the blue robes of scholars, so they were probably the other alchemists. On the red dirt pathway, cleared of merchant carts, were what looked like a hundred metal cages, hardly large enough for pigs. Were we meant to trap some sort of animal? Perhaps they’d set loose wild boars and we’d have to capture them or be gored on their tusks.

I moved closer to the cages, but a guard stepped in my path.

“Place your bag here and empty your pockets,” he said, holding out a wooden tray piled with other small bags and loose gemstones.

“But I need my stones,” I said, clutching my satchel to my chest.

“Transformation materials will be provided,” he said. “Everyone gets the same things.”

I supposed that was fair. It felt like handing over my firstborn child, but I sighed and dropped my satchel on the tray, and the guard whisked it away. That was at least one hundred gold pieces worth of stones that I prayed I got back.

“What are you doing here, little girl?” one of the alchemists said, his voice loud enough that another group nearby turned to stare at me. He had a pale face and a wiry mustache, wet and tangled with scraps of tea leaves. For once, I was glad that I wasn’t small like Yufei—none of the men could look down on me.

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