Page 39 of The Scarlet Alchemist

I shook my head. “I think a man tore it off.”

“You’ve cut pigs’ heads off before,” Wenshu said.

“No, this was apearlman.”

Wenshu grimaced, then tore off a piece of his bread and jammed it into my mouth. “It’s too hot outside,” he said. “Let’s find some shade.”

“I’m not making this up!” I said through the mouthful of bread.

“I didn’t say you were,” Wenshu said coolly, already walking away. “I just said I wanted to sit in the shade.”

I shot Yufei a desperate look, but her face was blank, and she was already hurrying after Wenshu. She whispered something into his ear as they walked ahead of me, then cast a glance back in my direction, not even trying to hide the fact that they were talking about me. I wanted to yell,I’m not some child you have to wrangle!but as I stumbled behind them covered in sweat, juggling pieces of bread and shouting about a pig’s head, I didn’t think I was making a good case for myself.

We sat down underneath a fig tree. Wenshu announced he suddenly wanted water, which Yufei ran off to get, and both of them drank only half of theirs before declaring they were too full and refilling my cup.

I drank just to placate them, my heart finally starting to slow down.

“I think it has something to do with the librarian—”

“Shh!” Wenshu said, looking around before switching to Guangzhou dialect. “Don’t talk about that here.”

“Will you twolisten to me?” I said, my voice rising. “I saw a man with pearl skin eating a pig. Don’t you think that has something to do with that dead body and my missing pearls?”

“What is pearl skin?” Yufei said, frowning. “Is that an alchemy thing?”

“No. I mean, I don’t know. Maybe?”

“Why don’t you look it up the next time we’re at the library?” Wenshu said. But his voice sounded too distant, too calm. He was frowning at me, like he saw something in my eyes that he didn’t like.

“Why don’t you believe me?” I said, dropping my gaze so I wouldn’t have to look at them.

Wenshu sighed. “Zilan, it’s not that we don’t believe you,” he said. I hated when he spoke for both himself and Yufei. “But whatever is going on, we need to stay as far away from it as possible. We’re here for our tests, not to join the royal police.”

I glanced at Yufei, because if she disagreed, she’d definitely say so, but she only stared at the dirt like it was the most fascinating thing in the world. It wasn’t that I wanted to get all of us in trouble, but if danger was going to find us regardless, I would rather be one step ahead of it—whatever it was.

“Fine,” I said, drinking the rest of Wenshu’s water to make him happy. I would try to do what he said—mind my own business and pray that disaster conveniently avoided me, as if I hadn’t been dreaming about it for as long as I could remember.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

On the day of my second-round exam, a royal officer announced the tragic, unexpected deaths of six alchemists from Longyou and three from Huainan. He assured us that all nine had definitely been accidental, and there was no need for us to worry.

But I’d seen the bodies being carried away that morning as I’d crossed over to the eastern wards, and I wasn’t sure how you could accidentally get stabbed several times in the back. I wondered if the royal police were actually investigating and just didn’t want us to panic, or if this sort of culling was standard in Chang’an. The one benefit of being a merchant from the south was that no one actually expected me to pass, so I didn’t have to sleep with a knife under my pillow. At least, not yet.

The officer confiscated our stones and led us deeper into the palace grounds, opening the double doors to a dirt courtyard. Rows and rows of identical barrels sat across the yard in a grid, perfectly spaced like a strange wooden cemetery, trays of alchemy stones beside them. At the far end of the courtyard, the scholar who had given us the tour stood on a wooden podium, once again calling out our names, directing us to stand in front of barrels as they recorded who was still here.

By the time the names from Lingnan were called, only several barrels at the back remained. I ran my hands over the splintering wood, trying to gauge what was inside. Some strange poison for us to neutralize before it ate our flesh? A million little sand crabs that would scurry out and pinch us? After the last round, I truly had no idea what to expect.

“As is tradition, the second round will be proctored by two members of the royal court,” the scholar said.

Servants opened a set of double doors near the front, and a woman in silver robes crossed the field, sat in a chair, and folded her arms without waiting for us to bow. She had tan skin and eyes like harvest moons the color of burning amber. A long black braid swung behind her, coming to a sharp point between her shoulder blades. She reminded me of the spiny orb-weaver spiders that sometimes crept into houses down south, carrying blazing red spikes on their backs to ward off predators. As she surveyed the crowd, I couldn’t help but feel she wanted to be anywhere but here.

“The Moon Alchemist, head of the royal alchemists,” the scholar said, bowing.

I held my breath as the other alchemists dropped into a bow. I’d heard some of the others whispering about her in the courtyard. They’d said that she’d once pulled the moon down from the sky for the Emperor to examine, thus earning her name. As the empire’s prized alchemist, legend said she’d eaten gold even longer than the Empress so she’d never have to retire. She could reshape the moon and change the direction of the tides and bring about eclipses on command. Some even said she was the one who’d discovered life gold.

For one dangerous moment, I let myself imagine what it would be like to train alongside someone like her, to learn the secrets of the universe, to hold the moon inmyhands. I had tasted power during my resurrections, but surely the Moon Alchemist could teach me things infinitely greater than reviving moldy, rich old men. I folded into a bow and imagined that the dirt beneath my palms was the cool surface of the moon, then pinched myself to banish the thought. First, I had to pass this test.

“And of course,” the scholar said, as we rose to our feet again, “the Crown Prince.”

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