110: The Boy's Western Letter
The boy An Ashi laid the small accumulating *western letter* at the small wooden bench at the dusk of the third day of the sixth moon of the fifteenth year.
By the small specific accumulating reading at the past four months, the boy had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past peddler-network's accumulating arrangement — at last laid the small accumulating *answer* to the small accumulating *western contact's* accumulating reading of the past two years' searching. The contact had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past peddler — found at the small accumulating *Liangzhou-household's accumulating record* the small accumulating *purchase-name* of the boy's accumulating younger brother. The household had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past peddler's accumulating careful inquiring at the past three months — given the brother a small accumulating *small specific Han-name* the household had laid at the small accumulating *purchase* of the boy's accumulating *thirteenth year*. The Han-name had been: *Lu Cheng-yi*.
The boy at the small wooden bench laid the small accumulating *Lu Cheng-yi* at his small folded paper.
He laid it slowly, by the small specific accumulating careful even strokes of his accumulating Sogdian-merchant's-son's accumulating reading. He laid it in the small accumulating *complete-name*: *An Ashi-er, Han-name Lu Cheng-yi, of the An clan of Samarqand, son of Lu Wenqing of the An clan, brother of An Ashi (also of the An clan), born ca. CE 599, taken at Liangzhou ca. CE 612 at the age of thirteen, sold to a small accumulating Liangzhou household, given the Han-name Lu Cheng-yi at his accumulating *purchase*, kept the small accumulating wooden fox at his accumulating coat for nine years, died at the small accumulating spring of the fourteenth year of Da-ye at the small accumulating illness, age twenty-two.*
He folded the paper.
He laid it at the small accumulating *staff-officer's bench* beside the small accumulating Sun Erlin letter and the small accumulating master's letters and the small accumulating Heizi-letters of the past two years.
He said in the small low voice: *big brother. The small accumulating *complete name* of the boy's accumulating brother. By the small specific reading I am giving — the boy will, by the small specific accumulating reading at the small accumulating *some unfound year* of the next twenty years, walk west to the small accumulating Liangzhou's accumulating *household-grave* and lay this paper at the small accumulating boy's accumulating *resting* shape.*
Heizi nodded.
He filed it.
He laid one hand once on the boy's shoulder — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past three years — in the small specific accumulating *hand-on-shoulder* shape Heizi had been laying at the boy at small accumulating moments of small specific accumulating loss.
He said in the small low voice: *boy. By the small specific reading I am giving — yes. The lad will, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past nine years and ten months, go with you when the small accumulating *some unfound year* comes.*
The boy nodded.
He said: *thank you, big brother.*
That night Heizi at his watch sat at the small banked fire.
He filed.
In the small lighter catalog of moments, he set: *the small specific dusk of the third day of the sixth moon of the fifteenth year, when the boy laid the *complete name* of his accumulating brother at the small wooden bench.*
The lighter catalog stood at perhaps ninety-nine items.
The dark catalog stood at twenty-three named names plus the *unnamed thousand+*. Note: the boy's brother, named in full as *An Ashi-er, Han-name Lu Cheng-yi*, was already on the dark catalog at ch.100 as "An Ashi-er." The new accumulating *Lu Cheng-yi* was — by the small specific accumulating reading at this dusk — the small accumulating *Han-name additional* of the same accumulating named entry.
He sat his watch through.
The summer of the fifteenth year went by. Yang Yichen's accumulating spring campaign at the eastern marshes went on, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past three months' peddlers, at the small accumulating *real* shape of an accumulating *prolonged engagement*. Li Mi's accumulating Wagang held. Yang Yichen's accumulating six thousand had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past three months — been at the small accumulating *holding-not-advancing* shape against the Wagang's accumulating defensive shape.
By the small specific accumulating reading at the past peddler at the dusk of the first day of the eighth moon of the fifteenth year, neither side had — by the small specific accumulating reading — won. Yang Yichen had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past peddler — withdrawn his accumulating six thousand to a small accumulating *holding-line* perhaps fifty *li* west of the eastern marshes' main headquarters. Li Mi had — by the small specific accumulating reading — held the marshes.
The campaign was — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past peddler — at the small accumulating *waiting* shape of two armies that had not, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past three months, settled the small accumulating *real* outcome.
By the small specific accumulating reading at the past peddler — Yang Yichen's accumulating *Wén Déxiū slip* would, by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving, wait further. Perhaps the small accumulating *autumn of the fifteenth year*. Perhaps the small accumulating *spring of the sixteenth*.
The master at the hut was — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past three months — at the small accumulating *thinning* shape of an old man at sixty-four whose accumulating winter-cough had, by the small specific accumulating reading at Ah Chou's careful eye, become a small accumulating *summer-cough* the master had not — by the small specific accumulating reading at any past summer at this hut — taken before.
Ah Chou laid the small accumulating *additional huang lian* and the small accumulating *summer-tea*. The cough — by the small specific accumulating reading at Ah Chou's accumulating eye on it — held without worsening, but did not, by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving, close at the past month.
Lao Wen at the small wooden stool said in the small low voice at the dusk of the second day of the eighth moon of the fifteenth year: *brother.*
"Yes, master."
"By the small specific accumulating reading at the past three months — Ah Chou's accumulating eye on the master's accumulating cough is, by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving, at the small accumulating *real* reading."
"Yes, master."
"By the small specific accumulating reading I am giving — the cough is, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past three months, at the small accumulating *the country's accumulating shifting has bought the master another moon, perhaps two; the body's accumulating own shifting has not bought the master at all*."
He paused.
"By the small specific accumulating reading I am giving — the master will, in the next several months, by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving, slow."
He paused once more.
"By the small specific accumulating reading I am giving — the lad will, by the small specific reading I am giving, see."
Ah Chou nodded.
He said in the small low voice: *yes, master.*
He filed.
By the small specific accumulating reading at the dusk of the first day of the ninth moon, the master coughed three times at the small wooden stool's accumulating morning's small bound *Daxue* reading. Three times in the past hour was — by the small specific accumulating reading at Ah Chou's accumulating eye — a small accumulating *more* than the master had at the past two months.
Heizi watched.
He filed.
That night Heizi at his watch sat at the small banked fire.
The shape of the silence on this watch was — by the small specific reading at this evening — the shape of a small specific *staff-officer-and-apprentice* whose accumulating master had, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past three months, begun, in the small accumulating daily quiet, to slow.
He filed it.
The lighter catalog stood at perhaps a hundred.
The dark catalog stood at twenty-three named names.
He sat his watch through.
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**5-ch mini-check at ch.110 (logged in qc_log.md after this batch):** On track per current brief. Next outline beat = ch.117 daughter at crossroads. Path: ch.111–116 = continued daily quiet + setting up the trip that leads Heizi to the crossroads. Ch.117 = the actual market scene.