111: The Errand South
By the small specific accumulating reading at the dusk of the first day of the tenth moon of the fifteenth year, Heizi at the *staff-officer's bench* of the master's hut laid the small accumulating *errand-south* arrangement at the brothers' accumulating evening fire.
He said in the small low voice: *brothers. By the small specific accumulating reading at the past month — the small accumulating *winter-grain* the household has at the master's hut is, by the small specific reading at An Ashi's accumulating slate-arithmetic, at perhaps the small accumulating *seven-week supply* for the eleven-and-master at the small accumulating *winter portion*. By the small specific reading at the next four months at the small accumulating winter, we will need additional. By the small specific reading I am giving — the lad will, by the small specific accumulating reading at the next two weeks, send a small accumulating *errand-south* unit to the small accumulating *Liyang sub-camp* to take from the *forty's accumulating Wagang-recognized supply* of the cold-spring camp the small accumulating six weeks of additional grain.*
He paused.
"By the small specific reading I am giving — the lad will lead the errand. The lad will take the boy An Ashi at the small accumulating *political-eye* and Sun Erlin's accumulating replacement runner — *Liu Erlang* of the *forty's* original veterans. Three of us. Eight days down, one day at Liyang, eight days back. By the small specific reading I am giving — the lad will be back at the master's hut by the small accumulating fifteenth day of the eleventh moon."
The brothers nodded.
Wang Er at the small accumulating *thrust-and-set* position said in the small low voice: *brother. By the small specific accumulating reading I am giving — the smith's son and the lame brother and Lu Jingzhi and Ah Chou and the four remaining veterans will hold the master's hut against any small specific accumulating Sui patrol at the lad's accumulating absence.*
Heizi nodded.
"Yes, smith's son."
That morning, Heizi and An Ashi and Liu Erlang set off south.
They walked in the small accumulating *peddler-and-apprentice-and-veteran* shape — Heizi at the small accumulating *peddler*, An Ashi at the small accumulating *apprentice*, Liu Erlang at the small accumulating *traveler-veteran*. They went without sabers. The militia knife at Heizi's accumulating belt; the small light blade at An Ashi's coat; Liu Erlang's small specific *small specific old country-knife* the smith's son had laid for him at the past four months at the small accumulating bog-iron's accumulating second smelting.
By the small specific accumulating reading at the past three days' walking, they were at the lower contour proper. The country was — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past three days — at the small accumulating *late-autumn-empty* shape of the upper-hills' lower contour at the early eleventh moon.
By the noon of the fourth day south of the master's hut, Heizi and the two came to a small accumulating *lower-country crossroads* perhaps half a *li* east of the path the lad had walked at the past two years' accumulating engagements.
The crossroads was — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past peddler's accumulating saying — at the small accumulating *small market-shape* of certain accumulating fortnights at the past two years. It was — by the small specific accumulating reading at this noon — a small accumulating *fortnight market day*.
There were perhaps thirty small accumulating households at the small accumulating *crossroads* small accumulating clear ground. Perhaps fifty people total.
Heizi and the two stopped at the lip of a low rise overlooking the crossroads. They looked.
By the small specific accumulating reading at the past quarter hour, An Ashi at the small accumulating *political-eye* laid the small accumulating reading: small accumulating *twelve* of the thirty small accumulating households at the small accumulating *peddler-and-trade* shape of an accumulating ordinary fortnight market. Small accumulating *eight* at the small accumulating *small-grain-trading* shape. Small accumulating *six* at the small accumulating *small-cloth-and-tool* shape. Small accumulating *four* at the small accumulating *grain-and-pickle*. Small accumulating *small thin column of smoke at the western edge — perhaps a small accumulating *cooked-food* peddler.*
Liu Erlang said in the small low voice: *Heizi-zhang. The market is — by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving — at the small accumulating *real* shape of a fortnight market.*
Heizi nodded.
"Yes, brother."
He filed it.
He started down the small slope at the small accumulating *peddler's* shape.
The two followed.
They came down to the small accumulating *crossroads*. They walked through the market. They stopped at a small accumulating *grain-trader's stall* — by Liu Erlang's accumulating *country-veteran's* recognition — and Heizi exchanged perhaps three strings of cash for a small folded sack of dried beans the boy An Ashi had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past two months — said the master would, by his accumulating cough's accumulating reading, take well in his accumulating winter's accumulating soup.
By the second hour of the noon, the three were at the small accumulating *eastern edge* of the crossroads, ready to continue south to Liyang.
It was at the eastern edge that they saw the small accumulating *household*.
The household was — by the small specific accumulating reading at the small accumulating *peddler-trader's stall* of the small accumulating *grain-and-pickle* — at the small accumulating *negotiating* shape of a small accumulating peasant household.
There were three: a man perhaps thirty-five with the small accumulating *thin* shape of an accumulating peasant at the small accumulating *running-out* of the past several months. A woman perhaps the same. And a small accumulating *daughter* of perhaps fourteen.
The negotiating was at the small accumulating *small accumulating sale* shape.
Heizi at the small accumulating walking pace stopped at perhaps fifteen paces from the stall.
He watched.
By the small specific accumulating reading at the past quarter hour at the lip — he had not, by the small specific accumulating reading, seen this small accumulating household at any of the small accumulating clusters of the market.
He watched now.
The man and the woman were — by the small specific accumulating reading at perhaps fifteen paces — speaking, in low voices, to the small accumulating *grain-and-pickle peddler* — perhaps fifty, with the small accumulating *eyes-of-a-peddler-who-trades-in-girls* shape that was, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past two years' walking-scout, a small specific accumulating shape Heizi had filed before.
The daughter — by the small specific accumulating reading at perhaps fifteen paces — stood beside her accumulating mother with the small accumulating *waiting* shape of a girl of fourteen who had — by the small specific accumulating reading at her accumulating face — been at the small accumulating *understanding* shape of the small accumulating sale for perhaps the past three days.
She had — by the small specific accumulating reading at her accumulating face — already accepted.
Her accumulating mother held one of her accumulating hands.
Her accumulating father — by the small specific accumulating reading at his accumulating face — was at the small accumulating *negotiating-the-price* shape with the peddler. By the small specific accumulating reading at the past quarter minute's accumulating watching — they had reached agreement.
The peddler took out, from his small accumulating coat, a small accumulating *cash-bag*.
He counted out, slowly, perhaps the small accumulating *eight strings of cash* — by the small specific accumulating reading at An Ashi's accumulating eye — onto the small accumulating *grain-and-pickle stall's* small flat plate.
The father took the cash.
He gave it — by the small specific accumulating reading — to the mother.
The mother took the cash.
She held it for one beat.
She let go of the daughter's hand.
The daughter — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past quarter minute — did not, at the small accumulating *letting-go*, cry. She did not, by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving, speak. She walked, by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving, with the small accumulating *waiting-shape's accumulating *real* movement* of a girl who had decided, in the past three days, to walk at the small accumulating *real* moment without speaking.
She went to stand beside the peddler.
The peddler laid one hand at her accumulating shoulder.
Heizi at the fifteen paces did not move.
He watched.
He filed.
He thought.
He thought, slowly, in the small specific accumulating reading at the past nine years and ten months, about the small accumulating *small specific *can-or-cannot* at this noon.
He thought of his foster sister Mei-er at the persimmon tree.
He thought of the small accumulating promise he had made at her grave.
He thought of the small accumulating refinement of the promise at the steep place ridge: *no girl to that camp, while I am alive*.
He thought of the master's accumulating *seventh* teaching: *the lad has the small specific weakness of the not-killing-when-required at the correct moments. Live with it.*
He thought of Lu Jingzhi at the small wooden table: *the *seventh* is the small specific accumulating *cost* the lad will, in the next ten years, accumulate at the small accumulating *unmistakable* shapes.*
He thought, finally, of the master's saying at the small wooden table when Heizi had asked, three years ago, what the small accumulating *promise* required: *not to fight every wrong in the world.*
The girl at the peddler's accumulating side was — by the small specific accumulating reading at this noon — not at any small accumulating *camp*. She was, by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving, at the small accumulating *sold-by-her-own-family-in-an-accumulating-running-out* shape. The peddler was — by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving — perhaps the small accumulating *one-who-sells-her-on-to-some-further-household-in-some-accumulating-Western-or-Northern-route*.
The girl had — by the small specific accumulating reading at her accumulating face — *accepted*.
The promise — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past nine years' careful refining — did not, by the small specific accumulating reading at this noon, *reach* this small specific accumulating moment.
The promise was for the camp. It was for the white-cord lists. It was for the small accumulating bandit-farm's accumulating lean-to. It was, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past nine years, *not* for the small accumulating *family-sold-daughter-at-a-fortnight-market-because-of-the-running-out*.
To intervene at this noon would be — by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving — to fight every wrong in the world. The master had warned. The lad had filed.
Heizi did not, at the noon, move.
He let the peddler walk away with the daughter.
The peddler walked east. The daughter walked beside him. The mother and the father stood at the stall with the small accumulating eight strings of cash. The mother, by the small specific accumulating reading at her accumulating face, did not, at the moment, weep. The father did not, by the small specific accumulating reading, weep either. They stood at the stall with the cash in the mother's hand for a long beat.
Heizi watched the peddler and the daughter go east.
He watched until they were perhaps a hundred paces past the eastern edge of the crossroads.
He filed her face.
In the small accumulating *staff-officer's small specific personal dark catalog*, beside the names of the *unnamed fourteen-year-old at the bandit-farm lean-to* and the small accumulating *boy of the seventh household on the road south to Liyang* and the small accumulating *girl who did not finish telling her dream at the back room*, he set: *the unnamed daughter at the crossroads market, sold by her family for eight strings of cash, walked east at the noon of the fourth day of the eleventh moon of the fifteenth year, the small specific accumulating *waiting-shape's accumulating real movement* of a girl who had decided to walk at the small accumulating real moment without speaking.*
The dark catalog now stood at twenty-four named-and-noted entries plus the *unnamed thousand+*.
He turned to An Ashi and Liu Erlang.
He said in the small low voice: *we go on.*
The two nodded.
They went on south.
Heizi walked at the small accumulating walking pace.
He did not, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past two hours, weep.
He had not — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past nine years and ten months — wept since the low rock behind the burned eastern row at the hamlet of two wells.
He kept the discipline.
He filed.
That night at the small accumulating camp at the small dry place under a small accumulating low rock face perhaps two *li* south of the crossroads, Heizi at his watch sat at the small banked fire.
He listened.
The shape of the silence on this watch was — by the small specific reading at this evening — the shape of a young man who had — at the noon — watched a girl of fourteen walk east at a peddler's hand and had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the master's accumulating saying — not intervened.
He filed it.
He sat his watch through.
The walking south to Liyang took five more days. They reached Liyang at the dusk of the ninth day. They took the additional grain at Yan Wenshu's small accumulating sub-camp's accumulating supply. They walked back north for eight days. They reached the master's hut at the dusk of the seventeenth day of the eleventh moon of the fifteenth year — two days later than Heizi had said.
The master at the small wooden stool was — by the small specific accumulating reading at the dusk's accumulating arrival — at the small accumulating *coughing* shape that had, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past two weeks, become more frequent than at the lad's accumulating departure.
Heizi laid the additional grain at the small accumulating *food storage* of the master's hut.
He did not — at the dusk's accumulating evening fire — speak to the brothers about the small accumulating *daughter at the crossroads*.
He had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past sixteen days — kept the small accumulating *filing* in his head.
He would, by the small specific accumulating reading at this dusk, keep it there.
He sat his watch through.