Shuli Go Stories Vol. 2: A Large Debt

Part 5

She spent three days – distinguishable from the nights only by the jailer alerting the prisoners to "go to sleep it's night time ya fucks!" – in the cell without a hint of respite. She attempted to ask the jailer – a grimy, fat man who plodded up and down the aisles of cells one minute of every hour and seemed to sleep the rest – for an audience with a judge. But his only reply was a whack from his preferred implement: a thin iron rod that stung and cut, but did not break bones.

On the third night she'd been told, rather rudely, to go to sleep, a new prisoner was thrown into the cell next to her. Even though it was perennially dark to the point of black inside the dungeon, Lian's enhanced eyesight recognized the man immediately.

"Tang?"

Tang, though, didn't respond, and Lian was quickly informed it was not just because of his visible dejection at the prospect of being the latest victim of Chongqing's justice system.

"Is that the name he gave you?" the jailer asked, emitting the laughter he usually reserved for a particularly good smack with his iron rod. "He was Zhu when he was caught trying to stow away on a ship heading to Thanjar." The jailer laughed again then returned to his nearby desk where he promptly fell asleep.

Tang looked from the jailer to Lian and approached the set of bars they shared, "Lian! You got caught up here too? What happened?"

"They're not fans of Shuli Go around here. I found out a little late."

"I don't think they're a fan of much, except bribes. I sold my entire cart and didn't even have enough to book passage out of town after I paid for all the permits and seals I needed."

Lian tilted back slightly, "Why did you give them another name when they arrested you?"

"Oh! That. I... I didn't want to besmirch my family name by becoming a criminal. I, I panicked."

"No, you didn't," she said flatly. "The Chongqing authorities aren't my favorite right now, but they would never touch a cart like yours that bore an official Imperial emblem of trade. The mayor would lose her head in a fortnight if more than one merchant was taxed unfairly. It's a port city for heaven's sake."

Lian pointed out all the errors in Tang's story without feeling hurt about being lied to. Chances were Tang was a man just slightly less desperate than the men who had tied him up four days earlier. Tang, for his part, contorted his face into distress and defiance for a split second before he saw that Lian was completely unmoved. Then his features switched entirely, as if one face had been wiped away and another revealed underneath.

"Oh, fine, no point with a charade any more," he shook his head. "Might as well tell you my real name. It's not Tang, and it's not Zhu either. I'm Mei."

"Mei?" Lian asked, chuckling, "Mei's a girl's name."

Tang-Zhu-Mei nodded, his smirk beleaguered from repetition, "A fact I've had explained to me many times. Go ahead and laugh if you want. I've heard it all. Every pun and insult. Go ahead, try me."

"I don't want to insult you. I'm frankly too busy being impressed."

Mei smiled, "Impressed?"

"You know how many people can lie to a Shuli Go and get away with it? You're the first I've met."

"Yeah well lying is one thing I've had plenty of experience with..."

Lian truly was impressed. His entire body had changed along with his face. Gone was the woe-filled merchant with the halting spaces between sentences. Instead there was a trickster whose aura was pure nonchalance, even in the face of an interminable jail sentence. The weeping sweep of his lips were even mangled into a confident grin. Those lips...