Chapter 31: The Blue Book

On the first of the fifth month, with the water a finger under the eighth line and four days left, Mei took the jar of good wine out from under the stove. It was Lord Bei's wine. The apricot wine, pale gold, from the banquet under the bank. She'd been saving it. She didn't know what for. She'd poured Liulang's cup every night from the bucket wine and kept the last jar sealed under the stove with its red paper on, like money you don't spend. "East bend," she said to Fish. "Below the reeds." He looked at the jar in her hands, and then at her face. "You're going to call him." "He said if I needed him. Drunk or sober. Day or night. On his shell." She tucked the jar under her arm. "I need him. I've been letting everybody not tell me things for a month, Fish."…