Chapter 34: The Plan

Auntie Tang came down the steps with her almanac, and it was the second. It was the big one, the red-bound one she kept on the shelf behind the kettle and used for weddings and funerals and the opening of shops. She was carrying it in both arms like a baby, and she had her matchmaking face on, the one she'd worn for Qiao Shen, and she stopped at the bottom of the landing and took in Mei, sitting in the stern with her eyes swollen, and Fish, sitting in the bow with his back to her, and the three paces of empty boards between them. "I heard," said Auntie Tang. "Everybody heard. The egg woman said you were shouting at Two Pines." "We were not..." "So I looked it up." Auntie Tang opened the almanac on the bottom step with a thump. "For when you've made it up. Lucky…