Chapter 37: One Lamp

The Recorder came down the river in a hired boat, and she was seasick. Mei saw her from the landing on the morning of the fourth and had to look away to keep her face straight. It was the same narrow boat with the same ragged mat sail and the same boatman, who still looked as if he'd been paid extra and regretted it, and sitting very straight in the middle of it with her writing box clutched in her lap and her face the color of old rice was Recorder Lin of the Bureau of the Unrecorded, Anping county. Beside her sat Song Lan in his gray robe and rust-red sash, holding the paper fan over her head, saying something low that made her close her eyes. "You're green," said Mei, when the boat bumped the steps. "I'm not green." "You're a little green," said Song Lan, kindly, and…