Dinner was a quiet affair, and as Wei Jintai and Sang settled down to sleep first, Chih pulled out some paper and their writing supplies, curled as close to the fire as they could get with a thin wooden board for a writing desk.

“What are you doing?” asked Lao Bingyi curiously.

“I’ve been letting my notes get away from me this trip,” Chih said with a rueful smile. “Almost Brilliant is amazing, but I cannot depend on her to hold everything for me.”

“Of course you can,” Almost Brilliant said scornfully. “Seventy neixin like me, and you could transport the whole of the Singing Hills archives across the world in a single flock.”

“You’re very good,” Chih said with a small smile. “I’m really just along to open doors and to make sure people notice you.”

Almost Brilliant chirped smugly, and Lao Bingyi leaned in without the least bit of self-consciousness to read what Chih was writing.

“Ha, you’re writing about The Cruel Wife of Master See, why in the world are you doing that?” she exclaimed.

Khanh, who was doing some stretching exercises by the edge of the fire, looked up in surprise.

“The Cruel Wife of Master See?” he asked. “They’re still performing it?”

“Well, that’s what the barber back in town said,” Chih replied, a little bit defensively. “He said that an actress named Crimson Bow and her company came through, and they were the ones performing it.”

“Oh, Crimson Bow from Fenghua,” said Lao Bingyi with a snort. “I can imagine how she played it too! Oooh, the winter wind howls and so does my heart for vengeance and for honor and of course for the millstone’s weight of the jewels I’m wearing while doing high kicks on stage!”

“I just can’t believe they’re still performing that old thing,” Khanh said, shaking his head. “Why don’t they get some new plays? They don’t have to go back over the old ones again and again. So boring.”

“Oh, my sleeves are heavy with my tears for I cannot stop making every bad decision I can find, and I cannot choose between a decent man and one who corrupted his own core for power and glory!”

“That barber wasn’t much better than a sheep shearer. Couldn’t get my hair even for ages, and at the end I think he was just snipping air to shut me up. You’re lucky you just went to him for a shaved head, cleric. Hard to mess that one up.”

“Oh no, here comes a mammoth! How did we get a mammoth in the riverlands? Who knows, but now it is trampling everyone flat, too bad, so sad!”