“A week ago, I was a university student,” he said. “Now a fugitive. All because of some misguided impulse to help Lian.” He said this jokingly.

“You’re doing this because it was the right thing to do,” she said. “Miss Hu was truly in danger and so is Yee Meirong. And you’re worried about your mother.”

Sparrow put her head out the truck to look up again. Shao looked out too. Overhead, a quarter moon glowed behind a thin haze of cloud that obscured all but the brightest stars.

TEN BONE-JOLTING HOURS later, the skies still the muted gray of early morning, the truck let them off outside Kian, a town set in a river valley. The provisions in Sparrow’s rucksack would see them through the next few days and they wanted to avoid the town, so they set out immediately toward the hills, which were dense with pines and alders.

“This road winds between the hills,” Shao said, squinting at a map. “If we walk at night, we can avoid Japanese airplanes and just as importantly, our own soldiers.”

When they traveled with Minghua 123, they had taken major roads that passed through towns and large temples, places with enough room to accommodate a large group. Now he searched the map for less-traveled roads to take them away from Kian, roads where they would meet fewer people. As the sun rose higher, they spied plumes of smoke rising from distant ridges.

“Charcoal burners,” Sparrow said when Lian pointed at the smoke.

They were encountering refugees on the road now, a bedraggled stream leaving Kian. Some stared at them, but without any curiosity. Most didn’t bother giving them more than a glance, too tired to do more than put one foot ahead of the other.

“How are you today, Granny?” Sparrow asked an elderly woman. She rode on a handbarrow piled high with sacks and wooden chairs. The man pushing it was bent with age.

The old woman squinted. “It’s a good day. It’s his turn to push.”

She burst out laughing and her husband chortled with mirth. The two looked at each other fondly. Shao couldn’t help smiling. What did it feel like to love someone for decades, as this couple still did?

Sparrow continued walking ahead of them, chatting every so often with some of the travelers. She paused at the side of the road and waited for Shao and Lian to catch up.

“We’ll be safer walking at night,” Sparrow said, “and we must avoid villages between here and Foochow. Apparently, the army is sweeping through, conscripting soldiers. The only men on the road are either very old or still quite young, have you noticed?”

“Then we need a place to hide and rest during the day,” Shao said. He’d never felt so tired.

“We’ll find something along the way,” Sparrow said. She sounded very certain.