“If you recommend him, Uncle, then there’s no question,” Sanmu said. “I’ll send for the man first thing tomorrow.”

Chapter 33

Minghua University left Shangtan a few days after the last bombing. Officially, six members of Minghua University were reported as missing, presumed killed, a list that included Liu Shaoming, Hu Lian, and Sparrow Chen. Professor Kang consoled himself in the secret knowledge that the three had already left town when the bombs fell. Perhaps by now they had reached Shanghai.

But there were three other young lives to mourn and the next leg of Minghua’s evacuation would be hard enough already without the memory of lost comrades weighing down upon them all. They were making the final push for Chengtu, more than a month of walking, the longest continuous journey they had ever faced. They would stop only to rest and sleep.

The professor, however, had another duty to fulfill and would not be with the main group. Colonel Chung, their liaison officer in Changsha, had loaned him a truck and driver. The purpose was to deliver the Library of Legends as quickly and safely as possible to the caves near Zunyi. Both Minghua University and the government were in complete agreement on this.

Riding up front beside the truck driver, Professor Kang decided he would not think of this as one of the saddest days of his life, the day he relinquished his last link to the celestial. Instead, he would remember this as the day he guaranteed the safety of a national treasure. He glanced behind him, where Old Fan, the laborer, and Bantien, the cook’s assistant, rode on the truck bed, steadying the stacked crates whenever the vehicle jolted out of a pothole.

The ride from Changsha to the caves near Zunyi, with an overnight stay at an inn, felt too short a journey to the professor. The truck pulled off the main road, tires grinding as they came off hard-packed earth and began scrabbling along a stony single-track road. Through the sparse undergrowth he caught glimpses of a creek. The professor hoped the gentle stream was all that remained of any water that eroded caverns into the limestone, that the caves no longer dripped with moisture.

“This isn’t a road,” the driver growled, shifting gears to climb uphill. “It’s barely a trail.”

“Please bring the truck as close as possible to the caves,” Professor Kang said. “The boxes are heavy.”

He ignored the driver’s muttered complaints as the truck lurched its way along. Another ten minutes and the driver stopped.

“This is as close as we can get to the caves,” he announced.

“You’ve done your best,” the professor said. “Thank you.”

The driver got out and lit a cigarette, idly standing by while the two servants carried the crates up to the cave entrance.