“We’ll be safe here,” Sparrow said. She had a quiet voice, but Lian heard it very clearly despite the approaching rumble. It was sweetly pitched and cut through the throb of engines. It was the voice of someone Lian felt she could trust.

“Into the ditch, please,” Shao said, as calmly as if they were entering a classroom.

Obediently she rolled into the trench. Farther along, Meirong was already crouched in the ditch beside some other students. They all sat with knees tucked, faces turned to the sky. Shao flashed Lian his bright smile again. She stifled a gulp and told herself her heart was racing because of the advancing Japanese airplane. Even though his uniform was covered in dust, it was evident that Shao’s jacket was beautifully tailored. Cuffs of fine, cream-colored wool cloth peeped out from the jacket’s sleeves. He radiated wealth and confidence. As if he were only sitting in the trench to keep her company. As if tragedy had never touched him and never would.

Everyone had fallen silent, as if they could hide behind silence. The reverberating drone had turned into a roar. Lian squeezed her eyes shut at the sharp, rapid reports that could’ve been strings of firecrackers going off. But these were not the cheerful percussive snaps heard throughout the streets during New Year festivities. These were menacing and purposeful.

Then it stopped. The sound of engines faded slowly, too slowly. And then the skies were quiet. Lian opened her eyes as voices called out, the shouts of families trying to find each other.

“Thank you for getting me off the road,” she said, turning to Shao and Sparrow.

But Shao was already out of the ditch, jogging across the field toward the road. Sparrow had also climbed up and put a hand down to help Lian. She was slightly shorter, slightly thinner than Lian. In that moment, Sparrow looked almost pretty, her eyes bright, cheeks flushed pink from excitement. Lian wondered if anyone ever looked past the servant to see the girl.

Did Shao ever look?

Sparrow scrambled up the embankment and onto the road. Meirong was already there, waving at Lian to join her. Sparrow bent down to help an old woman collect food that had fallen out of a basket. She picked up some cabbages and turned to put them in the old woman’s basket. Clouds drifted across the horizon, momentarily dimming the early morning light.

And for a moment, instead of Sparrow’s waifish features, Lian saw an exquisitely beautiful young woman. A woman whose figure gleamed with a faint and barely perceptible glow. Something prickled at the back of Lian’s memory, something from a dream. Then the layer of cloud shifted, and sunrise once again flooded the landscape. Lian blinked and all she saw was Sparrow, continuing up the road to join the rest of Minghua 123.

A perfectly ordinary servant girl. Who was running as if something terrible had happened.