“Second-year literature students, please gather around,” Professor Kang said. His voice was soft, but they all hastened to obey. Kang cleared his throat, then recited what he had written.

Though rainfall bends the river-grass, a bird is singing,

While ghosts of the Six Dynasties pass like a dream

Around the Forbidden City, under weeping willows

Which loom for three miles along the misty moat.

“‘A Nanking Landscape’ by the Tang Dynasty poet Wei Zhuang,” he said. “Learn it by heart and consider its meaning. When you write your essays, remember the politics of his time.”

He put his arms through the ropes and shouldered the chalkboard. They continued their journey, the elderly professor walking in front of his students, the day’s lesson hanging down his back.

Chapter 7

Dispersed through the halls of Chuanjiao Monastery, Minghua 123 settled down to sleep. Professor Kang knew the students were distraught over the group’s first casualty, but at the moment he had another duty. He kept vigil on a bench outside the room where monks were wrapping Shen’s body. They would stay for a night at the monastery and hold a funeral for the graduate student.

He tried to read the book on his lap, Tales of the City Gods. While the Legends contained many tales of obscure deities, some long forgotten and no longer worshipped, City Gods did not fall into this sad category. Each city had its own much-venerated City God, the god who protected the city’s boundaries and all who lived within. City God temples were always busy, drifts of incense smoke rising to the murmur of prayers for the city’s prosperity, for the health and safety of its citizens. He turned the pages and found the story he was looking for, “The Nanking City God’s Wife.”

A doctor had an only child, a beautiful daughter. One night she dreamed she had been given in marriage to Nanking’s City God. In the morning the young woman told her family about the dream and they were frightened for her. When she died in her sleep that night, they knew the City God had claimed her as his wife. The good people of Nanking honored her with an altar in the rear hall of the City God’s temple.

He closed the book when the Star sat on the bench beside him. “We’ll leave right after the funeral service,” Professor Kang said. “Right now, the least I can do is show respect while the monks make preparations.”

“Why did Mr. Shen have to stop there?” she said. Her beautiful eyes were haunted and miserable. “If only he’d kept up with our group, he would’ve been safe. Even just another twenty feet closer and he would’ve been safe.”

“You can’t blame yourself,” the professor said. “Heaven charged you with protecting the Library of Legends. We merely follow in the shelter of its slipstream. Shen’s bad luck is not your fault.”