"She didn't really mean it."
"She told me she'd turn me into a mouse if I let you anywhere near the garden," Wu said. "I don't know for certain that she can actually do this, but I'm not prepared to risk finding out. Are you?"
Wen shook his head. "And I thought we were getting along so well. Sometimes I really do speak too quickly."
"Without thinking."
"Yes," said Wen, wishing Wu hadn't put it quite that way.
"Paying no heed to what others might —"
"I said Yes, Wu. You don't have to pound it into me."
"Oh? Because Lady Fengzi said you were as dense as a moon-cake, and nowhere near as sweet —"
"Lady Fengzi is speaking without thinking too, you know." I hope so, at any rate.
Wen stood up. Bowing, he said, "I appreciate your hospitality, Wu. Thank you. And please look after her. I'm likely to be gone for a while, if I really do have to sneak into Jīn-sè Mèn to find the Meiyou treasure. I have left instructions with Pocapetl to see that her expenses are paid from the silver I have on deposit with him."
"That was unnecessary," Wu said. "I consider her an honored guest so long as she is prepared to put up with my meager hospitality as she studies. As for this journey of yours, are you sure you're being wise?" Wu asked. "This treasure, if it's as valuable as you think, is going to be heavily guarded. Why in the world would you want to go after it on your own?"
"I wouldn't," Wen said, "if my crew were prepared to follow me. But their ambition evidently is considerably less than mine."
"Could it be that they simply have a better appreciation of the risk you're running?"
"I need the money that treasure represents, Wu. Once I get it, I can free my father from his curse, and then settle down and live a retired life, like the one you lead. Anyway, the risk is considerably less for a single man than it would be for my ship and her crew."
"I wish you would reconsider." Wu paused a moment, evidently weighing a decision. "I learned something yesterday, Wen. I freely admit I was not sure whether or not I should tell you, or even whether or not you'd find it interesting. But I will tell you now, in the hope that it might persuade you to change your mind."
"That's not likely." Wen waited. "So? What is it?"
"Two days ago a sailor was brought to Blind Pei's home, delirious with fever. He will, I believe, recover eventually—Pei is a brilliant pharmacologist—but for now he is being kept well hidden. This is not so much because of who he is as it is of where he's from." Wu had begun pacing as he spoke, but now he turned and looked directly at Wen. "The man is from Fujian province, Wen."
"So? I'm from Hebei province myself."
"I wasn't referring to his family. This man was born in Fujian." Wen got to his feet, staring at Wu. "He was apparently a pirate with a group of wokou operating from one of the southern islands. He was captured by a race of barbarians called Spaniards, who are building an empire in the southern islands that I am told extends all the way to the continent to the south of Fusang. These Spaniards may prove very dangerous."
"But what of the homeland?" Wen asked.
"That is what I wondered about telling you," Wu said, smiling. "I see now that I was mistaken in not summoning you immediately." He walked up to Wen. "The Ming are gone, Wen Xia. Their dynasty lost the mandate of heaven thirty years ago. They were conquered by a northern people who call themselves Manchu."
Now this was exciting news. "And this new government: it has rejected all of the tenets of the Ming?"
"Not that I know of. The Manchu are northerners and wild, I am told, but they are not barbarians. This sailor says that there are changes in the way men wear their hair, and more women bind their feet, but not much else is different."
Wen felt his interest collapse like a deflating blowfish. "In that case, you were right the first time: you could have spared me the news."
"It doesn't interest you? Wen, the government here has to know about this. That they're keeping the news secret from the people can only mean that they themselves believe that they have lost the mandate of heaven. They could be toppled easily, by someone like the Notorious Wen."
"I am not interested in replacing Prince Zhu Yizan," Wen said, "if the result is going to be another emperor. I have no desire to be a Manchu of Fusang."
"Then don't be!" Wu was pacing again. "Do you think you're the only one, Wen, who feels bound up by the way we live? How many people do you honestly believe are content to have every aspect of their lives dictated to them by some nasty old man who died over a thousand years ago?"
"Probably most of them." Wen walked to the doorway. "I am sorry if I disappoint you, Wu, but I am no rebel. I just want to be left alone to get rich and go north, to retire where the days are occasionally different from one another and it even rains sometimes."
From somewhere above the house came something that sounded suspiciously like mocking laughter.
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