Doi and Hisashi go to the same school and talk to each other every night through Chi pulses but refuse to be seen together. Their father lives in the same city as they do but hasn’t seen them in years and walks right past his daughter when he visits the academy.
What is going on in this family?
The more I discover about Doi, the less I know. As much as I want to win in the fifth Motivation tomorrow, I don’t know if I can partner with her. How can I trust her?
There are things that I don’t understand about Hisashi, but I know in my heart that I can trust him because of his kindness to Cricket. Which is why I shouldn’t keep putting off asking him for help. Who knows when Suki will attack next? I need him to help me find where to buy red sorghum wine for Chingu to clear my name. I plan to talk to Hisashi tonight, at our private celebration in place of attending the Festival of Lanterns.
* * *
I leave my dormitory chamber to meet Hisashi with my Chi in an uncollected state. It’s not just because of the Motivation. All the other girls I come across are dressed in fine pearlsilks for the festival. The fashions are so strange. They all wear black or silver high-collared, sleeveless qipaos with embroidery that’s the same color as the fabric.
Out on the central path of the Principal Island, I pass Suki and the House of Flowering Blossoms girls. When they see my dress, they all burst into laughter.
“What is she wearing, a burlap tent?” says Suki. “And look at those flowers; they look like crumpled toilet paper.”
I refuse to look down at my dress with eyes colored by their hate. My mother worked a whole year to buy this cloth. This might be the last thing from her that I ever receive.
However, when I arrive at the entrance of the Temple of Heroes of Superlative Character, I’m glad that it’s so dark. I’m ashamed of my dress, and I’m ashamed that I’m ashamed.
I see the light of Hisashi’s dim little futon-side lantern approaching from the distance, and I quickly wipe my tears.
“You look beautiful, Peasprout,” he says. “Pink chrysanthemum is Doi’s favorite flower. Mine, too. How did you know?”
He means it. He’s not being kind. Good. I don’t want him to be kind. I want him to like how I look.
“I have a gift for you,” he says.
“Ah, and I have nothing for you.”
“You already gave me a gift by being here tonight. But you have to do what I say if you want the gift.”
We pass under the main archway into the round temple. I’ve never been inside it. There are braziers and candles lit throughout. It’s like stepping inside a great drum lined with fireflies. I hate the idea of Cricket having to leap off these steep walls at tomorrow’s Motivation. Maybe all the wasted time he’s spent carving the little sculpture of the temple will help him understand its structure so he can take advantage of it.
In the center, towering stories above us, stands the massive sculpted likeness of a man with his hand resting on the shoulder of a boy. At their feet is a plaque engraved with the words The Heroic Mu Haichen and Lim Tian-Tai.
My heart sinks. “You mean this temple is for them?”
I look closer at the statues looming before us. They are in fact likenesses of the eunuch and the boy.
“Why is there a temple honoring criminals?” I ask.
“Criminals. What did they teach you about the Great Leap back in Shin?”
“During the Zhang Dynasty, the vermillion emperor of Shin had his eunuch Mu Haichen organize two hundred million men to act as a human explosive. They jumped in unison on the central spine of the earth to trigger the impending great earthquake.”
“Did they teach you why he did that?”
“The eunuch wanted to schedule precisely when the earthquake would strike. The populace of Shin could be warned to be outside so they wouldn’t be killed when the structures came falling down.”
“And what did they teach you about the boy Lim Tian-Tai?”
“He was sent by his father, the leader of the city of Pearl, to stop the eunuch Mu Haichen because the tsunami that would surely follow the earthquake would destroy their entire island. The boy didn’t kill the eunuch when he had the chance, and the Great Leap destroyed both Shin and Pearl.”
“Ah, I see. You view it differently in Shin. That hadn’t occurred to me. Here in Pearl, we honor them as heroes. They couldn’t bear to kill each other because they came to see the nobleness in each other’s cause. They allowed the Great Leap to proceed.”
“But the tsunami destroyed your city!”
“Yes, but it also washed away the old wood and stone structures here. The city would never have been rebuilt so quickly out of the newly discovered pearl. That’s why they’re both cheered by everyone in Pearl as heroes. It’s a city built on the softness of their hearts.”
I feel ill. Sensei Madame Phoenix will probably fail our group project for defiling the names of heroes. She already hates me. I don’t really care about how I rank in literature, but when I think of how Sensei will humiliate me in front of everyone, and how furious those two girls will be with me, and how overjoyed Suki will be, and how there will probably be some Pearl Shining Sun headline accusing me of attacking the graves of heroes or something, I almost want to cry.
Hisashi looks at me with tenderness and says, “I see the sorrow in your face. I’m touched that you’re so moved by their story. But don’t grieve too much. If Mu Haichen and Lim
