As the misty harbor waters receded layer by layer, the pillars of a broken bridge emerged. One pillar bore a contract that forbade speech; another bore one that demanded it. The two contracts faced each other across the pillar. Each time they collided, the pillar cracked.
Jiang Zhaoying, bridge guard of the Bridge Office, sealed the harbor with thirty-two guards and drove more than three hundred people into the mist, making them kneel in a row. She opened a ledger and read aloud, "The entire territory of Wuyao is registered for clearing."
Everyone in town knew what "registered for clearing" meant. The last place to be registered had been Jinlu Island. Now, all that remained in the sky was a fragment of a bridge.
Jiang Zhaoying turned to the seventh page and ordered them to bring A Yao over. She was the only pillar missing from the Tenth Bridge in all of Wuyao. By the corridor master's order, she was to be taken.
Kneeling on the rubble, Luo Changming rose to his feet. "Wait. Her name is A Yao. If you're going to use her as a pillar, you have to ask her first."
"People listed in the ledger don't get to decide," said Jiang Zhaoying.
"Would it kill you to ask her just once today?" Luo Changming said. He asked if the ledger had a clause allowing someone to take another's place. "I'll take her place."
Jiang Zhaoying turned to the last page and read, "A substitute is entered in the ledger; the person they replace is removed. They may not be taken again."
The more than three hundred people in the mist heard every word.
She dropped the two contracts into his palm, one hot, one cold.
Luo Changming closed both hands at once. The left contract drove into the left side of his body, forbidding him to speak. The right contract drove in at the same time, compelling him to speak.
Silence and speech collided inside his bones. Blood ran from his nose and welled at the corner of his mouth, but he didn't retreat a single step.
Jiang Zhaoying stepped back. "Let go, and you can live."
"Not one of the more than three hundred people in this harbor is leaving with you," he said, loud enough for the whole shore to hear.
The cracks in the pillar stopped spreading. He raised his head, his mouth full of blood.
And the two contracts on his body had only just begun to devour him.
