Shen Xitang's fingertips brushed against the elm door threshold of the Three Judicial Offices, the light calluses on her palms shimmering with a pale bluish-white in the morning light.
Xiao Jingming stood beneath the drip-eaves, the hem of his dark official robe stained with the indigo traces of magnetic powder—hard iron proof discovered the previous night in a hidden compartment of the Ministry of Works treasury.
The gongs for the Mao hour had not yet sounded, yet the sedan chair of the Junior Vice Minister of Revenue was already parked beside the stone lions. A section of an ivory court tablet leaked through the gap in the sedan curtain, the malachite inlaid at its tip casting a cold, gloomy light in the morning mist.
Chapter 46