Chapter 356: The Changed Routine

Mei Lanhua — Unknown Location.

The cart began arriving with her meals.

For a while, the wheels had passed her door before the guards brought the tray. She would hear the familiar catch, the harder push that followed, then the heavy door farther along the passage. By the time her hatch opened, it had shut again.

Now she sometimes heard the bowl rattle on the tray while the wheels were still approaching. The hatch opened. The guard waited with her food, and the cart rolled past before he slid the tray toward her.

It happened again at another meal, then again. Mei listened for the wheel catching each time.

Both guards still came. One held the tray. The other stood behind him, his feet angled along the passage. There were more footsteps during the deliveries, but she couldn’t tell how many people made them. A voice would call from farther away and someone nearby would answer.

She had only the narrow view beside the guard: boots, stone, a wheel passing, once the lower corner of a crate. The heavy door opened beyond her sight. She heard it close before the other footsteps faded.

She wanted to see it while it was open.

She had stopped making the guard wait for his tray. With two of them watching, she took her bowl as soon as it reached her. The deliveries had given her a few moments without having to delay anything herself. Still, the guard stood between her and the door.

At the next meal that came with the cart, she knelt and reached for the bowl. The guard rested the tray on the outer edge of the hatch. Most of it was still on his side.

The wheels caught. Someone pushed, and they began moving again.

Mei put both hands around the bowl. Heat came through the clay into her fingers. She lifted the rim nearest her, letting the far rim dip while the bowl was still over the tray.

Soup ran outward, across the tray and over its edge.

The guard pulled back. Mei let go before he could drag her hands against the hatch.

"Hold the cart."

The wheels stopped. The second guard’s boots turned toward her door and stayed there.

"Hands back."

She laid them on her knees.

The first guard set the tray down and reached for a cloth. When he crouched, a strip of passage opened beside his shoulder. Mei leaned enough to look through it.

The heavy door stood open farther along. Its edge, part of the frame, and a patch of floor beyond were visible. The light there was paler than the light in her room. A shadow crossed it, then another. She couldn’t see what cast them.

The guard shifted and blocked the frame. She kept her hands still.

"What’s holding you?" someone called.

"Meal spilled."

A pause, then: "Leave the cart. Carry the rest through."

Footsteps passed the hatch. The first guard stood with the wet cloth in one hand and the tray in the other.

"Wait."

The hatch shut.

Mei stayed on her knees. She heard people going back and forth, but the wheels didn’t move with them. The heavy door closed before the cart rolled again.

When the hatch reopened, both guards were there. Her bowl had been refilled. She took it carefully, and the tray withdrew as soon as she had its weight.

She sat with the bowl in her lap until the clay stopped warming her fingers. She had seen the door. She had also heard the order that kept the cart still while the footsteps continued past her room.

She ate before the soup went cold.

When she looked up, the high window was unchanged. She tried to remember the light beyond the doorway, but the shadows had crossed too quickly. The shape of the frame was clearer. She held on to that.

Unknown Location — the receiving desk.

The cart’s arrival was already entered. The clerk added the time unloading had finished and filled in the space beside it.

Delay in passage. Meal spilled at captive’s hatch. Cart held while remaining load was carried through by hand.

The supervisor read the entry. The guard stood beside the desk with the folded cloth still in his hand.

"Was it thrown?"

"Tipped. She had her hands on the bowl."

"Both of you there?"

"Yes."

The supervisor left the incident entry as it was and drew the handling sheet toward him.

"Keep the carts at the outer receiving threshold. Carry the loads through from there. I don’t want another one held in that passage."

The clerk waited while he wrote the instruction beneath the existing entries.

Incoming carts stop at the outer receiving threshold. Loads carried onward in batches. No freight movement during meal handoffs. Meals follow completion of unloading and closure of the passage door.

The delivery representative read the addition.

"From the next load?"

"From the next load."

He signed beside it. The clerk entered the handling-sheet reference against the delayed receipt, copied the instruction onto a separate sheet, and placed it with the representative’s return paperwork.

"Both guards at the hatch," the supervisor told the guard. "That stays."

Mei Lanhua — Unknown Location.

At the next delivery, Mei waited for the wheel to catch.

It didn’t.

The rolling stopped farther away. She heard a voice, then footsteps approaching along the passage. They passed her room and returned. More followed. The heavy door remained open through several trips; she could hear voices carry until it shut.

Only afterward did the guards bring her meal.

She took the bowl. The tray came away at once. The nearer guard blocked her view, and the second pair of boots was still behind him when the hatch closed.

She listened over her food, waiting for the cart to come past. There were a few more sounds farther away, then nothing she could make out.

At another delivery she pressed her ear to the wall beside the bed. Again the wheels stopped before the familiar jolt. Footsteps came and went without them. She counted the trips until she lost one beneath a voice, then started again.

The count was different. The order was the same: wheels stopping at a distance, repeated footsteps, the heavy door shutting, her meal.

She couldn’t see the loads or tell who carried them. She didn’t know why the cart had stopped coming down the passage. But she had heard someone order the rest carried through after her spill, and now the wheels waited while people passed her room.

She had lost the chance to look out during a delivery. Both guards still watched the handoff, and neither lingered once she took the bowl. Tipping it again would give them a reason to change that too.

She turned the empty bowl in her hands, then set it beside the basin.

There was still the interval before her meal. She could hear it from the bed or the hatch, could follow the footsteps without waiting for anyone to open her door. She listened through another delivery. This time the pause was longer, but the cart still stayed back while people went along the passage.

When the wheels next approached, Mei was already kneeling by the hatch. She leaned toward the narrow seam and listened for them to stop.