Chapter Summaries

The chapter examined how reckless decisions and political suspicion caused disasters, comparing the Battle of Changping and the Soulstealers case. It ended with Nick choosing not to pursue the kid who had beaten him and leaving with the panicked crowd while still needing to discover who had put a note in his room.

• King Min of Qi refused Zhao's envoys' request for grain, forcing Zhao to abandon Lian Po's defensive strategy and appoint Zhao Kuo.
• Zhao Kuo pursued Bai Qi's retreating Qin forces into an ambush, where Zhao's army was trapped.
• Wu Shaoshi avoided pursuing the Soulstealers rumor, while Wu Tan fabricated the arrest of seventy monks under pressure from Qianlong.
• Aisin Gioro Hongli promoted Wu Shaoshi to Minister of Punishments but placed Wu Tan on the punishment list, later pardoning him.
• Nick decided not to follow the kid who had beaten him and left with the panicked crowd, intending to first investigate the note in his room.

Nick disguised himself as a Chinese scholar and was pulled by Howqua into a lavish birthday banquet, where he struggled with unfamiliar foods and reflected on finding a place to return to. Howqua mistook Nick’s newly bought bronze mirror for a gift and placed it among the host’s valuables.

• Nick disguised himself in Chinese scholar’s clothing and walked through Guangzhou at night.
• Howqua recognized Nick by his boots and brought him into a household banquet celebrating Mazu’s birthday and a child’s first birthday.
• Howqua introduced Nick to the host, who seated him at the lavish feast and offered him an array of unfamiliar dishes.
• Nick nearly lost his composure when he learned that a dish contained earthworms, then cautiously drank soup after checking its ingredients.
• Nick reflected on the Hexagrams of Return and the Marrying Maiden, and wondered where he could return.
• Howqua placed Nick’s newly purchased bronze mirror among the silver sycees, believing Nick had brought it as a gift.

Nick attended a gathering at a Guangzhou merchant’s home, where the guests tested him with a question about Empress Xiao and the fabricated “Ten Fragrances Poem.” After the conversation stayed polite and inconclusive, Nick left for the hospital carrying a lantern.

• The host gave Nick cloth shoes, and Nick went with Howqua to the reception hall.
• The merchants questioned Nick about Empress Xiao and the “Ten Fragrances Poem,” prompting an account of how Yelü Yixin’s faction fabricated it to frame Xiao Guanyin and Zhao Weiyi.
• Nick considered why the merchants had asked the question, but the guests remained composed and discussed no substantive business.
• The questioner revealed that the poem had been an examination question he once failed, and the host invited Nick to visit again.
• Nick thanked the host, left the reception hall, and walked back to the hospital with a servant’s lantern.

Nick evaded Cao Xi’s search by hiding with the provincial graduate, then planned his escape from China and decided he had to return to the hospital for his map. He left the graduate’s house at midnight, leaving him three hundred silver dollars.

• Nick met the provincial graduate near the hospital and saw Cao Xi searching for suspicious foreigners.
• Nick asked the provincial graduate to hide him, and the two went to his rundown residence.
• Nick considered the trade routes out of China and concluded that fleeing to Southeast Asia was his best option, but he needed to retrieve his map from the hospital.
• Nick left three hundred silver dollars for the sleeping provincial graduate and slipped out of the house.

Bonaparte explained to Georgiana how controlling waterways and supply routes could threaten Beijing, while they discussed coastal defenses and the Qing court. Nick returned to the hospital, was ambushed and drugged, and was carried away by boat from Guangzhou.

• Bonaparte used a map of the Qing Empire to explain how controlling Tianjin and Tongzhou could cut off grain supplies to Beijing.
• Bonaparte and Georgiana discussed coastal defenses, supply lines, and how the Qing court’s policies undermined trust between the army and local people.
• Nick returned to the hospital at night and avoided an ambusher who attacked him in his room.
• Nick surrendered when he realized he could not defeat his attackers, and they drugged him with a substance from a porcelain bottle.
• Nick’s captors covered him with a burlap sack, took him by boat along the river, and left him unconscious as the boat seemed to depart Guangzhou.

Nick reflected on Chinese scripts, Qing trade, and the history of Russia’s expansion before his kidnappers brought him to a jungle island. There, a pale man who drank chicken blood questioned Nick about his mission and threatened to use him as medicine if he lied.

• Nick considered how Song typeface resembled the writing on the lotus note and recalled the fall of the Northern Song dynasty.
• Nick reasoned that the East India Company had sent him to survey China because of inaccurate maps and his ability to travel there.
• Nick’s kidnappers carried him by boat to a jungle-covered island and took him to a courtyard where armed men practiced drills.
• The pale man killed a rooster and drank its blood, explaining that he needed it as a remedy after being bitten by Homan Grass.
• The skinny man threatened Nick, and the tall man began questioning him after Nick agreed to answer honestly.

Georgiana and Bonaparte discussed the truthfulness of Nick Polo’s story before the book followed Nick as he considered escaping from captivity on an island. After discovering the island’s captors tormenting prisoners for amusement, Nick decided the cave was safer than approaching them.

• Georgiana argued with Bonaparte that a story should tell the truth, then discussed Nick Polo and the Elixir of Life with him.
• Nick ate the food left outside his cave, drank from a nearby spring, and reflected on his travels and strained relationship with his father.
• Nick explored the island, concluded that heading west could take him to the mainland, and planned to find supplies or build a raft.
• Nick used his Spanish folding knife to search for useful materials but heard a commotion and followed it.
• Nick saw people in Ryukyu clothing force two men into a cruel queue-tugging contest, then cut off the loser’s queue.
• Nick hid in the bushes and decided to return to the cave rather than approach the camp.

Nick, imprisoned in a cave on a pirate island, tried to work out the island’s location so he could send a message in a bottle and be rescued. As night fell, he drank alone and drew Guanyin on the cave wall, while Georgiana and Bonaparte discussed his chances of escape.

• Nick searched a crate for gunpowder but found only rum, then decided to write a plea for help and send it in a bottle.
• Nick used the sun’s position, a rock’s shadow, and the date of Mazu’s birthday to estimate the island’s location, covering the cave wall with formulas.
• Bonaparte explained Nick’s approach to Georgiana, who doubted he could calculate the coordinates accurately enough to escape.
• Nick asked the woman who brought his dinner for a lamp, but she ignored him and left.
• Nick drank rum alone, then drew Guanyin on the cave wall and wondered who the figure represented to him.

Georgiana read accounts of strange events and the Changji Mutiny in Xinjiang, where a garrison officer’s misconduct sparked a settlers’ revolt and He Erxi died trying to stop it. After the rebels were defeated and strange reports followed, Ji Xiaolan faced a new mystery in Changji: someone had dug up a woman’s embroidered shoe.

• The account described Ji Xiaolan’s experiences in Xinjiang, including a horse that kept the lunar calendar and a clerk’s dream about a dead soldier named Bala.
• A garrison officer’s drunken harassment of settlers’ female relatives provoked an uprising that captured Changji, and He Erxi died fighting the rebels.
• Wen Fu gave command to Liu De, whose troops used muskets and the terrain to defeat the rebel cavalry.
• The captured rebels were executed west of Ürümqi, where black vapor later appeared; Ji Xiaolan’s men dispelled it with musket fire and caught an upright-walking lizard.
• Georgiana discussed the battle with Bonaparte as she read, then the account introduced a new Changji incident: someone had dug up a woman’s embroidered shoe.

The account described Lin Yuhua surviving exile in Xinjiang and returning to confront those who had wronged him, then recounted Ji Xiaolan’s investigation of a suspicious Daoist priest and a mysterious embroidered shoe. As Georgiana read, she connected the shoe to sandals in the Louvre and wondered whether the strange objects and vanished girls were linked.

• Lin Yuhua survived hard labor in Xinjiang after Ji Yun’s former clerk moved him out of the labor camp, and he later wrote a poem threatening those who had harmed him.
• Workers unearthed a tiny red embroidered shoe beneath Changji while digging soil for the city walls, raising questions about its age and owner.
• A hotel waiter reported that a Daoist priest’s two female companions repeatedly vanished from his room, and Ji Xiaolan and Chen Tiqiao questioned him about suspected sorcery and trafficking.
• Ji Xiaolan and Chen Tiqiao found the priest’s ordination certificate and sent him back to the interior, while construction at Changji continued.
• Georgiana associated the embroidered shoe with Nefertari’s sandals in the Louvre and told Bonaparte, “Two shoes, two girls.”

The chapter explained Fujian’s grain shortage, the risks of relying on Siamese rice, and how corruption undermined famine relief. It also recounted Lin Yuhua’s persecution and the provincial graduate’s misfortunes, leaving him reflecting on his bad luck and advising Nick about a classical phrase.

• The chapter described how population growth, crop choices, smuggling, and war left Fujian dependent on uncertain rice imports from Siam.
• Fujian suffered a severe drought in the forty-fifth year of Qianlong, and the provincial administration commissioner ordered people to sell grain into the Ever-Normal Granaries despite soaring prices.
• Lin Yuhua exposed abuses surrounding the granaries and later mocked corrupt officials involved in a deadly clan feud, after which he was falsely accused and exiled to Ürümqi.
• Qianlong demoted Xilin Gioro E'bao for urging a ceasefire, and Funihan replaced him before E'ning later became governor of Fujian.
• The provincial graduate returned to Fujian without a clerk's post, then lost both parents and compared his misfortunes with He Shen’s success.
• The provincial graduate told Nick how to understand the character bi in a line about fate and sorrow.

Georgiana and Bonaparte discussed Siam’s trade networks and the decline of Dutch influence. Nick was taken aboard Guo Xuexian’s ship, where Guo revealed he had sought Nick for his painting and asked him to draw a sketch as payment.

• Georgiana read about Siam’s trade, Chinese merchants, and the Dutch East India Company’s retreat while Bonaparte listened.
• Nick woke in a cave and followed the red-cloaked man to the shore, where Guo Xuexian was waiting.
• Guo Xuexian invited Nick onto his ship and brought him to a cabin filled with books and navigational instruments.
• Nick challenged Guo’s claim to be a Qing scholar, and Guo explained that Nick’s appearance and painting had identified him as the painter he sought.
• Guo handed Nick blank paper and asked him to draw a sketch as his fare.

The chapter recounts Chen Hongmou’s education and reforms in Yunnan, the history of Prince Li’s Residence and Wu Sangui’s Prince of Pingxi’s Residence, and the licentiate’s decision not to return after mourning. Nick is left alone in a remote place, wondering how he incurred a debt of one life.

• Chen Hongmou overcame an early examination failure with Yang Jiaxiu’s guidance and later became a county student and stipend student.
• The chapter explained how Hong Xi lived at Prince Li’s Residence, endured daily court attendance, and was later stripped of his title by Qianlong.
• Chen Hongmou attracted merchants to Yunnan’s copper mines, greatly increasing production and ending reliance on Japanese copper.
• The licentiate returned home to observe mourning and did not come back, while Guo Xuexian understood why he had chosen another path.
• Guo Xuexian’s men left Nick at a remote place with a few copper coins, and Nick recalled that he still owed two-thirds of a life and wondered how he had incurred the debt.

Nick searched for the provincial graduate and found him staying at Dharma Nature Temple. The graduate expected the pirates to release him eventually, and Nick carried him off in delight.

• Nick returned to the abandoned house and found a letter saying the provincial graduate was waiting at Dharma Nature Temple until April 1.
• Nick went to Dharma Nature Temple and was led by a monk to the provincial graduate's meditation room.
• The provincial graduate told Nick that the pirates would eventually release him because they could not make him become a pirate.
• Nick lifted the thin old man off the ground and spun around with him.

Georgiana challenged Bonaparte over the violence and injustices produced by political order, then read to him about Nick’s efforts to evade suspicion in China. The chapter left Nick disguised as a local and asleep at a monastery, still uncertain whom he could trust.

• Georgiana quoted Rousseau’s condemnation of oppression and war, prompting Bonaparte to question her and pace restlessly.
• Georgiana discussed naturalists and recalled the mischief of students at her magic school before Bonaparte decided they would stay the night and leave the next day.
• Georgiana read how the Provincial Graduate questioned Nick about a mysterious note and Nick suspected Cao Xi wanted to harm him over his fiancée.
• The Provincial Graduate fed Nick, arranged lodging, and asked whether he would shave his head to look more local.
• Nick returned to his room after evening prayers and fell asleep without asking the Provincial Graduate whom he had killed.

Nick experienced a strange nighttime vision in which a monk warned him about demons disguised as humans, then learned that the tale resembled stories in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio and heard the provincial graduate explain the history of Skinning Temple. The chapter then shifted to Bonaparte and Georgiana discussing divination and Nagini, leaving Georgiana worried about the snake Voldemort used to make a Horcrux.

• Nick heard a xiao flute at night and saw a beautiful woman playing beneath a wisteria tree while a monk told him stories about the stars, the White Snake, and a demon who killed a scholar.
• The woman changed into Wan Ning, but the monk and the woman vanished; Nick woke in the meditation chamber at dawn and found the courtyard bodhi tree unchanged.
• Nick told the provincial graduate about the vision, and the graduate showed him Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio and identified the story of the scholar from Taiyuan as 'The Painted Skin.'
• The provincial graduate connected the tale to Skinning Temple and described how Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di used human-skinning punishments on officials.
• Bonaparte dismissed Georgiana's concern about a divination ritual, while Georgiana thought of Nagini and hoped she had not become Voldemort's Horcrux snake.

Nick left Dharma Nature Temple under the name Pingxi and was carried to the commander's residence, where Cao Xi brought him to meet the worried commander. He entered the meeting apprehensively, warned not to accuse Cao Xi, and prepared to pose as a Chinese scholar while awaiting word from his friends in France.

• Nick examined the Guanyin and Maitreya statues at Dharma Nature Temple as the sedan chair arrived.
• Nick rode in the sedan chair to the commander's residence, uneasy about the crowds and the bearers' behavior.
• The provincial graduate warned Nick not to accuse Cao Xi, the commander's prospective son-in-law, and told him to answer only what he was asked.
• Nick recalled that he had left his friends in France instructions to seek him at Dharma Nature Temple if they heard nothing from him.
• Nick adopted the Chinese name Pingxi and entered the commander's reception hall, where Cao Xi led him to the worried commander.

Nick recited the scholar’s prepared testimony to the provincial commander, who considered whether the pirates had used a diversion to draw troops away from Guangzhou. The commander sent Nick to stay under guard in the military camp while he and Cao Xi dealt with the death of General Liu and the possible rebel list.

• The scholar prepared Nick to explain the note as part of a fabricated testimony, and Nick slowly delivered it before Cao Xi and the provincial commander.
• The provincial commander asked whether the pirates had feinted east and struck west, then questioned Nick about foreign involvement and the explosion at a Guangzhou flour shop.
• Nick urged mercy for the island’s villagers, while Cao Xi called them ignorant people misled by charlatans.
• The provincial commander dismissed Nick and the scholar, told Cao Xi to arrange lodging for the scholar, and raised the question of General Liu’s death.
• Cao Xi escorted Nick to a guarded residence in the military camp, where a kapok tree stood covered in red blossoms.

Nick toured the Guangzhou Examination Compound and sketched what he saw, while Georgiana and Bonaparte debated military violence, mercy, and the fate of soldiers and islanders as they read a story together. Bonaparte continued reading despite Georgiana’s wish for a simple love story.

• Nick learned the palace examination procedures from his licentiate teacher’s account and toured the Guangzhou Examination Compound with a soldier escort.
• Nick examined the examination cells and watchtowers, then returned to the residence and drew the scene that had impressed him.
• Georgiana and Bonaparte discussed Salem, pirates, and whether the Admiral had been right to divert soldiers to defend Guangzhou.
• Georgiana argued that fear and killing would provoke rebellion and leave children traumatized, while Bonaparte challenged her concerns about mercy and politics.
• Georgiana asked for a simple love story, and Bonaparte laughed, took the book, and began reading aloud.

Georgiana read Bonaparte a historical account of Wanli Emperor’s withdrawn edict, Ming and Qing tax policies, and the rise of the gentry. Their discussion ended with Georgiana urging Bonaparte to keep his word, while the mysterious note in Nick’s room remained unexplained.

• The account described how Wanli Emperor issued an edict abolishing mining taxes and other measures while gravely ill, then recovered and withdrew the tax abolition.
• Wanli Emperor carried out most of the edict, but kept the mining taxes, while the account traced how the Single Whip Law changed local administration and strengthened the gentry.
• The account outlined later Qing tax policies and edict succession practices before Georgiana laughed at Qianlong’s censorship of plays as Bonaparte read aloud.
• Cao Xi returned Nick’s sketchbooks and books after inspecting them, but neither he nor Nick understood how the note had appeared in Nick’s room.
• Georgiana told Bonaparte that integrity mattered and that he could not be like Wanli Emperor; Bonaparte dismissed belief in divine intervention, then refilled her wine as she continued reading.