Chapter 23 · Survival Menu - Chapter 23: Nobody's Clean in This Kitchen

The kitchen's already half empty when I get there at dawn.

Nanny Liu's voice cuts through the cold air before I even cross the threshold. "Line up. Every single one of you. Hands where I can see them."

I slip in behind Cicada. She's shaking so hard I can feel it without touching her. Her eyes are red. She didn't sleep.

Neither did I.

The guards are everywhere. Not kitchen guards—palace guards. The kind with actual swords and actual orders to use them. They're turning over clay jars, dumping out flour sacks, pulling down every hanging herb bundle. White powder covers the floor like snow.

Matron Bai stands near the side door with her arms folded. She's not shaking. She's not even sweating.

That's the first thing that's wrong.

"Yesterday's incident," Nanny Liu says, and her voice is stripped down to nothing, "has been escalated. The Dowager Empress herself has ordered a full investigation. If anyone here knows anything about foreign spices, contaminated stores, or—" She stops. Swallows. "—deliberate harm, speak now."

No one speaks.

Cicada's breathing too fast. I touch her wrist. Just once. She stills a little.

The captain of the guards steps forward.