The Longest Day in Chang'an: Fire-Letter on the Jingan Department's Clepsydra

You walk forward in the shadow of the ward wall, the drumbeats one breath ahead of the Jingan Department's hour. The fire-letter Tan Qi just pressed into your hand is still warm, charcoal lining up ward names on its back — yet the first fire site lies furthest from the crowd. Lantern frames rise in the distance. Li Bi's courier catches up: 'The clepsydra has been changed.' At the ward gate, in the lantern shadow, someone slips a second fire-letter into the sleeve of a lantern peddler.