The Moonrise Market had one rule that every stallholder knew. Nothing was sold until it was weighed, and every scale in the market answered to the Measure House.
月升集市有一条每个摊主都知道的规矩。东西不称重不许卖，而集市里的每一杆秤都归度量所管。
Adaeze ran the scale stall at the north gate. She was sixteen, and she had kept the stall alone since the spring. It had a brass scale and a row of iron weights. It also had one tiny silver weight, the Honest Gram. The Honest Gram was special. Whenever a trader lied about his goods, the scale tipped toward the truth. The whole market saw it happen.
阿达埃泽在北门管着秤摊。她十六岁，从春天起一直一个人守着这个摊子。摊上有一杆黄铜秤，一排铁砝码。还有一枚小小的银砝码，叫“诚实克”。诚实克很特别。每当商人对他的货物说谎，秤就会倾向真相一边。整个集市都能看到这一幕。
On the morning of the yearly inspection, the Honest Gram was gone.
在一年一度检查的那天早上，诚实克不见了。
Adaeze counted the weights three times. Iron, iron, iron, and then an empty hole in the velvet where the silver one belonged. Her hands began to shake.
阿达埃泽数了三遍砝码。铁的，铁的，铁的，然后是天鹅绒上一个空洞，那是银砝码该在的位置。她的手开始发抖。
"Don't panic," said Thandi, who sold dried figs at the next stall. "Think. Who has been near your scale?"
“别慌，”隔壁摊卖无花果干的坦迪说，“想一想。谁靠近过你的秤？”
"Nobody," Adaeze said. "Only the Measure House clerk. He came yesterday and said my scale was drifting."
“没有人，”阿达埃泽说，“只有度量所的办事员。他昨天来过，说我的秤在漂移。”
"Drifting?" Thandi laughed. "Scales don't drift. He wanted a reason to touch it."
“漂移？”坦迪笑了，“秤才不会漂移呢。他是想找个理由碰它。”
"Without the Gram, the inspectors will take my licence at noon," Adaeze said. "Then I lose the stall."
“没有诚实克，检查员中午就会收走我的执照，”阿达埃泽说，“那我就失去摊位了。”
Thandi looked at the sun, which had just cleared the rooftops. They had about five hours. She tied up her fig sacks and shut her shutters with a bang.
坦迪看了看刚刚升过屋顶的太阳。她们大约还有五个小时。她把无花果袋子扎好，砰地一声关上了百叶窗。
"Right," she said. "We find out where he put it."
“好，”她说，“我们去查清楚他把它放在哪儿了。”
It was not hard. The clerk kept a list of every item he borrowed, and he was proud of his handwriting. The list hung on a nail outside the Measure House door. Beside yesterday's date it said, in neat black ink, "One silver gram, for testing, locker thirteen."
这并不难。办事员会记录他借走的每一件东西，而且对自己的字迹很得意。清单就挂在度量所门外的一根钉子上。昨天的日期旁边，用整齐的黑墨水写着：“银砝码一克，用于测试，十三号储物柜。”
"Locker thirteen is in the cellar," Adaeze said. "Every stallholder knows that. The cellar door has a guard."
“十三号储物柜在地窖里，”阿达埃泽说，“每个摊主都知道。地窖门有人守着。”
"Then we need a plan," Thandi said.
“那我们得有个计划，”坦迪说。
They made one on an upturned crate behind the fish stalls. It was a good plan, and that was the problem. Thandi would carry a heavy basket of figs to the front desk. There she would complain loudly about a broken scale. While the clerk argued with her, Adaeze would slip past the guard and go down to the cellar. She would open the locker with a thin steel pick that Thandi had borrowed from a locksmith's son. Then she would take the Gram and run.
她们在鱼摊后面一只翻过来的板条箱上制订了计划。这是个好计划，问题就出在这儿。坦迪提一大篮无花果去前台。她会在那里大声抱怨一杆坏掉的秤。趁办事员跟她争论时，阿达埃泽溜过守卫去地窖。她会用坦迪从锁匠的儿子那里借来的一根细钢撬针打开柜子。然后她拿上诚实克就跑。
"What if the guard sees me?" Adaeze asked.
“要是守卫看见我怎么办？”阿达埃泽问。
"He won't," Thandi said. "He never looks up from his lunch."
“他不会的，”坦迪说，“他吃午饭的时候从来不抬头。”
At eleven o'clock, they went in. The front hall smelled of wax and old paper. Thandi marched to the desk with her basket and began to shout about her ruined scale. The clerk, a thin man with a pointed nose, stood up at once. Adaeze waited until his back was turned, then ran along the wall to the cellar stairs.
十一点钟，她们进去了。前厅里有蜡和旧纸的味道。坦迪提着篮子大步走到柜台前，开始嚷嚷她那杆被毁掉的秤。办事员是个瘦男人，长着尖鼻子，立刻站了起来。阿达埃泽等他转过身去，然后沿着墙跑向地窖的楼梯。
The guard was not eating lunch. He was sitting straight up on his stool with a long stick across his knees.
守卫并没有在吃午饭。他笔直地坐在凳子上，膝盖上横着一根长棍。
"Where do you think you are going?" he asked.
“你以为你要去哪儿？”他问。
"The clerk sent me," Adaeze said. Her voice came out higher than she wanted. "For the, um, borrowed silver gram."
“办事员让我来的，”阿达埃泽说。她的声音比她想的要高。“来取那个，呃，借走的银砝码一克。”
The guard looked at her for a long moment. Then he pointed his stick at a chair. "Sit. Nobody goes down without the clerk's own signature."
守卫看了她好一会儿。然后他用棍子指了指一把椅子。“坐下。没有办事员亲笔签字，谁也不能下去。”
So the plan had failed in the first two minutes. Adaeze sat and stared at the cellar door. Upstairs, she could hear Thandi's voice getting louder and more desperate. She would not be able to keep that up for long.
所以计划在头两分钟里就失败了。阿达埃泽坐下来，盯着地窖的门。楼上，她能听到坦迪的声音越来越大，越来越焦急。她撑不了多久。
Then the guard's stomach growled. He glanced at his stool, where a small cloth bundle sat half hidden. Adaeze had an idea. It was not a clever one, but it was the only one she had.
这时守卫的肚子咕咕叫了。他瞥了一眼凳子，那里有一个半藏着的小布包。阿达埃泽有了一个主意。算不上聪明，但这是她唯一的主意。
"Sir, may I ask you something?" she said. "Do you know what a fig weighs?"
“先生，我能问您个问题吗？”她说，“您知道一颗无花果有多重吗？”
"What?"
“什么？”
"Thandi's figs are the best in the market," Adaeze said. "She is upstairs with a whole basket. I think she would give you a handful if you asked. I could fetch it for you."
“坦迪的无花果是整个集市最好的，”阿达埃泽说，“她就在楼上，带着整整一篮。我想您要是开口，她会给您一把的。我可以去给您拿。”
The guard hesitated. Then he nodded slowly and waved his stick toward the stairs. "Ten minutes. And if you are not back, I ring the bell."
守卫犹豫了一下。然后他慢慢点了点头，用棍子朝楼梯挥了挥。“十分钟。要是你没回来，我就敲钟。”
Adaeze ran up, grabbed Thandi by the sleeve, and whispered in her ear. Thandi stopped shouting in the middle of a word. She gave the astonished clerk a sweet smile, scooped up a fistful of figs, and followed Adaeze down.
阿达埃泽跑上楼，一把拽住坦迪的袖子，在她耳边低语。坦迪话说到一半就停住了。她对惊呆了的办事员露出一个甜甜的微笑，抓起一把无花果，跟着阿达埃泽下了楼。
The guard ate eleven figs, one after another, with his eyes closed. By the time he opened them, the two girls were standing in the cellar. He had no idea how they had got there. In his defence, he had said they could fetch the figs. He had not said where.
守卫闭着眼睛，一个接一个吃了十一颗无花果。等他睁开眼睛，两个女孩已经站在地窖里了。他完全不知道她们是怎么进去的。说句公道话，他只说过她们可以去拿无花果。没说去哪里拿。
Locker thirteen was in the far corner, behind a stack of cracked barrels. It was small and black, and it did not have a keyhole. Instead, it had a little brass pan fixed to its door, like half of a scale.
十三号储物柜在最远的角落里，在一摞裂开的木桶后面。它又小又黑，没有锁孔。取而代之的是，门上固定着一个小小的黄铜托盘，像半杆秤。
"The pick is useless," Adaeze said. "There is nothing to pick."
“撬针没用了，”阿达埃泽说，“没有什么可撬的。”
"Try it anyway," Thandi said.
“还是试试，”坦迪说。
Adaeze pushed the steel pick into the seam of the door. It snapped with a sharp little crack and flew across the floor. The pan began to hum.
阿达埃泽把钢针插进门缝。它啪的一声脆响折断了，飞过地面。托盘开始嗡嗡作响。
"Now what?" Thandi whispered.
“现在怎么办？”坦迪小声问。
Adaeze put her hand on the pan. The humming grew louder, and it felt as if the whole cellar was listening. "It wants something," she said slowly. "I think it opens when the pan is balanced. When it holds exactly what is inside."
阿达埃泽把手放在托盘上。嗡嗡声变大了，感觉整个地窖都在倾听。“它想要什么，”她慢慢地说，“我想托盘平衡的时候它才会打开。当它盛着里面那样东西的重量时。”
"And what is inside?"
“里面是什么？”
"The Honest Gram." Adaeze stared at the pan. "I have no weights with me. I always keep them in the stall."
“诚实克。”阿达埃泽盯着托盘。“我身上没带砝码。我总是把它们放在摊位上。”
Thandi dug into her pocket and pulled out a handful of fig seeds. She had been spitting them out all morning. "In the old trade," she said, "a fig seed is one gram. My mother sold figs that way. She told me it is the same weight every time, as exact as a king's coin."
坦迪伸手掏口袋，拿出一把无花果籽。她整个早上都在吐这些籽。“在老行当里，”她说，“一粒无花果籽就是一克。我妈妈就是这样卖无花果的。她告诉我，每一次重量都一样，像国王的金币一样精确。”
They looked at each other. Then Adaeze took a single seed and laid it carefully in the pan.
她们对视了一眼。然后阿达埃泽拿起一粒籽，小心地放进托盘里。
The pan trembled, dipped, and rose again. Something inside the locker clicked, and the little door swung open.
托盘颤抖着，沉下去，又升了起来。柜子里有什么咔哒一响，小门打开了。
The Honest Gram lay on a bed of grey cloth, shining faintly. Adaeze picked it up and felt it grow warm in her palm. She smiled, and for the first time that day her hands were steady.
诚实克躺在一块灰布上，发着微光。阿达埃泽把它拿起来，感到它在掌心里变暖。她笑了，这一天里第一次，她的手稳住了。
"Let's go," Thandi said. "Before the guard finishes the figs."
“走吧，”坦迪说，“趁守卫还没吃完无花果。”
They were halfway to the stairs when Adaeze stopped. Something else had been lying in the locker, tucked behind the cloth. She went back and looked.
她们走到楼梯一半时，阿达埃泽停住了。柜子里还躺着别的东西，藏在布后面。她回去看了看。
It was a second silver weight, exactly like the first. It was stamped with a tiny number, and the number was not thirteen. It was fourteen.
那是第二枚银砝码，和第一枚一模一样。上面压着一个小小的数字，不是十三。是十四。
"Why would the Measure House keep a spare Honest Gram?" Thandi asked.
“度量所为什么要留一枚备用的诚实克？”坦迪问。
"I don't think they would." Adaeze held the two weights side by side. One was warm, and the other was cold as ice. "I think somebody else has been using my scale. And I think the clerk knows who."
“我觉得不会是他们。”阿达埃泽把两枚砝码并排拿着。一枚是温的，另一枚冰冷如冰。“我觉得有别人一直在用我的秤。而且我觉得办事员知道是谁。”
From the stairs above them came the sound of a bell.
从她们上方的楼梯口传来了钟声。
