Hou Mingzhi's residence was on the eastern side of Jiangnan, behind a wall that had been built with the particular combination of substance and restraint that marked old money in the south. Not the extravagant gates and decorative stonework of a man trying to announce his wealth. Not the deliberate modesty of someone hiding it. Just a well-maintained wall of the right height, with iron fixtures that were expensive without being ornate, and a gate that opened smoothly because it was properly hinged and regularly maintained.
I noticed things like that, after so many lives. The quality of the hinges told you more about a household than most people realized.
