I spoke to Kaien the following morning.
This required some care. Kaien was, among the people I worked with, the one whose personal situation I knew least about. I knew the outlines: a family in the city, parents who had a modest household in the western district, a younger sister recently engaged. I knew he had come to work for Wei Zhengnan through a connection involving a former schoolmate of his who had been in Wei Zhengnan's year at the Imperial Academy. I knew he had a talent for quiet observation that was unusual in someone his age, and a quality of patience that most people did not develop until much later in life.
What I did not know was how he would respond to being asked to involve his family in something that carried risk.
