Xu Minglan arrived at the agreed location on the morning of the fifteenth day.
We met not at the lantern market this time — the New Year season had ended and the stalls had come down, the square returned to its ordinary function as a space for merchants and foot traffic. Instead, Kaien had arranged a meeting at a teahouse in the western district, a place frequented by merchants' wives and household managers, the kind of establishment where two women sitting over tea and a document case would attract no attention whatsoever.
Shen Bao was not with me. This meeting required a different kind of presence — the particular intimacy of two women at a table, without the performance of official weight that a secretary implied. I brought Kaien only, positioned outside at a comfortable distance.
