Shen Bao's report on Ouyang Rui arrived on the sixth day, which was earlier than I had expected.
It was delivered not in person but through the secondary drop point we had established — a folded note left in the collection of the small lending library near the textile quarter, which Shen Bao had established for exactly this kind of communication. The method was slower than direct contact but resistant to the kind of tailing that direct contact invited. I retrieved it myself, in the course of a walk that had no ostensible purpose and therefore could not be attributed one.
I read it in the carriage on the way back.
