Chapter One: Debt and the Nightingale

On rainy nights, he often felt there was still a sound beyond its last chord, as if someone behind a door were knocking thirteen times. Old Zhou, the owner, switched off the sign and handed him a business card. "Someone asked for you. The Gu family, Egret Ridge Manor. Private piano tutor. Two hundred thousand a month." "Sounds like organ harvesting." "Your organs aren't worth four hundred and eighty thousand." Zhou lowered his voice. "They requested you by name. Said they saw that video of you doing music sessions with children who couldn't speak." The card bore one name: Gu Minglan. The following afternoon, a black sedan carried Shen Yan up Egret Ridge.