Chapter One: Debt and the Nightingale

The Gu residence stood among cliffside villas left from the old foreign concession, its gray stone walls strangled dark by ivy. Above the portico, someone had carved a nightingale without eyes. The steward, Uncle Han, was about sixty. His white gloves were spotless. As he led Shen Yan down the hall, Gu family portraits watched like a silent jury. In the central photograph, Gu Chongshan sat in a wheelchair. To his left stood his eldest daughter, Gu Minglan, sharp-faced in a black suit. To his right were his second wife, Cheng Manyi, and his younger son, Gu Chengjun. At the edge, a young man had turned partly away, as though ready to leave. "That is Gu Wei'an, Madam's son," Han said.