Chapter One: Debt and the Nightingale

"Your student is Gu Xingyao, sixteen. In two months, she is to perform at my father's seventieth birthday banquet. Get her onstage and you receive another five hundred thousand." "How long has she been unable to speak?" "Eleven months. Since a car crash." "What do her therapists say?" "You are not her therapist." Gu Minglan met his eyes. "Do not try to cure her. Teach her to play." Three knocks came from the doorway. The girl wore an oversized gray sweater and held a sheaf of blank manuscript paper. Her hair ended at her jaw. She ignored Minglan and stared at Shen Yan's right hand where it rested on the piano. He played four notes, a simple musical greeting.