Chapter One: Debt and the Nightingale

Xingyao approached the bass keys and played four in reply. The first three matched his exactly. She lowered the last by a semitone. Not *hello*. *Not well*. Minglan's phone rang. She turned toward the window, speaking quietly. "The will reading has been moved to the banquet? ... He wants everyone trapped here." While her back was turned, Xingyao drew thirteen vertical strokes. She blackened the last, folded the page, and slipped it into Shen Yan's coat pocket. Dinner felt like an over-rehearsed play. Gu Chongshan did not come downstairs. Cheng Manyi occupied the head of the table, her smile gentle and entirely without warmth. Gu Chengjun kept placing food in Xingyao's bowl and calling her Little Star, but whenever his hand came near, the girl's