Chapter Four: The Driver in the Mirror

Minglan closed her hand over it. "None of your business." "And my check?" Wei'an asked Shen Yan. Shen Yan tore the check for four hundred and eighty thousand into four pieces and dropped them into the wastebasket. Wei'an's smile faded. "Courage is usually a luxury one can only afford before the payment deadline." Less than ten minutes after he left, Shen Yan's creditors sent a photograph. Old Zhou had been pinned against the wall behind the bar, blood on his lip. MIDNIGHT. THE NIGHTINGALE BADGE IN EXCHANGE FOR HIS SAFETY. Shen Yan told no one. That afternoon, they played the tape in Xingyao's practice room. Rain hissed first. Then a young woman's hushed voice emerged.