The rain had washed the city clean overnight.
The streets still glistened beneath the morning sun, and puddles reflected crooked rooftops as merchants lifted their shutters for another day of business.
Yulan unfolded the note one last time.
If you want the truth about Li Wei, come to White Crane Teahouse tomorrow. Come alone.
The paper was beginning to wear thin at the folds.
He slipped it into his pocket.
"I'm going out," he called toward the kitchen.
His father was kneading dough without looking up.
"Back for lunch?"
"I'll try."
His father nodded once.
No questions.
Trust had always been quiet in their family.
Chen Hao Doesn't Buy It
Yulan had almost reached the end of the street when Chen Hao caught up to him, still trying to tie his belt properly.
"You walk suspiciously."
Yulan kept going.
"I didn't know walking had personalities."
"It does."
Chen Hao pointed dramatically.
"That's the walk of someone pretending he isn't about to do something incredibly questionable."
"I'm delivering herbs."
"You don't have herbs."
"..."
Chen Hao smiled.
"I knew it."
Yulan sighed.
"You've become annoying."
"I've always been annoying."
"Fair."
They reached the next intersection.
Yulan stopped.
"I'm serious."
"I know."
"I have to go alone."
Chen Hao studied his face.
The joking disappeared.
"If something feels wrong..."
He reached into his pocket and handed Yulan a small brass whistle.
"I used this when we were kids."
Yulan frowned.
"I remember."
"You got lost during the Dragon Boat Festival."
"I wasn't lost."
"You cried."
"I was seven."
"You still cried."
Yulan laughed despite himself.
Chen Hao smiled.
"There you are."
Yulan slipped the whistle into his pocket.
"I'll bring it back."
"You'd better."
White Crane Teahouse
The teahouse overlooked the river.
Old wooden beams supported a tiled roof blackened by decades of smoke and rain.
It wasn't crowded.
Just enough customers to disappear among them.
Yulan chose a table near the window.
A waitress poured tea.
"Someone asked us to reserve this seat for you."
Yulan looked up.
"Who?"
She shrugged.
"He didn't leave a name."
The tea grew cold.
Ten minutes.
Twenty.
Nearly forty.
Just as Yulan began to think he'd been tricked...
Someone sat across from him.
Not the stranger from before.
A woman.
Perhaps in her early forties.
Plain blue clothes.
Hair tied simply.
The kind of face people forgot seconds after seeing it.
Except for her eyes.
Those were unforgettable.
Calm.
Watchful.
Tired.
"You came," she said.
"You expected I wouldn't?"
"I hoped you would."
She wrapped both hands around the warm teacup before speaking again.
"My name is Xu Lian."
"I don't know you."
"No."
A faint smile.
"But I knew your mother."
Yulan's expression changed.
"My... mother?"
She had died when he was young.
Too young to remember more than the sound of her voice.
Very few people ever mentioned her.
Xu Lian reached into her cloth bag and placed a small photograph on the table.
It showed four young people standing outside a riverside warehouse.
One of them...
Yulan recognized immediately.
His mother.
She looked no older than twenty.
Laughing at something outside the frame.
Beside her stood a man Yulan had never seen.
And on the far right...
Li Wei's father.
Much younger.
Yulan's fingers froze over the photograph.
"...Why was my mother with him?"
Xu Lian didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she asked a question of her own.
"Has anyone ever told you why your father left the docks?"
Yulan looked up.
"My father never worked at the docks."
Xu Lian's eyes softened.
"That's what he wanted you to believe."
Across the City
Li Wei had spent the morning reading the ledger.
Each page raised more questions than it answered.
Most of it looked ordinary.
Shipping numbers.
Cargo weights.
Worker names.
Then he noticed something unusual.
Certain names appeared over and over again.
Not employees.
Witnesses.
People who signed for deliveries...
...and vanished from the records afterward.
One name appeared seven times.
Zhang Guoren.
Li Wei stared at it.
Zhang.
Yulan's family name.
He checked again.
Same name.
Different years.
Always at the docks.
Always before another gap in the records.
A knock interrupted him.
Lin Meiyu entered.
"You've been in here all morning."
Li Wei looked up slowly.
"I think..."
He hesitated.
Then spoke quietly.
"I think Yulan's father is connected to all of this."
The Last Thing Xu Lian Says
Back at the teahouse, Xu Lian stood.
"I can't stay."
Yulan rose with her.
"Wait."
"I've already stayed longer than I should."
He held up the photograph.
"Who took this?"
She looked at it for a long moment.
Then answered.
"A man who died because he refused to burn it."
She turned to leave.
After only a few steps, she stopped without looking back.
"The fire everyone talks about..."
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"...was never an accident."
Then she disappeared into the crowd outside.
Leaving Yulan alone with a cold pot of tea...
...and a photograph that had just changed everything he believed about his own family.
End of Chapter 45
The waitress returned to clear the table.
She paused when she noticed the untouched tea.
"You never drank it."
Yulan looked at the cup.
He hadn't even realized.
"No," he said quietly.
"I guess I didn't."
Outside, the river kept flowing, carrying its secrets toward the sea.