The Sun Family Old Residence lay deep within an alley in the south of the city.
The alley was too narrow for the Vermilion Bird Boat to enter. Lu Chen dismounted and walked through its entrance.
Old vines crawled over the walls on both sides, their leaves shriveled into tight clusters in the north wind, gray and withered in color.
At the alley's end stood a black-lacquered wooden door. The seal on it had been torn in half—one half still clung to the doorframe, while the other lay on the ground, soaked through with dew.
Constables from the Capital Prefecture stood guard at the entrance. Two of them, one fat and one thin.
The fat one leaned against the wall, dozing off, while the thin one squatted on the threshold smoking. It was cheap pipe tobacco, and the smoke was so choking that even the old vine leaves in the alley trembled.
When the thin constable saw Lu Chen's official robes, his pipe nearly fell from his hand. He sprang up and hid it behind his back.
"L-Lord Lu—"
"How long has the door been open?"
"We found it this morning. The seal was still intact when we made our night patrol yesterday." The thin constable's voice trembled. "We didn't dare go inside. That hole in there is so deep we can't see the bottom. We threw a stone down, but never heard it hit the ground."
Lu Chen pushed open the door. The hinges were new; after the Sun Family had been exterminated, the Capital Prefecture had replaced them. Yet they turned stiffly in the frame, sounding as though they had rusted.
The courtyard was small. Its floor was paved with blue bricks, with dead grass growing from the cracks. The doors to the main hall stood open, and