At that same moment, in the rear hall of the Suzhou Prefecture Office, candle flames flickered, bathing the room in a dim yellow glow.
He Yanming sat alone before his desk, his brows slightly knitted. His trusted steward leaned close to his ear and murmured a few words.
"You mean the two of them played a game of chess?
Then talked for quite some time afterward?
And when Xie Dao'an left, he had a smile on his face?"
"Yes," the steward answered softly, his head bowed.
"I saw it with my own eyes.
Lord Xie walked out at an unhurried pace. Though he showed no delight, there was not the slightest hint of dejection either."
"I may not have read many books, but Li Bai of the Former Tang wrote: 'Throwing back my head in laughter, I stride out the door.'
That was just how Xie Lin seemed!"
He Yanming said nothing, then produced a personal letter.
"Deliver this to Eunuch Li." With that, he waved the steward away.
The steward quietly withdrew, closing the door without a sound.
Silence settled over the rear hall once more.
The solitary lamp on the desk flickered faintly without going out, much like the doubts in his heart-
Flashing and fading, impossible to dispel.
Xie Lin had told him nothing.
Today, Xie Lin had played chess and drunk tea with Wei Nisheng, then held a long conversation behind closed doors, without giving him so much as a word of advance notice.
He Yanming was the Suzhou Prefect, a dignified official of the Principal Fourth Rank, clad in a scarlet robe and jade belt, a great officer governing an entire region.
Yet the person truly placing the pieces in this Prefectural Office had never been him.
But knowing that was one thing; being