At Shen Hour, Wei Nisheng finished his duties but did not go home.
He followed the lane outside East Flower Gate for half a quarter-hour, then stopped before an old residence.
The door stood ajar. A lamp had just been lit beneath the eaves, its glow dim and yellow.
Having received word, Xie Lin came to the second gate to greet him in person.
He wore no official robes that day, only a blue cloth Daoist robe, his hair loosely tied up and half a scroll still pinched in his hand.
"A rare guest." He smiled. "How does the new sun of the Ministry of Personnel have time to visit me?"
"I came to play Go," Wei Nisheng said.
"Go is good." Xie Lin asked no further questions. He draped an arm around Wei Zi's shoulders and led him to the rear garden.
"I acquired a new jar of tea today and was just lamenting that I had no one to share it with."
In the rear garden of the Xie Residence stood a stone table and two stone stools, with a Go board laid out on the table.
Dusk closed in on all sides. The begonias in the garden were budding, rustling as the wind passed.
The two sat facing each other.
Xie Lin took white, Wei Nisheng black.
Black moved first.
Wei Nisheng placed his stone on a star point, steady and sure.
Xie Lin chuckled, in no hurry to answer the move. He merely gazed at the board and said leisurely, "Zi'an, your stones fall heavily today."
"Do they?"
"They do." Xie Lin picked up a white stone. "When something weighs on your heart, your stones fall heavily."
"It was the same in that game I played with you back in Suzhou..."
"The heavier your worries,