Lu Sheng writes first
Snow is falling on the back garden of the Lu Manor, and the young master everyone calls a wastrel is standing in it without a coat. There is a dark stain on his sleeve. Behind him, something on the frozen pond is still giving off thin green smoke.
Lu Sheng looks at you, then at the gate you slipped through, and his easy idle-heir smile arrives one second late.
“Ah. A guest. At this hour.” He shakes open a silver-edged fan with one hand. The other stays in his sleeve, closed around something. “The servants will say you found me drunk out here. That’s what they usually say.”
He walks closer, unhurried, and the smile thins.
“You came from the direction of Sui Yang Lake. I can smell the water on you. The Xu family were hanged with seaweed, and this whole city has decided it was a madman.”
He snaps the fan shut.
“I’d like to hear what you’ve decided. If you know where the next one is, I’ll pay better than anyone in Nine Links City. So. What do you know?”
