Read Chapter 22: — THE EMPTY HOUSE IN BEIJING

When the order finally came from the capital, it was not what Tang expected.

He was not executed.

He was not pardoned either.

The emperor’s decision, after Lin’s report and several supporting memorials, was characteristically practical: Tang Zheng’s offences would be suspended under supervision in recognition of his assistance to the investigation. He would be taken to Beijing, questioned, and—if deemed suitable—placed in formal service where his talents could be used rather than allowed to ferment in alleys.

Tang read the order twice.

“So my punishment is employment?”

“Government employment,” Lin said. “A refined form of punishment.”

They returned north together.

In Beijing, Lin took Tang to the alley where Tang Xiao had once kept his hidden family.

The house had been rebuilt. The original door was gone.

A tailor lived there now.

Tang stood outside for a long time.

“I thought I’d feel something.”

“You are feeling something.”

“I mean something useful.”

Lin understood.

Memory rarely obeyed architecture.

Tang had been a child here. His mother had taken him away after his father vanished. Years of poverty, wandering and illness had followed. She had died without ever confirming what had happened in Zhenjiang.

“She knew, didn’t she?” Tang asked.

“Maybe not the details. But she knew what your father’s work meant.”

Tang touched the wall.

Then stepped away.

The house did not give him his parents back.

It did give him a place to leave them.