Chapter 18: Chi Feng's Offer

The lobby of the Harbour Street building was full by a quarter to nine.

It was not an accident.

Xiao Chen saw it from the lift as the doors opened, and he stopped on the threshold.

Two reporters stood by the pillar with their phones out.

A man in a grey suit from the firm on the third floor held a coffee and pretended to read his messages.

A woman from the bar association talked to the security guard, and glanced up too quickly.

Chi Feng stood in the middle of it all, in a charcoal coat and a pale blue tie, with a long leather folder under one arm.

He opened both arms.

"Xiao Chen."

"Don't," said Xiao Chen.

Shen Yan stood close behind his shoulder.

He had put on one of Xiao Chen's shirts, rolled to the elbows, and he held his chin high.

Chi Feng's eyes went to him, and stayed a moment.

"I wanted to say this in front of people," he said, "because you've been through so much, and I'd like everyone to see I mean it."

He opened the folder.

"Chi, Xiao and Partners. Your name on the door, equal share, as of today. Three years of loyal service deserve more than a footnote."

He took out a cheque and held it between two fingers, so the pillar could see it.

Five million.

"For the time you lost. For all of it. Please. Come home."

The reporters' phones came up higher.

Xiao Chen looked at the cheque for a long moment, and then at the man holding it.

Every line of him was warm, and generous, and sorry.

He had done this three years running at a hundred dinners, and the room had always believed him.

"You want me to take your money in public," Xiao Chen said evenly, "so the city will say the clerk was paid off and the brief was yours."

"I want to take care of you."

"You said that at your award dinner. I had just woken up."

"You don't remember."

"I remember Bridge Road."

The lobby stopped moving.

Xiao Chen did not raise his voice.

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