Chapter 23: The Clause

Cedar Hill looked different with the family gone.

The fountain ran again, and the camphor trees had been trimmed.

Every window on the ground floor was lit.

Xiao Chen stopped in the upstairs dressing room and fixed his tie in the mirror.

Behind him Shen Yan stood in a dark jacket his father's tailor had rushed through in two days.

He looked older in it, and very handsome.

"You've done that knot three times," Shen Yan said.

"It's crooked."

"It's perfect."

Shen Yan crossed to him and undid it anyway, and tied it again, and smoothed the silk flat with both hands against his chest.

His palms lingered there.

Xiao Chen could feel the beat of his own heart under them.

"Are you nervous?" he asked.

"A little."

"Why? It's only the lawyer for your mother's estate."

"I know." Shen Yan stared at the knot. "I just have something to say tonight, and I don't want to say it badly."

He patted his jacket pocket, quickly, and then stopped.

There was a small hard square in it, the size of a ring box.

Xiao Chen saw it and said nothing.

He leaned in and kissed Shen Yan's forehead.

"Whatever it is," he said, "you won't say it badly."

Shen Yan's whole face softened.

They went down together.

The dining room table had been laid for five.

Mr. Shen sat at the head in a dark suit that hung loose on him.

The old secretary stood behind his chair out of long habit until he was told to sit.

Across from them waited a thin, dry woman with grey hair and a briefcase, who rose when they came in.

"Mr. Shen. Mr. Xiao. I am the executor of the estate of Mr. Shen's first wife, Shen Yan's mother."

She said it with great gentleness.

"I have waited a long time to be in this room."

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