Chapter 16: The Counteroffer

Zhou Hanqing came to the red gate himself that afternoon, which was a mistake.

He wore the grey suit.

His lawyer walked half a step behind him carrying a black case with a brass lock.

Granny Bai had moved her whole tea stall twenty feet down the lane to watch.

She sat with her glass and did not even pretend to look at anything else.

Jiang Lü received them in the courtyard, standing beside the ginkgo.

Tang Yu stood on her left with her arms crossed and her lanyard still around her neck.

"Ms. Jiang," said Zhou. "Thank you for seeing us."

"You came to the gate. I cannot say no to a person at my gate."

"Is that a rule?"

"It is a habit."

"I'll be brief." He nodded, and the lawyer opened the case on the well.

Inside were two stacks of documents and a bank draft in a clear sleeve.

"Twenty million yuan," said Zhou. "For the exclusive rights to match/redthread.py, assigned to Hongxian, with your name kept confidential."

"Twenty million."

"It's more than most people see in four lifetimes."

"I have had one long one, and I have seen very little of this."

Zhou smiled.

"Then you'll know what to do with it."

Jiang Lü looked at the draft for a while.

She looked at the lawyer, and at Granny Bai down the lane, and at Tang Yu.

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