Chapter 15: Footnotes

Lu Chen laid the thesis on the study desk at midnight and counted the footnotes for the ninth time.

Thirteen.

They sat in a block at the front of the original, small and exact, in a student's careful hand.

In Li Lu's deck, the same paragraph began at fourteen.

The student was a woman who now taught at a school in another province.

She had answered his email in a single evening, with a scan of her graduation certificate.

Under it she had written: I wondered when someone would ask.

He had it all.

He had the dated thesis from the university's archive, the library stamp, her signed statement and the deck with its missing thirteen.

The gala was nine weeks away.

For the first time in his life, Lu Chen did not want to win on schedule.

He knew why.

The night Su Group won, a page in his own handwriting would come due.

He had written it to be fair.

He had written it for a man who signed at the yellow tab without reading.

That man might one day wake up and see what he had signed.

It had never occurred to him that he would end up with a birthday cake and a father-in-law who sang.

Or a baby with his eyebrows.

The study door opened with a nudge from a foot.

Su Ye came in with a tray in both hands, walking with small, careful steps.

On it were a teapot, two cups and a plate of the Chairman's pastries.

"Don't help," he said. "I'm redeeming a coupon."

"That's not one of the coupons."

"It's the unwritten one. Carry tea, any hour." He set the tray down and the cups chattered. "It was very far."

"It's twelve meters."

"Mostly uphill."

Lu Chen poured the tea, because the pot was still in Su Ye's fist.

Su Ye took the lid off the umbrella stand, drew out a black umbrella and opened it over the desk.

It filled the study with a loud, damp-smelling dome.

"It's not raining," Lu Chen said.

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