The different approach arrived four days after the dinner in the form of a rumor.
I learned of it from Ru Songyi, who had heard it from his contact in the land registry office, who had heard it from a cousin in the Ministry of Revenue, which was the way information moved in this city — not directly, but through a series of personal connections that each added one degree of separation to the distance between the original source and the eventual recipient.
The rumor was this: that Baek Soha had obtained her position in the household through irregular means. That the marriage registration contained discrepancies. That there were questions about the authenticity of certain documents in the family archive.
