A Ten-Thousand-Yuan Company Buys an Ocean

Insurers had abandoned it after it slid into a fault. It lay nine nautical miles away. Once, recovering it would have cost tens of millions. Now six boats guarded the surface, *Firefly One* located the hull, and the factory cut it in place. At dawn, the *White Heron* needed only tow home a few pieces of ordinary-looking scrap. Han watched the wreck sharpen on sonar, his cigarette falling from his mouth. “We used to sell scrap by the ton.” “We still salvage scrap.” Lin looked toward the factory awakening below. “But once scrap enters my ocean, it leaves priced as technology.” As Firefly cut the cargo hold, another contact appeared on sonar. It was neither theirs nor a school of fish.