Chapter One: After the Final Buzzer

She changed the angle of her toes and engaged her left hip. The second fell cleanly. So did the third, fourth, and fifth. Each swish echoed like a clock beginning again. Her phone vibrated with a message from Luo Qingchuan: Follow the plan tomorrow. Create for Zhou Yan through three quarters. Team interests first. In her first life, she had replied, Understood. This time, Xinglan turned off the screen without answering. She stood where she would one day throw that fatal pass. She raised the ball as if to repeat it, pulled it back at the last instant, stepped behind the arc, and buried a three. “Team interests?” she whispered as the net settled. “This time, I define them.”