Chapter Four: A Thirty-Million Order—Paid First to My Enemy

At 11:58 p.m., the old observatory dome resembled a rusted eye. Lu Chenzhou entered alone. Han Zheng was absent. Twelve empty chairs faced footage recorded on the far side of the Moon forty-seven years ago: a black wreck lay inside a crater, seamless except for a silver sun. “Xuanniao was not built by humans,” said a woman in the shadows. Gu Nanzhi introduced herself as an observer for the Covenant Society’s Symbiosis faction. YaoCore architecture had been reverse-engineered from the wreck. For decades, the Society had helped it search for an heir. Han Zheng belonged to the Control faction, which believed machine authority should belong to a chosen few.