Chapter One: Two Characters at Midnight

But why would drainage pumps execute such a command? He called the municipal fault line and gave the district number. After a two-second silence, the operator said there was no pumping station there. “Not on the map doesn't mean not underground,” a woman beside him said. She was around thirty, with rain-darkened short hair and a press badge: Ye Ning, Linchuan Evening News. She was photographing the ground, not the sky. “Look at that cover.” Seven covers sprayed water. Only the one outside the store remained dry, as if it had been kept indoors. A worn identifier was cast into its edge: C-17-13. Gu Yan looked back at the response header: 4e-17-0d. Seventeen. Thirteen. Repetition was not proof, but it was a direction.