Chapter One: One Million Words

[MEMORY CORE AWAKENED. AVAILABLE CAPACITY: 1,000,000 WORDS. INDEX DAMAGED. READ METHOD: CONTACT.] Then someone else's memory poured through him. A woman in a white laboratory coat hid the crystal inside the tin box. Blood covered her fingers. Alarms screamed behind her. “If Chenzhou finds this, don't let him trust his own memory,” she told a mirror. “Xingyao didn't die in that fire.” The vision ended. Chenzhou dropped the crystal, but it seemed to melt into the lines of his palm, leaving a pale gray square. “You look awful,” Han said. “Where did this box come from?” “Mixed lot from a junk collector. Fifty if you want it.” Chenzhou paid and left without selling his keyboard.