Chapter One: The Man Who Erased His Debt

He rushed downstairs to buy water. The convenience store that had stood below his building for twenty years was gone. In its place was a damp gray wall, old moss thick at its base, as if there had never been a doorway. Lin caught his landlord by the sleeve. “Where is Uncle Ma’s store?” “Who is Uncle Ma? That’s always been a wall.” For three years, Lin had bought breakfast there almost every day, often on credit. Now every message involving Ma was an empty bubble. In one photograph, Lin stood alone holding a beer beside an unnatural smear of gray. He ran upstairs and opened Tomorrow Layers. The COST layer was unlocked. DELETED: MA CHENGFU’S CONVENIENCE-STORE OPERATING RIGHTS AND ASSOCIATED SOCIAL MEMORY. ASSESSED VALUE: ¥487,600.