Chapter One: The Ninety-Nine-Yuan Case

For three years she had restored museum lacquerware, tycoons' clocks, and fake jade sold as imperial treasure. She had never filled the pit dug by the interest. At 11:40 p.m., she opened the secondhand marketplace Shiguang, intending to list her last private set of tools. Instead, the home page offered an odd recommendation. POSSIBLE ITEM CONNECTED TO YOU: REPUBLIC-ERA LEATHER TRAVEL CASE. Ninety-nine yuan. No watchers. Listed nine years ago. The photograph was foggy, and salt bloom marked the corners as if the case had once drowned. The seller's name was a single period. Wanqing glanced over. “Don't tell me a woman facing bankruptcy is shopping.”