Chapter One: The Ninety-Nine-Yuan Case

Under raking light, the stitches on the right ran half a stitch tighter than those on the left. She unpicked them and drew a yellowed sheet from the hidden compartment. It read ORIGINAL REGISTERED SHARE CERTIFICATE, OBSIDIAN GLOBAL HOLDINGS. The holder was Xie Minglan. The stake was three percent. Wanqing inhaled sharply. Obsidian was worth nearly two hundred billion yuan. Three percent could carry a person across every social boundary overnight. “Real?” “The paper, ink, and embossed seal are right. But when Obsidian restructured twenty-five years ago, the public record gave Xie Minglan zero shares. She also died in the Lanhai ferry disaster.” On the back, faded handwriting said: For my daughter, when she remembers the road home.