Chapter One: The Number After Two Hundred Million

The whistle sounded. The ball left his fingers. It kissed the glass and dropped. Three points and a foul. Whale Arena erupted. The noise of twenty thousand people struck Lu Chen in the chest. Lying on the hardwood, he watched the roof lights dissolve into halos. The opposing coach challenged the call. Slow motion filled the screen: the defender's hand was clearly on Lu Chen's wrist, with seven tenths of a second remaining. He went to the line. The owner's section sat behind the basket. Xu Boyan, owner of the Whales, wore a gray mandarin-collar jacket among men in dark suits. He held no cheering stick, only an old brass lighter. Gao Yuan's warning returned: Don't touch the line.