Chapter Three: A Ticket Delivered by Assassins

Wanxing opened the ledger. New ink appeared: LIN WANXING—DIRECTED REVISION UNLOCKED. The cost had not fallen on Tang Xiaoman. Relief lasted one breath. The next page turned by itself. DEBT RECIPIENT: ZHOU JIBAI. SETTLEMENT DUE IN: 71 HOURS, 59 MINUTES. Jibai took the book and shut it. “Don't look.” “You knew it would choose you?” He did not answer. He merely placed Wanxing behind him and faced the tightening crowd. Behind the glass of a distant VIP lounge, Gu Minglan watched over a cup of coffee. Beside her, the man in the gray trench coat turned a second blank coin between his fingers. “You won,” Gu said. “To stop hurting the people around her, she'll learn to control it.”