Chapter Three: The Exile Comes Home

The Lu sentiment system could no longer rank the candidates because all four scandals had been exposed as parts of a single manipulation. At midnight, none of the names vanished from the bronze register. Instead, a fresh line of ink joined them. Beside the rules appeared a word never seen in a century: TIE. Lu Henian stared at the page, then laughed. “Shen Man raised a son who overturns the table.” “She's alive,” Chenzhou said. The laughter stopped. It was not a question. In the recording, metal struck every three seconds. The sound came from the moisture gates at the old Lu harbor. Fifteen years ago, those gates cycled every six seconds. Only after their renovation three years ago had the interval changed.