Chapter One: Spicy Enough to Hear the World Speak

Voices poured from drains, billboards, human chests, and overlapping shadows. Some scraped like nails on glass. Some fell like rain into dry wells. Others discussed with perfect courtesy which colleague to eat during overtime. Su Li covered her ears, but the sounds came from inside her skull. Xu Tang caught her arm. “Why are you so pale?” The convenience store downstairs opened. A young clerk in a green apron carried out a sale sign. He looked up toward the sixth floor. His lips did not move, but his shadow stretched across the road. “Heartfire has opened her ears,” the shadow said. “A new Spirit Listener has awakened.” Every nonhuman voice in the street fell silent.