Chapter One: Spicy Enough to Hear the World Speak

Dozens of faces—office workers, couriers, doctors, students—turned toward Su Li's window at once. She slowly drew the curtains. “We didn't reveal the restaurant's address last night, did we?” Xu Tang held up her phone. A video had just reached the top of the local charts: STREAMER ENTERS NONEXISTENT RESTAURANT; MYSTERIOUS OLD MAN CASTS SPELL LIVE. In its final frame, reflected in the restaurant glass, stood a door that did not belong there. Beyond it, a street hung upside down, the moon drowned beneath the earth, and hundreds of eyes stared outward through the camera. The likes kept climbing. The pinned comment came from an account with no picture. “We found the door.”