Chapter One: Zero in Ten Minutes

6 percent in one second, triggering a market halt and overloading the settlement center beneath the hotel. Darkness swallowed the room. The ring had predicted it. A stranger whispered beside Shen, “If you want Lin Wanxing, don't let them take the ring.” He grabbed only a cold sleeve. When emergency lights returned, the stranger was gone and a fallen flower stand blocked Chen outside. Shen hid the ring inside a crack in the wall and held out his ordinary platinum wedding band when Chen entered. “Where is the other ring?” “Wanxing took it.” It was his first lie of the day. For six hours investigators showed him evidence: his voice ordering the trades, his face entering the backup system, his signature buying Bluebridge Seven.