Chapter Three: The Seller

The auction froze with a red warning: Ownership disputed. Product suspended for twenty-four hours. The gate broke. Black-uniformed men entered wearing Bedrock's mountain emblem. Xu slipped the memory card inside Cheng's collar and offered to draw them away. Instead, Cheng pulled the fire lever. Water flooded the old electrical lines; lights burst, dropping the station into darkness. Together they descended a maintenance ladder while Ji's broken voice guided them past pursuers, like someone far away sharing the same pair of eyes. When they climbed into noon sunlight, the post had a hundred thousand shares, but copies were already disappearing. Xu told him the freeze would last only one day.