Chapter One: Price Tags on the Lens

The third time Shen Jianwei said, “There is something wrong with this bag,” no one in the conference room looked up. The Obsidian Auction House autumn catalogue lay open at the center of the long table. Its star lot was a mist-blue crocodile handbag, one of only three supposedly made twenty years ago. Cheng Yan, director of client acquisitions, was assuring everyone that Paris headquarters had verbally confirmed it and that the estimate would exceed eight million yuan. Jianwei peeled off one white glove. “There is one stitch too few per inch. The iridium content inside the clasp is wrong as well. This was not repaired. It was fabricated from the beginning.”