Chapter One: Price Tags on the Lens

Four hours of clerical punishment. When the meeting ended, no one paused except an intern who offered her a sympathetic look. It was ten when Jianwei left the office. Rain washed the old district into a faded photograph. She ducked beneath a secondhand stall beside the subway entrance. An elderly woman in a black velvet cap sat behind a single pair of silver-rimmed spectacles. A tiny scale was carved into the temples, a heart in one pan and a coin in the other. The workmanship belonged to the late nineteenth century, yet the hinges showed no oxidation. Professional instinct pulled Jianwei closer. “How much?” The woman’s eyes were strangely bright. “It takes no money. It takes whatever you believe is worth paying.”