Chapter Three: The Countdown Is Not for Sale

The spectacles still assigned him no price. Experience, however, showed his thumb pressing the corner of his card—a gesture restraining emotion. “A fair exchange. Tell me what the lenses display, and I will tell you why Zhou participated in the substitution.” “Unequal value. You already know the function. I cannot verify your answer.” “Then I will add something. I will help cancel your countdown.” For the first time, she truly looked at him. He showed no victor’s pleasure. “You read Cheng’s price and used it to force a bargain. That created a price-difference debt. If it is not settled within seventy-two hours, the No-Day Exchange takes something equivalent—usually a memory.” “Who is Su Wuzhou?” “A name, and a door.”