Chapter Three: The Countdown Is Not for Sale

Every final recipient bore one code name: SCALE. “Your father’s name is there,” Linchuan said. Her fingers stopped. Her father had died in a traffic accident when she was ten. Afterward, her mother lost an entire year of memories surrounding the crash. “You investigated me.” “I investigate everyone who receives a Balance Lens. There have been seven in forty years. The first six lost what they most wanted to keep at the height of their wealth.” “Why help me?” “Because the sixth was my father.” At last, a faint line appeared above him, still without a price. [STRONGEST DESIRE: See her leave the Exchange alive.] Jianwei did not reveal what she saw.