Chapter Three: The Exchange Beneath the City

Lin's father had worked here as an actuary. He discovered that every rewritten reality left behind an undeletable Proof of Nonoccurrence, and designed a winning sequence capable of forcing the system to reveal its ledger. “The seventy million is bait and collateral. Bring six proofs and you can bid in reverse to buy yourself back.” “And if I can't?” “Seventy-two hours after the draw, Gu Changqing settles. Your wealth, your connections, even your mother's love transfer to him. You keep only memories nobody believes.” Qin handed him six names. The first was Qin himself. “I sold the possibility that my daughter survived,” he said. “The buyer received a healthy daughter. Mine died ten years ago, and everyone remembers me as unmarried.