Chapter Four: Lies Grow Legs

It had been built twenty-seven years ago by Lantian Communications. The first character, lan, was the character in Gu Lan—Gu Ye's mother. She had vanished when he was seven. His family said she died in a maritime accident, yet he remembered neither funeral nor grave. He remembered her dismantling radios and telling him, "Noise isn't meaningless. You just haven't found the translation." Lantian Communications had never legally existed. "A nonexistent company built a real tower," Lin said. "Same logic as the gaps." They streamed their trip there. A-Li stayed in a safe house with Zhou Changhe. Tang Ke carried three power banks and a case of noodles, looking prepared to invade the universe on a very specific budget.