Chapter One: The Stranger on Open-Source Day

At 2:17 a.m., while three million people downloaded Qiongjing's source code, Lin Mo was staring at a woman who sold umbrellas. Her name was Chen Wan. She was forty-two and lived on the western edge of Linlan. In her profile picture, a faded school uniform hung in the background. She had posted only thirteen times: seven photographs of umbrellas, three notices offering to sublet her stall, a video of her son's school sports day, and two weather warnings no one had liked. Lin did not know her. They shared no contacts, district, interests, or public Wi-Fi history. Yet Qiongjing had placed her at the top of his feed. It was not an advertisement or a People You May Know card. There was no explanation, only her portrait and a gray sentence: