Chapter One: Every Lie Has a Root

The winner would receive 200,000 yuan and admission to Central Academy. It was the only ticket out of Old Harbor that he and his mother could ever afford. On the screen, a host smiled brightly. “In Linchuan, talent is never buried by circumstance.” An equation unfurled above the entire billboard and covered half the sky. Lin Yan looked up. Among the torrent of variables, he saw one root with painful clarity. The city was lying too.