Chapter Three: The Observers Are Watching

Twenty years earlier, she explained, cognitive scientists at Linchuan University had discovered that a tiny number of human brains formed abnormal information-compression structures under extreme stress. Such people could predict a marriage from one conversation, a crime from one purchase, or a riot from the microexpressions of a hundred thousand citizens. At first they helped the city prevent disasters. Then they began eliminating the “incorrect choices” from which disasters arose. “They don’t control the city government,” Su Mi said. “They only make the government believe every decision was its own.” Lin Yan gave a cold laugh. “A girl hiding in a tunnel tells me that super-geniuses secretly control the world. You expect me to believe you?”