Chapter Two: Whom Does a Secret Own?

“Zhou came last night,” he said. “Zhao hired him to fabricate infidelity, forcing Su Rui to surrender eleven percent of Chenghai Biotech’s voting rights. Zhou panicked and asked me to preserve the original footage.” “Where is it?” Xu asked. “Stolen.” A yellow envelope lay weightless in the corner. Lin did not touch it. “Which object became heavy when you lied?” Lu glanced at a filing cabinet whose feet had pierced the tiles. Its label read OWNERLESS CASES. “Clients tried giving heavy objects to us,” Lu said. “Contracts failed. If they still believed an object was theirs, it kept its weight. Only genuine surrender changed ownership.” “You’re changing the subject.”