Chapter Five: The Dead Leave Honest Accounts

She had audited Yaochuan's early brain-interface program and discovered that it harvested neural data from dying patients without consent. The last page read: JULY 14: SAMPLE Q REFUSES FURTHER PARTICIPATION. CHAIRMAN GU ORDERS FORCED STRESS TEST. GU MINGLAN OBJECTS. July 14 was the day Xu Zhi's mother's condition had suddenly collapsed. "The settlement wasn't compensation," Xu Zhi whispered. "It was hush money." Gu Yanchen did not defend his family. "Yes." The door locked. The server awakened, filling its screen with covert footage: Xu Qinghe's hospital room, Gu Yanchen after the crash, seven years of both their lives. At the bottom waited a media plan scheduled for ten o'clock.