Chapter One: The Twenty-Yuan Silver Coin

[Twenty-Four-Hour Potential Value: Incapable of Calculation.] [Associated Risk: Lethal.] The scarred men had already taken it. At three p.m., Su Wanqing examined the coin through a microscope. She was around thirty, her hair tied low, her white gloves immaculate. “Why did you call it undocumented?” “The short ray inside the wheel points backward. One tooth on the right is absent. The edge uses interrupted olive milling rather than straight reeds. More important, it came from a 1979 inventory clearance at Linhai Machinery Works. Equipment and personnel were transferred there from Guizhou. The provenance is plausible.” Her expression sharpened. Twenty minutes later, she placed an old photocopy beside the coin.