Liu Qiang feels that his life is like the dusty, unsold books in the corner of a secondhand bookstore, each one forever stamped with the same label: ordinary and unremarkable.
Then, one rainy night, while sorting through a pile of books bought by the weight, several lines of silver writing suddenly appear before his eyes: the items’ “true labels.” A battered old book dismissed as wastepaper bears an estimated value of six figures.
These “Silver Eyes,” which let him glimpse the hidden information in everything, show him the first glimmer of hope for turning his life around. He cautiously makes use of this gift, seizing opportunities in antiques, collectibles, and even the treacherous currents of city life to build the resources he needs to change his circumstances.
But Liu Qiang soon discovers that this ability is far more than a “bargain-hunting cheat.”
It can reveal the secrets of inheritance sealed away in rare ancient texts, and expose the desires and weariness lurking just beneath the surface of people’s hearts. It can let him sense the faint resonance of certain objects, while ancient beings concealed beneath the rules of ordinary society quietly turn their attention toward him.
From a part-time worker in a secondhand bookstore to an information hunter operating on the fringes of the city; from cautiously scraping together a better living to being dragged into contests beyond the imagination of ordinary people, Liu Qiang wields the “Labels of All Things,” a power capable of overturning everything he knows, as he picks his way through an urban maze full of opportunities and traps.
His problems are no longer limited to his family’s financial hardship and his own loans. He must now ask himself: How can he wield this power without being consumed by it? How can he hold on to his worth as a “human being” amid a flood of information? And when the labels lead all the way to the true “code” governing the world, what choice should he make?
