Two in the morning. Torrential rain.
While working the night shift at a convenience store, Xu Chi encountered a man drenched from head to toe.
The man wanted to buy a pack of cigarettes the store didn’t carry. When he paid, he set thirteen wet coins on the counter.
Red text flashed across the register:
[Do not accept the thirteenth coin.]
From that moment on, Xu Chi discovered he could see the recovery instructions for anomalous objects.
The thirteenth coin, an old phone that dialed numbers by itself at midnight, a black notebook that swapped people’s lives, an apartment building that gained a floor every day…
These things lurked in the corners of the city, waiting for someone to pay the price.
Others couldn’t understand the rules. They could only be devoured, replaced, trapped, or forgotten.
Xu Chi had no choice but to follow the incomplete instructions, staying alive as he recovered the objects.
“I can take the item.”
“But you’d better write down the price first.”
Only later did he learn the truth.
Every anomalous object came with instructions.
Most people simply couldn’t see the price tag.
