AI Holds the Pen, and the Writer and Book Grow Old

Xu Zhimo, a 28-year-old calligraphy prodigy, writes a character for "high" at the National Calligraphy Competition, though it isn't his own. From that moment on, he is drawn into a shocking game of strategy that uses ink and brush as its medium and lifespan as its price. An early-generation biochip called the "Xizhi Heart" has been implanted at the back of his neck. Every stroke he makes uses his life to predict disasters about to strike the city. A deeper conspiracy is taking root in the shadows: someone crippled the right hand of Zhang Du, the former chief researcher, in a fire ten years ago; someone is training a purely algorithmic model that needs no living Host, using the "neural ink codes" generated by Xu Zhimo's every prediction; and someone has spent the past decade sending him the full, hidden truth through a neural channel, using a right hand that grows slower and slower.

From the first stroke that spirals out of control in the exhibition hall to the final door buried deep underground, he must uncover the real cause of that fire, the true origin of the chip, and what the manipulator behind the screen, marked by an "Yi" cuff link and known as the Mask, is trying to take from him before he runs out of time.

One brush, one chip, and a group of people trapped in the shadows. The calligraphy skills he spent ten years mastering are becoming a template someone else can use to replace him.