[Rules-horror + urban suspense + mystery + male protagonist + no romance + high IQ]
"The rules don't lie. They keep you alive..."
"No."
The man who said that was Shen Shi, an outsider employed by the General Archives Office as a paper repairman. He had repaired old paper for ten years, but the Office had never given him an official title.
But paper couldn't fool him. He could tell new ink from old at a glance. A real hole was a path chewed by insects; a fake one was just an outline drawn with a pen.
The rules on the door were supposed to keep you alive. But three crates of files had been marked "written off" with perfectly neat stamps, even though the goods had never passed through the door. Everyone copied down the protective paper and said following its instructions would keep you safe. The half that had been deleted was the part they had traded an accident for back then.
Someone shouted, "Then this paper is dangerous!"
Someone else asked, "The rules haven't been broken, so why are you fixating on a piece of paper?"
Shen Shi had only one answer: "The rules haven't been broken. Someone has made way for them."
The thing that changed the rules had no face. But the paper it touched was left with a sickness. As he diagnosed the pages one by one, the sickness took root in his own body.
Rules can be changed. Paper doesn't lie.
