The Forbidden Zone of Memory

Shanghai, 2025. A breakthrough in brain-computer interfaces gives rise to a black market in memories. During his ninth memory extraction experiment, Lin Shen triggers an anomalous data stream and discovers that his childhood memories have been altered 137 times. Blood from a cryogenically frozen person seeps out of the experimental pod; a death date appears on an advertising screen; an old version of a logo is engraved on a mechanical cockroach's shell. Every clue points to Cheng Ye, his mentor, who jumped into the river and died by suicide three years ago. To crack the hexagram code hidden in his memory map, Lin Shen is forced to infiltrate the ruins of the meteorological bureau beneath the Huangpu River. Twelve clones bearing his DNA lie dormant in the quantum server array. Meanwhile, the bionic skin beneath Cheng Ye's suit is rotting, and his electronic pulse beats just 27 times a minute. The body is running the ghost of a transnational memory smuggler.