It All Began with Protecting One Person

When Qin Chuan took the job, he didn't give it much thought.

Ten liters of clean water would keep him alive for three months. As for the woman named Lin Xi and the iron case in her arms, more precious than her life? He didn't care. In the Rust Sea, curiosity kills faster than spores.

He had planned every step: how to avoid the patrols, how to deal with the pursuit, and how to take the money and leave after thirty days. He had even figured out what to do if the woman died on the way, and how much he could get for selling the case secondhand.

But he hadn't counted on the case containing not a secret, but a blade, one held to the throats of everyone in the Lower City. Nor had he expected that protecting one person would turn into protecting a whole group, or that escaping one city would mean challenging an entire era.

This deal had been a losing proposition from the start.

But the Rust Sea taught Qin Chuan one thing: sometimes you have to tear up the ledger first, then figure out how to stay alive.

And that story begins with protecting one person.