The living room fell silent.
Ye Qingqing's question hung in the air, unanswered.
A drop of water fell from the old air conditioner into the yogurt carton in the corner. Plink.
Chen Shu didn't rush to answer. She picked up the packet of soda crackers on the coffee table, hefted it, then set it down. Suddenly, she raised her hand and yanked open the zipper of her outdoor jacket.
She pulled the collar aside.
The skin along her neck lay exposed under the light. A burn crawled from her collarbone to behind her ear, its edges shriveled and curled, an unwashed stain of dark blue-green embedded deep in its creases.
"An Abyssal Energy burn," she said. "Had it for eleven years. It can't be cured."
Su Xiaoxiao leaned over for a peek. Her hair stood on end, and she quickly shrank back onto her little stool.
"How I got it is covered by confidentiality regulations. I can't tell you."
Chen Shu pulled the zipper back up, all the way to the top.
"All I can tell you is that operation's code name."
"Origin Armament."
She delivered the name with neither emphasis nor understatement.
"Origin Armament?" Su Xiaoxiao repeated. "What did they do?"
"Studied where certain things came from." Chen Shu leaned back against the sofa. "And tried to make a few more while they were at it. They failed. The lives lost were ten times what the Artificial Star Ring incident cost."
Ye Qingqing put down her teacup. "Who were they studying?"
"Them."
Chen Shu curled her fingers and tapped the glass coffee table twice.
"Girl, you just asked whether a Tianqiong King needs to wait for approval before taking action. Yes. A Tianqiong King is still a wage slave. Just one with a higher annual salary."
"That scale chart