The bay road stretched like a gray ribbon, then came to an abrupt end. Li Jie parked the Cherokee by the roadside, pushed open the door, and stepped into an entirely different world.
Gotham's damp, clammy chill seemed to have been shut behind an invisible barrier. Bright, pure sunlight poured down without restraint, almost making him dizzy. He instinctively raised a hand to shade his forehead and squinted at the enormous, vividly colored billboard-
Welcome to Metropolis-the city of tomorrow!
An almost exaggerated vitality radiated from the billboard. Its cartoon sun grinned like a two-thousand-pound child. Beneath a brilliant blue sky, in front of rows of towering skyscrapers, a beaming family of three waved enthusiastically to everyone entering Metropolis.
He leaned against the slightly hot car door and stretched, letting the sunlight bake the mustiness out of his body. A sense of relaxation unlike anything he had ever felt spread like warm water, inch by inch, from his stiff spine through his limbs. He could even feel the perpetually tense muscles in his neck and shoulders slowly softening beneath this unfamiliar sunlight.
There was none of Gotham's lingering smell of rust, garbage, and damp mold, none of that oppressive weight that seeped into his bones.
The air smelled warm and dry. On a small observation deck nearby, several people in brightly colored cycling gear were resting and chatting, their voices cheerful. A blonde girl on roller skates zipped past him, stirring a light breeze and leaving a trail of clear laughter.
"So spring's almost here..."
He turned to look back the way he had come. The sunlight stopped abruptly in the middle of the bay, dividing the waves in two against the dark clouds over the opposite shore.
"That's just plain weird."
Li Jie opened the car door and started