Morning in Gongdeng City

Morning in Gongdeng City began when the light arcades dimmed.

Dawn had not fully broken, yet the light arcades spanning both sides of the street were already fading from their warm nighttime yellow to pale silver. Light receded section by section along the arcade roofs, and buildings, trees, and roadside stalls emerged from the gentle shadows. People in the old city were long accustomed to the change; few bothered to look up. Hot-soup vendors lifted their pot lids, cleaning machines sucked away the fine dust gathered overnight along the foot of the walls, and early-shift workers came out of their apartment buildings, heads lowered as they checked gate-line times on their wrist-screens.

When Xu Linchuan woke, the light arcade outside his window had changed halfway.