Old Northlight District

Old Northlight Market was much larger than Xu Linchuan remembered. The last time he had come was with the implements teacher, looking for discontinued parts. Back then, the market occupied only two old freight streets. The roads were narrow, the lights dim, and the stall canopies crowded together as if borrowing space from one another. Now the entire old freight district had been absorbed into it. Two levels of walkways had been added overhead, while the ground level was divided into lanes for different environmental needs. Sellers of old parts, material dismantlers, and refurbishers each had their own zones. Xu Linchuan stood at the entrance and looked for a while. He could not find the street he remembered. Lian Zhi passed beside him. “Are you coming?” “I’m looking for the way.” “Found it?” “No.” “Then follow me.”

She had worked another night shift the night before. Today she was out of her cleaning-crew uniform, wearing only a long dark-gray coat. She had washed her face, but the exhaustion beneath her eyes could not be hidden. Yike had been left at school. The temporary ring had been adjusted twice and had finally stopped chafing the membrane around his neck red. Han Yu was still working out how to make the thing look less like a cooking pot. The employee sent by the market administration was surnamed Meng, a tall feather-covered life-form whose short dark-blue feathers opened and closed gently with her breathing. She was waiting for them at the entrance. Beside her stood a woman in a dark coat, with a Gongdeng City Joint Road and Public Safety Service credential pinned to her chest. “Tang Yi.” The woman shook Xu Linchuan’s hand. “I’m taking this line.” Xu Linchuan asked, “Has a formal case been opened?” “Not yet.” “Then what exactly are you taking?”

Tang Yi gave him a look. “Ask everything you want to ask now, so you don’t ask the vendor every question that comes into your head when we meet him.” From her tone, He Qi had probably warned her in advance what he was like. District Twelve lay deep inside the market. The color of the light changed constantly as they walked. One vendor was testing an old residential light membrane, casting a small patch of the street in violet-gray. Mechanical casings moved slowly beneath the rails overhead, and the vibrations of freight carts passed through the ground from time to time. The market’s smells were mixed as well: cleaning agents, hot metal, sealing resin, and several plant oils Xu Linchuan could not name. As they reached a stall selling heat-returning sheets, something beside them went bang. Someone had opened an old insulated case the wrong way.