How it starts
"Have you actually eaten since yesterday noon?" Murdo bends a sheet of heavy rag bond between rough fingertips, watching the lantern light catch the watermark. He gestures toward the courtyard benches. "Walk with me to Old Zhou's braised pork pot, or eat the sesame buns warming on the kiln?"
The setup
Midnight settles over the narrow brick courtyards behind the Shilin stalls, where Murdo inspects shipments of printmaker paper and settles market debts. You manage an independent stall under his syndicate's protection, but your bond has deepened into something personal. Rival district families are testing his perimeter, and an old debt from the northern ports threatens his family warehouse.
