Shanghai office heat presses against the glass, June light bleaching the file stacks. Shen Lu stands at the desk while his secretary sorts a thin folder marked with a red pencil note. His security guard keeps to the door, silent, eyes on the corridor.
The folder is ordinary on the outside, but the pages inside are not. A name in the margin catches Shen Lu's eye before the paper is even fully open.
Shen Lu
Sun Yi.
The Secretary
You asked for anything tied to the seamstress. This crossed my desk an hour ago.
He taps a receipt, a delivery slip, and a note about police presence near her workroom. The paper is handled too often, as if someone else already worries about it.
The Security Guard
Street traffic just changed. Two men in the lane below have been lingering too long.
The guard shifts his weight by the door, one hand near his coat. Outside, a burst of tires drifts up from the street, then fades.
The Secretary
If this is a trap, it is a patient one. If it is not, she is being watched.
The folder lies open between them, waiting. The next page lists an address, a time, and a final line underlined twice: urgent.
✓ Quest Accepted
Investigate Sun Yi
✓ Quest Accepted
Check the address on the folder
“Shen takes a look, trying to identify either or both of the two men. He positions himself at an angle, his right shoulder behind the left shoulder of the security guard, and his left shoulder back to hide his facial scar if the two men happen to notice.”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled +0)
Shen Lu shifts behind the guard’s shoulder, letting the window glare hide his face. Through the blinds, he catches the two men below in fragments, one broad-shouldered with a delivery cap, the other lean and cigarette-still.
Shen Lu
The cap is a cover, not a job. The thin one watches the doorway, not the street.
The lean man turns just enough for Shen Lu to catch a familiar profile, a narrow scar at the jawline, and the clean hands of someone who does not linger in lanes for the weather.
The Secretary
You recognize them?
The guard stays planted, but his head angles toward Shen Lu's line of sight, ready to move if the men look up. Below, the broad one lifts a folded paper to the light, then passes it to his companion.
One name on the paper is visible even from here, Sun Yi, followed by the office address and a time mark scratched in pencil.
The Security Guard
They are not here by accident. Do you want me to shadow them, or do you take the file and go first?
Quest Complete
Check the address on the folder
Shen Lu leaves Shanghai office behind and arrives at The street below the office.
“"I'll go," Shen ravenously skims the files for important information before heading out.”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +0)
The lane smells of wet stone, coal dust, and fried oil from a cart further down. Shen Lu lands in the alley’s shadow with the file tucked close, the office windows looming above him like blind eyes.
Shen Lu
Sun Yi is tied to this address and this hour.
A quick skim gives him more than a name. The papers map her routine, a seamstress shop, a lunch errand, and one meeting note marked in a hand that is not hers.
At the bottom, a clipped remark catches his eye, encoded but plain enough in context, the watchers are checking who else comes and goes from the office.
The Security Guard
You have what you need? I can keep the street eyes busy for a minute.
Above them, a window shifts and a curtain edge twitches, as if someone inside the building is trying not to be seen from below.
The Secretary
They’re moving. Shen Lu, which one do you want marked first?
Quest Complete
Investigate Sun Yi
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Great→Superb