The low, guttural growl of the electric sports car echoed off the gleaming glass and steel canyons of 2025 Hong Kong. Pearl Wou, a man of precise movements and even more precise thoughts, navigated the automated traffic streams with a practiced ease, his hands resting lightly on the wheel. At five-eleven, his frame was a study in lean, athletic lines, the result of a disciplined running regimen that was as much a part of his daily routine as differential equations. He was twenty-nine, a professor of mathematics at the University of Hong Kong, and a man who found a certain elegant satisfaction in the controlled chaos of the city. He glanced at the passenger seat, where Hua Xing—Leyue, as he called her—was engrossed in a holographic interface, her brow furrowed in concentration. She was, in his admittedly biased opinion, a perfect confluence of beauty and intellect, a woman who could discuss the nuances of ancient Cantonese poetry with the same passion she applied to her own groundb...