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The Pawnshop on Ren-Hai Bridge
Chapter 3
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Panel 2

Morning inside the Han pawnshop after the previous night's discoveries. The shop looks orderly, but the mood is strained.

Panel 3

Xinyu checks the private trail from her grandfather's ledger before the shop fully opens.

Panel 4

A customs official arrives at the Han pawnshop in the rain.

Panel 5

Qiao Ren identifies himself and settles in as if the pawnshop is another office.

Panel 6

Qiao describes the memory as fragile while Xinyu begins the formal intake.

Panel 7

Qiao removes his glove, revealing the identifying scar from the private ledger.

Panel 8

Xinyu connects Qiao to her grandfather's note while maintaining professional behavior.

Panel 9

Xinyu asks the legal questions that make the transaction binding.

Panel 10

Xinyu clarifies the consequence in plain terms before the extraction.

Panel 11

The extraction begins with Xinyu switching into ritual focus.

Panel 12

The fragile memory leaves Qiao and begins to form in the jade.

Panel 13

The preview opens twelve years earlier at a customs yard in the rain.

Panel 14

A hidden payer bribes Qiao to clear the crates.

Panel 15

The marked crates are opened enough to reveal weapons hidden under false labels.

Panel 16

Qiao signs the clearance that allows the weapons through customs.

Panel 17

The weapons move inland, and Xinyu realizes the murder was logistical.

Panel 18

Qiao experiences the gap left by the sealed memory and receives the small loan.

Panel 19

Qiao accepts the transaction, takes his glove, and leaves satisfied.

Panel 20

After Qiao leaves, the pawnshop air changes and Meilin asks about what she sensed.

Panel 21

Xinyu answers Meilin without revealing the memory's contents.

Panel 22

Xinyu places Qiao's receipt beside the private Lot 47 notes.

Panel 23

Xinyu builds the chain of the old crime from the two living transactions.

Panel 24

Xinyu locks the new clue away and understands that the conspiracy used bureaucracy as a weapon.

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