Something’s not adding up for Mayor Li Gaocheng.

Despite a massive influx of wealth, his city’s wellspring – the old textile mill – seems to have dried up. Workers are on strike for unpaid wages while rumours are spreading of the management paying for thrills at new “entertainment centres”.

Mayor Li is determined to get to the bottom of things, but a lifetime of steadfast service leaves him ill-equipped for this new China, where there is nothing that money can’t buy. Entangled by interests intent on turning the siphoning of funds into a flood, how long can one man stem the tide?

Translated by: James Trapp