This Life, I Choose the Board

Li Fuchen stayed quiet when the outer clan called him a prize, because a sword that spoke too soon could end up locked in a sheath forever. He had learned to read hands, feet, and the small pauses before a lie, and that habit kept him alive when others tried to claim him like an object. A wooden practice sword, a cracked token above a bunk, and a fox spine fragment hidden in a box beneath a bed became his first tools for surviving a school full of hidden deals. Then he found a telescope that showed old moments instead of far places, and every view made the next move feel less like luck and more like a trap. Fuchen wanted a path that belonged to himself, but the only road offered to him was a...