By month’s end, Juniper accepts that she is an industry embarrassment online while her broader sales inexplicably improve. Alt-right “free speech” advocates champion her, even prompting a Fox News boost, and a viral YouTuber seeks an interview she declines. Financially stable but reputationally toxic, she weighs quitting for graduate school and a stable career, yet reaffirms that writing is central to her identity.

Determined to produce something for Daniella, Juniper revisits old pitches and researches new angles, circling Chinese histories because they feel easier after The Last Front. Attempts to “collect” observations around DC yield bland notes. Seeking deeper material, she visits DC’s Chinatown, finds a gentrified simulacrum, and ducks into a shabby dumpling shop to strike up conversations.

Her awkward effort to interview an older worker is cut short by a wary waitress, who suspects scrutiny, then recognizes Juniper as the writer accused of stealing Athena Liu’s work. The waitress ejects her, and Juniper leaves humiliated, out twenty dollars and no closer to a story. The episode reinforces her creative paralysis and public stigma.

Weeks later, Brett presses for momentum and suggests IP work through Snowglobe. After signing an NDA, Juniper hears their pitch: a Handmaid’s Tale–style dystopia inspired by China’s one-child policy, with women bred and sold. Seeing cultural land mines and cynicism, she refuses despite promises of marketability. (Later, another author will sign to write a similar project.)