Old Files, New Proof

Some people said they wanted to come hear the story in person. Others asked when the hearing would be held. A few posted photos of their own neighborhoods before demolition and wrote, "Ours disappeared like this too." That night, Hawthorn Street was seen for the first time not as a curiosity, but as something more people could finally recognize. Xu Zhixia closed her laptop and looked up to see Lu Chen standing at the screening hall door with the photocopies in his arms, saying nothing, just holding them very carefully. She knew the next step would be harder. But at least now, the truth was no longer only a hidden ember in the hands of a few people.