Chapter One: The Bear Who Wouldn't Take Off Its Head

The child had dreamed of her dead mother waiting across a road she could never cross. Mianmian patted her back. The painted eye on its belly seemed to open a fraction. Wanzhao knelt and taught the girl to breathe through her panic. After the child left, she asked Mianmian, “Do you know her?” The bear shook its head and wrote: HER DREAM KNOWS ME. At 11:57 that night, the hotel lost power. Xinghe had intended to obey the third rule. Then crying came through the wall—hundreds of voices, as though the stadium had been forced into one narrow corridor. Beneath them, he heard a voice that had not spoken his name in fifteen years. “Little River, help your sister finish the last line.” He crashed through Mianmian's door.