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

The room was dark. The blue bear stood at the window, its mascot head still firmly in place, but its shadow stretched from the carpet to the ceiling. Translucent black wisps streamed through the walls: falling, fire, empty hospital beds, farewells never spoken. Human dreams. At midnight, the eye on Mianmian's belly opened. The smiling mouth split into a bottomless field of stars and swallowed the nightmares one by one. Xinghe couldn't move. In the last dream, a woman sat before a burning piano. She turned, wearing the face of his sister, Xu Yuechuan. Mianmian clapped both paws over its mouth, refusing the dream. But Yuechuan whispered, “Let him hear it.”