Chapter Two: The Price of Going Viral

No human skin showed through—only slowly turning blue stars and a thread of a woman's humming. Xinghe froze. Yuechuan had sung that tune when putting him to bed. Zhou's guards hurried Mianmian away. The bear dropped a tiny silver bell. Near midnight, Xinghe and Wanzhao sat on the hotel roof. He told her about Yuechuan: fifteen years ago she had volunteered as a music therapist at Saint Grace Children's Hospital. She vanished during a midnight fire. There was no body, only a scorched cassette. Everyone told Xinghe to accept her death, yet he kept dreaming that she sang in the flames. “That's why you wrote ‘Sleepless Galaxy,’” Wanzhao said. “I thought if enough people heard it, she'd find her way home.”