Chapter Three: The People We Forget

“Please take the nightmare,” he said. “Let me sleep for one night.” Wanzhao explained the risk. He agreed, but first recorded a message. For forty-three minutes, Chen described his wife. She liked dumplings burned at the edges. During arguments she played wrong notes in “Moonlight.” On her last day, she had placed his hand over the plug herself. Crying and smiling, he told the camera, “If I forget, tell me I didn't murder her. I kept my promise.” At midnight, Mianmian swallowed his dream. The old man slept, and a third note lit within the bell. Xinghe heard a tender waltz and turned it into a song, “Remember for You.” He did not release it.