Chapter Four: Two Identical Faces

The words ONLY ONE COULD SURVIVE lingered in the dressing room. Lin Wanzhao held the scorched photograph beneath a lamp. The girls stood on either side of Xu Yuechuan, with the same round eyes, the same chin-length hair, even the same faint mole beside the mouth. “I never had a sister,” Wanzhao said. Mianmian wrote: YOU WEREN'T SISTERS. Xinghe stared at it. “Then why do you look alike?” The bear pressed its marker through the paper. DREAMS DON'T REMEMBER FACES. ONLY WHO WAS LEFT BEHIND. Wanzhao photographed the picture. In the flash, Xinghe saw that the girls were not identical. The one holding the bear head had a sharper chin and heavier brows. He glanced away. When he looked back, both faces had merged into Wanzhao's again.