Chapter Three: The Absent Director

This time the image showed a hospital morgue. Its composition was absurdly hostile: a refrigerated drawer filled the foreground while a man in a white coat stood in the distance with half his face cut away, his eyes excluded by the frame. A wall clock read 03:17. The man wheeled in a covered gurney. The drawer opened slowly. A hand wearing a silver tie clip reached from inside. The man in white turned, and his half-visible face angled into view. It was Zhou Jiming, the archive’s former director. Lin caught her breath. “He died of a heart attack two years ago.” Yet the Zhou in the film opened his eyes and spoke straight to the camera. His voice crossed the inspection viewer, clear between them.