Chapter Three: The Absent Director

“Shen Yan, if you can see this, the Director is awake. Do not save me.” The body beneath the sheet sat up. A surgical knife entered Zhou’s chest. The image froze. Words rose over the blood. Next scene: live screening, 03:17 a.m. Lin gripped Shen’s wrist. “A dead man cannot die again. Unless the victim in this shot is not Zhou.” Shen looked at the face without eyes and understood who the frame had really excluded. Under the white coat hung an Archive identification badge. The name read: Shen Yan. And the photograph showed him three years younger.