Chapter Two: The Dead Man Knows the Way

His mother frying fish in a kitchen. He knew the woman must have been his mother, but he could no longer remember the color of her apron. Dizzy from the price, Lin kept drawing. He added a door at the edge of the image. A real door appeared in the wall. “Run!” They crashed through and landed on the rainy riverbank. Qixia Street sealed behind them before Gu's men could follow. At 3:58, the portrait began dragging Zhou home. He caught Lin's wrist with his last two seconds. “That girl in the painting—she knows you.” At four, he became pigment again. At dawn, Lin restarted the livestream. Gu had already released “backend evidence” claiming Lin had trained a personal model. Lin offered no explanation.