Chapter Three: You Were Painted Too

Before Lin could question her, the billboard tilted. They slid onto a third-floor awning. Each time the girl touched an object, she read its erased history: a door that used to exist, a beam weakened by a corrupt renovation, a fire stair removed from official plans. She led Lin through a corridor that did not exist and knocked on doors floor by floor, guiding twenty-seven residents to the roof. No one died. The livestream never stopped. On the roof, some viewers recognized the girl as Qi Xia, a missing victim of the museum fire. Yet no such name appeared on the official casualty list. “Someone started that fire to stop your portrait from being completed.” Lin turned the phone toward her. “Who are you?” “Qi Xia,” she said. “Shen Zhou's daughter.”