Chapter Four: A Portrait of Someone Who Does Not Exist

The woman in the coat spoke in perfect continuation of the silent video. “On June nineteenth, seven years ago, I entered the museum's third basement and recorded the survivor list from the First Revision.” At their leader's signal, the drones released white mist. Static crawled across the stream. The painted Su seized a burned recorder. Her power was not playing recordings. It was making erased sound happen again. Cries from seven years ago filled the building. “Do not press confirm!” “There are still four hundred twenty-six people on Qixia Street!” “Director Bai Yan, you promised to erase only the fire—” Every white-clad intruder stopped.