Chapter One: The Ninth Photograph

When Shen Zhao rejected his landlord's call for the third time, the girl in silver-white armor was standing before a mold-stained green screen, asking whether her cape was crooked. “A little higher on the left,” he said. The cape was straight. The rented studio floor was crooked, as were the light stands and Shen's life. The wall clock read 9:40 p.m. The mall downstairs had closed, though a forty-foot standee of the superhero Radiant still glowed in the atrium. The sponsor had ordered an extra set of publicity shots on short notice. The budget was insulting; the brief ran three pages: heroic, approachable, youthful, powerful, with “a touch of vulnerability relatable to female consumers.”