Chapter Two: Reality Has No Such Frame

Shen took the photograph anyway. It was a photographer's most shameful and honest instinct: the more urgently the world told you to look away, the more certain you became that something must be preserved. The shutter rattled as the silver figure pushed the truck back onto the bridge. Light burst from her palm, an invisible net supporting the broken barrier. Once the driver crawled from the cab, she stepped back and became translucent in the morning fog. The last frame caught only the empty bridge and a scrap of blue cloth suspended in midair. At the hospital window behind Shen, Lin Mi could not speak. Within ten minutes, rescue videos flooded local social media.