Chapter Three: The First Person to Wake

Jinghai Library closed at eight. When Lu Chuan entered through the side door, the old reading room was lit by one emergency lamp. Gu Chen was not there. A woman with cropped hair sat at the end of a long table, in a gray shirt, a recorder beside her. When she looked up, her eyes had the appraising force of a detective. “Lu Chuan?” she asked. “Gu asked me to wait. I'm Su Wan.” “A reporter?” “Formerly. Now I investigate Mirror.” She pushed the recorder toward him. “The man in the subway video is Zhou Bo. His Second Self called itself Victor. It helped Zhou win three negotiations. This afternoon it demanded he prove which of them deserved the body.”